We Rouletted Strangebird a couple weeks back and had our largest Roulette ever: 10! This included 8 from our roster, 2 of which were first time Rouletters, and 2 out of town Rouletter guests. This grouping caused a bit of a challenge for your Roulette Croupier. I had to think how to order the food so that everyone tasted everything while also having variety. Though we have a Roulette democracy and everyone agrees on the ordering strategy, the team relies on the Croupier to offer the overall plan and we discuss from there. I learned some lessons from this one: next time I will order more of duplicates and fewer unique dishes. I think splitting food to such small tastings may have impacted some of our scores, so we will do better next time. We received reviews from 9 of the 10 Rouletters.
We begin this review with the Shaved Veg Salad: seasonal veg, kale, turmeric ginger vin, spent grain granola. You’ve seen the way we eat. We usually count on the greens dish to lighten things up and take an edge off the heavier greasy items. It usually stands out for its role. This salad just didn’t. More, Rouletters don’t exactly agree how it missed the mark. Some said not enough dressing but well-balanced. Others said it was a touch rich but the mustard points the flavor in the wrong direction. One Rouletter really loved it and thought the spent grains were on point for crunch and the acidity in the dressing was great. Did we all eat the same salad?! ⭐ 3.3 ⭐
Next up is the Fries: rosemary, sage, parsley, preserved lemon aioli. We will start with the fries: Very tasty and excellent texture: they had great size, soft, creamy potato and a crispy exterior. Plus, the herbs strewn atop the fries give them the perfect fresh flavor. Turning to the aioli, folks found it to be lovely with lemony undertones. Some said it was reminiscent of dipping fries into a milkshake, which is the perfect savory/sweet combo. The cook, the seasoning, the aioli – perfection!! This one is in a tie for second highest rated dish of the night.
⭐ 4.4 ⭐
The winner for most polarizing dish of the night goes to: Wings: black garlic parm! The best explanation we had for these wings was this: There’s a genre of music called Italo Disco that combines 70s aesthetic with European oddness, this somehow felt like that sort of musical extravagance. My wife took a bite and tossed the wing on my plate in disgust. She swears there was some truffle on it, and she really hates mushrooms. Other Rouletters (including one who generally doesn’t like wings) gave this super high marks noting the rich depth of the garlic and the perfect cook finished with a lovely mesquite bite at the end. Others found them sort of flavorless and dry or just kind of average as far as wings go. Italo Disco: you love it or you hate it. ⭐ 3.4 ⭐
Coming in with the most consistent scoring was the Wings: smoked maple buffalo. These were fine. The flavor was fine. As far as wings go, we have had much better. There was just nothing exciting about these – they just tasted like buffalo wings. We would have been fine with them at an Irish pub where we don’t expect food to be spectacularly unique, but not here where the food seems to be more elevated generally. Also, no one tasted the maple. ⭐ 3.4 ⭐
Okay, so remember our Nosh review where the shrimp toast came out of nowhere and just hit us like a delicious freight train? Well, we decided that going forward, we will award the Golden Shrimp Toast Award to any dish that is a superiorly scrumptious sleeper. This won’t show up at every restaurant, but it showed up at Strangebird! The first Golden Shrimp Toast Award goes to our highest rated dish of the night (with three of us picking it as top dish and a couple dropping it an honorable mention): the Mac and Cheese: three cheese, rigatoni, breadcrumbs.
This one was the highlight of the meal for most of us. What made it so amazing? Was it the rigatoni that was perfectly cooked, not overdone? The depth of flavor from the combination of the three cheeses? Or was it the breadcrumbs that added the perfect texture to heighten the experience towards a hearty creamy joy drenched chaos? Whatever it was, this dish deserves a “fromage homage”: The first bite was delicious and decadently creamy; then seconds later the tripwire of flavor was tweaked, tossing tantalizing cheesy tangy TNT all over your tastebuds. There was a tad bit of sharpness in the cheese that we’re assuming was a result of one of Strangebird’s beers being used in the recipe. At the end of the day, it was just a perfectly balanced and unfucked with mac and cheese that somehow pleased people who like their mac and cheese stupidly cheesy and those who like it more on the lighter side. ⭐ 4.6 ⭐
Coming in with the second highest amount of votes for top dish of the night is the Fried Chicken Sandwich: sichuan chili oil, cabbage slaw, comeback sauce, sesame roll served with fries. I should note that there were two ways we found for groups of 5 people to taste this sandwich. One end of the table cut it up. The other end just passed it around and everyone took a bite to get the full experience. The latter rated it quite a bit higher, so I’m giving it a 10% bump overall in the raw numbers bringing it in to tie for second place. The bun was blanketed with the perfect amount of sesame seeds, which gave fantastic texture to the crispy chicken and slightly creamy slaw. The comeback sauce and chili oil combined to meld all the flavors together perfectly. Many agreed it was hand-held poultry perfection and will be obeying the sauce’s order! ⭐ 4.4 ⭐
The lowest rated dish of the night was the Pepperoni Pete Pizza: tomato, mozzarella, pepperoni, pickled chilis, ricotta, truffle honey. Look, if you’re going to claim to have an elevated pepperoni pizza in Roc, you need to show up with your A game. Unfortunately, we found this effort to be a pretty average pepperoni pizza. Many didn’t taste the honey and those who did found it too sweet with the ricotta. There was no truffle flavor at all – multiple Rouletters mentioned not tasting it and the slice my wife tried didn’t end up on my plate, so that’s a pretty solid indication that it wasn’t really present. Most Rouletters said that the pepperoni was the highlight of the dish. ⭐ 3.2 ⭐
Just managing to squeeze out of the last place position is the Greens Pizza: roasted garlic, kale, pickled chilis, mozzarella, ricotta, parmesan. The best part of this one was the dough – unlike the pepperoni, it was not overcooked and had a lovely texture. Overall it tasted a bit flat – we wanted more, well, everything. Except kale. ⭐ 3.3 ⭐
By far the highest ranked pizza was the Mushroom Pizza: roasted garlic, seasonal mushrooms, pickled onions, mozzarella, parmesan, black garlic aioli. On the high end, Rouletters found this a pleasing umami experience, we could really taste the forest floor in the richness of the mushroom. The black garlic coated the palate nicely so the rest of the toppings could find their way: a meandering wandering bite, how beautiful. On the low end, Rouletters said it just wasn’t mushroomy enough and the garlic was a bit strong – mostly, they just weren’t sold on the flavor overall. At the end of the day, one Rouletter ranked this their top dish and another brought it in for an honorable mention. ⭐ 3.8 ⭐
Turning to the three specials we tried, we begin with the second highest ranked pizza, which was the Philly Cheesesteak Pizza: smoked beef, roasted garlic, peppers, onions, USA cheese, mozz, herbs. Overall, this pizza just made people want to eat a cheesesteak because it really tasted like a cheesesteak! But not as balanced. And maybe sometime we can all have the philosophical discussion “Well, then why not just have a cheesesteak?” or maybe the less popular “Should we even try a pizza-flavored cheesesteak?” ⭐ 3.4 ⭐
Rounding out our three-way tie for best dish of the night is the Pork Belly Burnt Ends: smoked pork belly, Korean bbq, kimchi, cucumber, white bread. Two Rouletters ranked this one top dish. The pork belly selected was a perfect balance of fat and lean – a perfect candidate for this burnt-end treatment and it made a lovely Korean BBQ . We loved the fattiness of the pork, the butteriness of the Texas toast, the coolness of the cucumber, and the bitiness of the kimchi – a delightfully well-balanced and tasty dish. ⭐ 4.4 ⭐
Our final dish of the night was the Smoked Bacon Horseradish Dip: smoked cream cheese, bacon, sour cream, horseradish, Montreal steak chips. This was a perfect pairing with boozy cocktail at the start of the meal. The horseradish did not have too much of a kick because it was creamy, and it was a good ratio of potato chip to dip quantity. Interestingly, this one was second-place for divisiveness. Some Rouletters loved the thick homemade chips. Others disliked the homemadeness of the chips. Some felt the horseradish was overwhelming while others felt it needed more horseradish. It felt a bit light in the bacon overall. This was a dish where folks definitely had plenty to try, so the divisiveness is more difficult to pin down. ⭐ 3.6 ⭐
Strangebird is a brewery, so we will start with the beer which raked in the highest drink scores of the night. Whenever one of our Rouletters goes to Strangebird, it’s a Saison-a-thon! It’s their favorite type of beer. The Pillowhead and NY Artisanal Harvestare solid choices, but the new Uber Saison was outstanding. Moving on from the saisons, the boat shoe beers were light, crisp, and refreshing.
Turning to cocktails (they have a full bar), we begin with the Hedge Fund: gin, blackberry balsamic shrub, lemon, soda water was the winner: the berry flavor in it never reached syrupy or overly sweet, it bubbled and lifted things up. Great contrast to the depth of flavor in the food, highs and lows. Second place goes to the Tea Bird 3.0: vodka, peach schnapps, black tea, simple, lemon juice, which had a pleasingly strong tea flavor. Ranging from average to above average was the Mezcal Old Fashioned: mezcal, agave, orange bitters. Rouletters found it smooth with a great smokey flavor, but a bit too sweet. In last place was the Vodka Spritz: vodka, st. germain, prosecco, lemon, soda water. The Rouletter who tried this one did not like the sweetness of this cocktail and was not a fan of the lemon. Also of note for those who tend toward the liquor-side of drinks, they don’t have Captain Morgan – they have Sailor Jerry. Our rum drinker was not impressed by the lower ranked pirate taste. ⭐ 4.0 ⭐
The service score on this one comes with a BIG caveat: we were in the Wood Room. This room can be reserved for larger parties but you have to spend $500 (or take the rest home on a gift card). Large party areas are the only way to reserve tables at Strangebird, so our experience was definitely different than you would have if you just popped in there. On a regular night you would go to the bar for drinks and order food there instead of having tableside service like we did.
Our server seemed to struggle a bit at first with managing drinks. We had a long wait for those but the restaurant overall was very busy. Empty drink glasses and plates were left on the table for the duration. The helpers she had were great – everyone was very friendly and accommodating. The food came out in a way that made sense and didn’t overwhelm but there was often a bit of a wait for drinks. I think this is a function of the room being a special situation with one main server and a VERY busy main dining room to contend with more than anything. The staff was very friendly and helpful. ⭐ 4.3 ⭐
Overall folks liked the experience. The acoustics in our private room were a bit odd and sometimes it seemed louder than the super full main restaurant space. The ambiance of the room was cool and folks felt like VIPs. You can get merch and there are also ticketed seasonal beer pairing dinners, which are supposed to be very good. I wonder if the vibe in Strangebird overall was a bit…young for us? We are generally in our late 30s to mid 40s. There was some serious 20-something bro vibes coming from parts of the main area. Finally, we note that the bathrooms are gendered here with no all gender option. At the end of the day folks said if they were in the area they’d stop again – if they could get parking. The lot is small and the street parking can be rough on Marshall Street. ⭐ 3.8 ⭐
