Openings

What to Eat at The Gorbals, Delayed Until the Weekend

Photo: Hadley Tomicki

Guns have apparently been jumped slightly in reporting that Top Chef-winner Ilan Hall’s Downtown restaurant The Gorbals will be open tonight. Standard delays and bureaucratic snaggles still stand in the way of the planned open, according to Hall’s reps. If you’re all dressed up in kilt and yarmukle with nowhere to go for gefilte fish and chips or haggis burgers, keep posted. We’re told with no specificity that The Gorbals could be open by the weekend with reservations currently being taken for Saturday night at (213) 488-3408. Until then, let your mouth contemplate cross-cultural relationships with our Gorbals slide show and check out The Gorbals full menu, just released:

The Gorbals Menu

Octopus with gizzards and lemon
A warm salad composed of octopus, braised in red wine, then made crispy on the griddle. Alongside this are chicken gizzards that have been slow-cooked in olive oil, until tender, and then finished on the griddle to make crispy as well. These are all dressed with lemon juice, olive oil, fresh garlic, parsley, and crispy pinto beans.

Cucumber-Avocado Salad fried chickpeas, zahatar
This is fresh raw cucumber, chunks of avocado, all tossed in a vinaigrette made with zahatar (a middle eastern spice blend of sesame, sumac, black pepper, and hyssop). The finishing garnish on this is a large fried sesame leaf and fresh garbanzo beans.

King Oyster Mushrooms warm marrow-walnut vinaigrette
This is a salad with mushrooms roasted in olive oil and garlic, and a vinaigrette is made in a pan to order with veal bone marrow, walnuts, and finished with fresh parsley and malt vinegar.

Bacon-Wrapped matzoh balls with horseradish mayonnaise
This is a traditional matzoh ball wrapped in bacon, with fresh black pepper, and mayonnaise infused with fresh horseradish. (If they ask, the mayonnaise is made in-house) Matzoh balls are a dumpling made with matzoh meal, eggs, seltzer, baking powder, and olive oil.

Sweetbreads with cashews and corn
Sweetbreads are the thymus gland of a veal, that have been crusted with cashew nuts and flour, deep-fried until crispy, served over fresh sweet corn with smoked paprika butter melted over it. This is finished with fresh sliced scallions, and a vinaigrette made with white wine vinegar, olive oil, and chunks of cashews.

Lamb Breast rarebit and mint
The lamb breast has been confit-ed (slow-cooked in oil until tender), pressed, and then roasted in the oven until crispy. This is served on top of rarebit, which is a traditional British dish where you blend cheddar cheese with Guinness beer, worcestershire sauce, and cayenne pepper. This is poured over a piece of toast and roasted in the oven until bubbly and brown. The dish is served with fresh and a grilled lime wedge.

Shepard’s pie in potato with egg
This appears like a stuffed potato skin, and in fact that’s what it is. In the skin there is ground beef, spiced with cumin and coriander, and on top of it are mashed potatoes and a soft-cooked quail egg. This dish is also finished with fresh chives.

Haggis burger turnip pickles and Highland Park aioli
The haggis patty is a ground blend of lamb heart, lamb liver, and lamb meat, cooked with oatmeal and onions, formed into a patty, and grilled on the griddle (like a hamburger). This is then served on a bun (bread type to be determined) with turnips–pickled in red wine vinegar and mustard seeds–butter, lettuce, and tomatoes, with an aioli (garlic mayonnaise) flavored with scotch whiskey.

Gribenes lettuce and tomato on rye
This is a very simple format BLT on caraway rye bread, replacing the bacon with crispy, oven-roasted chicken skin.

Gefilte fish and chips dill vinegar

Gefilte fish is ground whitefish, blended with matzoh meal and eggs (almost like a meatball), spiced with fresh dill and dill seed, formed into croquettes, battered, and deep-fried. This is served with a side of fries that have been double-cooked, once in water, and then deep-fried until crispy. This is served with a side of dill-infused vinegar.

Turkey wing fatback tabouleh
This is a whole turkey wing (with the bone) that has been slow-roasted in the oven until very tender and crispy, with a tabouleh salad: bulgar wheat, fresh parsley, tomatoes, and chunks of pork fatback (pork belly?) browned in a pan and finished with vinegar.

Chilled tomato soup bread salad
This is done in the style of gazpacho with fresh cucumbers, roasted red peppers, garlic, tomatoes, and olive oil, blended while maintaining some texture. This is served with a garnish of bread croutons, soft-cooked onions, and fresh cracked pepper.

Razor clam omelette green onions and garlic
This is razor clams and (depending on the market) other clams, steamed just until they are opened, finished with chicken eggs, garlic, green onions and a little bit of worcestershire sauce and old bay seasoning.

Manischewitz-braised pork belly clapshot and mustard
This is belly of a pork, with the skin, marinated overnight in manischewitz red wine, then slowly braised until tender, served on top of clapshot (equal parts mashed potatoes and mashed turnips with chives and butter). The pork belly is then slathered with spicy mustard.

What to Eat at The Gorbals, Delayed Until the Weekend