Monday 25th October 2010
Restaurant: Highlands, West Village, NY
Price per person: $$$
Rating: 4 out of 5
Currently munching: Home made super green soup
One of my best friends Katerine Stephens (Kat) is traveling in the big apple and had such an amazing experience at Highlands I asked her to write us a review; Big thanks for that Kat, I can actually taste that beef wellington as I read...mmmm...
It's always a wonderful turn of events when that 'quick bite' you grab on the way to your evening's destination, turns into one of the most amazing dining experiences you have ever had. I’m in New York visiting my friend Simon, with whom I went to university and who now lives in Harlem. Speaking to a Scottish friend online, I found out that his sister went to school in Glasgow with a man who now resides here and works in the restaurant industry. “Check out Double Crown,” I was told, and dutifully googled it to get the information. The place looked amazing - but the man in question, Brian McGrory, no longer worked there. He had opened his own Scottish themed restaurant in the West Village called Highlands. Even though the concept of themed restaurants makes me shudder a little inside, I felt obliged to check Highlands out, and suggested to Simon that we go, with the promise that if it was terrible we could go back to his tried-and-tested favourite eatery. We got there around 7.30pm on a Saturday night. It looked fairly classy; dimly lit with a busy bar of well-dressed folks. We were sat immediately by a charmingly efficient maitre d' and presented with a glass bottle of tap water (I liked that; no attempt to charge us, but no having to catch anyone’s eye for a refill) along with the menus. The decor was nice: grownup soft brown leather banquettes and token tartan seat covers, feature wallpaper and sturdy, comforting tables. There was a slightly odd enormous painting of two wolves with a Scottish flag, but it did prompt conversation which is never a bad thing!
To the menus: Just the right size, with five or six options for starter and for main, plus a few specials mentioned by our waiter. All fairly typical Scots dishes, such as Scotch eggs, cod, pork belly, mussels, barley, salmon, mushroom pie. I was disappointed not to see Cullen Skink as I had read about it in a review, but it shows they change their menu fairly frequently. The drinks menu was startlingly Scottish, however not in the whisky-centric way that most themed bars tend to rely on. There was my dad’s favourite beer, Belhaven, along with bottled Brewdog (a brewery rapidly making a good name for themselves worldwide, despite being based in a tiny fishing town on the edge of the North Sea) and a good selection of cocktails and wines. Simon had a perfectly acceptable beer from Long Island, and I went for the Scotch Pear Martini - Hendrick’s combined with Glenfiddich 12yr and pear, lemon and agave syrups - which is possibly overtaking the Hawksmoor’s Artist’s Special as my favourite ever cocktail! Food wise, we weren't sure what to expect and not too hungry anyway, so decided to share a starter of lamb and pork sausage rolls and a main course of Beef Wellington with mini roasted potatoes. The fact that I’m only now realizing that we had two courses which were literally just pastry and meat speaks volumes for the amount of flavour in the dishes. The starter arrived with a harissa aioli which was really tasty and unusual. The sausage rolls themselves were beautifully crisp with tender meat, very simple, although the ubiquitous inclusion of a few salad leaves on the side irritated me - that’s not the Scottish way! The main course, though, was the star: Nestled on a bed of well-seasoned potatoes and mushroom gravy was a perfect, fist-sized parcel of crunchy, flaky pastry encasing a chunk of beef, the likes of which had never been so well cared for in a kitchen. It was cooked on the rare side of medium-rare - the way it should be! The smell was incredible enough, but one bite and I was in heaven! The pastry was solidly crispy on top and just beginning to go soggy on the underside with the glorious drippings of the gravy, and the meat was buttery, creamy, manly and melt-in-the-mouth amazing! There was no mention of where the meat had come from, but given their policy of using local produce as well as importing from Scotland, I would hope it was American and hadn’t traveled the globe before landing on our plates.
Although the dessert menu looked equally incredible, with seckel pears, Millionaire’s shortbread and Scottish cheeses, we were sadly just not hungry enough. No doubt about it, chef William Hickox has stepped up to the plate here and delivered a fantastically high quality Scottish experience without overdoing the theme. Service was friendly and attentive, with the only minor irritation being that we were asked three or four times if we’d finished yet. If you’re in the city, go to Highlands. I‘m certainly not leaving without paying it another visit. (an additional note - their pop-rock playlist was genuinely fantastic. I haven’t heard Edwyn Collins in years!)
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