Whole Suckling Pig at The Breslin – NYC

suckling pig @ breslin

Yes, this is a picture of a whole roasted suckling pig. No, I did not eat it all myself. A few weeks ago, I was invited by Cindy, a.k.a. Chubby Chinese Girl (who is in fact, far from chubby), to partake in a pig feast at The Breslin with some of her friends, which included bloggers Katie, Henry, and Addie.

suckling pig @ breslin

Having a whole roasted pig on the table made it feel like Thanksgiving dinner. A whole pig is definitely more gluttonous than a turkey, but it wasn’t too different. For example, I like dark meat on a turkey, but sometimes you can’t have all dark meat because you have to fight your cousins for the legs. Similarly, during the dinner, there was only so much pork belly to go around, and initially, I was only served the hind leg meat (the ham), which wasn’t as fatty and juicy. I made do though with the accompanying sauces: a bright Salsa Rossa and a minty Salsa Verde. Luckily, on my second plate, Addie made sure I got a good piece of the tender and more flavorful pork belly. Not much sauce was needed for my second round. Much thanks to Addie from my stomach!

roasted potatoes @ breslin

The whole roasted suckling pig was accompanied by fresh Herbed Ceaser Salad with anchovy croutons, amazingly good Duck Fat Roasted Potatoes, well-cooked Roasted Fennel, and sad, overcooked Broccoli Rabe. The roasted potatoes, with a thick golden crust that was redolent of duck fat, were my favorite. It was possibly even better than the whole roasted pig. For dessert, we were served an intense Bittersweet Chocolate Tart with vanilla ice cream. It was decent, but after such a heavy meal, something lighter would have been nice.

For the entire meal, it ended up being $85 per person (including tip). For the amount of food, it wasn’t bad, but I don’t have the urge to do it again. Although it was great fun to eat with new friends, I rather go to a restaurant and order my own plate of pork belly. Sorry, but for that amount of money, I don’t want to share.

The Breslin
20 W 29th Street (b/n Broadway & 5th Ave; map)
New York, NY 10001
212-679-1939




There are 7 comments

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  1. Yvo

    Ah, I’ve been waiting for someone to post on this! Was sad to miss it. But your post also confirms how I feel about these large format meals in general – something is going to be better than other stuff on the table, and I don’t want to share. (At least with family, you can ‘fight’ over the dark meat!) Thanks for confirming that I probably shouldn’t do this.

  2. bionicgrrrl

    @Yvo – It was an experience. It may be fun if you want to do it once, but if you died not having done it, that would be okay too.

    @someguy – I think some people ate the cheeks at the end. After two plates of pork and several potatoes, I went straight into a food coma.

  3. esther

    Wow!! 🙂 I enjoyed reading your review, as I was super curious as well. We should go to daisy may’s and get a whole pig there too. Maybe later – after you finish your food coma. hehe.

  4. Danny

    interesting, and yea for these large format dinners, i often wonder if you get a good deal. at 85 person a pop, you could do really well in this city!

    @esther, it’s been a while but i didn’t remember daisy may’s pig being a great deal either 🙁

  5. donuts4dinner

    Wow, that first photo is sooooo amazing. So much better than mine! It just confirms my suspicion that I really need an SLR.

    I guess we kind of felt the same way about the meal. It was neat, it was a great experience, but it’s probably a once-in-a-lifetime thing.

  6. bionicgrrrl

    @esther – I dunno. I think I’m done with whole animals. But I do want to do whole pig at a Filipino place. Let’s do that! Er, but maybe it’ll be a letdown…

    @Danny – Exactly. Not exactly a deal, but it’s a fun meal with friends.

    @donuts4dinner – Considering you don’t have a SLR, your pics came out really well. It was freakin’ dark in there.


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