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“Flatbush Farm”

Occasion:	Cuisine:	Area:	Cost:	Rating:
Night Out	New American	Brooklyn	Moderate	Good

her thin short twirled pasta. Not a huge deal, but I was craving more substance to the spaetzle.

The cast-iron half chicken ($19) goes a long way to raising the profile of this once maligned bird. It is a simple homey dish; a crisp skinned half a bird with juicy moist meat given a mound of wonderfully creamy mashed potatoes and a smattering of braised fennel. But the Aha! moment of this dish was the chicken jus pooling on the plate—a lemony gravy that was light, bright and brilliant and made me crave a spoon and a piece of crusty bread.

The braised lamb shoulder ($19) with bubble and squeak was served in a shallow bowl swimming with an aromatic thyme jus and was topped with a burger-sized cabbage and potato cake that was terrific. The meat was buttery and intensely lamb-y. Indeed, this was not a lamb that could have been beef as is sometimes the case. But an overdose of thyme got in the way of the farro risotto ($14), which was nice and nutty and stocked with pepitas in their shell (not pleasant to eat) and butternut squash, but the only flavor I got was a smothering wash of thyme perfume. It was not an accent; it was the main course.

But the real weaknesses of the menu were the fish dishes. An appetizer of warm braised tuna belly ($11) with white beans and pickled onions was frighteningly dry and overly fishy. It tasted as though the chef had heated up high-quality canned tuna, very far from luscious fatty belly meat that I had hoped for. Ditto salmon hot cakes that each one of us took a bite of and passed quickly to our right. While the chef uses wild salmon from Alaska to fashion these lovingly browned oversized fish cakes, they too were dry and seasoned only with the flavor of overly cooked fish.

But dry fish was forgotten when we got a taste of the pork goulash ($18), served over a tangle of wide flat silky egg noodles glossed with fresh tangy sour cream. The chef uses a smoked Spanish paprika to give the slow-braised pork a slow building heat that blossoms from delicate to luxuriously spicy in moments, giving your mouth some serious pleasure and the dish an unexpected added dimension of flavor.

While there were some off moments in our meal, most of the comments at the dinner table were raves not boos. I enjoyed my dinner at Flatbush Farm. It’s not perfect; some of the food needs work, but this is the precisely the sort of restaurant I wish would open in my neighborhood. Here in U ... [more, click below]

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Posted: January 8, 2007

Other restaurants in Brooklyn :
+ Chickenbone Cafe-- Closed   + Pier 116-- Closed   + Chestnut   + Lunch at Peter Luger's   + 360   + Palo Santo   + The Good Fork   + Porchetta-- Closed Now   + Bocca Lupo   + Flatbush Farm   + DuMont Burger   + Dressler   + Farm on Adderley   + The Grocery   + Saul   + Black Mountain Wine House   + The General Greene   + Char No. 4   + James   + Chestnut   + No. 7   + Vinegar Hill House   + Motorino   + Buttermilk Channel   + Buttermilk Channel   + Vutera   + Watty & Meg    + Prime Meats   + Aqualis Grill   + Jack the Horse Tavern   + Roman's   + Fatty 'Cue   + Thistle Hill Tavern   + Broken English   + Trix, by Dara Pollak   + An Ode to New Orleans in Williamsburg: Maison Premiere, By Dara Pollak   + Brooklyn Wok Shop by Dara Pollak   + Arthur on Smith   + La Vara   + Gran Electrica   + Pok Pok Ny   + Ganso    + Reynard   

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