Pearl & Ash
“Next was the bread service with chicken butter, pork meatballs, octopus.”
“But pairing the meal with great wines — with the help of wine nets sommelier James — only makes it that much better.”
“Cod / Thai basil – Also an awesome choice – super-light fish in a thai broth with delicate swirls of what appeared to be a pesto coconut oil.”
Pearl & Ash
Takes Reservations: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Outdoor Seating: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
PokéStop Nearby: Yes
Price range.
$$$ Price range $31-60
8 reviews
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I love this spot. Truly.
The atmosphere is cozy, rustic tables, soft ambience, great service.
However, it is their wine list that keeps me coming back. Their sommelier here does an amazing curation of bottles and that alone is enough to get me here.
Yet, their shareable dishes have always been delicious and I have never ordered anything I didn't like here.
BUT come here for the wine!
3.5 stars, not 3.0.
The hostess was fantastic. I showed up at 9pm on a Saturday night without a reservation and the hostess not only immediately put me on the waitlist (I was the first one) but as I was hanging out in the entryway for my husband, a spot at the bar opened up and she immediately pointed it out to me. She was really nice and certainly paid attention to me.
The stools at the bar are really awkward. They're basically just solid rectangles of wood which are really awkward to physically slide.
The bartender was good; I enjoyed talking to him for a bit before my husband showed up. Even after my husband showed up the bartender was attentive and fun to chat with.
The wine list is extensive but unfortunately it's weighed heavily toward bottles. Their menu for single glasses of wine isn't very big at all, but what they do have for single glasses is good and some wines quite unique (a wine from New Mexico? Interesting!) We only had two of the items from the dinner menu – the potatoes and the arctic char – both were very good.
I probably won't be back because it's a bit out of the way from where I normally hang out but overall I liked Pearl & Ash.
Oh what great oysters and wine. I need to come back here for more for a more lengthy review!
I was on my way to ramen after spending a some time at the New Museum, when I stumbled upon Pearl & Ash. I sat at the bar and ordered a glass of wine and a few small plates. Everything was delicious, but the scallops were my favorite. I'm not sure why others have about the portion sizes/prices. The food was adequately priced for the quality and the portion sizes are similar to other small plates places in San Francisco, Chicago, and New York. Small plates are more in keeping with the European way of dining… try a little of this a little of that and it's great if you're not that hungry or you don't want to commit to one dish.
Pearl and Ash offers delicious, playful dishes in a relaxed yet upscale and trendy setting. We came in without a reservation (after ditching our original dinner plans) and sat at the bar to wait for a table.
The bartender was not at all attentive, but the sommelier was wonderful and helped us pick out a lovely white burgundy. Our server once we were seated was a lot better, but still lacked a little professionalism. Anyhow, onto the meal, which was delectable. From favorite to least favorite, here's what we ordered:
Rabbit Sausage
This was the most delicious thing I ate all night. The sausage was so tender I had to interrupt my date to tell him how amazing it was. It was also really well seasoned, and went to well with the charred spring onion soubise, which brought a nice sweetness and intrigue to the salty sausage slices.
Burgundy Escargot Ragout
This was also exceptionally delicious. The sauce it came in was garlicky and full of basil, and was seriously addictive. My only regret is that it didn't come with even a single slice of baguette, and the bread on the menu is too flavorful to serve as a sauce-sopper for this dish.
Six Day Brisket
This dish was tasty, and the brisket was wonderfully melt-apart tender.
Veal Tartar
This dish gives me mixed feelings. While the veal was a little tough and lacked the fat to give it a nice tartar texture (maybe an egg or some other fat could have helped), I loved the flavor combinations on the plate, and when you combine the sardines, cheese chip (yes, cheese chip) and sauce, you get a lovely bite.
Spanish Octopus
Let me start by saying the tiny potatoes on the plate were outstanding. However, the octopus was definitely overcooked and a bit dry.
We also ordered the bread, which is full of fennel seed and comes out warm. The dishes were brought out a few at a time, which was nice, and service was overall okay. Since we were literally the last patrons in the restaurant, we were not offered a dessert menu, so I guess we have to wait until next time to try those out.
Overall, I'd be back to try more of the fun, whimsical combinations and because the ambience is lovely and very date-friendly.
This cutely decorated place on the Bowery serves delicious small plates – comparable to Stanton Social, but fancier. All of their plates are good, and some are absolutely phenomenal. It's great to come with a few people who will share food. You can order fish/meat in entree sizes as well.
They have an extensive wine program. Their cocktail list is uniquely liqueur/bitters/sherry based, and are mixed perfectly. My ginger/amaretto cocktail was A+. Everyone at our table liked theirs.
HIGHLIGHTS:
Sweetbread (ground head and throat meat), octopus, tuna, and the brisket (!!!!!!). These were *particularly* delicious in ways that I remember them days after the meal.
Also tasty: chicken liver & foie gras, head cheese, market carrots, and the scallops. Everything is good and you can't go wrong.
Great for date night, dinner with friends… really, good for all situations.
IN SHORT: Despite a menu that feels more formulaic than fantastic, Pearl & Ash is still a showcase for many of chef Richard Kuo's technical talents. With a wine list longer and more affordable than most in the city, everyone from friends in a big group to couples on an early, intimate dinner date can find at least one thing they like about the restaurant.
THE STORY: There is something to be said for identifying a winning formula with empirical evidence of success and just running with it. After all, that's what so many great businesses are founded on. I once worked for a company of public space redevelopment consultants that dramatically reinvigorated parks and open spaces across the country using the simple practices the firm first developed at Bryant Park in New York. Yet there is a difference between applying the Bryant Park method of vibrant placemaking to public spaces in other cities and applying the same compositional formula to an entire meal. And at Pearl & Ash, while the formula is clear, its uniform execution across the menu has resulted in a do-it-yourself tasting menu that is at times wearisome and difficult to finish.
One of my most knowledgable food and wine friends and I were just two dishes into our meal when we first noticed this jarring sense of repetition in flavor and texture. Because the menu is organized into six categories (Raw, Small, Fish, Meat, Vegetables, Sugar) of small plates designed for sharing (an unbearable phrase whose syntax I won't spend time critiquing yet), we had three squeezed onto our table all at once. Besides making us feel like we were being rushed out of our table just moments after we had sat down and causing us to fear that one of our dishes would run cold if we did not finish it with lightspeed fervor, the arrangement of plates let us realize just how similar each dish actually was.
The raw salmon with asparagus and a thick, creamy hollaindaise sauce so closely mirrored the flavor and texture profile of the hamachi with crunchy jicama and a rich, creamy swath of ricotta that we couldn't appreciate either dish for itself. There was a heavy hand that applied these creamy elements, too, and the delicate flavor of the lovely pieces of hamachi was unfortunately almost intelligible.
The octopus, probably the most popular plate on the menu, also sits on an off-putting amount of thick sunflower seed puree. The octopus itself, however, covered with a crunchy and spicy flash seared togarashi powder is perfectly tender.
It's regrettable then, that nearly every dish on the menu can be broken down like this into a feature protein or vegetable, a bit of crunch, and a thick, creamy, sauce-like component, because there is a lot of strength in many of the precise flavor combinations of these high-qualtiy ingredients. But taken together, the wow-factor is muddled, and the menu feels of a formulaic attitude with too little creativity.
This sensation made the dry pork meatballs with shiitake, bonito, and soppressata and the potatoes with an overwhelming dose of mayo with barely detectable porcini mushrooms and just a sparse speckle of chorizo less than enjoyable to finish. The meaty bavette, another favorite on the menu, can also be found on top of a cauliflower puree that too closely imitates the puree that rests under the octopus. The meal of small dishes put together by the diner then ends with a sigh of relief rather than a wistful longing for more.
What I haven't discussed yet is the wine, which is Pearl & Ash's strongest, and most progressive feature. In order to truly enjoy the restaurant in the future, one's best bet is to take time exploring the never-ending and phenomenally well-priced wine list, enjoy a bottle or two with a date, and perhaps nibble on a plate here and there when hunger strikes. In this way, Pearl & Ash will feel a little less like the tired result of a systematic approach to cooking and more like the brilliant, forward-thinking restaurant and bar it tries to be.
Enjoyed a delicious meal here this past weekend. We shared the baby artichokes, the Spanish octopus, the cod, and the pork belly, all of which were delicious. We finished with the brownie for dessert and enjoyed a wonderful chateauneuf du pape chosen from the extensive wine list. Service was warm and attentive. Decor was eclectic and fun.