I had been wanting to check out Olmsted for a while as it was on every Best of 2016 list last year. Despite being open for a bit now, it's still pretty hard to get a reservation but Amy luckily snagged one on a random Wednesday night at 5:45pm for our monthly Rabbit Habit date with Anuja.
The decor of this place is so very Brooklyn. Everything looks like it came from Etsy - it's all very cute and artisanal looking and I don't necessarily mean that in a bad way. As you might have expected the menu is very much farm-to-table. We decided to split the Gobi Pakora Cauliflower ($8), the sweet potato and uni perogies ($13), the rutabaga tagliatelle ($20), the grilled scallops ($22) and the trout ($21). What's great about this place is that nothing, even the entrees, are over $24 which sadly in this day in age in NYC is sometimes really hard to come by.
The gobi cauliflower was a small bites dish and it was indeed small bites - very tiny cuts of cauliflower tossed in Indian spices and lightly fried. The cuts were a bit too small for me but the flavor of it was delightful. It definitely got the palate going. Next we got the sweet potato and uni perogies - we had asked for them steamed but they served them up fried, which was a bit annoying but clearly that didn't stop us from eating it. You wouldn't necessarily think that sweet potato and uni would go to together but the flavor profile strangely worked and it was a delicious balance with the sour cream and sauerkraut. I probably still would have preferred it to be steamed instead.
Next came the 3 entrees - the rutabaga (root veggie) taliatelle was cut into thick strips of pasta and served with black truffle and brown butter. It was a fantastic use of the rutabaga a la a zucchini noodle. I really love eating "noodles" this way and you barely even miss that it's not actually pasta. The grilled scallops came on 2 sticks and I was surprised at how many they gave us (about 4 scallops per stick) because usually scallop dishes are notoriously skimpy. I guess since the scallops weren't huge here they could get away from serving more of them. They were grilled nicely - firm but not overcooked and served with a refreshing celeriac and apple slaw. But the star of the night was the trout dish - we mainly got it because it said it came with creamed Brussels sprouts and we had no idea what that meant. What it means is god damn deliciousness. It's exactly what you think it is and it coated the trout filet along with onion and cabbage. It was amazing and even though it's early in 2017, it's on my list as one of the best dishes of the year. If I were to come back and not want to share a dish, this would be it.
We saved room for dessert and contemplated getting the smores but it was $20 and seemed like a lot of work. BUT if you do get it, you actually get to make them on your own in their freakin adorable garden in the back. If the weather is nice, you must go out there and get a cocktail (or the smores). t's the cutest thing ever as they grow their own veggies but then they also have this giant cage that houses two adorable quails in the middle. Yes, can it get anymore Brooklyn? Instead for sitting outside, we opted for the caramel apple donuts ($7) which were warm, fluffy and perfect donut holes.
Overall it was a really lovely meal. Simple but still sophisticated. I would really recommend this place as a nice place to catch up with friends or a cute 1st date in the garden. Hopefully a reservation won't be so hard to get in the future but the way they are making food, I kind of doubt it. Total bill: $39/pp with tax and tip (quite the steal!)
Photo Credit: Yelp
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