I haven't been back to Park Slope to try a new restaurant in a while. It's not because I don't love the area, I still do, but it's just not as convenient to get to as it used to be. But I had heard so much about Talde and have a love for Top Chef, I finally got around to going last week. I had really high hopes for it and thought that it would be one of those places that I would be extremely jealous that it opened after I moved from Park Slope. Sadly I was totally not impressed and miss places like Yamato or Beet more.
The waiter told us that everything was meant to be shared so Nancy and I ordered the following: Pretzel Pork & Chive Dumplings with spicy mustard ($8), Crispy Oyster & Bacon Pad Thai ($16), Char Siu Smoked Pork Shoulder ($18) and the #369 side which brussels sprouts and green sambal ($7). I was excited that everything was Asian but with a slight twist to it. The dumplings came out first and I wasn't really sure how the pretzel would be incorporated into the dish and to be honest I'm still not 100% sure. I guess the skin of the dumpling was thicker and a bit browner than normal dumpling skin? But similar to a pretzel, one bite into the dumpling and I felt like I was biting into a bowl of salt. The skin was so salty that I could barely taste anything else. Then I dipped it into the mustard sauce and I don't know if there was something wrong with it or what, but the sauce just tasted awful. Really sour and off. Normally I love a spicy mustard sauce but I just couldn't bring myself to dip anymore of the dumplings in there. Next they brought out the other 3 dishes. The pork was cooked medium rare and had a touch of smokey flavoring that was great. It was probably my favorite dish of the night...that is until I ate the last piece that was remaining on the plate. It was kind of like the butt end of the shouler and it was also super salty and chewy. If I hadn't eaten that last bite, I would have raved about it a lot more, but that last linger bite kind of made me turn on the dish. The pad thai was served with 4 bites of crispy oysters which I didn't think added to the dish at all. The noodles itself were cooked fine but the bacon flavoring yet again made the whole dish super salty. I would have preferred a more basic simple pad thai from a local Thai place compared to this. As for the brussels sprouts they were drowning in the green sambal. The sprouts that were more lightly covered in the sambal tasted better but the majority of the sprouts were literally soaking sambal that made it difficult to taste the actual vegetable. For dessert, we decided to try the halo-halo which was essentially shaved ice with coconut, lychee, mango and then covered with captain crunch cereal. It was definitely different and refershing but honestly the fact that I paid money for shaved ice topped with cereal is a bit crazy when you think about it.
I don't mean to totally dog on the food as I've had much worse, but it was all just so super underwhelming and in the light of all the hyped up trendy Asian places such as Mission Chinese and Yunnan Kitchen, Talde just doesn't stack up. But I will say that the service was very attentive and friendly and I did see Dale from Top Chef working in the restaurant, which just makes me feel even sadder that I had to give this place a bad review. Total bill: $40/pp with tax and tip.
Photo Credit: Yelp
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