The outside of the Kilmer building that houses Remlik’s is deceptively drab; it’s another brick building in Binghamton Gray. Walking inside is an entirely different experience. The massive ceilings are supported with ornately decorated and lit Corinthian columns. It’s an intimidating sight. There are cloth napkins and salad forks, and you will immediately feel underdressed when you enter the dining room. Try to get over it, because the food is pretty good.
Owner Edward Wesoloski said he was aware of how the up-scale atmosphere may turn off casual diners. Originally, the menu included more dishes traditionally associated with home cooking. But when he founded the elegant venue in 2010, he and his two partners classed up the offerings to fit the swanky space. Nonetheless, he says that he tries to make people more at ease. He has the staff wear golf shirts instead of button ups, and the bar tenders wear shorts.
“We want people to come on their birthdays and special occasions, but that’s not the only times we want them to come,” said Wesoloski, a lifetime resident of the Southside.
You can tell that this is a nice place because instead of getting a bread basket (so plebeian), you get garlic knots. It was thrilling.
The Restaurant Week menu offers some good options for appetizers. Our server was very nice and good at her job, but she recommended the house salad, a patently ridiculous suggestion. I opted instead for the “toasted” (think fried) ravioli, which was delicious, but nothing you haven’t had before. The star of the appetizer course, and maybe of the meal, was the artichoke bruschetta. The artichokes offer something more to bite into than a traditional tomato-based bruschetta. The four long slices of baguette were thin and crunchy and had generous portions of artichoke and tomato with a balsamic reduction.
The ahi tuna I got for a main course was cooked perfectly, in that it was barely cooked at all, the way tuna is meant to be eaten. It came with plain white rice that I didn’t care for and a zucchini cole slaw that didn’t do much for me either. The hoisin sauce that the tuna came with was very sweet, and a little spicy going down. The fish was good enough to be eaten without the sauce, which was a little overbearing in its sweetness.
My date’s meal impressed me more than my own did. He ordered a medium-rare prime sirloin au poivre, and though we were a little shocked initially by just how pink and bloody it was (I thought it would get up and walk away), it ended up being delicious. Served with an unexpectedly spicy creamy peppercorn sauce and whipped potatoes, it’s perfect for the meat-and-potatoes carnivore who wants to class it up for the night.
For dessert we got creme puffs and pumpkin rice pudding. The puffs were a perfect ending to the meal: light and sweet without making you feel like you just consumed a week’s worth of calories. The rice pudding on the other hand, was disappointing. Don’t use this dish to fill your daily quota of pumpkin-themed foods this fall. It wasn’t very sweet, and between the consistency and cinnamon flavor, it felt a little bit like eating oatmeal.
At $25 for dinner, Remlik’s isn’t your cheapest option for Restaurant Week (lunch is only $12). It feels like the kind of spot you would take your parents or your significant other to for an anniversary that ends in “years” not “months.” It doesn’t need to be, of course. They have a really nice bar and reasonably priced sushi for a non-Restaurant Week Saturday night. I was expecting a little more out of the elegant atmosphere, but it wasn’t a bad meal by any means. If you’ve never been to Restaurant Week, go hit the essentials first. If you’re an R-Week veteran, give Remlik’s a try, even if it’s only to feel like a grown-up for a few hours.