While I was a bit bummed when Sel de Mer closed a few months ago (I had a love/hate relationship with that place but I did love their tuna burger), I was excited to have a new restaurant 1 block down the street from me. When this place originally opened it was by the same people as Westville and The Pines, which only added to my excitement. Unfortunately, there was a parting of the ways after only a month with the original chef, but it sounded like the menu didn't change all that much, so it was still worth checking out.
When I walked in, I noticed how the interior hadn't changed much from its Sel de Mer days. In fact, I'm not even sure how much they really did change but that's actually fine because the space is relatively small so there's not much you can really do with it. The menu here is American with a cozy farm feel to it. Luckily, it's also pretty veggie friendly as well, so it was pretty easy for Aarti to order. We started with the sorrel salad and the fried yuca ($6), and I got the hanger steak medium rare ($19) and Aarti got the Mushroom entree ($18). For some reason, we both thought the sorrel salad was going to be a mushroom salad - turns out a sorrel is a leafy green that's actually more herb than vegetable. Once we got over our confusion, we enjoyed the salad, especially the pomegranate seeds, and the light dressing that came with it. It was a pretty basic but good starter salad. I loved the fried yuca appetizer too - perfectly fried pieces of yuca served with a delicious creamy avocado, jalapeño, queso fresco cream. Aarti and I were practically licking the bowl at the end.
As for my hanger steak, upon first glance, it looked perfect. It was extremely medium rare - much more on the rare side than medium. It came with a tasty chimichurri sauce and well cooked fingerling potatoes. It was your classic meat and potatoes dish. The first several bites of my steak were delicious and juicy. But sadly there were some bites towards the end that had the vein still in it - or at least what I thought was the center vein because it was practically impossible to cut the steak at that point. Even Aarti who is a great sport when it comes to watching me eat meat commented at how weird and kind of unsettling it was to watch me struggle to cut my meat. Eventually I just gave up and couldn't eat that part of the steak anymore which was a bummer because I really did enjoy the soft juicy parts of the meat and it also kind of grossed me out thinking about why it was so hard to cut the meat. I didn't try Aarti's mushroom dish but she did mention that it was extremely buttery and hearty at the same time. It was essentially a giant bowl of different kinds of sauteed mushrooms tossed with some fregula pasta, which is kind of like an Isreali cous cous. Even though we were both pretty full, we did end up getting dessert but unfortunately my memory is a bit fuzzy at this point and I can't remember what it was but I do remember enjoying it!
All in all, it's a cute addition to the neighborhood but it didn't really knock me off my feet. I probably would give it another shot with brunch and maybe dinner again, but it's always nice to have options like this within walking distance of my apt. Total bill: $44/pp with tax and tip
Photo Credit: Yelp
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