New Fulton Restaurant Brings Affordable, Classy Dining to Food Scene
By Julie McMahon
The newly-opened LORBIRD Modern American Kitchen and Bar brings affordable yet upscale dining to Fulton’s food scene.
LORBIRD showcases interesting flavors and spice influences — the menu notes Creole, Vietnamese and other Asian influences — which makes for an interesting and unique menu. It’s a comfortable and creative place, where you can feel fine wearing jeans while dining on a sophisticated dish.
The dishes are nicer, but the menu heavily features chicken, making this an affordable joint, “where fowl is fabulous” as the website notes.
LORBIRD is the latest venture of Laurie and Will O’Brien, owners of the Port City Café & Bakery and the Red Sun Fire Roasting Company, both in Oswego — and it lives up to the reputations of its sister restaurants.
The restaurant, which opens at 4 p.m., is a great spot for a happy hour. The white bar is backlit for a beautiful effect, and the bar features a good menu of drink options.
Seated in the dining room, we went for a Mass Riot IPA ($8), a local favorite from Prison City Brewing, and a sea breeze cocktail ($9) made of vodka, cranberry and grapefruit juices. The grapefruit came through nicely, and both were very refreshing drinks.
We opted to start with the appetizer special, a tomato soup ($8) served with a micro grilled cheese sliced in half, as well as the potato croquettes ($12).
The soup was thick and hearty, not your watered-down canned soup, but more of a thick, homemade tomato puree, served hot but easy to wolf down. The grilled cheese was enough for two to split and was a delectable little treat with a nice char on the outside. The soup itself was served with slices of mozzarella and basil leaves, and made for a great start to the meal.
We also got the croquettes, pillows of soft potato and sour cream and chives, with crispy outer texture, served with a mornay cheese sauce and bacon. This was delicious, a great combination of textures and flavors. The cheese added moisture and a smokiness. The dish was rather rich, a good sized serving for two people.
LORBIRD bills itself as casual, but has a classy décor. The joint follows a simple bird theme, with bird patterns on the upholstery of the benches and chairs, bird art on the walls and a large golden bird knickknack at the bar.
It feels like an elevated dining experience, with wooden tables and leather chairs, all-gold utensils, eclectic serving dishes and a nice atmosphere for a meal or a drink. The server was friendly and quick, checking on us frequently. There were attentive servers all around the dining room and bar.
The appetizers and entrees came out quickly, without much wait at all. In fact, the apps came out so quickly we hadn’t decided yet on our entrees. We finally made our choices, and went for the “Flew the Coop” burger ($19) and chicken marsala ($26).
The chicken marsala, made with the chicken leg and thigh, was rich and a bit fatty, tender and juicy, with well-cooked pieces of chicken on the bone. The creamy marsala sauce was good, but we could have done with a bit more of this and mushrooms too. The mushrooms we got were good and tender, cooked to a nice sweetness in the sauce. The dish was served with parmesan polenta and fresh green beans, and when the juices from the chicken and marsala sauce all blended together with the polenta, it made for a really tasty bite and flavor. The green beans were really garlicky, some of the best green beans we’ve eaten at a restaurant.
The plate altogether made a great dish, and showed off the chicken that was highlighted on the menu.
The burger was made coffee-rubbed, cooked to medium as we prefer, on a crispy bun, with a fatty bacon jam. It came with piping hot shoestring French fries, which were delicious.
The dry rub wasn’t super apparent on the burger, nor was the lemon-cracked black pepper aioli, but the burger had a good flavor to it overall. A bit of arugula added a nice fresh element to each bite.
Both entrees were of good portion sizes, enough to fill you up but manageable to eat. With two appetizers and dessert we had just a little to take home.
For dessert, we couldn’t resist the lemon cheesecake. We got a very large slice. The cake itself had a light lemony flavor, but made for a thick decadent cheesecake, served with vanilla buttercream. It was great, but hard to finish.
When we were hit with the check, we were pleasantly surprised. For three courses and three drinks, the bill came to just less than $100 before tip.
Kudos to LORBIRD for bringing a restaurant to Fulton that is both affordable and sophisticated, a nice addition to the Oswego County food scene.
LORBIRD – Modern American Kitchen and Bar
371 S Second St., Fulton, NY 13069
315-849-0818
Sunday and Monday: Closed
Tuesday to Saturday: 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 4 to 8 p.m.
