Brood Restaurant and Bar — Restaurant in Salem

We’d been meaning to try Brood for quite some time but never quite got there. We were spurred to action by a local poll that put them at the top of the local nicer restaurant lists. So we booked a ressie and off we went!

Bartender and drinks: 10/10. I am spacing in his name but the bartender is the ENTIRE personality of the place (and thank god they have him). He’s funny, friendly and he told us about special drinks (our server did not) and managed to upsell us on those delightful drinks alone for about $45 or so (Sparkle Pony ftw). He also upsold the table next to us on holiday drinks that the server didn’t offer. I mean. It’s the holidays… and you don’t mention holiday drinks? Easiest sell ever and isn’t that the goal? Dude was perfectly on point and seemed like he cared that people had a good time, which we can’t exactly say for the rest of the team. Our server wasn’t bad, she just was… there. The main whiskey drink was like sweater weather (and similar) at Bloom or the cube at Lucky. It would rank third in line with those. Actually maybe tied for third w a similar drink at sidecar and the bar next to fortunado.

Ambiance 9/10. I’m pretty sure it’s the same decor that the Hen restaurant had, so… but it’s super cute and chill. Upscale, even. Nice vibe. Great ceilings and the wallpaper is adorable. Feels very lower Hudson River Valley.

Food: 5/10. We started with the Brie and wafers. The menu said WAFERS. Uh, has no one been to a real restaurant? Wafers are NOT Carrs crackers. The Brie wasn’t correctly heated either. A baked Brie isn’t unevenly coagulated right out of the oven. It also didn’t have that premium Brie smoothness. Given the Carrs crackers (wafers my ass), I suspect the Brie was purchased at Kroger’s bargain bin with the crackers. Also, the accoutrements with it weren’t well blended and didn’t work with each other. Perhaps consider blending them to a finer paste and adding a hot honey. Brie is always good but this was not great.

My husband had the steak, medium with the frites. GIRL, bloody doesn’t cover it. It was like CARRIE all up in there, not medium as he ordered. The fries weren’t frites. They were undercooked by a good 4 minutes and had zero flavor. Limp and pale (cmon no one likes limp and pale). They were also too fat to be frites. We all know we expect those sassy thin crisp well cooked and well seasoned strips when we see “frites.” Just say fries guys, and expectations will be lowered accordingly. I tried to eat one and couldn’t finish that one. And potatoes are my favorite food group. The steak was too thick and too hard to cut. It was grisly as well, there was some sawing going on to hack through it. Not so premium, maybe they got it with the Carrs crackers. Had we been in a larger town, we would have sent it back. The creamed kale was good.

I had the chicken schnitzel and it was fine. It was bland as hell but fine. I am going to Food Hut later this week and I’m pretty sure the food hut version will have more oomph. The Brood take on Alabama white sauce is fine - Mama Jeans BBQ crushes the Alabama so it’s hard to compare anyone to them and once you’ve had Mama Jeans sauces, it’s not right to compare anyone to their food.

Dessert. Hard pass. The crème brûlée had the thinnest top and the pineapple addition was not good. The top should be 2-3x thicker than it was. It had barely been fired and felt underdone. The crumbles had zero flavor and didn’t add any good texture to complement the dish. They needed to be crunchy and have some flavor. I had their take on pot de crème and it’s the first time I haven’t finished a pot of chocolate. Not good. The pretzel bites in it…normally they work but in this case it was like the rest of the meal: it all felt like a Walmart version of what you’d get at a finer restaurant.

We’d go back for drinks with...

Tried Brood for the first time this evening and was sadly disappointed.

My primary server and others who waited on me were polite and responsive.

I ordered an unsweet tea which was served very dark in appearance looking like coffee and tasted like it too. It was much too strong to drink, I sent it back, it was awful.

Ordered a baked brie appetizer which was decent enough. It was served with an adequate amount of pistachio apricots and honey topping. However the description baked brie is a bit misleading, as it was merely a warmed brie wheel. It was not encased in a crust or phyllo dough pastry as 'baked' usually implies.

The main entree I chose was the lobster pasta. It is described as a sherry cream sauce with lemon pistachio including peas and mushrooms. The server did express beforehand that it is not a heavy cream sauce item it is more like a light sauce almost a dusting. That is a first consideration to be aware of if you lean toward this entree and by chance your server does not explain; it is not a cream sauce really in any manner. Once I received my entree the only flavor I could grasp at all in the sauce was high garlic content and a strong onion flavoring. I tasted not a hint of lemon or sherry or any other flavor. The peas, pistachio and mushrooms on this entree were adequate actually the pistachio I would say were bountiful. The lobster meat were pieces it seemed to just be dropped into the pasta they contained no flavor from seasoning or cooking with the entree. The flavor in the sauce was as if someone poured a packet of onion dip mix or a bottle of minced onion spice in it. I did tell the server when asked if I liked it, that it was not what I expected that it had a very strong onion taste. She repeated to me with a question of tone 'onion?' but did not discuss the entree further. Feeling anxious and uncomfortable complaining about a second item of poor quality in my opinion, I responded, "It's okay I'm eating it I like it okay"; which actually was false. I also assumed maybe this is just how they make it and I've made an unfortunate choice. However, it does not correspond to its menu description, it is not worth the $28 entree price, and it actually tasted terrible.

Also comments to add regarding atmosphere include a damp, musty, or mildewy scent upon entering the dining room and music playing too loudly. It seemed an odd choice of music for the establishment, as it struck me to sound like rave music. It took staff a number of attempts with the volume up and down, on and off, to obtain a decent restaurant...

DARN! NOT GOOD!

We were very excited to try Brood, as fine-dining options in Salem are limited, to say the least! However, while the service was good, and the space is attractive, the food was a serious disappointment.

We were seated promptly for our 6:45pm reservation.

We ordered a glass of Prosecco and a Tanqueray and tonic. The Prosecco tasted musty--not in a good way. The cocktail was nice.

Our food arrived in good time. First, two appetizers; then a salad and main course.

For appetizers, we had scallops ($24) and pork belly ($15).

The scallops arrived--three scallops on top of a salmon-colored sauce. On top of the scallops, there were lots of "crumbs," apparently a flavor addition. The scallops were not particularly large nor tender; the sauce was not particularly interesting. The crumbles took away from the shellfish and the dish overall.

The pork belly consisted of three slices, on top of a sauce that looked similar to the sauce with the scallops. This dish, too, was covered in crumbs. The pork belly itself was tough; the sauce below it was very tasty. Again, the crumbles were too much, and a distraction.

The salad and entree arrived: the salad was inedible. A tiny handful of arugula drenched in oil, and three tomatoes. When I bit into one of the tomatoes, I had to spit it out because it tasted rancid (a server later described it as a "confit tomato" to explain its taste). The entree, short ribs, consisted of three pieces of boneless short rib on top of a bed of mashed potatoes, flanked by a few pieces of steamed broccoli. The short ribs were very tender, but virtually tasteless. They were so lacking in flavor, I wondered for a moment if we were in a local jail or something. Overall, the entree was very lackluster. For the price ($32), infuriating.

We ordered a bottle of red wine with our meal; a French red blend. It was good.

Near the end of our meal, our server asked us how the food was. We replied honestly, that the flavors/textures/etc. were not good. Her response was, "I hope you will come back and give us another chance. We've only been open a year, so are still figuring things out."

As we left, the hostess inquired about our meal. We told her it was not good, mentioned the abundance of "crumbles," etc. She, too, asked us to "Come back and give us another chance."

Brood, thank you so much for inviting us back. We will happily come back, so long as dinner is on the house! Please contact us to make...