Cleo, Please Forgive Our Table
The team that brought you Margot and Montague Diner recently opened Cleo in the West Village, and it’s one of the hottest new restaurants on the block. A cute corner spot with a minimalist chic vibe, complete with trendy chrome accents — the NABI food team recently dined there and is ready to dish a full review.
First off, if you’re our waiter — we’d like to issue a formal apology if we’ve forever scarred you. We like to come extremely prepared, and so if we have the entire menu memorized and are ready to order from the moment we’re seated, that’s completely normal for us. Now that we’ve got that out of the way, here’s everything we got:
Starting off strong with the cornbread — it’s an absolute must-get. It has a slightly crispy top and a rich and fluffy center, topped up with a perfectly quenelle of harissa honey butter. Honestly, I loved this dish, and the only thing that could make this better is if we had another two dollops of harissa butter to accompany the cornbread.
We also got the Bibb Lettuce and Arugula Salad, on the advice of our waiter, specifically for the sumac vinaigrette. Turns out he was correct! It was an excellent salad, and the herby salad dressing really helped balance out the rest of the meal.
It doesn’t feel quite like a West Village joint without an element of decadence, so we decided to splurge for the caviar service, which came with crispy chicken skin and crème fraiche. Call me a bit of a hater, but I wasn’t quite a fan.
As much as I love a good crispy chicken skin, I felt like it didn’t end up being a great vehicle for the caviar since it was heavily salted (as it should be) and ended up competing for my palate.
Finally, we got to try the famous 7-Spice Rotisserie Chicken that came with a trio of sauces: a ranch labneh, a zhug, and a harissa. The chicken was beautifully seasoned and not too dry* (*the team had mixed reviews as to whether the chicken was dry or not). As their signature dish, it’s kind of a no-brainer of something you have to try!
We also got the Corn Ribs with za'atar seasoning, which were fun to eat and extremely well seasoned — but not very memorable.
The same goes with the Haricots Verts, which came with shallots, fresno chiles, toasted almonds, and mint chermoula. They were prepared well but were nothing to write home about.
As a Taiwanese-American, I’m a bit of a sucker for braised vegetables, so I requested the braised leeks with tabbouleh, and they were delicious! So much flavor and texture was brought through the entire dish, which made it a truly thoughtful side dish.
Lastly, we finished our meal off with the profiterole, which they ended up giving to us on the house — absolutely delicious and a great way to finish off the meal.
