Review - Sbrocco

Sbrocco has been on my restaurant list for a long time, years, and this Saturday night we finally made our first visit to Sbrocco.  I have been trying to improve my wine repertoire so Sbrocco finally made the top of the list.  The week before our visit to Sbrocco, the Date Book ran a review of Sbrocco and I learned that Chef Andrew Newberg had taken over the restaurant.  Since I hadn't tried it before, he didn't have any expectations to live up to but all the referrals I had for Sbrocco were for the previous chef, Andrew Meek, who had moved on to run Gramercy Tap.  I'll have to add that one to my list.

I did like the atmosphere at Sbrocco.  I certainly didn't feel out of place in my dressy jeans, heels and a nice top.  There were quite a few diners headed to the civic center after dinner.  Our waitress asked if we were headed to the Civic Center or if we had any time constraints while we were dining.  I thought that was nice.  I don't want to be hurried along during my meal, but it is nice that they will accommodate quicker meals. 

I was excited to try a wine flight and thought they were exceptionally reasonably priced.  I believe mine was $8.00.  I can't say that I was very adventurous though.  I had a sweet flight which I wish I had written down. 

Our fist disappointment at Sbrooco came with the menu.  As usual, we had drooled over the menu at home and had picked out the Grilled Blue Prawns and Guinness braised pork belly with raspberry, shallot, thyme jam and candied nuts as appetizers and were debating between several tantalizing choices for our entrees.  Listed online we had dreamed of :
   A winter stew of red wine, short ribs, roasted vegetables and braising liquid
   Bouillabaisse with clams, cod, prawns, scallops, and lobster
   Honey glazed duck breast with parsnip-vanilla puree, grilled apple and roasted vegetables

When we arrived at the restaurant only the Prawns were still available.  The pork belly was still on the menu but sold out.  The entrees had all been removed from the menu.  I wouldn't have found this to be a big problem had they been replaced with something else, however we arrived to simply find a smaller menu.  The only thing I got excited about on the menu at the restaurant was the sweet potato gnocchi with sage, Parmesan, and brown butter.  I was disappointed that it wasn't paired with a nice protein.  I decided to ask the waitress before I ordered what she thought of the gnocchi and she said very convincingly that it was her least favorite thing on the menu.  I opted for my second choice, the pepper crusted beef tenderloin with potato fritters and winter vegetables in a red wine demi glace. It did sound good although not particularly out of the ordinary.

My husband debated between the lamb, which neither of us usually love even when prepared very well, and the steak frites of NY strip with truffle butter and demi glace.  He ended up going with the beef given our track record with lamb. 

All in all, I feel like our order was a bit too tame, however, we just weren't inspired by the menu.  Our prawns arrived with chorizo, wine herb sauce, and jalapeno jam.  While this was good, we weren't blown away.  My favorite part was surprisingly the jalapeno jam.  It had a really nice combination of sweet and spicy that complimented the chorizo and shrimp nicely.

For the entrees, Ben's steak was nothing exceptional until it was paired with the truffle butter.  The flavor popped really nicely and it was cooked to a nice medium-rare.  The fries were good, but not anything special.

I'm a huge Top Chef fan and had this been an elimination challenge, the chef who prepared my beef tenderloin would have been asked to Please pack their knives and go.  Harsh?  Maybe.  The potato fritters weren't badly flavored, however, they were quite cold in the middle. Cold mashed potatoes won't pass the Top Chef judges.  The demi glace was amazing, so I will give some points for that and the vegetables were nicely done as well.  Those were the highlights of my dish.  The tenderloin came in two medallions which were quite charred on the outside, crunchy even.  I had ordered my beef medium-rare and I would consider it at least medium, maybe medium well.  The crust on the tenderloin was excessively salty.  I think this was the first time I had purposely left a beef tenderloin medallion in a leftover box on the table.  It wasn't worth taking back to the car or carrying around for our walk down Court Avenue.

The verdict? 

We would go back, although we won't be beating down the door.  We didn't taste anything that we craved, but would certainly give the place another shot after letting the new chef get settled in.