Joseph Leonard Visited 10/7/2011 4 Forks

Joseph Leonard 170 Waverly Pl., (between Christopher St & Grove St), New York, NY 10014

 Josepha Leonard is one of those quintessential adorable West Village type of restaurants. It's tucked away on Waverly Place (how cute) and the inside is just so darn cozy it almost makes you want to vomit.  I've always had Josepha Leonard on my list of places to try but something always stopped me.  I think it was the limited number of dishes they have on their menu, but I'm glad that Lav suggested this place for dinner last week. 

Since they don't take reservations, I highly recommend coming as early as possible.  Lav and I decided to come straight after work and got there at 6pm.  Obviously, anyone who is a hip New Yorker would never dare to eat that early, but we were starving and didn't give a shit if it's passe to eat that early.  Luckily for us, we were seated right away.  We had our choice of closer to the window or closer to the kitchen.  We chose the kitchen.  And when I say kitchen, I mean that very loosely.  It's practically the size of my bathroom so I'm extremely impressed how great the food is that comes out of a place where barely 3 people can fit into. 


While I still feel the menu is somewhat limiting, almost everything on the menu sounded great.  I started with the corn chowder ($13) and had the roasted chicken ($19) for an entree.  Lav got the beets with crispy goat cheese ($14), caramelized cauliflower ($12) and the cheddar grits ($8).  The main reason I got the corn chowder and allowed myself to pay $13 for soup was the fact that it had lobster in it and it was freakin amazing.  Of course there wasn't tons of lobster, but the pieces that were in there were extremely fresh tasting and it made me almost want to tell them I'd pay another $5 for more lobster.  I also tried Lav's beet appetizer and it was amazing as well.  It was essentially a giant ball of fried goat cheese served with cubes of beets.  Delicious.  For entrees, my chicken dish was also cooked perfectly.  The chicken had a nice layer of crispy skin but it wasn't dripping in oil or fat.  The meat was extremely juicy and it came on a bed of corn, peppers, beans, and potato.  Simple but delicious.  Everything just had a really clean and simple taste to it. You could really taste every ingredient and could tell they were all freshly picked/shipped/prepared that day. 


To finish the meal we had the apple turn over cake ($8) which was almost like a sweet sponge cake and it came with homemade whipped cream.  Good but nothing mind blowing either. I should also mention that our waitress was super nice and was able to make great dish recommendations and never rushed us despite the crowds behind us.  All in all, the meal was a great experience and if anyone is looking for your typical "cute West Village" type restaurant, I would highly recommend Joseph Leonard.  Total bill $67/pp including tax, tip and drinks. 


Photo Credit: Yelp