Restaurant review: Private Social in Dallas

by Ashli Michelle of Almost Veggie

• Tweet
• Email
• Print
• 2 Comments

Suggesting lunch in the bar over dinner in the dining room will clearly secure a winning experience.

Del Frisco’s Grille has a neighbor. This particular neighbor has experienced quite a bit of fluff. Private Social’s owner-executive chef Tiffany Derry has obvious talent, having recently been featured on Top Chef. Yes, food, decor, and service flourish, but this easy-breezy-beautiful-cover-girl-feeling ends quite quickly. Cease. Halt. Over. Finished. The End.

Atmosphere high five’s plummet to the Earth’s core upon immediate seating. During dinner service at Private Social, dining room voice ricochet causes eardrums to summon an immediate lockdown. No like. Builders building know the deal, don’t they? Of course they do. Build walls & ceilings that become BFF’s, thus producing a walk on the beach kinda feel for diners. Thanks. Thanks a lot. Let’s not beat this noise horse any longer, ending with an… ouch.

While efforts to stop leveling socialites like a wrecking ball hitting a condemned house in the hood is, um, not my reality, it is indeed fact this bar is filled with self proclaimed beautiful people. We all love the beautiful people during their peak moment of feeling beautiful. Let’s go ahead, without wasting a single second, and give all the beautiful people at the bar a round of you-are-so-pretty applause.

Make your way past almost fourteen 1987 big haired Barbie’s to encounter… the bar. Bartenders come and go in this world, but this guy is the real deal. Shaking drinks like a master mixer, there isn’t a customer this side of I-45 that can bring him down.

Busy? Meh. He can cash out a debutante without breaking a sweat while still maintaining a status of dominant drink shaker. As one comes down, another goes up while garnishes land perfectly as planned. It’s second nature. This bartender is Not. Messing. Around. Not even a little.

Scampering off to the dining room proved painful. Smooshed beside each other as if to perform a public display of seating affection, this was merely a defense mechanism for saving at least one terrified ear canal. LOUD AS A BATTLESHIP AT WAR.

The starters at Private Social are super exciting. Can’t you tell? Let us not forget the fried green tomatoes option served with shrimp ravigote, radish pico de gallo, and remoulade. Another menu win are the clams with roasted tomato, cilantro, and Chorizo. Minus the chorizo. Please and thanks.

After investigating the menu, the best option was the pan-seared scallops, but coming in an extremely close second was the Sicilian swordfish with raisin and olive tapenade, flowering mustard greens, and polenta frites.

In other news, um, lunch is filled with rainbows and sunshine. It’s even possible to hear yourself think. Curtsy! Joy began by taking a right into the bar. It’s not loud and the food and service is just as wonderful. We started with Tom Spicer’s Greens having glazed walnuts, blue cheese, oranges, and balsamic.

Exciting indeed was seeing the same bartender tending bar during lunch recently. Sadly, his role will soon be almost sommelier, as they are making some changes. His talent will be appreciated wherever he is service industry working. Not only talented, this bartender slash almost sommelier is also hungry.

Feast your eyes on none other than his… lunch. As he placed it on the bar, the only option was to begin furiously taking pictures at any cost. After retrieving his violated lunch from the bar, facial expressions proved he found certain joy in this particular dish.

The surf n’ turf sushi roll is served super fresh with spicy tuna, torched beef, ponzu, and truffle. Private Social also offers a citrus salmon roll with cucumber, Daikon radish, avocado, and masago.

Everyone must open arms and welcome the marinated fish tacos served inside corn tortillas with lime pickled vegetables and Mexico City style rice. This rice is as nice as its name. Yes. Yes. Yes.

The lunch menu tease of all time is the ramen noodle bowl. Before the list of ingredients was finished, suddenly, the words ~ pork belly ~ exploded onto the page. Eww. Bringing happiness back was the option to order fish oozing in a Thai coconut sauce with pea shoots and Jasmine rice.

Ode to chef Derry. She is talented, deserving the fluff she’s receiving from those out and about town. Maybe sounds of loud are the forté she wishes to portray at Private Social. Suggesting lunch in the bar over dinner in the dining room will clearly secure a winning experience.

Tweet