Dodie's Reef

I had lunch at the new Dodie's Reef today. It's in the old Hurricane space on Greenville that burned a couple of years back. Those of us who live in the Lakewood hood are just so excited to have something in that space. We were seriously getting tired of the burnt out building look. [rhost] (seriously, are the brackets really necessary?) has just opened, and it's only a matter of time before we start playing "Valet Frogger" on Greenville again with the Terilli's valets. Seriously, you really aren't a true Lakewood resident until you've almost killed a Terilli's valet as they dart out in front of you on Greenville.

But back to Dodie's Reef. I had stopped by for happy hour last week and was very impressed. They have this great indoor/outdoor bar up front with televisions above the bar. It's a fantastic place to watch a game. It's also a great place to flirt with boys watching the game, since it seems to be where the 35+ set in Lakewood has been hanging out lately (ok, maybe "boys" is a stretch, but I'm an almost 40 (ugh) single girl, so "boy" is still acceptable to me). And don't let the fact that the windows to the bar are wide open as the temps outside get above the century mark scare you off. It's perfectly cool on the inside, and it's even comfortable sitting at the outside bar. I don't even want to know what their electricity bill is. If they don't go broke paying their electricity bill by then, Dodie's is definitely going to be the perfect place in Lakewood to catch a football game once the weather cools down (and they work out that labor dispute). They have a great bartender in Rachel. It was Women's World Cup Finals, the bar was packed, and she was holding her own, all alone, with a smile on her face. Tip her well when you're there.

We started with the Mexican shrimp cocktail. It's a schooner full of boiled shrimp in a spicy tomato pico like sauce and avocado. It's served with tortilla chips that have a spicy lime seasoning on them. It was good and seemed bottomless. Too much for 2 people.

Now if you're on a diet, Dodie's might not be the best place for you. Most of the seafood offerings are fried. Po boys, fried seafood baskets, fried pickles even. I didn't want anything fried and had had my fill of raw oysters on my trip to Mobile, Alabama last week so I decided on the sea bass. I got a huge piece of fish topped with guacamole with 6 large grilled asparagus and a pile of grits. Calorie-wise, I probably would have been better with a shrimp po boy. The fish was tender and the asparagus were perfectly cooked. The grits had more of a mashed potato taste and feel instead of the buttery, cheesy way I like my grits but they were fine. And although it tasted good, I could have done without the guacamole all together. It was just too much food.

K had the crab cakes which are on the appetizer list. She like them but I don't think she was expecting the sauce covering them.

I often lament that it's so sad that in a place like Dallas where we have so many fantastic sushi restaurants, we have so few good seafood restaurants. Yes, I know we live nowhere near a coast but if we can get in great sushi, we should be able to get in great seafood. Unfortunately, Dodie's really didn't do anything to end the lament. It's a serviceable seafood restaurant, but there's nothing here that really wows. I'll come back for the bar and boy watching and I'll probably catch a bite here from time to time but the search for great seafood in Dallas continues. But who knows, maybe if the boy watching goes well, I'll reel in a catch of another sort and a different kind of search will end. ;)

Cheers!