Oak Long Bar and Kitchen - A Little Bit About a Lot of Things A Little Bit About a Lot of Things

December 17, 2013 Oak Long Bar and Kitchen

Located in the Back Bay, in the Copley Fairmont, Oak Long Bar + Kitchen has been newly renovated/restored (previously the Oak Bar). Even though the room is updated it gives a nod to tradition. The high ceilings are charming (even if it makes the room a little noisy) along with the long copper bar that runs the length of the room. It’s all about comfort here, from the banquettes (even though they are a little too close together) with pillows to leather armchairs running down the center of the room. There are a lot of people here on business, locals who are looking to see and be seen and the occasional tourist.

We start with the hearth baked bread with rosemary, pretzel salt, honey butter ($5). The bread comes out steaming hot from the oven in a cast iron skillet and is topped with honey butter using honey from the hives on the roof. The warm, sweet, buttery goodness sends you into sensory overload, but be careful, the plate is hot!

Carbonara “MY WAY” ($23) with ricotta cavatelli, crispy guanciale, farm egg yolk, and grated romano. It taste’s more cheesy than creamy but it is pretty delicious, I love a dish with an egg and the peas add a little sweetness to the dish. I wish there were more or the guanciale in the dish, it felt a little sparse.

For dessert we ordered 2 to share. First up, the chocolate pot de creme with cinnamon doughnuts ($10). The pot de creme was more like a stiff mousse/marshmallow than a heavy pudding consistency, but when added to those warm doughnuts, it didn’t make a difference, it was delicious.

Warm apple crisp with vanilla ice cream ($10) was tasty. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that the dessert tasted a little metallic from the skillet, but that didn’t stop us, we kept eating, it was so good. While I won’t say that the service is slow, it is certainly… relaxed. The price tag is a bit steep at times, but the people watching more than makes up for it.