Chat Room

The Gaf serves up solid, hearty comfort food, we agreed, but there are uncomfortable little kinks that the place still needs to work out, such as a caramelized sugar crust on a crème brûlée that wasn't just burnt but blackened. And speaking of kinks, why is there a giant clock on the northern wall that doesn't work?

Oh, well, the fireplace doesn't either. And I'm still reserving judgment on the service after enduring an incredibly snippy waiter the night I dined with my friend Julie. The food was really excellent that night; Julie loved the pan-roasted salmon perched on a bed of hot mashed potatoes and dripping with a fragrant garlic-rosemary butter sauce. I thought my meal — a bowl of tortellini in a creamy Parmigiano-Reggiano sauce with bits of bacon and peas — was luscious. The only disappointment was that the server made a couple of annoying mistakes, including charging me for the un-fried brie that we didn't order. What the hell — a gaffe is a gaffe, and The Gaf is still getting its act together.

The positive news is that this new neighborhood pub has plenty of potential. The food is tasty and generally very comforting, the interior looks great and the prices won't have you going out mooching for an extra bob or two. That's Irish slang for hustling a little extra dough. But in any language, The Gaf is a place worth chatting about.