Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo have done it again! I was slightly skeptical because I love Animal so much, but Son of a Gun did not disappoint in any department. While Animal is sparsely decorated with barely anything on the walls, Son of a Gun is the exact opposite. It looks like a seafood joint straight out of Martha's Vineyard with a great homey feel to it. In case you missed my post about my last meal at Animal, Son of a Gun is its seafood-centric sister restaurant.
There were four of us for dinner and we decided to order a bunch of things and share it all.
Our first course was the Gloucester scallop, yuzu kosho, pickled shiitake. It was extremely light yet there was a nice punch of citrus from the yuzu that was very refreshing. We all enjoyed it but as the meal progressed and got heavier and heavier we all agreed that it would have been better placed in the middle of the meal to act as a palate cleanser between some of the fried elements of the other dishes.
Next came the Chips and Dip: Pimento cheese and potato chips. The chips were nice and crisp, but the pimento cheese was mediocre at best. To the non-Southern diner I would assume they would be perfectly happy with this version of pimento cheese, but all four of us are from the South and therefore a little bit tougher judges. There wasn't any kick to it and it tasted merely like cheese and mayonnaise mixed together with no special or secret additions. Clearly they need some Southern influence in the kitchen on this one, preferably of the female variety who grew up learning the tricks of the trade from her grandmother. From what I hear it sounds like Hannah Parker could give them a run for their money. :)
We were told ahead of time not to miss their lobster roll and our waiter reinforced this by instructing us to order two of them for the table since they are fairly small and unfairly addicting. I'm glad we took his advice because I could have eaten one all on my own it was so good. It was the perfect ratio of lobster to mayo and the roll tasted super fresh and was painted with butter on the inside to create the perfect combination. Yum.
Then we had the Shrimp toast sandwich, herbs, and sriracha mayo that was a great nod to the traditional shrimp toast of chinese restaurants but at an elevated level. They fried the two halves well and the sriracha was a perfectly spicy contrast to it all without being overpowering. This was a favorite dish of two of four diners.
While the menu consists mainly of seafood items, one dish that they have become famous for isn't even seafood; it's a chicken sandwich. Many people I talked to ahead of time likened it to a Chick-fil-A sandwich and while it is reminiscent of these same flavors, this one goes well beyond the sandwich of a fast food joint. This turned out to be the other favorite dish of the evening because it was fantastic. The chicken was the best and juiciest piece of chicken I've ever had and the slaw was outstanding. Put it all together and you have one dynamite chicken sandwich. I was tempted to order another one to go, but I resisted the urge.
Our next side was the Kennebec french fries and malt vinegar aioli. Kennebec potatoes have been around for a while now, but they're just starting to pop up on the menus of some upscale restaurants. They're supposed to be a higher quality potato with a thinner skin, which makes it easier to peel, and a more oval shape, which theoretically makes them look better and more uniform for presentation. I didn't think they tasted any better than a normal potato but all thoughts of the fries were forgotten once dunked into the malt vinegar aioli. They should have called this stuff crack aioli for how addicting it was. If we had had any left over after finishing the fries I would have dipped my fingers into it... with no shame. It was that good. I am slowly but surely approaching the secret to duplicating it. Wish me luck.
Our last savory dish was Blackened local rock fish, tomatillo salsa, and crema. To be fair to this dish I have to disclose that at this point we were already pretty full, but I also have to note that it was the only dish all night that we didn't finish. The fish was cooked well but the other flavors seemed kind of muted and one dimensional because the crema and tomatilla salsa both tasted kind of bland. Not a stand out dish.
We were really stuffed by this point, but one dessert proved too difficult to resist, so we ordered the Italian Hamburger: Gianduja, brioche, caramel, maldon. Man am I glad we did!!
I loved the presentation as it was made to look like a hamburger, complete with a brioche bun that was the dusted with powdered sugar that looked like sesame seeds on the bun. Gianduja is a sweet hazelnut chocolate that was incorporated with the ice cream component that mixed really well with the rich caramel and the maldon sea salt. I have recently become particularly obsessed with the salty and sweet desserts so this certainly hit the spot and was the best possible end to a remarkable meal.
We also could not say enough good things about our waiter, who helped us make all of our choices and was very apologetic about being out of soft shell crab tempura dish that we had all been excited about. He answered all of my nerdy foodie questions about the menu and paced all of our dishes very well so we were never without something to eat. It was a great evening all around and I look forward to my next trip back when I'll be sure to get an earlier reservation to ensure I get the soft shell crab next time!
Happy diners!
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