Charpop

Hey I am the Jenn M that went with Wendy to Charpop. All I can say is AMAZING!!! I was talked into ordering the tongue and it really did end up being my favourite dish, yes even more than the pear dessert! My suggestion to them is that next time you should do it for more than 3 days because after reading/​hearing reviews of the food you will have 3000 pretty mad people :)

Walking in blind. That’s what Jenn M and I did at Charpop, a restaurant that lasted all of three days. Not because they went out of business, but simply, because it was only intended to last that long.
I had resos for Monday eve at 930pm. The weather was cold, so we were asked to come through the back door of the secret location… which turned out to be Aviv’s bakery! The bakery had been turned into a small resto, complete with sinky-​in seats and everything. Tables were shared, groups were no larger than 4 people.
What would be on the menu? Nobody knew until they sat down. Four sections, and our choice of how much or how little from each we wanted to order. Here were our choices:
Sides ($ 12 each): Carrots slow cooked in beef shank jus, poplar bluff potato and guanciale gratin, hot vinegar beets with orange and thyme, open face croissant with lamb, sumac, nigella seed and mint.
Small ($ 17): Crispy pig ear salad, soft cooked farm egg, chili, lemon vinegar; baked kale salad with persimmon, king mushroom, farro, pinenut, Albacore tuna crudo, meyer lemon, celery, rosemary and pepper, The Original Tongue on brioche, smoked veal sweetbreads, pig skin, white bean, escarole; cabbage and bone marrow soup.
Large ($ 38): Beef heart steak, bannock, arugula, ricotta salata; foie gras and blood sausage, rutabaga, maple bourbon gastrique; rabbit pie topped with shaved lardo; octopus with toasted sourdough and N’dula; beef cheek with squash and savoury scone.
Dessert ($ 12): Cart iron baked cinnamon bun with spiced rum and raisin gelato; lavender and lemon poached pears Galette with Valrhona chocolate.
We went with the beets, kale salad, tongue and rabbit… with some poached pear for dessert.
The food was… unusual, plentiful, playful, creative, unexpected and utterly enjoyable. It’s the tongue that we hesitated the most in ordering. I mean, it’s tongue! But in the end, it turned out to be our favourite dish. Who knew I’d like tongue? It was also the first time I ever tried kale. Turns out, when you prepare it like Charpop did, it’s absolutely delicious.
I felt lucky to have a reso! Although, with 3,000 people on the waitlist, I’m sure it’s not the last we’ll see of the Charpop restaurant.

Got reservations and was sooo excited! Just got back from 9pm dinner. Had a great meal with good company.
I don’t want to ruin the surprise for those who have reservations so I will save my review and pics till after Tues!
— — -
*pics posted*
— — -
From the moment I found out about Charpop on the Unilocal events page, I was excited and the suspense only grew from there. As we waited 3 long days for our reservation confirmations, and then waited till 3 days prior to find out about the *secret location*, to hearing about the event on Global news and knowing that it was fully booked in 2 mins and that thousands were wait listed… I was getting more and more excited by the day… by the hour! :) (Have I rubbed it in enough!!! haha) ;-)
We drove by the industrial area where the pop up restaurant was located, a lady in a fur coat came up to the car to greet us and directed us to the back of the building where we were suppose to find a blue ‘X’ on the door where the restaurant is… felt very CIA spy like… hahaa.
Event was held at a warehouse/​kitchen space of a bakery. We were seated at a table of 8 — concept was table sharing, so we shared the table with 2 other couples. Idea is to share the experience with strangers and also make friends along the way. We liked our neighbors and even decided to order all sides to share (Beets, carrots, potatoes– which were damn good, and lamb croissant).
We were seated right next to the kitchen & it was nice to hear, see, and be so close to the bustle of the kitchen — made it feel very ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ like. hahah.
What we ordered (besides the sides):
1) Pig ear salad: expecting cartilage-​y bits in the salad, instead they shaved it and deep fried it so it was crispy slices atop a salad (which really could of been anything if you didn’t know it was pig ear) … & the salad was too salty, not sure if it was the pig ears or the salad itself.
2) Beef tongue on brioche — This was DELICIOUS! I’ve had tongue before and would generally describe it as lean, & a bit chewy… but this beef tongue sandwich was sliced thin, and SOOOOO tender (can’t emphasize enough how tender it was)… and soooo yummy! This was by far the best dish of the night.
3) Beef cheek — First time and didn’t know what to expect. It was good, and reminded me of brisket… only the best parts of the brisket — lean (no fat) but super tender!
3a) and we had a taste of our neighbors sweetbreads which was also good. What are sweetbreads? Google it! hahah (well, it’s the thymus gland)… I liked that the chef didn’t shy away and try to hide it but instead showcased it and presented well. I was hesitant to try it but I liked it.
4) Cast iron Cinnamon roll
Great experience — 5*