For its pies alone, Norma’s Cafe merits our worship. We don’t have many places that make great pies, and Norma’s are as good as anyone’s. Its lemon meringue is a towering construction with a tall, firm hood of meringue and a lemon custard base that brings a happy little pucker to your lips.
This new Norma’s is a sibling of the original, which still bubbles briskly in trendy Bishop Arts. (The one on Belt Line, in Farmers Branch, belongs to a different owner.) Located in a former Dickey’s, this Tollway branch has a neat ’50s diner theme with soda fountain stools and Norma’s trademark pop-culture hanging sculptures.
You can get breakfast all the time, and that’s not a bad idea; their fried potatoes have an addictive crunch. But they do good fried catfish and a fine chicken-fried steak, as big as the plate it’s served on, and with a good, crunchy crust. Vegetable side dishes were as soft and bland (rhymes with “canned”) as could be, and we wished the servers were more nurturing, not so distant and distracted. Also, they sometimes charge an extra 10 cents for the container when you get your pie to go. Ah, well. It’s worth it.
Get contact information for Norma’s Cafe.
