Strange Delight — Restaurant in New York

We found out about Ham’s new venture because my partner and I are huge fans of watching Sohla + Ham together on YouTube!

Unfortunately, it was a really poor experience when it came to the food. We’re not wealthy, so we can only go out to a nice place once a month, and we wanted to really ball out and ended up regretting it.

Pro’s: Great ambiance and friendly servers! Hush puppies are great, served with a smoked butter, so good. A free bit of bread pudding for desert, aromatic and nice.

Con’s: All the other food. Prices have gone up since some of the online menus have been posted. We split the small Seafood Tower and an Oyster Loaf sandwich.

The big disappointment was the Seafood Tower (really an elevated plate). The oysters were the size of quarters, the smallest I’ve ever been served, and were SO sandy and packed with bits of shattered shell, and we each stopped after choking down one. We left all the rest on the plate but the server didn’t remark on it.

The smoked fish and shrimp spreads on the tower were decent, but felt unspectacular, as were the two bits of icey salmon and the four shrimp were, well, boiled shrimp. For $80 it felt like the worst money I ever spent in a restaurant in the city.

Same thing with the Oyster Loaf sandwich; the oyster was nearly undetectable! We crunched through what seemed like a sea of under-seasoned clumps of batter and had no experience of biting into an actual nice, juicy oyster. And it was nearly 30 dollars with no sides!

I had a a beer that came in a can and tasted like bud light and my partner had a (really nice!) mocktail, total bill came to $170. We came out because we loved Sohla and Ham and wanted to ball out to support them but we left with a big dent in our wallets and a lot of disappointment.

Ham was there when we went tonight, but spent the whole 90 minutes we were there hanging at the bar and chatting with what looked like a friend. I wish we could tell him we loved what he’s built with Sohla, but he looked busy.

If you go, stick to the cheaper stuff; the hushpuppies were great and the table next to us looked like they were having a great time with a basket of fried shrimp.

We were excited about Strange Delight, but the only thing strange about it was how strangely disappointing the whole...

I never leave reviews but trust this one was earned. I saw rave reviews about Strange Delight on TikTok and decided to take my mother and sister for lunch. The atmosphere, the drinks and the service was amazing, however the food was quite literally the worst. I guess the fact that it was served on a literal green school lunch styled tray should have been enough to tell me what the quality would have been but it was far worse.

I got the collard greens, red beans, cornbread and fried oysters and it was a solid 2/10 at best. Not only was everything cold, but it lacked flavor, considering this is supposed to be a New Orleans inspired restaurant. The cornbread was dry and tasted like it was made from a box. The collard greens were just wet and spicy, no other flavor. The fried oysters were mostly breading and the red beans were just mush with a parsley garnish. My mother got the same as me with the quinoa and was also underwhelmed. And my sister got the salmon and not only was it unseasoned, it was RAW on the inside. I can’t imagine it takes that long to cook a 6oz fillet but I guess. The best thing on the menu was the fries, but I couldn’t imagine how you would mess up a potato. The drinks were a 9/10 so at least that made up for things.

As an apology, we were given 2 snickerdoodle cookies which were so thin that they were see through yet STILL DOUGHY in the middle. Thankfully we did not have to pay for this meal and received multiple apologies from the server, but this was truly the furthest thing from what I expected when I booked my reservation. I didn’t even bother to take pictures because the food was not visibly appetizing either, but here’s a picture of the menu for proof that this is a real review and a screenshot of my receipt because I would never leave...

I invited a friend to Strange Delight delight under the guise of indulging in the seafood tower happy hour, while very well knowing we couldn’t leave without sampling more of the menu. The tower is perfect - you can essentially build your own tower. We had oysters which were smaller but packed with flavor, pimento dip that was punchy and savoury, and side salad which was well dressed, balanced, and layered with herbs. Then to our gateway: the charbroiled oysters - classic will always have my heart, but the spicy BBQ were something special- I’ve never had anything like it! Would be a great introduction to oysters for anyone nervous to try. And of course to soak up all that delicious sauce we had the house bread with seaweed butter - I don’t think I’ve had a more delicious bread&butter combo. Hush puppies were small and light and came with a delicious honey butter. Then to the BBQ shrimp and shrimp loaf. BBQ shrimp were large, plump, and delicious - a delicate balance of savoury with a hint of sweetness and bathing in sauce. If you think you don’t need some form of bread to help you finish off that sauce, you my friend are mistaken. And finally the shrimp loaf- giant, perfectly fried shrimp, delicately bound between cool and crisp veggie held together by the softest sandwich bread! It’s worth whatever hype you may have heard about it. Beyond the food, the staff and service were spectacular- front of house and kitchen staff were warm, welcoming, and attentive! Our server Jordan was excellent! The attention the detail was spectacular- glasses never neared empty, dishes were collected as they were emptied, and our counter was always wiped clean- Strange Delight is a gem of an experience, one you’ll...