Restaurant Review: Strip-T’s in Watertown


restaurant review: strip-t's in watertown

Roasted striped bass with red curry, $22.

It’s imaginative stuff, but that doesn’t mean Maslow is above using some of the packaged ingredients his father, Paul, did. So his “wicked small caesar” ($4) has some things in common with his dad’s version, which he says includes lemon juice from a supermarket squeeze bottle and “super-cheap Parm.” But the chef now insists on local romaine from purveyors like Kimball Farm, a dressing made of pasteurized egg and Dijon mustard, and hand-toasted, paprika-dusted croutons that come from Iggy’s baguettes. The salad was pretty much perfect.

So were vegetables that seldom get the star treatment Maslow gives them: cauliflower, plunged raw into a deep fryer (a trick he learned at Momofuku) until they’re a rich brown, served over a smooth sauce of hand-puréed chorizo and chicken stock ($8); grilled sweet peas ($6) served like edamame but with one side open, the peeking peas marvelously charred and coated with a peppery soy-Aleppo rub; sautéed mushrooms in butter and thyme ($8)—standard, until you learn how Maslow accentuates the woodiness: with a spruce-needle garnish.