Alliteration unintended
To put this restaurant in a nutshell: It is a typical borderline-one-Michelin-star restaurant. I would not give it the star.
I started off with shishito peppers. What a sucker selection. I ordered these peppers because I was intrigued by the fact that they had bottarga on them. But the reality is I couldn’t taste the bottarga; I only tasted the strong shishito peppers. There are a gazillion places serving shishito peppers that are on par with those at Redbird. It’s like putting edamame on the menu. I was also a little annoyed by the two ceviches on the menu. So clichéd.
I also had mussels in a thin tom-yum like broth. These were good. The mussels were plump and flavorful. The broth was light and aromatic.
I also had the duck breast with wild rice. This was easily the best dish. The duck was skillfully prepared. The skin was beautifully browned. The flesh had deep flavor, The wild rice had exciting, spicy seasoning. Michelin star quality here.
The worst dish was dessert of black walnut cake. To be blunt, this was terrible. The cake was dry and tasted grainy. It had no redeeming quality, It was accompanied by a bitter beer “gelée,” which just tasted bitter and yucky. To be fair, the cake was also accompanied by an interesting and tasty ice cream flavored by Humboldt Fog cheese (a mild American goat cheese with floral characteristics).
I was annoyed by the wines by the glass I got suckered into drinking: A thin, overly tart Slovenian red wine and a dumb Sauternes. The wine list did not strike me as well curated.
The space was lovely. I’d go back for sure.
