Dame
Ed Szymanski atomizes malt vinegar over his fried hake. Ryan Sutton, reviewing for Eater in 2021, said the crust smells of
tart Whoppers malted milk balls.1 The batter is lacy and flaked with salt. Thick fries and tartar sauce come with it.4
Why go
Szymanski ran the kitchen at Cherry Point in Greenpoint. The Times gave that room two stars while he was there.2 He and Patricia Howard met working at the Beatrice Inn.1 They planned a British restaurant built on meat in 2019. The pandemic took it. They sold takeout fish and chips from a pop-up on this street through the summer of 2020, and Eater put them on its 2021 New Guard.5 Then they signed the lease one door down, at 87 MacDougal Street. The room is 440 square feet with the open kitchen in the middle. Most of the fish comes from Liepper and Sons on Long Island. The bread is Nora Allen's, from Mel the Bakery.2
Order this / avoid
- Order: the crab toast. Sutton found peekytoe crab mixed with its own tomalley, hot with 'nduja and covered in cilantro.1
- Order: the cucumber salad with smoked mussels and dill, for the garlicky mussel sauce under it.3
- Order: the tuna tartare on toasted sourdough, buried in grated bottarga.3
- Avoid: the flaming oysters. Sutton wrote
Avoid the flaming Instagram oysters, which taste like someone doused a good mollusk in anise-spiked grain alcohol and forgot to burn off the booze.
1 He warned that the sweetbreads might be overcooked as well.
What locals & experts say
- Ryan Sutton, Eater NY, September 2021: he set the room against Milos, the Greek seafood house, and against Le Bernardin, and wrote that
Dame more assertively jolts the palate with magnified levels of salt, fat, herbs, and other seasonings.
1 - Hannah Albertine, who rated it 8.8 for The Infatuation in January 2022:
Despite being a seriously high-caliber restaurant, Dame avoids self-seriousness.
3 - Ed Szymanski, to Eater in January 2021, on what he was building:
It's going to be local seafood, sourced carefully, cooked simply, seasoned accurately, in a very fun room.
2 - The MICHELIN inspector, on the wine list: it runs under two heads, one asking what James Bond would drink and one what Austin Powers would. The guide tags the room Eat like a local and prints no star.4
Good to know
- Booking: The Infatuation found the daily release gone three weeks out.3 Sutton said the room sometimes takes last-minute diners late in the evening.1
- The spin-off: Chippy's, their counter-service chip shop, is announced for 21 E. Seventh Street in the East Village, with the fish and chips at $16.8
- Their other rooms: Lord's takes the British meat half of the idea.9 Crevette is the newest.10
Verdict
should-visit — The small plates are the reason to fight for this table. Share everything, and go heaviest on that section.