Murray's Cheese Bar
We’ve been frequent shoppers at Murray’s Cheese for our normal night in eating cheese and charcuterie. This location in Long Island City also has a restaurant part of it. I’ve taken a few glances at the menu, and there were some individual things that caught my eye. Fortunately, it was a lazy Saturday, and it was raining. This would be the ideal night to try this place out. We were able to walk in without reservations at 4:30 PM on a Saturday afternoon.
Ambiance & Service
The restaurant is adjacent to the cheese shop, so customers can walk back and forth between the restaurant and the cheese shop.
The service is a little slow, but it could’ve been because it was the afternoon servers. You may have to flag down the servers every so often.
Food
The Philippe Viallet Savoie Rogue ($16 - left) was a light red wine with light acidity. This paired with our foods decently, albeit it was much more on the light body side of things.
The Little Lychee Liar ($14 - right) came with Gray Whale gin, choya plum wine, maraschino liqueur, lychee & yuzu with candied ginger. This was not too sweet surprisingly, and my partner enjoyed it.
The Tomato Soup ($8) came with a creamy blend with herbs, red pepper, and topped with Murray’s House-made parmesan puffs. The soup came hot, and it definitely had some interesting blend of herbs. Flavor wise, it was OK. I wish there was more tomato flavors instead of having it hidden behind the herbs. The house made parmesan puffs were surprisingly pretty good. They taste like cheese puffs.
The Sandwich of the Week ($16) was a chopped cold cut sandwich with chips - tasso, honey turkey, genoa salami, NY state cheddar, lettuce, tomatoes, red onions, mayo, salt, pepper, oil & red wine vinegar on fresh ciabatta. The sandwich was pretty decent and tasted pretty good. I was a little surprised that all the meats were chopped together as opposed to being layered.
The Go Fried or Go Home ($18) came with chicken cutlet, fried breaded Murray’s smoked mozzarella tossed in signature buffalo sauce with lettuce, tomato, and mayo on toasted sesame bun. I love fried chicken sandwiches, and this one was pretty good.
The Clam Risotto ($18 for a small) came with clam, cockle, parmigiano reggiano, mascarpone, and parsley. The risotto had strong clam flavors which was quite good. The rice for me was a little underdone for me, so it came out quite nutty. I really liked the salt that the cheese ingredients brought.
Final Verdict
Yelp Jabs
It was very flavorful but heavy and a bit over salted. It was a satisfying meal even though I couldn’t finish the soup.
I wouldn’t recommend getting any of the mac & cheese or soups for yourself unless you have good salt tolerance.
I went back out for 5 minutes to grab my phone which I forgot. After coming in, the same host that sat us looked at me like I was some rando and said “Can I help you??” I was shocked as he literally sat me down 10 mins ago and there were only 4 tables in the restaurant as it was small.
I think the servers are pretty new in their career since we also got similar forgetfulness from our server. My guess is the restaurant is having troubles hiring more experienced servers.
Revisions
- May 20, 2023 - Initial revision.