Last night I had the best meal and restaurant experience in recent memory. Phil took me to Chestnut for my birthday and before I go blabbering on about the food, I suggest you make a reservation ASAP. The number is 718-243-0049 and they’re participating in Brooklyn’s Restaurant Week with everything on the menu pretty much covered (some fish and meat dishes have a $5 surcharge)…GO NOW!
Sorry, I got a little crazed. Chestnut is located on Smith Street, the oversaturated restaurant row of Carrol Gardens, but don’t let that deter you! Once you get into the small restaurant, you almost forget the craziness of the street outside. I stress that this is a tiny place. I could have taken a table count, but was a little concerned that the hostess lost our reservation (which she didn’t) and was enchanted by the simple and warm decor of the place and the food smells coming out of the kitchen.
Once seated, next to the swinging door of the kitchen, we opened our menus only to have our very friendly waitress tell us about how the menu worked with restaurant week (see 1st paragraph) and then picked out our appetizers and entrees. Wait, the pickles. The most amazing pickles in the world, yes the world darnnit, were served to us with bread and a fruity olive oil. These pickles were crisp, tart and sweet and tasted like no other pickle I’ve had before. I asked the waitress if the chef used anything different in his pickling spice and she went to check. Nope, nothing different, he just makes his with “corazón.”
Appetizers:
Phil had the baby beet salad with marcona almonds & mizuna and I had the grilled calamari with quinoa, romesco & musk melon. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a prettier presentation of squid. If the restaurant wasn’t so dimly lit, I would have taken some photos, but I wasn’t about to use a flash camera in the peaceful atmosphere. The calamari rested on a bed of greens and stuffed with the quinoa. The squid was cut on an angle and then fanned out so you could see the quinoa inside. It was delicious. I would never imagine to pair squid with quinoa and the combination was intriguing. Not having a typical fried-to-the-death calamari was also a treat. Phil’s salad was also amazing with the marcona almonds taking a normal beet salad to a new level. Yum.
Entrées:
I had the celeriac ribbons, puy lentils, mache & chestnut
and Phil had the chickpea‑black sesame ravioli, braised greens & ricotta salata. I really thought Phil won with his choice, but he really liked mine as well. The presentation of the black sesame ravioli was gorgeous - they raviolis were shaped like little boats and each one was nestled on seperate beds of braised greens. The sesame also really made the chickpea flavoring stand out. I have no clue how they managed to create those celeriac ribbons (think very wide egg noodles), but they were complimented by the chestnut sauce. The presentation wasn’t so great on this dish.
Dessert:
Phil had theAssorted cookie plate Vin Santo pairing and I had homemade ice cream (oatmeal cookie, vanilla and pineapple peach) & shortbread cookies paired with a Muscat. What can I say? Desserts are all delicious. Always. My icecream came with a little candle on top. After dinner I spoke with the owner as we were leaving and he told me they run a prix fixe with this menu every Tuesday and Wednesday for $25. Unbelievable! Get thee to Chestnut!!
