Neighborhood Services

The Livin The Good Life Wife and I recently celebrated our 7th anniversary.   Our main anniversary tradition is to treat ourselves to a "fancy" meal.  Being the wild and crazy suburbanites that we are, we decided it was once again time for us to venture South of 635 for some fine dining.  For this particular anniversary dinner, we decided to try Neighborhood Services.  This restaurant is a favorite of my in-laws and we have been meaning to try it for some time.  Recently D Magazine rated it the #1 restaurant in their 100 Best Restaurants in Dallas rankings.  I also want to apologize in advance for the horrible pictures.  The Livin The Good Life Wife apparently gets embarrassed when I use the flash to take pictures while we eat.  Since it was our anniversary dinner, I abided by her request to not use the flash.

We arrived right on time for our 7:30 reservations and were seated immediately.  The restaurant had a vibrant bar scene filled with people who didn't have reservations and every table was filled in the dining area.  I really wanted to try the fried asparagus for an appetizer, but my wife does not eat asparagus.  After discussing which appetizer we would share, we settled on the roasted green chile and jonah crab dip.  It turns out that we made an excellent choice.  The crab dip was one of the best crab dips I have ever had and the chips were crispy and lightly seasoned.  It also came with a charred tomato and cucumber salsa.  The salsa was good, but it could not hold a candle to the crab dip.

Green Chile and Jonah Crab Dip

Neither of us wanted to have a whole salad before the meal, so we split the Tennessee Bacon and Vital Farms Egg salad.  The spinach salad had bacon, candied walnuts, and a sherry vinaigrette.  A fried egg and crostini (toast) was served on top of it.  It was a very unusual combination of tastes, but it blended well.  We both enjoyed the salad, although it was hard to find the "salad" at first because the fried egg and crostini covered all of the spinach.

Tennessee Bacon and Vital Farms Egg Salad

For my meal, I got the pork chop, which was served on a bed of succotash.  My wife got one of the daily fish specials, which was swordfish and fingerling potatoes.  We also ordered a side of the Three Jack and Mac Casserole (aka mac n' cheese).  My pork chop was delicious and cooked to perfection.  The outside was charred, yet juicy and it had a great seasoning on it.  The succotash was somewhat disappointing.  I usually love blacked eyed peas, but they were undercooked for my taste and did not go well with the corn and green beans in the succotash.  My wife also enjoyed her swordfish.  She was kind enough to give me a bite and I was impressed with the taste.  We both thought the Three Jack and Mac Casserole was good, but it was very rich.  I don't think I could have eaten the whole thing myself.

Pork Chop and Succotash

Swordfish and fingerling potatoes

By the time we had finished our meal, we were both too full to sample any desserts.  I am not sure that I agree with D Magazine that Neighborhood Services is the best restaurant in Dallas, but I would definitely put it in my top 10.  The service was amazing, despite the fact that the place was packed to the gills.  We will return to Neighborhood services because there are many menu items that we both want to try.

Neighborhood Services
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Livin The Good Life Rating = 5