The Breslin is a British-style gastropub at its finest. I love restaurants like this. A place you can go grab great food, in a casual setting, yet still maintains a type of elegant touch.
The Breslin is located inside the Ace Hotel, with the main entrance adjacent to it. I emphasize that because my first time going to the restaurant I missed the entrance completely. I walked into the lobby of the Ace Hotel and thought “this is the strangest looking gastropub I have ever seen”.
Walking into the Breslin you immediately walk into their bar area. Lots of dark wood colors, lively atmosphere, and large windows which allow for a lot of natural light to come through. They offer a wide selection of beers, and it’s a great place for friends to come in and hang out.
This then carries over to the restaurant. Comfortable booths, wood chairs, tan paper-cloths covering black wood-finished tables, and a lot of random food and animal memorabilia which covers every piece of empty space in the restaurant. Still-life paintings of fruit, red paper lobsters, a small bull’s head with a giant ring coming out of its nose, and so forth. Even though the décor is all over the place, it just screams at you “I want you to be comfortable”, and that I was.
You’ll notice that the dining room is very dark, at least a lot darker than most places I go to. It just makes the brightness of the open kitchen pop out even more. White-tiled walls, bright stainless steel, and cooks in bright-white clean chef uniforms. There is an angled mirror above the kitchen, so if you’re seated close enough to it, you can watch yourself watch the kitchen, in a fun way. I love restaurants with open kitchens. To me, there is nothing better than being able to see who is cooking your food, especially when it’s great food. Kitchen crews are incredibly talented, and deserved to be noticed. If anything, open kitchens also force them to be more clean, and hygienic. There is nothing worse than seeing a kitchen with stains on the walls and cooks with dirty aprons. At least here, you know your food will be in good hands.
My second time dining here I went fairly early, grabbing a table at a quarter to 6pm. The dining room fills up pretty quick, and does get noisy, but then again, you just don’t seem to mind in a place like this. I hate when I eat at fine dining restaurants where the dining room has no life to it. Gentleman are rigid in the jackets they are forced to wear, women sitting nice and proper, servers snuffing at you if you don’t have table manners, and god forbid you place your fork on the plate too quickly, where the slightest clang of high-priced silverware to china can be heard across the dining room. How embarrassing.
The chef here is April Bloomfield, a Michelin-starred British chef who currently runs three restaurants. Aside from The Breslin, she also has the Spotted Pig in the West Village, and The John Dory Oyster Bar, also located in the Ace Hotel and the only of the three I have yet to try. No matter where you decide to dine, taking the first bite of April’s food is magical. It doesn’t take long to see you’re in the hands of someone who understands and is so passionate about food. In my eyes she is an incredibly talented cook, who cares about cooking sustainably, and supports local farmers and all their hard work.
Now lets get into the food. On first visit to The Breslin I tried their chargrilled lamb burger, and I now describe it as one of the best, if not the best in my opinion, burger in NYC. They grind fresh lamb shoulder, season it with salt and pepper, and grill it to a perfect medium. Serve it on a thick untoasted sourdough bun, a slice of feta cheese, and a few rings of red onion slices. The meat is so incredibly moist, and the thick bun is able to take advantage of saving every last drop of those juices without becoming too soggy. Every flavor works incredibly well together, and it’s all about the simplicity of having great ingredients. The burger is huge, and at $17, it damn well better be. But it’s worth every penny. Since it’s so big they hand you a large steak knife to cut it down yourself. As I was cutting it I actually dropped half of the top part of my bun on the floor. I found it amusing that every server that passed by was now seeing me eat this burger with a knife and fork in a British-style pub.
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| The amazing Lamb Burger |
What also stands out with this burger are the fries. Alain Ducasse, one of the best chefs in the world, declared the "thrice-cooked chips" at The Breslin the best in NYC. They really are phenomenal. They are cut like steak fries, but unlike other steak fries I have ever tried, are incredibly crispy. They are served with cumin mayo, but honestly the cumin was a little too much for my taste. Come hungry for this one, as it will fill you up quickly.
On my second visit to the restaurant I decided to try more dishes, and left very full and happy. I started with the Scotch egg. Scotch eggs are whole, hard-boiled chicken eggs, which are wrapped in chicken forcemeat, then deep-fried. I have been experimenting with my own recipe for Scotch eggs for a while now, so I was intrigued to try one when I saw it on menu. It was such a great start to the meal. The outside shell was a perfect golden-brown color, super crispy, and after cut into revealed a perfectly cooked egg that was still slightly runny. Just remember to remove the napkin under the egg which prevents it from rolling around. I was debating whether to post a picture of what it looks like after it was cut into, but then I figured that would just ruin the surprise!
On my second visit to the restaurant I decided to try more dishes, and left very full and happy. I started with the Scotch egg. Scotch eggs are whole, hard-boiled chicken eggs, which are wrapped in chicken forcemeat, then deep-fried. I have been experimenting with my own recipe for Scotch eggs for a while now, so I was intrigued to try one when I saw it on menu. It was such a great start to the meal. The outside shell was a perfect golden-brown color, super crispy, and after cut into revealed a perfectly cooked egg that was still slightly runny. Just remember to remove the napkin under the egg which prevents it from rolling around. I was debating whether to post a picture of what it looks like after it was cut into, but then I figured that would just ruin the surprise!
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| Scotch Egg |
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| Chicken liver and Madeira jelly |
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| Blood Sausage & Fried Duck Egg |
The last course was a crispy sweetbread, over a spring pea mash, with bacon lardons. I was trying my hardest to distinguish the sauce on the plate, but I couldn’t quite make it out. I know it did contain veal glace (think reduced veal stock), but I couldn’t pinpoint the other flavors. Regardless, this plate was a perfect symphony of flavors. Cutting into the crispy outside of the sweetbread revealed this soft, creamy, almost buttery sweetbread. It was then mixed with this sweet spring pea mash, offset by the saltiness of the bacon lardons. By this time I was pretty full, but I wished I had more room to fully enjoy this plate. It made me so happy.
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| Sweetbreads & Spring Pea Mash |
**Updated 8/2/11**
A few coworkers and I decided to head back to The Breslin on a late Wednesday night. I was craving the lamb burger. Ever since I had it I couldn't get it out of my head. I convinced them to try it as well. All three of us were soon seen scarfing down a lamb burger each in the upstairs dining area. We did, however, have a few more treats as well.
The beef and stilton pie was a small appetizer, but full of flavor. We all enjoyed this very much. The pastry was cooked perfectly, and at the touch of a fork flaked completely to reveal hot, braised, flavorful beef.
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| Beef and Stilton Pie |
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| Slow-cooked Squash Bruschetta with Gioia Burrata |
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| Squid on the plancha with Zucchini |
The Breslin
16 W 29th Street
New York, NY 10001
I agree, their lamb burgers are great.
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