Leah’s Borrowed Table

I LOVE this place. I work in Neosho and go to Leah’s at least twice a week for lunch. She opens from Tuesday through Friday, 11 – 3 pm for lunch, usually a choice of 2 entrees and dessert all for only $ 7.99. With the quality of the food and the portion size, you can’t get this type of deal anywhere else. It really is homestyle/​gourmet cooking for lunch is what it is. Her applewood smoked wrapped meatloaf… To DIE for!!! Seriously.
Fried chicken Friday… excellent. Cant say enough about the place. Located downstairs in a limestone walled room it feels like a French or Italian bistro, doesn’t feel like you’re in Neosho at all.
I’m signing up for her 6 course meal this month. Review to follow but I can’t imagine it will be anything less then 5 stars judging by her lunch fare and cooking.

If you’re looking for a unique dining experience, you must try Leah’s Borrowed Table. My husband and I reserved a table a couple of weeks ago, and it was definitely worth our time.
Two weekends a month, Chef Leah borrows the dining room from another local restaurant (in particular, Cooper’s 66) [EDIT: they’ve since moved to their own building], and hosts a 3-​hour (ish) dinner event for a reserved list of about 30 guests. Everyone gets the same food, and it’s a 6-​course meal. Starts at 6:30 p.m. and runs roughly until a little after 9 p.m., but the time goes by very fast. Everyone is served one dish at a time all at the same time. You feel like you are part of a little community — it really was a very cool experience.
The food was just alright, though. It could have been just the particular night we went, but there wasn’t anything we ate that was overwhelmingly delicious. Here was the menu:
APPETIZER — Prosciutto Wrapped Beef with Jalapeño, Mango and Balsamic Reduction — this was a nice start to the meal. Beef was tender and balsamic was delicious. Couldn’t get much jalapeño or mango flavor, but I still enjoyed the dish. Excited for the rest at this point.
SOUP — Vidalia Onion with Goat Cheese Toast Points — My husband and I differed on this one. I thought it was pretty good; nice rich flavor in my opinion. Hubby said all he tasted was beef base and worcestershire. If that’s the case, then I must love beef base and worcestershire. The only thing I didn’t enjoy was the toast. This was hard like a crispy cookie and didn’t cut apart well in the soup.
SALAD — Mixed Greens with Grilled Watermelon and Balsamic Dressing — a very yummy salad. The watermelon was not weird in the least like I thought it might be. My husband was looking for grilled marks, but there weren’t any, so not entirely certain of the grilled claim. However, it was still good with a really nice flavor.
PASTA — Mushroom Fettucine in a Cream Sauce — You could tell the pasta was handmade, which gets huge points. And the cream sauce was rather delicate and light instead of thick and too filling. Enjoyed this very much. My mushrooms were overly salted, but my husband’s weren’t which was strange.
ENTREE — Peanut and Sesame Encrusted Filet with Peanut Sauce — this was not a favorite. The idea veered Asian despite the Italian theme up to this point. The filet looked very unappetizing on the plate — it was so heavily crusted it looked more like a piece of coffee cake than beef. I did not enjoy the peanut sauce — it tasted too much like regular peanut butter. Beef was cooked very well, though, and was an exceptional cut.
DESSERT — Magnolia Lace Trumpets with Cream and Strawberries — a very pretty dessert but it was not executed well. The trumpet (sugar cone thing) was very chewy and it was sticking to my teeth horribly. The cream was gritty so the sugar had not melted properly. It tasted fine, but the textures were off.
As you can see, the meal sounded very impressive. The end result was less so. However, it wasn’t an entire miss. There were enough highlights in the meal to keep me interested. I will definitely come back and do this again. I enjoyed the experience more than anything else — it was just FUN (for the lack of a more inventive term). Less pickier eaters may fare better.