Restaurant Review: Sala in Dallas’ South Side district

by The Law Reviewers of The Law Reviewers

Everywhere you go, people are talking about change. And we don’t just mean politicians and the guy in front of the 7 Eleven. But change isn’t always a good thing, and change just for the sake of it can make things worse. We reviewed Amuse, in the South Side on Lamar neighborhood, a while back and thought it was a refreshing addition to a hot new area of town. Unfortunately, the owners recently decided to re-purpose Amuse as Sala, a Tex-Mex place with a twist. But it doesn’t look like they’ve changed much other than the food and the paint on the outside. And when you’re changing to a Tex-Mex place in Dallas, that isn’t really all that much of a change now, is it?

Still located in the safest building in Dallas, across from the Dallas police headquarters, Sala’s exterior is a stark yellow-white color that doctors recommend you not stare directly at for too long or you’ll risk eye damage. The interior still has the same modern chic look, but now with 75% more salsa. You get two complimentary salsas and chips at your table. One tasted suspiciously like the tomato salsa tapenade that used to be served at Amuse that we were fond of, and the other was a smoky tomato-chipotle salsa that was subtly spicy. The menu is fairly standard Tex-Mex with the aforementioned twist being hot and cold wraps, which are not to be confused with burritos (apparently, the only difference between the two is the ratio of lettuce to other ingredients inside the tortilla). Still, the menu allows you to combine your favorite Tex-Mex items and salsas in just about any combination you want, including the zen-like one-item combo, which led us to ponder the eternal question of what is the sound of a one-item combo clapping?

On to the comida! The half-order of guacamole ($6.55) tasted cold, as if just retrieved from the refrigerator; other than its chilly nature, it lacked any refreshing elements that have come to make up “gourmet” guacamole, meaning there were no other discernible flavors other than the fresh avocado. Forming one half of the two-item combo ($10.95), the pork tamale was smothered in a chunky tomato salsa; but unfortunately both the tamale and the salsa were a little bland. The queso-covered chicken enchilada in the combo was a cut above your standard Velveeta-drenched Tex-Mex fare, and sometimes that Velveeta-drenched Tex-Mex fare is exactly what you want, especially for a quick Friday lunch. The sides were your standard Tex-Mex rice ‘n refried beans.

On the not-so-traditional-side of things, we had the cold chicken fajita salad wrap ($8.95), which was stuffed with shredded chicken, lettuce and other crunchy veggies, and a tangy sauce. And by tangy sauce, we mean really salty sauce. Between the salt and the salsa, enough Diet Coke went down the gullet to make some afternoon meetings back at the office a really unpleasant affair (except for those precious 5 minutes after returning from each trip to the water closet). The “wrap” part of the wrap was disappointingly not a traditional corn or flour tortilla, but one of those orange-brown sandwich-wrap dealy-ma-bobs that you would get at a food court sandwich shop.

Sala makes a decent local Tex-Mex option that’s easier to get to from downtown than some of the better places in Uptown. But, this town has plenty of decent options that are both quicker at lunch and easier on the wallet. In its prior incarnation as Amuse, it actually offered something interesting and different. Sadly, now it’s just more of (less than) the same. So, on our useful change gavel scale, where five gavels is getting an extra twenty spot back from the Texas Stadium vendor and one gavel is New Coke, we give Sala two and one quarter gavels. Hasta luego, muchachos!