Restaurant Review: St Andrews Restaurant and Bar

Posted on February 21, 2012 by Kelly

Full Disclosure: I paid for this meal with my own money and I was in no way reimbursed for this blog post. The opinions are completely my own.

Our first night in town we decided to just walk until we found somewhere for dinner. The problem with that idea is that there are SO many restaurants in NYC – and luckily a ton within walking distance of our hotel – that we had a hard time deciding . After a bit of walking, we decided to stop at St. Andrew’s. It was a Saturday night so we were afraid if we waited too long that everywhere would be crowded and we would be way too hungry to wait to be seated.

The style of this restaurant was rather interesting. By the name it sounds like an Irish restaurant, but by the decor it seems like a brew pub. The food was a little mixture of both. Definitely not your typical pub food, but not too out there that I didn’t feel like there was anything I would eat either.

I started my meal out with a glass of Pinot Noir (which is my wine of choice these days) and it was delicious – especially after a long day of flying.

The meal came with a bread basket. There were a few different kinds of bread, and even though they weren’t warm, they were still very good.

The restaurant wasn’t very crowded at all when we got there, so apparently this meant our food would come super quickly. And it did. I think we had only had our bread for a couple of minutes when our entree’s came. I guess I’d rather have the food come out quickly rather than having to wait for it for a long time!

For my entree I had the Hazelnut-Crusted Sea Scallops which came with crispy leeks, pearl couscous and a warm tomato emulsion. At first glance, I was impressed with how much food it was! Sometimes when you order scallops, you get a couple of small scallops on a large bed of grains, but this was definitely not the case. Five large scallops and a large portion of couscous. Not only was the portion size large, but they tasted delicious! I’m not sure what I was expecting hazelnut-crusted scallops to taste like (when I think hazelnut, I always think of Nutella) but these were really good. The crust added a little bit of nutty sweetness to the perfectly cooked scallops. Oh, and the couscous really could have been a meal on its own. Of course being the picky eater that I am, I did pick around some of the peppers and onions that were in the mix, but the couscous was good AND the crispy leeks on top were good too! The presentation was stellar as well. Definitely a winner.

My co-worker had the Horseradish-Crusted Salmon which came with an artichoke ravoili. She said it was delicious as well.

Overall the meal was delicious and filling, definitely a good choice for our first meal in the city.

Taste: A+, really delicious. Some of the best scallops I’ve ever had.
Cost: A, my entree was $25 and for the amount and quality of the food that I got I’d say that’s reasonable.

Would I go there again? I’m not sure. Although the food was delicious, and a little out of the ordinary, there are just so many places in NYC to try that I’m not sure I’d want to go to the same place twice.