Tailor Made

I had the most unexpectedly amazing dinner on Friday night at Tailor, which is conveniently located a hop, skip and jump away from my apartment.

The interior of the restaurant has a distinctly old world feel...dark wood, yellow lighting and vintage style steamer trunks. The tables are nicely spread apart so you don't have to worry about other diners overhearing your conversation. Great date place or for an intimate dinner with friends. There is a bar on the ground floor, which is nice for an after dinner drink and keeps most of the noise away from your dining experience.

Started the meal off with a refreshing Sangre de China, which consisted of pink peppercorn vodka, blood orange soda, and cinnamon. The peppercorn definitely adds a kick to the drink...I can't say if I really liked it, but it was different.

Shared an appetizer of sesame sweetbreads with banana puree and purple mustard. I always like to try sweetbreads if they're on the menu at any restaurant because they're difficult to prepare well so good sweetbreads generally implies a great chef and yummy food. The sweetness of the banana puree with the tangy purple mustard complimented the sweetbreads perfectly. I gobbled this dish up really fast.

FYI, sweetbreads are NOT sweet, nor are they bread, but are actually the thymus gland and pancreas gland of an animal (generally lamb, beef or pork.) Definitely try if you've never before...tastes like chicken nuggets, I swear!

I ordered pork belly with miso butterscotch and artichoke for my entree. I love pork belly. If I see it on a menu, there is a 98 percent chance I will order it. It was cooked perfectly...tender, juicy and of so delicious. Then there is the sauce. The sauce was unbelievable! A little sweet, a little salty, it turned out to be a genius combination. I wanted to lick the plate even after I mopped up every last drop with the pork belly. I don't even like artichoke but coupled with pork belly dipped in sauce, it was pretty darn good. Even though this dish is pretty decadent, it was the perfect portion size and didn't leave me feeling heavy at all.


Grace ordered roasted rib eye with creamed shiso and fried potato with plum wine bordelaise. This dish wasn't as adventurous as some other things on the menu, but it was cooked and presented well. The rib eye was cooked perfectly medium rare (bravo to the cook!) I had no complaints about the creamed shiso or fried potatoes...they complimented the steak they way spinach and potatoes should.

I was completely disappointed by the dessert. This is the coffee cake with toast ice cream, raisin and cinnamon. The flavors of each component were so strong, that combined, I was overwhelmed by all the tastes, which was kind of unpleasant. The coffee was very powerful and reminded me of stale coffee. However, the presentation was nicely done and resembles a flag. :)

Grace ordered the brown butter cake with squash sorbet and maple caviar. I couldn't really tell what was what in this dish and I didn't really taste the squash or maple flavor, but I liked it all the textures combined. I preferred this dessert over the coffee cake. The crunchy shell on top was particularly delicious.

After paying the bill, we got free caramel cotton candy. Unfortunately, it tasted BAD...like eating an aerosol can. I'm not sure if that's how it's suppose to taste, but there was a distinctly chemical flavor.


So it's probably obvious that I loved eating at Tailor. Go try it! There's also a cheaper bar menu.



Restaurants mentioned:
Tailor
525 Broome St.
New York, NY 10013