The new South Dallas Cafe at the Oak Cliff Bank Tower serves everything cafeteria style, but this ain’t Luby’s. For $6.99, you can get an entree, two sides, a fountain drink and corbread or a roll. Not a bad deal, especially considering that they serve the best soul food you’ll find in the basement of an office building.

We ordered "chicken", and the cheerful server asked, "You want fried chicken, smothered chicken or baked chicken?" So many choices, but the baked chicken looked awesome, and it was. It was fall-off-the-bone, butter-basted goodness. Other entrees that day included meatloaf and baked spaghetti, plus South Dallas Cafe cooks chidken fried steak, catfish and fried pork chops to order.

Sign up for our newsletter!

* indicates required

We also had turnip greens, macaroni and cheese and hot-water cornbread.

Just because we ordered from the cholesterol menu doesn’t mean you have to — a dieter behind us in line ordered a green salad and a side of black-eyed peas. That sounds like a satisfying, low-cal lunch. They also serve breakfast.

Even though this place is in a basement, they’ve done a good job with the embience with nice lighting and cool jazz. The cafe is open Monday through Friday from 7:30 a.m.-3 p.m.