The Porch

LB and I went to The Porch last night for drinks and dinner. It's been awhile since I have been there. Since Henderson has gotten so hot recently, I can't stand the traffic and try to avoid it on the weekends (particularly since the City of Dallas has posted "No Parking" signs on all my favorite street parking locations (grrrr)). Parking was absolutely not a problem though since I lucked out and someone was pulling out of a space directly across the street from the Porch just as I got there. Score! Rock star parking is always a good start to an evening.

LB and I sat at the bar. I like the bar space. There's a lot of room to move around and socialize. Not that there was much socialization going on last night. Apparently everyone was at the TCU/SMU game (nice try Ponies) and, alas, The Porch was pretty dead. I hope everyone else hasn't gotten as tired of Henderson's traffic as I have.

I like the Porch's menu. It has a good selection. Comfort food: check. Salads: check. Sandwiches and burgers: check. Daily specials on board: check. A little bit for everyone which is nice for groups. But it was just me and LB and since neither of us are really picky eaters (save LB's "goat cheese is what the devil tastes like" aversion), a good selection was nice, but not necessary.

LB raved about the nicoise salad. I'm a big fan of the nicoise salad. I make it quite often at home. Porch makes theirs with arugula, kalamata olives, potatoes, green beans, kalamata olives, tomatoes and a mustard vinagrette and then top it with seared tuna and a poached egg (menu says it has artichoke hearts but didn't really find those). I'm not a huge fan of arugula. It sometimes overwhelms a salad, but it was a nice balance with the mustard vinagrette and the saltiness of the olives. The poached egg was kind of, eh, for me. I think I wold have preferred it hard boiled. Could have used a few more green beans and potatoes. It was actually a very small salad, just barely enough for one person, and for $18, I thought it was a tad overpriced, even with the tuna on top. Tuna was cooked well, although I would have liked a little more seasoning on it.

We also decided since we were going to be so good with our salads, we needed to be a little bad. And nothing says bad like mac n cheese. Theirs has little pieces of ham in it. It was creamy but not really cheesy. I liked it, but didn't love it.

Overall I had a good meal, but I'm not sure my 2 glasses of wine, nicoise salad and half of a mac n cheese was worth the $52 bucks I paid with tip. Glad I didn't have to pay for valet as well. But I'm sure I'll be back, especially now that the temps are (finally!) starting to cool down and we can enjoy the patio.

Cheers!