Brooklyn Sting: Melting for the Food at MELT
When I was making plans with my friend Sarah this week, she sent me four Brooklyn restaurant choices, all with links and menus. Perhaps it’s because I looked at their website first, but Melt was the clear choice for our dinner date.
Situated in Park Slope just a few blocks away from the subways at the Atlantic Terminal, Melt was already winning points for being so conveniently located. For some reason I’d been expecting a bigger restaurant, possibly because their menu was so intriguing. The space was pleasantly small; with room enough for only about seventy people. With modern furniture and clean lines, Melt manages to be sleek and sophisticated without being pretentious.
Elegant furniture is nice and all, but Sarah and I were here for the food. And possibly the drinks. Three of Melt’s seven signature cocktails were made with ginger, usually not one of my favorite ingredients; however I enjoyed the pomegranate and ginger champagne cocktail ($9). The restaurant also has draft beer and an extensive wine list.
It’s not an exaggeration to say that everything on the menu at Melt looked delicious. Melt is the kind of restaurant that credits its Executive Chef on the menu, and the pride in the food is evident. If I had unlimited time, funds, and appetite, I’d go back and order the proscuitto di parma and melon, crispy lobster dumpling, yellow fin tuna tartar, crispy pork shoulder ravioli, shiitaki mushroom and avocado ravioli, chipotle portobello mushroom burger, kobe beef burger, or the pinenut and basil crusted salmon. Hungry yet?
Though it truly was a tough decision, I ordered the Boucheron goat cheese salad ($11) with marinated beefsteak tomato, mixed greens, and fig coulis. I had been expecting a bed of greens with some dollops of goat cheese on top, the usual result of goat cheese salads at restaurants. Instead, what arrived was an intricately layered dish where the greens were barely noticeable after the goat cheese, tomatoes, and figs. I don’t even know if I would call it a salad. Whatever you call it, the dish was delicious, and I devoured the entire concoction.
Sarah chose the sea scallops and shrimp vol au vent with fava beans, champagne sauce, and white truffle oil ($21). Though she thoroughly enjoyed the dish, it only came with four scallops. She was still hungry afterwards, and commented that my salad may have actually had more food. The upside of this situation was that we felt compelled to order dessert. We shared a warm apple and rhubarb crumble with fresh cream and strawberries. Yum.
No pun intended, but we really did melt at Melt in our warm sweaters. The restaurant has no control over how hot their heat gets, so I would recommend dressing in layers. After 9pm the music got to be a little too loud to carry on a conversation without shouting. These are really just small gripes, and I would go back to Melt in a second. After all, the rest of the menu awaits.
Melt // 440 Bergen Street, Brooklyn, 11217 // 2 or 3 to Flatbush Avenue, or 2,3,4,5,B,D,M,N,Q,R to Atlantic Ave-Pacific St. // P: 718-230-5925
Tags:Brooklyn, Food, Julie, Melt
27. October 2008 at 10:55 pm :
I forgot to mention that they do a 5-course tasting menu on Tuesdays for only $25! Next time I go, it will definitely be on a Tuesday.
29. October 2008 at 11:58 am :
The menu items you are writing about are actually no longer on the menu for the most part since the beginning of the month. When did you go to MELT? Based on your cocktail description, it would have to be recently since those are new additions but the dishes that you describe but did not have are no longer available. I just wanted to point this out……
29. October 2008 at 7:50 pm :
We were there on October 22nd. I remember looking at the menu and thinking there were too many things to decide from, so when writing this, I perused Melt’s menu on the website, which also looked amazing! Either way, whenever people go, they are in for a treat!
8. December 2008 at 12:42 pm :
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