Sourdough (cultured butter, pickles, all made in house): very average bread.
Bluefin Tuna Belly (Chutoro) (crudo, fermented tomato, cured black olive, smoked olive oil): unexpectedly pretty presentation. Didn’t blow me away, but a solid app. Too much raw tuna for one person (not their fault).
BBQ Boer Goat (smoked low and slow, recado negro, sour orange, polenta beignets): wonderful, meat just falls apart when you touch it. The polenta beignets tied the whole dish together. This is the dish that most lived up to the promise of the OG Foxface.
Apricot & Sichuan Peppercorn Sorbet (mochi cake, apricot pudding, apricot kernel): this didn’t work at all for me. Mochi cake was extremely chewy and had no taste at all, apricot sorbet tasted straight off the grocery store shelf, and the nuts they threw in there made no sense from a texture standpoint.
The original Foxface is one of my favorite restaurants of all time—they served incredibly creative renditions of the most underrated dish in the world: the sandwich. I was very disappointed when they closed, but I was intrigued when they made the announcement that they would be opening a sit-down fine dining establishment. Ultimately, after this first visit, I’m a bit disappointed. First, the bread was underwhelming and the dessert was terrible. These can be forgiven (especially because of something I’ll mention in my service notes). Second, and more importantly, while the two main dishes I had were quite good, the value proposition OG Foxface had is just not there anymore. I ended up with a $100 bill for a meal that gave me in the end 90% of the satisfaction level that I used to get with their $15 sandwiches. I would love them to bring back the sandwiches (plenty of high-end restaurants serve lower-end food during lunch or for take out, like Kasama which I ate at early this year), but I doubt that will happen. At the very least, they should stop focusing on the raw bar—every single person thinks their restaurant needs a raw bar, it’s so unbelievably unoriginal. Unless you’ve got the best seafood hookup in town, skip serving oysters. Instead, Foxface should focus on the unusual meats and interesting fish. Side note: The ever-changing menu is very frustrating because I see photos of other people’s meals and I can’t have it! I would have absolutely devoured the duck and foie gras donuts!
The lady who used to run the sandwich window served me for about half the time. I assume she’s one of the owners. That was neat. Loud and small venue, not really my vibe, but it’s the NYC standard. I ate about 80% of my goat, and the server asked me if I’d like to take it home. I hesitated then said sure. He took my plate, and I never saw the plate again. A bit odd, but honestly I didn’t need the dregs of my goat dish anyway. Then when I got my bill, I noticed they had comped my sourdough (which I thought was overpriced at $12 but I obviously kept that to myself). They didn’t call my attention to it at all. Was it because they accidentally threw away my goat? Or did I look like I wasn’t enjoying the bread? Who knows. I’ll call it all a wash.