The Breslin Bar and Dining Room is brought to you by Chef April Bloomfield, who you might know from The Spotted Pig and The John Dory. About a year ago, The Breslin opened in the Ace Hotel, located on west 29th and Broadway. The Breslin certainly gets a lot of buzz for being an awesome gastropub with tons of meats and really long waits. I decided to check it out.
The Breslin does not accept reservations. This would be hurdle #1. I wanted to eat at The Breslin and I did not want to wait for 2 hours. Granted, I did not have much else to do that evening, but I still preferred to eat upon arrival. The restaurant opens at 5:30. I arrived at 5:40. I was seated at 6:05. Clearly, this place is always full of people. There was already of list of people before me, which is why it took 25 minutes to get seated. I did not mind the wait because it was relatively short. The reason why you may not want to go around 7 and wait for 90 minutes is because the bar is also really crowded. So standing around waiting for a table may be just that - standing around.
We were seated between two other tables, and considering the volumes of people by the door, I assumed that the restaurant would be pretty loud. Somehow, once you are seated, the noise stays at the bar and you can have conversations with your dinner guests without shouting.
I usually do not order alcoholic beverages with my meals. I want alcoholic beverages with my meal, but if I am going out for a nice dinner, usually cocktails and bottles of wine are not in my menu girl budget. However, considering that my trip to The Breslin was my night out with Alex to celebrate Christmas, I decided that I would order a cocktail, since the restaurant claims to have great cocktails.
I ordered the Lust for Life, gin with lavender syrup, mint and fresh lemon juice, topped with soda water. The cocktail was $12. It was so awesome. It barely tasted like alcohol, but one cocktail gave me a little buzz, so I felt the $12 went a long way. If you order one, I recommend holding off on ordering a second until you let the first one sink in a bit.
On to the food. They have specials every night, which the waiter presented with great enthusiasm and detail. One of the specials was a lobster roll, as an appetizer. Our neighboring table split one and it looks very tasty. I got a clam ceviche special appetizer, for $9, and it was pretty awesome. Alex got a $13 soup, with pork and cheese. It was incredible! It was flavorful, delicious, but not overly filling. When Alex ordered the French Onion Soup at Plein Sud, it was good but a lot a food for an appetizer. This soup was perfect.
We waited about 25 minutes after appetizers to get our entrees. The time in between was both surprising and perfect. For a restaurant as busy as this, I really thought the courses would come one right after the other so as to feed people and get them out. Instead, there seems to be a very calculated reason for the nice spacing - this restaurant emphasizes meat. Eating a lot of meat in a short period of time may lead to guests feeling overly stuffed. Here, they understand you are consuming some heavy foods, so they let you take your time. We were there for 90 minutes, which I thought was awesome.
I ordered the Lamb Burger and fries, for $17 and Alex ordered the Pork Belly and Mash for $28. The lamb burger was fantastic. You can't see it but there was a little bit of feta cheese on the burger, enough for flavor but not so much that you would be stuffed. The fries are my ideal fries. They are not too skinny and skimpy. They are not so thick that they taste more like potato wedges than fries. They were perfectly crunchy and tasty. I ate all of them. And I ate the whole burger. AND the guys next to me, who both ordered lamb burgers, somehow only ate about half of their burgers. I almost asked them if I could finish their burgers.
The pork belly and mash was also tasty. There was not a lot of mash, which made me skeptical at first, but it was a good balance with the pork.
Overall, we really loved our night at The Breslin. The meat was amazing. The gastropub vibe was awesome. Our waiter was quirky and delightful. My only complaint was that it was kind of cold inside of the restaurant.
Read more here!
Have a delicious day!
NYC Menu Girl
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