Sardine
I got invited to a trial-run for a new restaurant called Sardine in Machinary Row. It’s owned by the two guys that own Marigold Kitchen, so I was pretty excited to go.
More or less, everything was free. They had a house red and white wine, and a house beer, Stella Artois. I had to try them all, and all were excellent. I pretty much stuck to the Stella, which I hadn’t had before.
First of all, the wait staff was great. Very friendly, not overbearing, and very informative of all of the dishes, including the different wines. The kitchen had made sure they sampled a little bit of everything.
For an appetizer, we ordered the Parmesan polenta with grilled pork sausage piperade and pork demi. Wow it was good. Each bite amazed me with the amount of flavor. I was also very impressed with the presentation.
For dinner I had the pan-seared skatewing with sautéed broccoli rabe, fingerling potatoes with a lemon caper butter sauce. This dish seemed to be the “star†of the evening. Everyone I talked to that tried it, couldn’t stop talking about. For those who don’t know, skatewing is like a the wing of a stingray. The texture was great, and the capers added a nice touch. The potatoes had this red flake pepper on it, similar to the potatoes at Marigold’s, which was a good thing. When I return to Sardines, I will have a hard time not ordering the skatewing again.
My girlfriend got the roasted bone-in pork loin with a fava bean, black currant, tomato and cumin
pan sauce and potato purée. This was also excellent, and another favorite of many of the patrons last night.
I talked to the owner Phil when we were leaving and he apologized for the wait. It did take quite some time to get our food, but it didn’t matter. This was trial run, which gives them time to fine tune before they open on July 6th.
It was a phenomenal evening, and I very much look forward to eating their again.
