Talde - Bucket List Check

Once again my cohorts J & J invited me to go out and check off another one of my bucket list restaurants. Talde is one of three restaurants owned by Dale Talde of Bravo's "Top Chef" fame, which is where I first became familiar with him. Although the restaurant is relatively close to where I live, it took the invitation from my cohorts to actually get my ass out the door tempted by the promise of Kung Pao Chicken Wings and Waffles (part of their weekend brunch menu) which had been calling my name for too many months until finally I succumbed.

This place definitely lived up to the hype. I recommend getting there as early as possible which we did (and I was grateful for since the place started getting packed not too long after we were seated). Well of course I started out with something wonderful to drink with booze in it, because let's face it, a brunch without a little booze and good conversation is just breakfast. I had the Very Excellent Bellini, which was very excellent indeed, packed with all sorts of nice tropical fruit goodness, and prosecco adding even more wonderful notes to it. Then J & J and I proceeded to try to make decisions about what to have. We knew for sure that we wanted to get the Kung Pao Chicken Wings and Waffles with the coconut brown butter syrup. We also decided to get the Pretzel Pork and Chive Dumplings, the Sausage, Egg & Cheese Fired Rice and the Corn Pancakes. To say we had plenty to eat would be an understatement. The chicken wings were the right kind of spicy and flavorful and definitely packed with all the good Asian inspired flavor you would expect. The coconut brown butter syrup is something I wish they would bottle but perhaps it is best that they don't because it would become my number one abused substance. The fried rice was a great twist on an old time favorite. The dumplings were great because of the crispy dough layer, and packed full of flavor. The corn pancakes were perhaps the more understated of all the things we ordered but we made generous use of the coconut syrup with these as well which helped to kick them up a notch.

 The Menu

 The Dumplings

 Kung Pao Chicken WIngs and Waffles... 

and coconut brown butter syrup...droool!

 My partners in crime

 Sausage, Egg and Cheese Fried Rice

 The Very Excellent Bellini

 Half way through eating our feast.

 

I definitely am glad I got to check this one off my list and hope to come back to it again soon. If you are planning on coming to NYC on a food pilgrimage, this restaurant should definitely be on your itinerary.