Dovetail Soars Every Time

There are some things in life that you can just count on, you know? Some semblance of consistency helps to orient me and make me feel safe. For example, I can count on my partner to miss a pop culture reference. I can count on pretty shoes to hurt my feet. I can count on my 19 month old daughter to knock over anything with liquid in it and I can count on Dovetail for an excellent meal.

This Upper West Side restaurant delivers every time. There is no shortage of spots that claim to put charming spins on American cuisine with farm-fresh foods but Dovetail actually accomplishes what it sets out to do.

I enjoyed today's restaurant week lunch at Dovetail with my colleague, Leslie. I had been to Dovetail before and she had it on her list to try. The menu was different from what they had online so Leslie needed to re-decide what she wanted. I hadn't bothered to look online before going so that wasn't an issue for me (and she didn't mind at all) but if you are a preparer and like to check online menus, be warned that you might get your heart set on something that won't actually be an option.

Lunch was an inside-the-park home run. I don't know much about baseball, frankly. I asked a bunch of guys in my office about what the right words are to describe a home run that wasn't quite out of the park but still scored. I believe none of them really knew and one looked the term up online so if I'm offending a baseball aficionado, my apologies. But what I mean to say is exactly that. Not quite out of the park but definitely a big, fat score, nonetheless. I dig Dovetail and I'll continue going back.

First they brought out a lovely little plate with two tiny snap pea and watermelon radish salads and two individual corn breads. The little salads were dressed with lemon and when we tasted them I said the word "fresh" and Leslie said the word "beautiful" so you can decide for yourself how you feel about word association games.

The corn bread was moist and had a nice, full flavor. I despise weak cornbread. This was a real man's (or woman's) cornbread. I ate about 1/2 of my cornbread before my appetizer came, which turned out to be a really good thing because for my appetizer, I chose the soft boiled egg served with bacon, sweet corn, beans and a little bit of spinach. This was an uncharacteristic choice for me. I don't normally choose an egg as an appetizer but I decided to go light on the entree so I was up for going a little heavier on the appetizer and I am so glad I did. 

When it came out, Leslie and I had a whole conversation about how there's something basically decadent about the yolk of a soft boiled egg. This dish came in a cross between a sauce and a broth that, largely because of the bacon, was already packed with flavor. Then I cut into that egg and the yolk spilled out and the result, to quote Leslie, was, "unctuous and delicious." I'm really happy that I chose something I ordinarily would not have picked because this dish really worked for me. Not long ago a friend and I lunched at David Burke Townhouse and they also had an egg dish on their list of appetizers. My friend ordered it and what was delivered was basically scrambled eggs with vegetables. It was beyond underwhelming. In contrast, Dovetail did right by this egg. If I was a chicken... I won't go there. But YUM! And as I mentioned before, I had saved half of my cornbread, which went perfectly with this appetizer. If you plan on having this appetizer, save your cornbread. Leslie said it looked like the breakfast of the gods. If I had that appetizer and that cornbread for breakfast, my day would be off to a pretty phenomenal start.

Leslie ordered the turnip ceviche with quinoa, habenero pepper and apricots as her appetizer and it was a wildly interesting combination of flavors. It had a really nice slightly spicy and sweet thing happening with just a hint of earthy from the turnip and the quinoa and some bright freshness from the tomatoes and snap peas. I'm not the biggest turnip fan to begin with but it's very much in season right now and I would have happily eaten that whole appetizer myself. It's remarkable to me when restaurants take an ingredient I haven't traditionally loved and turn it into something that really works for me. It's masterful.

My entree was hake served in stewed tomatoes with haricots verts (fancy green beans) and shaved zucchini and two pieces of the sourest pickled eggplant I've ever tasted. I loved the tiny sour pickled eggplant slices and I'm certain that's not a hit with everyone. It was, however, a hit with me. The fish was cooked perfectly. There was a gorgeous pan sear on top that gave it some nice texture while the rest of it was flaky and mild and melted in my mouth. I still don't know what those little yellow dollops were but they were yummy. Leslie and I were both so impressed with how pretty the dish was. They take their presentation very seriously and each plate had an artistic flair that paled only in comparison to its taste. Though I had struggled a little bit with my choice of entree, I was very pleased with what I had selected.

Leslie chose the lamb in puff pastry for her entree (which is the other entree I thought I might want) and that dish kicked some major butt, too. It came with pickled cucumbers, which were much less sour than my pickled eggplant, and a Greek yogurt and dill sauce and harissa (tomato based). I feel like if you screw up lamb in puff pastry, you should pack it up and go home. Still, this was one of the least screwed up dishes I've tasted in a long time. The lamb was rich and the pastry was buttery. The yogurt sauce and harissa were fantastic accompaniments and the pickled cucumbers gave you that perfect break of freshness from the otherwise rich, rich, richness of this dish. I would not recommend eating this just before doing something very physical. This entree is to be savored leisurely on a day when you can kind of bask in the glow of it for a while. I, unfortunately, can't hold my liquor these days so drinking with lunch doesn't work for me but I really think if you order the lamb in puff pastry at Dovetail, you should have a glass of wine alongside. It's the right thing to do.

Dessert was what took this meal from an out of the park home run to an inside the park home run, for me. The desserts were very good, certainly tons better than what I had yesterday at The Russian Tea Room. They were freshly made and well made. They just didn't blow me away. I did enjoy them but I did not finish.

My dessert was a chocolate coconut roulade served with coconut ice cream, marshmallow, and some chocolate, coconut crunchy garnish. The coconut ice cream was excellent. The roulade didn't excite me.

Leslie had the raspberry vanilla bavarian. I liked her dessert better than mine and would recommend it over mine but when she didn't seem to be finishing it, I didn't feel compelled to take the rest and polish it off. And she would have welcomed it if I had felt so called. Please don't get me wrong; these were both more than respectable desserts and I have absolutely no criticism of either of them. They just didn't set off bells and whistles for my personal set of taste buds. But they were still expertly created and artfully presented, like everything at Dovetail.


I hold a special place in my heart for places like Dovetail. Places that have a sense of integrity. When they espouse sustainability and whole foods as topping their list of values, they back it up by highlighting truly seasonal, whole foods, like turnips and by doing a Monday night vegetarian menu. I think of Dovetail and David Burke Townhouse as two establishments attempting to do similar things except Dovetail does it well.