Hello Law Weekly readership! I know you missed me tremendously. I’m back as the Law Weekly’s Restaurant Critic, FINALLY reviewing an actual restaurant. I went to Oakhart Social last weekend for the first time, and it was so good I had to reemerge to share my thoughts with the public. Overall out of 10, I would rank it a 9 (well, a 9.6 if you’re going off my Beli, but I should probably re-rank). Below are my opinions on Oakhart; take from them what you will!
Ambiance
In terms of atmosphere, I would say this is the restaurant’s weakest link. I sat outside, so this is probably part of the reason it did not receive a 10 in overall vibes in my book. The inside looked cute for the two seconds I was in there, but the outside patio is not the most aesthetic. It is shared with Public Fish & Oyster (another great meal—maybe I’ll do a review on that before I graduate), so there is an awkward black divider separating the two restaurants. The patio is also covered overhead with a white carnival-like tent. It was giving: waiting in line for a ride at an amusement park, if you were actually sitting and waiting to eat instead.
Food
The food easily made up for the less-than-optimal outdoor situation. The menu is a mix between family-style and tapas-like sharing plates, so you order about five-to-six dishes to split depending on the size of your party. This is my ideal eating situation because I’m a self-proclaimed picker and love sticking my fork into every plate on the table. We started off strong with the ricotta toast. The toasty sourdough bread was loaded with prosciutto and crispy kale. I would honestly say this was my favorite bite of the night. It was sweet and salty and smoky in all the right ways.
The next dish was the broccoli, also a star of the show. It is long-stemmed and topped with an aioli and sweet fish sauce. The hanger steak came next as our “main.” It was perfectly medium rare, which is how I like it, but potentially a bit too pink for some other people’s liking. The steak was also served on a bed of potatoes with chimichurri on the side. Fire.
Lastly, we ordered the four-cheese pizza. Definitely a great pizza, but a bit underwhelming compared to the rest of the meal. When I asked which pizza to order, the waiter originally recommended two different ones, but I decided to ignore him and go basic, which was a mistake. I still enjoyed it, but would go for one of the specialty pizzas next time.
Source: Author
Dessert
When you look at the dessert menu for this place, there is really only one option: the s’mores bread pudding. And it lived up to its name. The bread pudding came in small cubes with dollops of toasted marshmallow and chocolate placed around the plate. It may actually be a toss-up between this and the ricotta toast for the best bite of the night. But this comes from a biased, will-eat-any-dessert-you-put-in-front-of-her person. So, take that with a grain of salt—literally, I think flaky salt would have pushed this dessert above the ricotta toast for me.
Overall, it was a great experience, and I would love to go back to try the rest of the dishes! Especially the fried chicken; the couple next to me were going ham (but chicken) on that.
Source: Author
Author: Alicia Kaufmann ’27