sunday dinner at resto

A few weeks back, we went to meet some friends at Cannibal. We’d heard great things about their food as well as their great selection of craft beers and cocktails. We even arrived on the early side for dinner, hoping to meet the evening rush. We ended up not being able to grab a seat though, as there was a large reserved party that was going to be occupying the entire back seating area shortly after we arrived.

As a plan B, we made our way over to the sister and connected restaurant, Resto. The menu is very similar for food, though more extensive on the Resto side than Cannibal. The big difference though is the beer menu, which on the Resto side is limited to Belgian beers.

To start, we had their endive and celeryroot salad. It sounded like just a salad, but it was one of the best things of the meal. The apricots, mint, and orange vinaigrette on the salad were lovely, but it was the smoked lamb bacon that made it. I can’t say I’ve ever had the chance to try lamb bacon, but their version was unreal.

As a side for our main courses, we had an order of their roasted beets, which were prepared with creme fraiche, curry vinaigrette, and poppy seeds.

For one of our mains, we went with the Long Island scallops, which were prepared with smoked cauliflower, potatoes, celery, turnip, and crispy leeks. The root vegetables were a nice seasonal take on the scallops. The char on the scallops paired nicely with the subtle smoke of the smoked cauliflower puree.

As our other main, we had one of their daily specials – a lamb “salad”. Calling it a salad was pretty funny. There were wilted greens on top, but the focus was definitely the lamb. Kudos to the server for calling that out, just to no misunderstanding in our ordering.

The service was attentive and all of our food was quite good. Definitely look forward to a return trip to try out the flipside at Cannibal.

Resto – 111 East 29th Street (between Park and Lexington Aves) – 212.685.5585
Reservations Optional