kirk Anonymous

Very nice, Rawlins!

4 months, 3 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

DC Anonymous

Food: 4/5  Vibe: 4/5  Service: 4/5  Value: 5/5  Overall: 4/5

I am Rawlins Gilliland.

Back before the internets and during the time when toilets flushed in the opposite direction, Norma Manis opened up this delightful eatery. I remember it well as it was sometime, sooner or later as I recall, that we were, as Dallasites, pondering a referendum on an edict to stop a mandated requiring the tying of onions to ones' belt. Ah, those were the times. Chicken fried steak had only recently been invented and the bridge across the aqueduct was truly a wonderous sight.

Luckily, inside Norma's little has changed. Perhaps the pictures are a little more faded and the square footage a tad altered, but it still offers a glimpse into the soul of comfort food.

It lends the question to determine where the true soul of Dallas is. Is it, as many of us have considered, in the facelift and injectables set at Porch? Perhaps instead it lives in the roast beef sandwiches at Normas.

The roast beef, not incidentally, is a rather fun dish. Like almost all of the entrees at Norma's you have a choice of three 'home cookin' style side dishes. They are both in a standard form on the menu, but also offered in daily specials, endearingly written and sometimes misspelled on several whiteboards around the establishment.

Back to the roast beef - sure, it may not be some Japanese spa bovine, but I have a feeling it came from an honest Texan cow, and when combined with a thin piece of bread and dark gravy, you'd wonder why you would want anything else.

The sides are all delicious as well. From the lumpy mashed potatoes and let me say I appreciate the lumps, real potatoes, you know and all, to the slightly sweet carrots, you cannot go wrong.

Of course, chicken fried chicken and chicken fried steak have a batter leaps beyond their nearby competetion in its' crunchy, salty yet not overbearing accompaniment to the meats.

The patrons at the restaurant cover a wide section of Dallas, from the loud lunch ladies, pseudo gang banger machos, manicured gay couples and the severely senior. Over the soft whispers of peach pie, you could execute a study in sociology without needing a refill on one of the huge iced teas.

Ah yes, the kitchen is a cacophany, no symphony, of clangs and scrapes open to the dining area. The only sweeter sounds are the wait staff asking if you would like bread, cornbread or mixing it up. If they wore short shorts and mini tops you would think they were fishing you for tips at one of those pandering establishments who flaunt their waitstaff's genitive attributes for your dollars. Instead, here, the staff have heard stories from JFK to dot com and beyond, so they endear you in their efforts to make your dining experience all it can be.

Honest food at a great price from real people. Unless you're a platinum blonde longing for a set of 34DDDs, what more could a Dallasite want?

4 months, 3 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )