Following pre-dinner bangs at Needle and Birdie G’s bar, I ended up at…
Smorgasbird at Birdie G’s
This particular iteration of tasting menu is a labor of love by Birdie G’s CDC Matthew Schaler. It’s his homage to the food his parents served in their steakhouse during his childhood.
TLDR: This menu feels very much in the R&D phase and needs some work but it shows some promise. More importantly, the restaurant needs more space for Chef Schaler to work with. All night long, he was in the weeds plating our food alone so naturally, none of our food were served hot. This also affected pacing of the dinner. Given that there were only 6 courses, it really shouldn’t take 3 hours long.
8 lucky guests of smorgasbird are seated at the kitchen-facing table
nice touch with each guest’s name written on the welcoming envelop that contains the night’s menu
welcome drink
Matthew Schaler in the flesh
complimentary rolls, green walnut butter & caviar
the rolls by themselves are buttery but the texture’s a bit dry with an overly dark crust. when paired with creamy green walnut butter and briny california oscetra caviar, the salty-sweet combination is out of whack and ate quite sweet even though the intent is a riff on honey butter. the main issue i had was with the chopped green walnuts that are studded in the butter…they were heavy in fruity notes and had a ton of sweetness by themselves.
salad bar: beet french, rancho gordo beans, shu & debbie’s lettuces
lively greens are nicely dressed in a beet french dressing and laced with fried black eye peas, pickled shallots and sunflower petals. when i could get all the elements together on one bite, it worked quite well. the salad had a nice balance of sweet, sour, floral, bitter, and savory notes.
transparent sea farm shrimp, pancetta, treviso, pineapple-bbq sauce
these gorgeous and meaty transparent farm shrimps were wrapped with savory pancetta, cooked, then stuffed with horseradish before they were torched with a searzall blowtorch that created pleasantly smoky notes. given the spiciness of the horseradish, using the sweetness of the pineapple bbq sauce made a lot of sense alongside light bitter notes of treviso. however, the plate, sauce, and shrimp came out lukewarm…almost cold.
there were also too much sauce…perhaps only a third of sauce is needed on the plate given its potency.
farinata florentine, rachel’s artichoke miso, cheddar, perigord black truffle
this is a play on pizza where the chickpea-based “pancake” acts as the crust of the pizza and topped with an immensely savory artichoke miso “sauce” along with grated cheddar that are sharp and tangy. to top it off, an ungodly amount of black truffle is rained over the top. everything worked well except for the truffle where it’s almost completely undetectable by smell or taste. why? this dish also came out barely lukewarm so the truffle shavings didn’t have a chance to release their intoxicating pungent aromas.
peads & barnett’s pork chop, apple sauce, “two sides”
the best dish of the night by far…but once again, this course came out barely lukewarm…aside from this persistent issue, the grilled pork chop had a brown sugar and coriander spice rub that went really well together and it was seasoned perfectly. it doesn’t hurt that the accompanied cinnamon apple puree is a classic pairing with pork! it also doesn’t hurt that peads & barnett’s offerings are basically the a5 wagyu of pork. finally, this dish came with two lovely sides: a melt-in-your-mouth grilled apple and mushrooms that were glazed with a burgundy red wine jus.
hoshigaki blondie a la mode, brown butter caramel, sage infused ice cream
sweet, chewy, hot, cold. chef definitely nailed this blondie. the caramel’s richness and a bit of sage notes from the ice cream rounded out this dessert nicely! the only slight issue i had was that the subtle flavors of the hoshigaki were lost even though the use of its inherent chewiness was ingenious.
Post-dinner bang…
pickle chick | fried half chicken, potato breading, dill pickle hot sauce
loved the brine and bright zesty sauce but the chicken could’ve been more moist and its crust more crunchy
came with a complimentary side of california osetra caviar courtesy of chef schaler
