Distilled was the perfect place to end an impromptu pub crawl with some friends on a chilly Saturday afternoon. When we got to Distilled the first thing I realized was that it used to be Centrico, which I thought as decent but I hoped that it would be a slightly better experience there. And the minute we walked in, the service already exceed my expectation. We had made a reservation at 8pm and when our table wasn't ready on time they brought out 8 glasses of prosecco for us. Amazing. I have never experienced that level of generosity when our table wasn't ready. In fact, most places kind of give you that "too bad" attitude, so the fact that they were so kind and gracious was definitely appreciated.
Honestly, we didn't have to wait that long for our table but who I am to complain with free booze? The menu here is similar to high end pub/bar food with items like onion rings, roasted chicken, burger, wings, and a variety of vegetable side dishes. They do start the night off right with complimentary popcorn for the table which was flavored with garlic and cumin and it was super addicting to pop in your mouth while you deciding what to order. We ordered 2 large orders of chicken wings to start ($22/order) and I got their signature Franklin burger for an entree ($18) - as did 4 other people at dinner. Some other dishes ordered at dinner were the country fried duck and waffles ($21) and the seared diver scallops ($29). The wings were much more closer to the Korean fried chicken vs. your usual bar wings. The wings were covered in this delicious Gochuiang sauce and it had this thick crunchy outside finish. The wings and drumsticks were meaty and definitely worth the effort. But while I was eating it, I was reminded of why I don't eat wings that often because they were SO messy. I must have used 10 napkins but I guess that doesn't bother some people. Luckily I wasn't on a date and just with friends, otherwise I would have been paranoid about having tons of sauce on my face. But they were definitely some of the best wings I've had in a while. As for my burger, it was incredibly decadent - it came with American Cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion and a side of tatar tots (how awesome is that?!). It was one serious classic American burger. Incredibly juicy but not so much that the bun couldn't hold on to the juices that came out of it. It also had good meat to bun ratio. As with any large restaurant burger, I could barely finish it and I opted to go Atkins style after a while and ditched the bun. The tater tots were clearly homemade and not the kind you remember from elementary school but combined with the hefty burger I barely had any room for it. I wish I had more space of them because who doesn't love a good tater tot? For me test of a good burger is not only the juiciness and beef to bun ratio but how it makes me feel a few hours later. A lot of the times, a burger is over salted but you can only feel that level of dehydration until you're home. The burger here did give me a slightly salty dehydrated feeling later on (I was drinking 4-5 pints of water before bed) but it didn't really deter me from liking the burger overall. I didn't get a chance to try any of the other dishes but the girls did mention that they loved the fried duck and scallops.
Despite being on a quiet street in Tribeca, this place was definitely hopping with tons of beautiful looking people when we left. It's also super loud inside, so it kind of gave me this club-y feeling while we were there but it wasn't overwhelming or too pretentious. Our waitress was super nice and our cocktails were also spot on, so even though it sounds like a place I wouldn't really like, I did enjoy my meal and time at Distilled. Total bill: $48/pp with tax and tip.
Photo Credit: Yelp
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