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| - Despite all of the foodie hype surrounding this place over the past few years, I had always procrastinated on going because the Hoof's small size and no-reservations policy makes it difficult to get in. Sure I had braved long waits at Libretto, Terroni, Guu and other no-reso places before, but somehow whenever the possibility of Black Hoof came up I always got irrationally gun shy.
So when my wife offered to take me here for my birthday I did the safe (and lame) thing and chose to go on a Sunday evening at 6 pm (right as it opens).
Well let's just say that I'm glad I went because I had one of the best meals that I've had all year.
To start the meal we (four of us) ordered the charcuterie plate and the smoked beef tartare to share.
The charcuterie was as good as it gets and was certainly the best in the city (better than Local Kitchen and Wine Bar and Buca, both of which are also very good). The highlights were the horse mortadella, the bison and blueberry sausage, and the wild boar sausage. The tartare was also excellent, with the smoke being very subtle and the beef being very fresh and nicely beefy.
For our mains we had two orders of the duck tagliatelle, one order of the beef heart and scallops, and the beef tongue on brioche (which was my order).
There were no misses in the entire bunch and each dish was so good that it was hard for me to begin picking favourites.
1) The duck tagliatelle. Where do I start? This is the best pasta dish I had all year. The pasta itself was beautiful, with succulent duck meat mixing deliciously with creamy egg and sharp parmesan. There was also some type of dried current used in the sauce which gave it a very mild sweetness.
2) The tongue sandwich. I was a little nervous when I ordered this as I somehow envisioned that I would be served a slobbery grey beef tongue slapped half-assedly on a plate. What I actually got was a gourmet take on an open faced pastrami sandwich. The meat was thin sliced and the bread was lightly toasted brioche. Flavour-wise it was also similar to pastrami albeit slightly less salty and with more depth. The black sweet mustard and pickled celery that accompanied it were perfection.
3) The beef heart and scallops. This is the dish I tried the least but it was also really great. At the end of the day what's not to like about tender, medium-rare beef heart meeting the rich sweet flavour of scallops.
Also of note is the fact that Black Hoof has developed a fairly strong reputation for its short but interesting cocktail menu (which is divided into white and brown cocktails). The Manhattan I ordered was smooth and interesting with just the right balance of bitters (which were made in-house). There was also a solid wine list, with some good deals on "bin ends" and there were also some good beers on tap (including my new favourite, Beau's Lug Tread).
Another cool (and possibly gimmicky) tidbit about this restaurant is the fact that all of the cooking is done on an electric stove that really looks no different than what most people would have at home.
So what more can I say. This place was great and would be worth waiting for a few hours for (especially because you can flip them your cell number and wander down the block for a beer). I give it a 5 and would recommend it to anyone.
Well, almost anyone. As a final and and fairly obvious sidenote, I wouldn't recommend this restaurant to unadventurous eaters although there are a few safer choices on the menu (such as the duck tagliatelle, and the carnitas).
Also, do not, under any circumstances take vegetarians here, unless they want to sit glumly eating bread all night as they watch their carnivorous table-mates make primal grunts while trying not to break into the meat-sweats.
Everyone else, go to Black Hoof.
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