The Spotted Pig

The Spotted Pig

314 West 11th Street

New York City, NY 10014

(212) 620-0393

Howard and I headed over to the Spotted Pig for dinner on our second night in New York. I liked the neighbourhood the restaurant was in and the fact that it looked like someone's house! I also picked it because I was intrigued about this low key Michelin restaurant. We didn't have to dress up for a fancy meal for there was no huge fuss. But, we went early at the start of service to avoid any lining up and waited at the bar upstairs for our table.

The bartender was super friendly and topped up our drinks as we waited. It was an odd in-between period as some guests were still eating and being served, but none of us were allowed to be seated yet because dinner service hadn't started yet. Which made me wonder if people were having really late lunches at 5pm?

We ended up being seated at the corner table on the right side of this little room. As usual, New York City restaurants have limited space and their unisex washroom here is cramped.

To start, we ordered Devils on Horseback. Not knowing what that was, our waitress described it as bacon wrapped prunes stuffed with pear. We gave it a try, we usually like anything wrapped in bacon! While it was very tasty, we just aren't huge fans of the combination.

Now this is the famous chargrilled burger with Roquefort and shoestring fries. I was a huge fan of the fries, while Howard thought it could be a little less salty. I don't know what he was talking about, they were worth finishing.

I tried the crispy pork belly in broth with vegetables and a fried squash blossom. That broth! It made me feel warm all over, like hot soup during the winter, and there was a nice spicy kick to it. I'm so glad our waitress recommended it over the grilled skirt steak.

I was pretty pleased that I was able to find most links to the dishes we tried online. If you're curious for more, the chef and owner, April Bloomfield, has received quite some buzz for her cookbook, A Girl and Her Pig (which by the way has an amazing cover).