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DC, anonymous:

Here it is. The first ever neighbo(u)r hood head to head - I think. In this episode: Oak Cliff pizza take out.

Round One: THE NAME

Bolsa: Supposedly this is Spanish for 'stock exchange' or something. This strikes me as a rather stupid name for a restaurant. It's not just that I don't really speak any Spanish, but if I did, I'd be just further annoyed.

Oak Cliff Pizza: Ok. Not necessarily inspirational, but to the point.

Round One: Oak Cliff Pizza

Round Two: THE SCENE

Bolsa: I guess this place used to be a body shop. The renovations are really well done. The metal and red-toned woods are a great contrast. What I suppose passes for a 'market' is a couple of shelves of organic salsa or something on the wall. There's a bar through the middle tended by a skinny brunette who's jeans don't fit well. Outside there's a smallish patio of tables and benches. Despite the horrible view of some taqueria and a tire shop, it's actually pretty nice. Overall, I like it, would come back and chill or maybe even chillax some time.

Oak Cliff Pizza: Uhh, let's face it, this place is a dump. There are a couple of wire chairs outside on the sidewalk. Inside there's a sick looking girl behind the counter and some guy wearing sweats hanging out getting himself a soda. I presume he somehow works there since he wanders in to the kitchen. There's a solid dinge in the place that is really accentuated by the greenish walls. I feel sort of unsafe.

Round Two: Bolsa - wide margin

Round Three: SERVICE

Bolsa: It seems to take a really damn long time to cook up the pie, but whatever, at the least the environment is all right.

Oak Cliff Pizza: A little faster, but I feel like sitting in my car with the doors locked while waiting.

Round Three: Bolsa

Round Four: THE FOOD In an effort to try and equalize this round, we ordered the Bolsa Jimmy's Sausage, Mozza and bell pepper and put it up against the OCP italian sausage and bell pepper. A lot of sausage comments there, but sorry, boys, I eat pussy.

Bolsa: It's a thin crust style pie, about 12" or so. The edge of the crust has just a little char that adds some fire flavor to it. The mozza kind of runs between the pieces that sticks the toppings together. This is somewhat of annoying, but it's not all that bad. You can still pick up a piece by the outside, have a bite and enjoy. The cheese itself is pretty decent. The sausage is mildly spicy and not in huge chunks.

Oak Cliff Pizza: The crust is a thicker style. Unfortunately, this translates into a soggy piece of crud. Picking a piece up by the edge means that the middle flops straight down and the toppings drop on to the bottom of the cardboard. You're left with a soggy, wet hunk of slop that might as well be the box. Yeah, double ha ha. The cheese tastes heavily processed and although the sausage is ok the pieces are too big to sit well on a single piece.

Round Four: Bolsa

The winner: BOLSA

Ok, in looking over the menu, it's clear the place is pretty new and they've got plenty to work out, but I'm cautiously optimistic. We'll be back for another round or two at Bolsa.

Liles, anonymous:

Overall:

• Quality:

  5/5

• Vibe:

  5/5

• Service:

  5/5

• Value:

  5/5

My favorite restaurant in town right now.

dpmclean1, anonymous:

Overall:

• Quality:

  4/5

• Vibe:

  5/5

• Service:

  5/5

• Value:

  3/5

Here is the review my dinner companion put up on Hey Man Whats Up:

http://www.heymanwhatsup.com/main/200...

Here is the text:

If you read Jack Daddy’s “It’s the Weekend Bitches!” on Friday, you know he and Mrs. Daddy (a/k/a The Fabulous Miss M) were heading to Bolsa on Saturday. The Daddys are great friends of the wife and me, and we were lucky enough to have them invite us along. We even re-arranged our sitter to make this happen. You see, Mrs. Porkchop and I have had the pleasure of dining with Jack Daddy and Miss M on a number of occasions. For Jack Daddy to suggest a restaurant outside of Northpark Mall and not be either Mi Cocina or Chili’s means he must have heard great things about it. Maybe not surprisingly he heard about it from his “barber” (i.e., the homosexual hair stylist he now shares with his wife). Although outside his normal comfort zone, I am sure this advice peaked his metrosexual interest enough that he was planning what he was going to wear almost immediately after he received it.

Bolsa is a converted auto garage and the newest addition to the Bishop Arts district. It’s name is not, as I guessed, ballsack said with lispy Spanish accent which would have been fitting for the area, but rather translates into English as bag probably as a nod to Bolsa’s other business, a small market selling local produce and a selection of gourmet chips and sodas. For those unfamiliar, Bishop Arts is a pocket of great restaurants and bars (all of which seem to be in converted gas stations or fast food restaurants) in an otherwise run down area of Oak Cliff roughly 10 minutes from downtown and mostly populated by Hispanic-oriented businesses. It continues to shock me that not only has Bishop Arts flourished in a neighborhood most generic white Dallasites would not drive through during the day, much less at night, but that it has also been adopted as one of the city’s gay and lesbian flagships.

Bolsa does not take reservations, but, as you know, I am always more than happy to spend some time getting to know a place and its clientele by hanging out at the bar. We arrived at 6:30 and the bar was a bit overcrowded as it encroached on the nearby tables, all of which were already full. To some extent, I blame this on the cold evening which ruled out dining on the patio. However, the three bartenders were prompt and courteous and poured strong Jack & Diets which I was ecstatic to find were served over Sonic-style crushed ice. If there is a better way to serve a drink, I haven’t found it.

We were seated for dinner around 7:45, but the wait did not feel that long as we thoroughly enjoyed our time at the bar, or at least the gals seemed to thoroughly enjoy that first bottle of wine from Bolsa’s very nicely priced list. While Jack Daddy and I settled up the bar tab, the ladies ordered a much too chic-like tomato and mozzarella flatbread (when did we stop calling it pizza?). Although Jack Daddy is on a low cholesterol diet, I needed a more manly selection. Torn between the pepperoni and the Jimmy’s Sausage (as in Jimmy’s Food Store on Bryan, a fantastic place to load up on real Italian ingredients; we’ve had their homemade lasagnas the past three New Year’s Eves), our energetic, friendly and entertaining waiter Ben, who I (but no one else) thought looked and sounded like a thinner, less greasy and better looking (the girls agreed on this last point) version of Jack Black in Orange County, told me they could prepare a combo. Sold! (By the way, a special thanks to Ben who not only was a great waiter but also helped us brainstorm on a couple of lists which will hopefully make the site soon).

The combo pizza (I mean flatbread) was perfectly crispy, had fresh mozzarella and was light on the sauce. Plus, the banana peppers gave it a subtle kick. From what I could tell, the ladies enjoyed theirs as well. From there, we went to the entrees. Although there a few constants, Chef Graham Dodds, a former beekeeper (according to Ben), prides himself on changing the menu daily based on the availability of fresh ingredients.

I ordered the Peking Duck Breast but substituted the fingerling potatoes and carrots in a jus which accompanied the Windy Meadows Chicken Breast. Both these entrees seem to be available regularly but with changes in the sides. My duck was superbly cooked and the vegetables although somewhat sparse were delicious. Amazingly, all three of my dinner companions ordered the Red Snapper served with what my wife says were artichokes (I’m pretty sure she is wrong) and some type of mini-greens. They do leave the skin on the fish which resulted in a couple of bones, but no one complained and not a scrap was left when Ben returned from flirting with the group of five moderately good looking women at the table behind us.

Unable to decide on dessert, we got all three on the day’s menu which were a panna cotta, brûléed bananas (pictured) and slice of flourless cake. The bananas seem to be a menu regular and were the overwhelming favorite. The cake tasted like a well-baked brownie but, in my view, a little too Dallas generic for this particular restaurant. I am not a big custard fan and would usually shy away from panna cotta, but the Bolsa version had the right amount of sweet, had a great firmness and was topped with a wonderful blackberry sauce. Needless to say, we cleaned all three plates.

But, that is when it hit us. As we put our forks down in what should have been the crowning moment of our dining experience, we all looked at each other and realized we were all still starving. Not the I worked all day and only had a package of peanut butter crackers from the vending machine kind of starving, but rather the I had an awesome sushi dinner an hour ago but could really go for a BBQ sandwich kind of starving. Although we debated getting the check and making a dash to the Taqueria El Si Hay I had been eyeing through the window all evening, we decided to order another Jimmy’s Sausage Pizza and, for safe measure, a bag of chips from the market.

Great food, great room, great drinks, great company and great service made for one hell of a fun evening. Through our alcohol-induced daze we wondered if anyone else in the restaurant was having as good of time as we were. We all seemed to notice a surprising lack of smiles and laughter from the other tables, except for the one with the five women being charmed by Ben. We definitely weren’t sure about the couple next to us who had either taken a vow of silence in connection with their relationship or were on the one of the world’s most boring first dates (I have never seen a guy cut up a salad so deliberately). Of course, maybe the volume from our table was ruining everyone else’s evening. Oh, well, F’ em.

Given the changing menu we will definitely be back, especially when we can sit out on the terrific patio without threat of frostbite. Only next time, we will make sure to order an extra large Bolsa of chips.

DC, anonymous:

Yo: linky linky = there's the text

thanks

Billusa99, anonymous:

What, EXACTLY, is this stupid, inane, uncalled for comment from dpmclean1's review supposed to connotate?!

"It’s name is not, as I guessed, ballsack said with lispy Spanish accent which would have been fitting for the area"

jtmbls, anonymous:

See, y'all just think *I'm* obnoxious.

dpm – Please let us know when you plan on returning to Bolsa...so we can plan to be across town.

Billusa99, anonymous:

Overall:

• Quality:

  5/5

• Vibe:

  5/5

• Service:

  4/5

• Value:

  5/5

Agent 99 and I finally made it here last Saturday night, about 6:45. It had about 3 tables available inside and 2 outside. We chose the 2-top near the outside corner - a perfect perch to people peer.

The place itself is very reminiscent of Foreign Cinema in San Francisco in overall style. Not that it's large or has sound-off movies playing in the outdoor area, but in how it's all knit together in an old bldg. Tall ceilings, industrial metal and glass and smooth wood. Extensive play between those and concrete everywhere, inc. the not-enough restrooms. Also right down to the use of industrial-looking picnic tables with benches. A garage-type roll-up door between the bar inside/outside. It's very "put together" modern industrial chic that works. And no drapes!

We split the 4 types of bruschetta ($12) to start. A fresh, wonderful mix of salty, sweet, savory and tart, all served on 4 fairly large slices of lightly toasted, crisp-crusted bread that was not unlike sourdough in texture (but was not sourdough to us). Salmon on one, prosciutto and sweet dates on another, sweet tomato and mozza on a 3rd and Fuji apple with "I forgot" on the 4th. Inhale and it was gone! Check their menu as I'm forgetting some toppings.

99 then had the mussels in garlic-wine which came w/ the same crunchy-chewy bread. They were above-avg large and perfectly cooked and just the right amount. Bread vanished in slurps of sauce from both of us. I had the flatbread w/ pepperoni and mozza and a mild, semi-sweet-tart red sauce. The ancients would call it a pizza, but it was not a pepperoni pizza. The meat was very mild and did not overpower the dish -- I forgot to ask where it came from. It was not Paula's Mozza Co as I recall. The mozza was in melted, flowing slabs, like it was cut from a freah ball and laid on to melt just near the end of cooking. The very thin crust -- not cracker; more like crisp-chewy Mediterranean home-made pita dough that had been rolled thin -- was charred nicely on the bottom in spots and around the thin edge. It was superb!

Note here: 8 20-somethings right next to us, who kept checking an iPhone for some March Madness game results (didn't know water polo was big in TX) asked the waiter where the mozza was on their pep. pie. He had to politely explain it was the white melted puddles and wasn't the off-white greasy-shiny stuff they were likely to get elsewhere. I just about spit out a bruschetta mouthful when I heard what they asked... ;-)

The patio was packed with a mix of 20s and 30s scenesters, worker bees and 2 family groups of 8 with small children at 2 of the picnic tables. We came away highly impressed with the service (young, enthusiastic, menu-aware and well-timed) the freshness and quality and taste of the food and the overall vibe and chic-uniqueness of the place. It reminded us of the first time we left La Duni, a couple of months after it first opened #1 on McKinney. A real gem of a spot, by local people who have absolutely nailed the right combination of quality ingredients, creative cooking, fair pricing (inc. wine) and young, very good service.

DC, anonymous:

Thanks for the call, Bill, geez. Ok, admittedly we weren't in town.

I was initially enraged to see the words "La Duni" in a comparison with this place. However, I'll let it slide as a long forgotten, actually good place to go called La Duni that doesn't exist any more.

Billusa99, anonymous:

Overall:

• Quality:

  4/5

• Vibe:

  5/5

• Service:

  4/5

• Value:

  4/5

We were there again last Saturday night, about 6:45 PM and got one of the last 2-tops outside. Again, the food and service were very good. The place is holding it's own very well and was packed when we left at 8PM.

(And DC, La Duni still rocks, too!)

DC, anonymous:

Cool, yeah, thanks for the call, B# geez. Ok, admittedly YET AGAIN we were not in town. Did you stop by the house and check or what?

realpower1, anonymous:

Overall:

• Quality:

  3/5

• Vibe:

  5/5

• Service:

  3/5

• Value:

  2/5

The Vibe screams SOUTH AUSTIN, which is something I encourage in Dallas. I was captured by the atmosphere when I entered with the only letdown being the generic foodservice bar stools. Service was leisurely, and as expected in Dallas these days. My seared scallops were served without the side substitution I requested, and were also dry to the point of curiosity. How did they do this without burning the outside? My partner’s pork loin suffered a similar dryness. The sauce-spice combination on the scallops was promising but lacked any synergy that should be present at this price point.

sishutslo2, anonymous:

I happen to live in eye/ear distance from Bolsa and the only comment/complaint I have is the F-ing uppity,snobby,rich BASTARDS with their dirty looks and rude comments. "Yeah, this is the ghetto" is what a guy said to his date while exiting his 60k + sports car. Take your BCH A$$e$ back to your side of town then cause we don't want ya here. If you were in the ghetto ya NEVER woulda made it out the car.