Salty Pidgin

I’m always a fan of going to restaurants located slightly outside the central city area.

I tend to feel a sense of community and not to mention supporting local business. Prime spot in Brooklyn, and you won’t miss it.

To top it off, friendly service always helps. I felt the layout creates a different vibe through the restaurant, a nice touch.

My personal favourite on the night was the prawn toasts, yummm and the chef’s dessert of the night.

Ordered a takeaway Pide and fries and was directed to the beautiful courtyard area, very pleasant with the place to myself! Pide was phenomenal, great flavours and fresh ingredients (not as heavy as a pizza). Was even allowed to bring my own beer in which is not usually allowed. Excellent service. Price is well worth, very satisfied with how much I spent for what I got. The outdoor area has blankets and dog bowls filled with water.

Excellent food and great service. I particularly liked the beef which was superb and the deserts were also excellent. The chocolate mouse and butterscotch pudding were mouthwatering and excellent.

Have heard raving reviews of this place and everyone who attended this dinner were curious because of its reputation. We shared 4 entrees and 5 mains plus their Turkish pizza, and because the dessert price was very palatable, we mostly ordered 1 dessert each and didn’t share this.
The crudo (tarakihi) was nice and fresh but not very distinct in flavour, the orecchiette (like a shell pasta) had a very nice tangy lemon flavour to it and was generally very well like by all the diners, but the sauce was very watery. The biggest surprise of the entrees was the ox tongue, usually my impression of ox tongue is that they can get very hard, but these were extremely tender and fell apart when cut, the flavour was beautiful and it resembled the texture of beef brisket cooked for a very long time. The beetroot was nothing notable and some of us claimed it would be the same if we had cooked it at home in our own kitchen.
The mains arrived promptly and the lamb was raved about by many of us, I am personally not a big lamb fan because of its smell, but I must admit it was fall-apart tender, even softer than a beef brisket would.
The steak was nice and soft but the flavour was quite generic. The chicken breast to me was as soft as they could be without having them soaked in brine (which means it was still on the dry side) but it was done rather well, the sauce that goes with the chicken breast was beautiful and actually I liked that more than the chicken! I actually really loved the gnocchi because it was infused with a very nice cheesy flavour and a rich side of mushrooms. The fish had quite a strong smell to it but it did not taste old or off, so it must have been some condiment they had used, with the eggplant in the side that had a good kick or spice to it, generally if you like fish this was quite well made.
The consensus of the table especially with all the mains that we had, was that the name of the restaurant is present in these dishes – they were all very salty. Every single bite made us reach for that glass of water in front of us, which was topped up very frequently by our lovely attendant.
At the end of all over our savory dishes we added the beef kofta Turkish pizza, it was a very cute presentation of a boat shaped pizza, the crust was lovely with a nice texture and the filling was very well liked, it was one of our favourite dishes of the night. Yes it was also very salty!
On the other hand, we collectively ordered the chocolate semifreddo, coffee rice pudding and panna cotta. The chocolate was rich, the coffee pudding had a nice coffee flavour to it and the panna cotta was very bland. It was quite funny because the chocolate looked like pate, the rice pudding looked like porridge and the panna cotta looked like tofu.
Generally the portion size was on the small side for all the dishes, and even though they had very nice flavours, but the saltiness dominated our impression of this place, albeit the service we received was top notch and the attendant was very knowledgeable and friendly.
Giving them a 7/10

Honestly, these guys just know how to do it, always the best experience. Seriously whoever is on the music must double as a DJ, it reflects the mood perfectly and clearly my taste. A wee wait to be seated for our reservation but we were kindly seated at the bar which is always a treat, getting to watch the cocktails being made. We were absolutely treated by our drinks, always delicious! The 4 course Valentine’s day dinner was well thought out, refreshing and something out of my usual comfort zone. Food was flavourful and well crafted, only found temperatures to be slightly on the cooler side for a dish or two… Not sure if this was deliberate or not, unlike the chilled almond soup which was something new for me! Deserts were to die for…. I wish I could have them over and over again. Staff were sharp and warm, accommodating all our tables needs. The hum of the regulars is always nice to see too, glad to be able to support local. Looking forward to our next visit, thanks guys and keep the tunes playing!