Meadowsweet

There’s this thing. It’s called The Feel Good Factor™. And it’s actually the thing that makes you want to go back to a certain restaurant. It’s not the food, it’s not the service, it’s not whether or not they have upscale tater tots on the menu. It’s the FGF, and if you own an eating establishment of any kind, it’s the secret to creating a successful business.

Why doesn’t anybody talk about The Feel Good Factor™? Mostly because we’ll litigate. It cost us a lot of money to register a trademark for the sole purpose of this review, and we intend to defend against any and all infringement with fervor. But also because it’s a hard thing to quantify. To be honest, we probably couldn’t tell you what the exact equation for exceptionally high FGF is. We can only tell you whether or not a certain place has it. And Meadowsweet absolutely does.

Meadowsweet is the new restaurant in the space that was once home to Brooklyn favorite Dressler, brought to you by the one-time chef of Dressler. It was recently awarded a Michelin star, which we suppose is an indication that someone (besides us) likes it here. But stars don’t tell much of a story. And they certainly don’t make you feel good.

What does make you feel good is when you’re eating a plate of something awesome while sitting in a comfortable chair in a nicely appointed room and then The Rolling Stones' “Monkey Man” comes on over the speakers. Or when you order a bottle of wine, and they realize that they’ve run out of it but then recommend something that turns out to be even better. It’s that moment that you realize that a place has enough intangible positive qualities that you’re willing to forgive a dish that’s too salty because f*ck it, I feel good, and I have water. That’s the Feel Good Factor™ in a nutshell, and all of those things are happening at this restaurant.

So if you’re looking for more detail about what exactly makes Meadowsweet a place worth coming to, then we're sorry. You won’t find that here because we can’t offer it to you today. What we can tell you is that this place makes us feel good, and we want to go back. And maybe that’s all you need to know.

Food Rundown

Smoked Trout

When we ordered smoked trout, we did not expect something that looked sort of like a burrito with salad on top of it to arrive, but that’s exactly what happened. This dish is weird, but in the best way possible. Basically, some perfectly smoked, insanely flavorful fish is wrapped up inside of a crepe and topped with frisee and apple. A must order.

Peekytoe Crab Cakes

Perfectly crunchy outside, perfectly crabby inside. This is about as good a crab cake as you’ll find outside of Maryland/that wedding you were just at, except that one wasn’t good, you were just hammered.

Crispy Baby Artichokes

The answer is yes.

Hand Rolled Ricotta ‘Cuscino’

This is basically a big floppy pasta with ricotta cheese inside of it. You like that sort of thing? Of course you do. You’ll like this, too. But you can also do better on this menu.

Spanish Octopus

A little salty. Maybe from the chorizo. But whatever. Just keep it moving.

Plancha Marina

A seafood party in a bowl, featuring mostly scallop and cuttlefish. Everything is cooked perfectly and tastes of the sea, as it should. Is it worthy of all $32 dollars that it will cost you? Maybe not.

Roasted Chicken

We don’t know what they are doing to this chicken to make it as juicy and delicious as it is, but we want to do that to everything we eat. Don’t let the “it’s chicken, that’s boring” thing divert you from ordering this. It’s exceptional.

Desserts

Whatever they are, eat them. The pastry chef here is doing REAL THINGS. We had some sort of crack pie thing that was also sort of like sugar soup in the best way possible. We probably would have taken a picture if we weren't shaking so hard.