Saul is located in Boerum Hill Brooklyn along a quaintly hip, restaurant packed stretch of Smith St. The restaurant has a small bar in the back of the restaurant but it doesn’t have a comfortable “come sit and have a drink” vibe. So since I was a bit early, I had no real choice but to sit at our table right away. I’m a really big proponent of a cozy bar in a restaurant for situations in which you need to kill a bit of time, so I was a bit let down by the lack of one at Saul. However, the restaurant’s vibe in general is warm. You enter into a medium-sized room of tables with the tiny bar at the back. There’s no hostess stand so you aren’t 100% sure where to go. But as I sat at the table and read the menu, I was instantly at ease.
Chef Saul Bolton opened this restaurant in 1999 after training under David Bouley and Eric Ripert. The restaurant offers a 3-course prix fixe $40 option, a tasting menu for $85, and an a la carte menu. We decided to order off the a la carte menu. We kicked off our evening with cocktails, because neither of us could resist the delightful options on the cocktail list at Saul. Both of our cocktails were wonderful winter warmers that used different flavors than your typical cocktails. The amuse bouche of the evening was celery root soup with curried apples. The combination of the rich celery root with the sweetness of the apples and the spice of the curry was a fantastic first bite for our meal.
We split two appetizers, the crudo of Japanese yellowtail with citrus and peppers and the grilled octopus salad. The yellowtail was okay but I wouldn’t order it again. Some bites were a bit too fishy for my taste, because it came with the skin on. The marinade was extremely flavorful and the bites without the skin were much better. But the clear winner of our appetizers was the grilled octopus salad with red onions in a citrus dressing that had a slight hint of sweetness. The char on the octopus balanced perfectly with the tartness of the dressing and bite of the onions. We scooped up every last piece.
My friend ordered the roasted squab with squab confit, roasted Brussels, farro and a sunchoke puree for his main dish. The squab was cooked perfectly and the skin nicely crisped. The flavors were all very, very good but we both agreed that my dish was better. I ordered the pork which was roasted pork and pulled pork with a series of pureed winter vegetables and a rich pork jus. I couldn’t get over how amazing the pulled pork was. The pork loin was very good and the sauce on it was amazing but the pulled pork was out of this world. I mean so amazing that I gave my friend two bites of pork loin but only one bite of the pulled pork.
We decided not to have dessert because none of the desserts really appealed to us. But for baked Alaska fans, the one at Saul is supposedly amazing.
Definitely worth a trip out to Brooklyn!
Chef Saul Bolton opened this restaurant in 1999 after training under David Bouley and Eric Ripert. The restaurant offers a 3-course prix fixe $40 option, a tasting menu for $85, and an a la carte menu. We decided to order off the a la carte menu. We kicked off our evening with cocktails, because neither of us could resist the delightful options on the cocktail list at Saul. Both of our cocktails were wonderful winter warmers that used different flavors than your typical cocktails. The amuse bouche of the evening was celery root soup with curried apples. The combination of the rich celery root with the sweetness of the apples and the spice of the curry was a fantastic first bite for our meal.
We split two appetizers, the crudo of Japanese yellowtail with citrus and peppers and the grilled octopus salad. The yellowtail was okay but I wouldn’t order it again. Some bites were a bit too fishy for my taste, because it came with the skin on. The marinade was extremely flavorful and the bites without the skin were much better. But the clear winner of our appetizers was the grilled octopus salad with red onions in a citrus dressing that had a slight hint of sweetness. The char on the octopus balanced perfectly with the tartness of the dressing and bite of the onions. We scooped up every last piece.
My friend ordered the roasted squab with squab confit, roasted Brussels, farro and a sunchoke puree for his main dish. The squab was cooked perfectly and the skin nicely crisped. The flavors were all very, very good but we both agreed that my dish was better. I ordered the pork which was roasted pork and pulled pork with a series of pureed winter vegetables and a rich pork jus. I couldn’t get over how amazing the pulled pork was. The pork loin was very good and the sauce on it was amazing but the pulled pork was out of this world. I mean so amazing that I gave my friend two bites of pork loin but only one bite of the pulled pork.
We decided not to have dessert because none of the desserts really appealed to us. But for baked Alaska fans, the one at Saul is supposedly amazing.
Definitely worth a trip out to Brooklyn!
No comments:
Post a Comment