Goat Town

511 East 5th Street
New York, NY 10009
212.687.3641
www.goattownnyc.com


One of the byproducts of the NYC restaurant scene is that every restaurant is looking for a unique spin that will attract diners.  In the East Village, this is especially evident and Goat Town is no exception.  From the somewhat weird name to the tiled benches and ceilings which gives it a somewhat of a feeling that you're eating in a subway or a shower yet it doesn't feel like that's something weird.  I do have to admit that we went to Goat Town for a late dinner and it was part of a very long day of trying to find places to enjoy a drink while avoiding anyone who was participating in Santa Con.  To put it lightly, we had a few drinks in us.


I went over the menu to try and trigger my memory as to what we ordered and it looks like it has changed substantially and some of the items we had the pleasure of trying were no longer there.  So, I just want to highlight three things and hopefully they make their way back to the menu.  Obviously, we had to order the goat but instead of the current offering of smoked goat on the menu, they had a grilled/charred goat sandwich which, if you've never had goat, was out of this world.  The bread was thick but not too doughy and the goat was well-seasoned and grilled to perfection.  I would characterize the taste to the cross between lamb and pork.  I'm glad to see that on the list of sides they still included roasted carrots with the carrot top pesto.  If a side could be the best thing we had, then this definitely was the best thing we had there.  The carrots were on the smallish side but were crisp and seasoned well.  The roasting gave them a smoky sweet flavor and the pesto gave it the right balance to the sweetness.  The last thing we ordered was a something called a red wolf sundae (or close to that), I remember this because I asked the waitress if there was "real wolf" in the sundae.  It was made from homemade vanilla ice cream and included these spicy peanuts which gave the dessert an interesting crunch and kick from the refreshment of the ice cream.

If you're in the East Village, you're probably already looking for something different.  Goat Town won't offer you something that's completely out there but it will offer you items that i'm sure you've never tried before which I think is one of the best things you can say about a restaurant.