In the spirit of the season, a group of friends organized a Holiday dinner this past Friday at a local martini bar that happens to have an extremely interesting, and delicious menu.
Located in New Brunswick, Clydz is a happy hour favorite, but also serves some very interesting food choices. For our meal, we were able to choose from four menu options, and it came with a salad and dessert. Our options were Oven roasted Giannone chicken with a grilled portabella mushroom, asparagus and red onion potato gratin, Venison flank steak with rattlesnake-rabbit sausage, garlic whipped potato and French beans, Charred Berkshire pork tenderloin with herb spaetzle, braised greens and whiskey-maple glaze, or Holland pepper stuffed with roasted wild mushrooms, organic tomatoes, basmati rice and Boston lettuce salad.
Originally, I was trying to decide between the Holland Pepper, or Oven roasted Giannone Chicken. However, after the firsts half of the table ordered, and I am pretty sure everyone got the Venison, I decided to be daring. Since my boyfriend and I enjoy pretty much all the same food and we’re not afraid to share, we decided to get the pork and venison to split.
All I can say about my meal: wow. I’ve never had venison, rattlesnake, or rabbit before, pretty much because I completely refused. The thought of it still bothers me a bit, but it was SO good! The venison was super thin, tender, and moist without being stringy or chewy (which I was afraid of). It was cooked medium, and was absolutely perfect. It tasted like a regular steak! The rattlesnake and rabbit sausage was definitely a new flavor. It had an interesting spice to it, but it was also awesome. As a true Irish girl would, I also devoured all of my garlic whipped potatoes, and green beans.
I’m not a big pork fan either, but my boyfriend’s pork was equally impressive. It was tender, and had just the right amount of seasoning to go along with it. The spaetzle, however, was sub-par. One of my friends likened it to charred cardboard. The braised greens were a little too charred for my liking as well. But the pork itself was absolutely delicious!
We washed down our meals with some Cabernet and Merlot, and then moved on to dessert. The dessert menu was just as impressive as the dinner course; three types of gelato or sorbet, bittersweet chocolate truffle cake, pumpkin cheesecake, and creme brulee just to name a few! I went with the bittersweet chocolate truffle cake, of course, and it was amazing. My boyfriend got vanilla gelato with espresso drizzled over the top; also really good – just like coffee ice cream!
Needless to say I was stuffed by the end of the night, and didn’t make it much longer when we moved on to a bar down the street. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to take any pictures of my food because the lighting was super dark in the restaurant. But, trust me when I say it was all phenomenal! There wasn’t an unsatisfied member of my party, and most of the actual dinner was in silence, because everyone was in awe of their food and enjoying every bite!
So, if you’re in the New Brunswick, NJ area, and are looking to try something different and have a few cocktails along the way, I definitely suggest checking out Clydz!
I’m definitely looking forward to the rest of my holiday eating! Now it’s off to make some cupcakes for tonight’s Festivus party 🙂
Foodosaurus Rex 