The bf, also a self-proclaimed foodie, recently got a recommendation from a work buddy to try out The Publican, an American restaurant, in Fulton Market. Being a foodie dork, of course he looks it up on Yelp and finds that The Publican has pretty awesome ratings. The Publican is another trendy American restaurant, created by the same people of avec and blackbird, in Chicago that focuses on beer and pork. Being super close to our place, we decided to try it out. The Publican is located on Fulton so expect to find street parking or valet. The restaurant is dimly lit and huge murals of extra fat pigs hang throughout the restaurant. This time, we did make reservations and were seated right away in a communal long table similar to avec. This part was quite awkward. Sitting uncomfortably close to strangers. Sitting down first and bf taking the long walk to the other side of the table. Good thing our waitress was friendly and the place has an incredibly cool interior. Besides sitting at the communal tables, you can also sit at a table alongside the walls. But that is if you want to feel like you’re closed off in a pig pen. Each table is closed off with a wooden door that traps you in with your other pig buddies creating a more private dining experience. Moving on to the food. We ordered a lot because we were hangry (hungry + angry), but you’ll see that it wasn’t really that much.

We started off with the chef's selection of an oyster platter. I'm a fresh oyster whore so this was heaven to me. It also came with homemade crackers which was out of this world.

Pork rinds sprinkled with cheese powder. I could've done without the cheese powder, but good nonetheless.

Fries with eggs. The idea sounds so good, but it was so not. The fries were good. Like diner down the street good. The egg was good. Together, it just didn't mesh as well as I had hoped. It tasted like two separate dishes, one placed on top of the other. I really looked forward to yolk covered fries, but the fries overpowered the yolky taste.

And then came the Boudin Blane. Sausage with cream cabbage and pomegranate. This was the highlight of the experience. Sausage was incredibly tasty and went extremely well with the creamy cabbage. Only complaint that the dish was extremely small (I mean look how big that fork looks next to the sausage....that's what she said)

Suckling pig with some chickpeas underneath. This was very disappointing. They pride themselves in their pork dishes, yet this was very mediocre. It was a little dry. The crunchy skin was the best part.

Still hungry from the small portions, we decided to order Chocolate Budino. It comes with a peanut buttle cookie, coffee gelato, and honey & cashew brittle. Best part was the gelato. The crunchy honey brittle was awesome, but chocolate budino was way too sweet and strong. Enjoy in small doses.
Overall, there were ups and downs with the food. Oysters and Sausage were my favs. The others weren’t necessarily bad, but definitely not memorable. Staff is nice and food came at a good pace. Expect to spend about $40 per person. I would give this a 3/5 star. Do I like this place? Yea, but not enough to go back.