Restaurant Review - Meddlesome Moth

Meddlesome Moth

The Dallas restauraunt scene dictates that if your restaruant serves great food then you must serve crappy beer.   Inversely, the restaurants that serve great beers serve, at best, mediocre food. 

The Meddlesome Moth is an attempt by Shannon Wynne, 'Captain' Keith Schlabs and Larry Richardson to marry fine food to fine beers in one venue; a formula that has been used worldwide with great success. 

The owners have done a fine job of choosing the beers served with nary a Bud Light or a PBR in sight.  The tap beers reflect local microbrews, German wiessbiers, English ales and a smattering of Belgians....the pinnacle of beerdom.  Our waitress introduced herself and boasted that the staff had been extensively trained in beer lore and could answer any questions concerning any beer on the menu.  Quite a brazen statement to make to beer snobs.  As her claim demanded we of course went for her throat and asked a question that had her running for Keith immediatley.  Those not-quite-ready for beer snobbery can try samples of the beers or order a flight, with small samples of several types of beer. 

The food menu is a hybrid tapas concept with shared dishes combined with the option of ordering a meal all to your selfish self and also suggests which beer would be best with each dish.  The plates are delivered to your table as they are finished by the kitchen which can be frustrating if you all ordered personal meals.  The polite patron always waits for all of the food to arrive before beginning, but should you wait at the Moth you may be eating a cold burger with congealed grease.  The kitchen is lucky enough to have been supplied superior ingredients to be used in the preparation and most of the dishes reflect this quality. On seperate visits we tried dishes as a group and then as soloists.
The shared plates provide enough scarfage for 2-4 people so if you have a larger group you may wish to order more of one dish.  The prices are high enough and the serving are small enough to startle you at first, but once you taste and realize the quality of the ingredients you will be mollified.  On our group outing the Moth Balls were the star of the show.  Breaded and baked balls of Ricotta cheese about the size of....well....a moth ball and is that sage I taste?  The Hummus plate was served with feta cheese and tomatoes and was adequate for the vegetarian in our group.  The downside is that there are very few 'lite' selections and the menu is quite masculine.
The soloist (their term) night was a bit more successful but with hits and misses.  Again, the standout was the quality of the ingredients.  The P.C. Cobb Stadium salad was a bit short on lettuce and a bit long on blue cheese, but delicious nontheless.  The Slice Beefsteak Salad was basically a good Caprese Salad with *gasp* tomatoes that actually tasted like tomatoes!  The only failure of the evening was the Fish and Chips, both of which were so greasy as to be inedible.

We hope that the 'Beautiful People' that have invaded the Moth, modeling their newest fashions, fade away soon and allow for a more relaxed atmosphere.  We will grudginly accept the forced valet parking, but we will not accept twits ordering wine and Stella Artois in a pub, or even a gastropub.

Meddlesom Moth is located at:
1621 Oak Lawn
Dallas, TX 75207
Phone:  214.628.7900
http://www.mothinthe.net/