One day we were looking for a lunch spot in UWS, and we found this place called Maison Pickle. Even though it had red façade, the front entrance was rather small and unassuming. I liked the retro-chic design, it was intriguing. It had a small outdoor seating by the entrance.

As soon as we walked in, the retro-chic façade became the entire space! It was a long, narrow bar that was quite beautiful. Really liked how it was decorated from its floor to ceiling. The bar was fully stacked behind beautiful shiny white and gold bar.

Passed the bar was more long and narrow space. It had seating all the way to the back. But that was not all. After the narrow dining space was another dining space. The whole space is kind of L-shape. When you make the turn at the end of narrow dining area, the space opens up much bigger.

Considering the entire space, the inside is much bigger than I seems from the outside. Since there is another restaurant right next to it on the corner lot, this restaurant wraps around the other restaurant, going to the back and around. They had the windows opened, bringing in nice fresh, cool air.

This back area is not narrow nor long, but a large rectangle. It has two levels in this area. The decor was modern, sophisticated and I liked the light fixtures. It was elegant, glamorous, with mixture of old and new. I really enjoyed the space.

This restaurant’s main offering is French dip sandwiches and cocktails. Sounds great, right? They also have other American bites and desserts as well. They had ketchup and hot sauce in the same container, just different size. Be careful before you drizzle them on your food!

We decided to order one appetizer to share alongside the main dishes. We ordered Mac and Cheese with Buffalo Chicken and Blue Cheese Drizzle ($16/small). Now, we did order “small” but this thing was pretty darn big! Everything was overflowing from the dish in an amazing way, just look at the blue cheese drizzle…my goodness, we were so excited to dig in!

It had loads of chicken chunks, meaty and juicy, covered with cheesy goodness. It didn’t have strong buffalo flavor, but you could certainly taste it. Macaroni were thick and doughy, cooked just right. It was the king of comfort food here, oh-so-satisfying to your body and soul!

For the first main dish, we picked the one that sounded interesting from Loaded Hash Browns section. We ordered Smoked Salmon Loaded Hash Brown ($19), made with crème fraiche, caviar, pickled mustard seed and dill. It was pretty large portion, and looked very different from what I expected.

Salmon was fresh and meaty, which was great. It didn’t have much caviar, but it was ok, better than not having any caviar. It was certainly an interesting version of hash. The potatoes were nice and crispy, not over seasoned, brining the delicious natural salmon flavor to life.

the second main dish of our choice was Challah Croque Madame ($18), made with sliced black forrest ham, Béchamel, mozzarella, gruyere, and sunny side egg. Now, I thought the loaded hash was big, but it was no comparison to this one! This Croque Madame was HUGE!!!

I totally loved the gooey cheese meting over it like a soft, velvety throw blanket covering and protecting the challah bread and ham. The egg was cooked perfectly, giving us egg porn…

This was a Croque Madam to die for! Decadent with loads of cheese and Béchamel sauce, perfectly cooked egg… The super thick bread was buttery and toasted perfectly. The green-ish oil drizzled over it was also very tasty! Super filling and satisfying. Sooooo good, one of the best Croque Madame I’ve ever had for sure!

We were getting pretty full, as you can imagine. Before we got too stuffed, we asked to wrap up about half of the food to go. Why? We saw something even more amazing than their delicious food. Yes, DESSERT! They had this outrageous items called 24-layer Chocolate Cake ($14). That’s right, 24-layer. Twenty four!!!

 

This thing was massive, so much so that this chocolate tower fell over when the staff was trying so hard to put it down carefully. LOL. So, it looked great, but how about the taste? It was so chocolatey without being overly sweet, very moist and decadent. Great chocolate cream texture that is more solid than creamy, which made it easier to eat the massive tower without destroying it. It was one of the best chocolate layer cakes I’ve ever had! We took more than half of it home with us, and enjoyed it at home for a few days.

To wash down all the great food and dessert, we ordered coffee ($3.50) with milk. When you have such amazing food and dessert, a good cup of coffee becomes just a little side note…but it was a great accompaniment to the decadent chocolate cake.

All the food were really tasty and flavorful. Much better than I expected, and much more so than I can describe in words… I would definitely go back for more!!! Our server Lasha was really nice, friendly and welcoming. He took a really good care of us. The only negative thing was the music…it was playing a bit too loud, gave me a slight headache… But, with or without the loud music, we will be sure to return! Come hungry and prepared to take some food home regardless!

 

Maison Pickle – 2315 Broadway, New York, NY 10024