The Keens Mutton Chop Has a New Competitor!
Plus: Hawksmoor's new shrimp cocktail, and recent columns by Luke Fortney, Daniela Galarza, Soleil Ho, and others
Here’s a little snow day bonus: I’m lowering the paywall on last week’s column so more folks can read my mini-essay on steak tacos — and how they’ve overtaken birria as the defining New York taco of the current era.
Today’s column is mostly free, but subscribers can scroll past the paywall for a review of the $73 Barnsley chop at Hawksmoor! Let’s get to it.
A fancy new chile crisp shrimp cocktail at…Hawksmoor!
I generally avoid discussing my own preferences when writing about food. Criticism isn’t about what a particular reviewer or patron enjoys; it’s about….a heck of a lot more.
But allow me to kvetch for a second: Shrimp cocktail, that resurgent raw bar staple, is better when it actually tastes like shrimp.
It’s not better when it tastes like styrofoam.
Don’t get me wrong. I realize most folks are looking for easygoing deliciousness when they order this nostalgic staple; they’re not seeking out gooey crustacean brains (and that’s too bad, alas).
But I like to think it’s a fair request that the dish flaunts a little sweet shellfish flavor, and maybe some court-bouillon aroma too. There’s a lot of bland shrimp cocktail out there, which is too bad given that it can easily cost as much as a burger these days, topping out over $30 after tax and tip. And let’s remember that unlike a burger, shrimp cocktail is just a snack.
Anyway, I bring this up because Hawksmoor, a luxe British chophouse, has finally added chilled shrimp to its menu. And they’re quite good! The restaurant places five poached crustaceans over ice and pairs them with a chile crunch cocktail sauce.
Hawksmoor uses jumbo Gulf prawns. That choice makes a difference.
The shrimp pack a mildly sweet flavor and a mineral-tinged perfume. The flesh occupies a Goldilocks zone between firm and creamy. And the chile crisp adds a little bitterness and smokiness before the sugars of the sauce take over. It’s a smart riff that pushes this dish ever so slightly outside its normally staid boundaries.
Any other good shrimp cocktails out there?
Yes! Penny by Joshua Pinsky serves my favorite prawn cocktail. The kitchen gently steams Argentinian red shrimp, yielding a delicate, flan-like texture. Cost: $26.
You can read some of my thoughts on the city’s finest shrimp cocktails right here, but for something more recent, allow me to recommend this quick guide from The Angel! At the top of Emily Wilson’s list is…Union Square Cafe!
A few quick things!
It’s Monday, 23 February 2026. The Winter Olympics are over (sad face!) and New York is a snowy mess yet again (barf!). But I’m here to remind you that we’ll get an extra hour of daylight in about two weeks, and baseball begins shortly thereafter.
We’ll make it to spring. But right now, a few quick things:
Home cooking! I wrote about the devastating layoffs at The Washington Post a few weeks ago, including at the storied paper’s food section. Today, I have better news. Daniela Galarza, who wrote WaPo’s acclaimed Eat Voraciously newsletter, has joined Substack. You can and should subscribe right here! Her newsletter name: A Petite Feast!!!
Digital tradecraft! My good colleague Luke Fortney noticed that online influencers were starting to use smart glasses to record their meals, raising privacy concerns for staffers being unwittingly filmed or interviewed. Here’s his very sharp piece for the NYT.
On reviewing: I’ve had some tough and scary things happen to me as a restaurant critic; perhaps I’ll write about those experiences one day. But today, go spend a few minutes with Soleil Ho, the former San Francisco Chronicle journalist who co-founded Coyote Media. For Food & Wine, Ho writes about the darker side of being a critic and passes along the following horrifying anecdotes:
Chefs and diners accused me of ignoring “normal” restaurants in favor of immigrant-run ones. People would send cut-outs of my articles, circling all the words they didn't understand in red pen. A select few readers would regularly send me pornographic hate mail and speculate about how miserable my husband must be with such a shrew for a spouse.
In Memoriam: Robert F. Moss, on his Substack, pens a thoughtful ode to the Eater Carolinas. A key line:“Eater Charleston filled the gap between the long publication cycles of the print-centric newspapers and the constant flood of random thoughts from social media.” Indeed.
Northern steak: Minnesota critic Kirstie Kimball gets on the red meat beat and writes about some of her favorite steaks. Kimball, like this reviewer, finds that steakhouses aren’t necessarily the best places to eat red meat! Precisely.
On snow: Nikita Richardson of the NYT talks with Otway’s Samantha Safer, Golden Diner’s Sam Yoo, and others about the logistical and financial calculations that go into whether to open up on snow days like these! To that point: Safer said she would’ve lost $8K to $10K if she wasn’t able to open her bakery today.
Behind the paywall: Hawksmoor’s lamb saddle chop, reviewed!
Plus: Notes on the Keens mutton chop, and where else to find these meaty splurges!