Despite my dislike of goat, I seem to like restaurants with cute animal names. And Tail Up Goat is also practical. As I asked my husband in Ecuador, how do you tell a sheep and a goat apart? Tail up? It’s a goat. Tail down? It’s a sheep. Yup, it’s that simple.
Anyways, as a thank you for dog-sitting while we were in the Galapagos, we took my mom to Tail Up Goat, which is a new restaurant in DC. It’s owned by the same people that own the well-known Komi and Little Serow, both of which get a significant amount of praise.
DH really doesn’t like tapas restaurants, at least not those that charge entree-like prices for small plates. So I think he was a bit suspicious of Tail Up Goat. Don’t worry, even he was won over.
After a palate-cleansing drink with ginger, we started with the seaweed sourdough, a peculiar dish that was quite tasty. And I don’t even like sourdough. It has ciccioli (some type of pork mixture, if I’m not mistaken) and fennel pollen. Not quite sure what fennel pollen is, but it sure is tasty. The sourdough was not overpowering, and it was perfectly toasted.
Next up we ordered some excellent cavatelli, which had octopus ragu, breadcrumbs, and green olives. This was by far my favorite dish of the night. The octopus was perfectly cooked, and the flavor combinations were just so delicious. I wish it was a teensy bit bigger, but it is not labeled as an entree. Perhaps we all just liked it a bit too much…
For entrees, DH and my mom split the lamb. I don’t eat lamb (I don’t even eat things that are touched by lamb, I really dislike the flavor), so I’ll have to take their word that the lamb was just phenomenal. It had sumac onions, favas, and hazlenut dukkah. DH would go back to Tail Up Goat just to eat the lamb ribs again!
I opted for something a little different–the hen of the woods mushrooms. I love hen of the woods mushrooms, so I figured it would be a good choice. The hen of the woods mushrooms themselves were simply wonderful. It’s surprising how filling a mushroom can be…and I am not one opts to eat mushrooms instead of meat!
The hen of the woods mushroom dish came with chicken crisps and burnt bread sauce. The chicken crisps were super crispy fried pieces of what seemed like chicken skin. I like a piece of chicken skin here and there, but there were a few too many pieces for me. The burnt bread sauce I could have lived without–even with the savory and delicious mushrooms, I couldn’t quite get behind the burnt bread sauce. It tasted exactly like what it was: burnt bread! I am not a huge bread person and can’t stand anything burnt, so I suppose it wasn’t meant to be. However, the mushrooms were so deliciously seasoned that I’d consider ordering the dish again anyway.
The portions at Tail Up Goat vary by the category on the menu, which is a fair way of doing things. I felt the starters were starters, and the entrees were entree-sized. And I appreciate having the opportunity to taste multiple dishes, since some of the portions are smaller. You could certainly go there and fill up without ever having an entree.
While the food is a bit adventurous, I’d definitely return to try some new flavors (and probably order more of that cavatelli). The atmosphere is very cute, and I’m thrilled to have another fun option that is in the neighborhood!
