BLDG — Restaurant in New Haven

I won a night at Hotel Marcel and dinner for 2 at BLDG, their restaurant. Service in the hotel and restaurant was excellent. I was traveling solo, so they offered to cover my breakfast (since my dinner was for one). Very thoughtful, great hospitality, certainly not necessary. Very much appreciated.

In terms of the restaurant, the highlights were all brunch/breakfast. Upon arrival Saturday, I got the Huevos Rancheros. It was fresh, flavor-packed and a simply excellent rendition of that dish. They serve GIV coffee, which is always on-point and elevates the experience. Sunday I got the eggs benedict and a single pancake side. Not kidding -- probably the best pancake I've ever had. The eggs Benedict was again excellent -- perfectly poached eggs, griddled ham, a textbook Hollandaise, crispy potatoes on the side. Nice portion, served hot, the best of what this classic can and should be, but often isn't.

Dinner was good, but didn't blow me away. It felt a little like they were trying a little too hard with the menu. Started with bread and butter. If you are going to charge me for bread (which is fine by me), it should be extraordinary. This was above ordinary, but not extraordinary.

I followed with their version of a Caesar salad, using local greens. The greens were hydroponic soft butter bibb lettuce, which makes sense this time of year in CT, but doesn't make sense in this preparation. The other components/flavors of the salad simply overwhelmed the buttery and tender greens. Ceasar classically works with romaine and the overdone trend of kale totally works (hearty greens) - this did not work.

I finished with the Steak Bavette -- a local, grass-raised cut that was likely and appropriately flank. Slightly under-seasoned (under salted), the coffee rub was nice. The steak was sliced, topped with mushrooms and demi glace, served with truffle frites. My steak was cooked nicely, but cut with the grain, not against it. Despite this faux pas, it was tender and tasty. The mushrooms were also under seasoned and felt under loved. The demi glace was more au just than demi, and kind of just made a mess of the plate. The steak was also under-rested and let a lot of juices out on the plate, contributing to the thin demi problem.

The frites were cute, but too thin, cut haystack style, and just not very practical or enjoyable to eat.

I'm being a bit nit picky because I had high expectations and think they were very close to delivering. I'll say this is easily the best hotel restaurant I've eaten in since my trip to New Orleans.

The rooms were very nice, comfortable. All staff were fantastic. I highly recommend staying here and eating here -- especially...

BLDG in New Haven serves up serious hotel restaurant energy, but in the best possible way: think upscale casual meets actually-good-lobby-bar. Located at 500 Sargent Dr, this lil spot has mastered the art of the perfectly charred burger, served on an impressively sturdy brioche bun.

The space strikes an interesting balance between polished and playful, with its curved bar topped by a distinctive mesh-enclosed soffit and those powder-blue backed chairs that somehow work perfectly. The beer list reads like a love letter to Connecticut craft brewing, featuring local heroes like Fat Orange Cat and Counterweight.

While most hotel-adjacent restaurants feel like they're trying too hard or not hard enough, BLDG hits that sweet spot - much like their burgers, which come with a generous heap of crispy fries in an Instagram-worthy hammered metal vessel. The $30-50 price point feels justified by the quality and setting, though you might momentarily forget you're next to an IKEA when you're sipping a Celestial Union Festbier from New Haven's own Armada Brewing.

The modern-minimalist design manages to feel both sleek and welcoming - not unlike those sweet potato fries that keep disappearing even after you've declared yourself "definitely done." It's the rare hotel restaurant that locals might actually choose as a destination, rather than just a...

Expectations exceeded! Our expectations were low due to this being a "hotel restaurant". We were pleasantly surprised bordering shocked. For drinks, we had the Strawberry Fields and the Limon Skies with the latter being the stronger of the two. My wife being her typical weirdo self, ordered the Elote Dip, fresh bread with olive oil on the side. She RAVED about the Elote Dip (see photo) and the bread was truly fresh homemade bread, but would be much better paired with butter. The bread was outstanding though. I had a burger and fries. I eat a lot of burgers and was shocked at how good this was. I typically do not care for fries and find them boring and uninspired. The fries at BLDG were delicious and had a light seasoning that put them over the edge.

Only slight negative was the waitstaff was a little out of sync in seating us and taking our order. Waitress was very sweet and personable though. This is a great place to eat if you value space. The tables were spaced out well so other table conversations do not permeate your space.

Do not sleep on this place. We were staying at the Hilton and only ate here because we didn't feel like going out. We expected BLDG to just go through the motions and did not expect to enjoy the food so much. Do yourself a favor and give BLDG a try - you won't be disappointed and may even...