Diner

On Sunday, Ken and I went to dinner with Hana and Hughie in Brooklyn at Diner. I was really excited to try Diner because I am a huge fan of Marlow and Sons – we were either going to Diner or Fish but since it was really hot and Fish doesn’t have great air conditioning, we decided to drive to Brooklyn and eat at Diner!

The exterior is less than impressive but the inside is actually really beautiful with candles and nice tiling along the wall. Everyone was very hipster-like and they don’t even have menus – they write everything on the table:

The menu is based on what’s available in season (except the burger – that is always available). We decided to order a bit of everything and share. We started with the succotash:

The succotash had fresh corn, bacon, and okra and was sauteed together to make a really delicious starter. It was really light, even with the large pieces of bacon in the dish!

We also had smoked salmon:

Also delicious – another light preparation of salmon, even though it was cured, it was mixed with fruit and cubes of beets.

Next, we did a pasta dish – handmade fettuccine – with lamb meatballs and zucchini:

For our main courses, we had the pork chop with heirloom tomatoes:

The braised short ribs:

The NY Strip steak with fried corn on the cob:

The main courses were all so amazing, especially the short ribs that were served with a light short rib jus and watercress. The NY Strip was very flavorful (and cooked to a beautiful merdium rare) and the pork chop was very light, especially with the heirloom tomatoes and eggplant.

For dessert, we decided to order all three desserts they had that night! First, the blueberry tart with creme fraiche:

Next, the basil panna cotta with cherries:

And finally, the beautiful and absolutely amazing flourless chocolate cake:

The desserts were all really well done (although I was not a huge fan of the blueberry tart). The basil panna cotta was light and a little underset but had a nice fresh flavor and tasted good with the cherries and shortbread cookies. My favorite dessert was the flourless chocolate cake. I usually associate flourless chocolate cakes with a really heavy cake with just butter, cream and chocolate, but this cake was light, airy, and had an amazingly deep chocolate flavor. I hope they always have this cake because EVERYONE needs to try it. IMMEDIATELY!

Me and Ken after dinner:

Run, don’t walk, to Diner – the food is absolutely amazing!