South Edison, Montauk

Last night, two girlfriends and I had dinner at South Edison in Montauk.  Ends up so did a few people we knew too...thank you Foursquare. Actually my friend who was there had sent me an email earlier in the summer saying South Edison is the best thing that has happened in the East end since I had been gone.  One of my friends has known the chef,Todd Mitgang, for years and he treated us to many dishes.  He is absolutely adorable and might have accomplished something that nobody has actually been able to accomplish before, consistent good food across the menu on the East end of Long Island.  Bravo!

Started out with small corn cakes and a maple butter on top. 

The place is open, clean and very beach feeling.  I am going to run through everything we had last night.  For the first round, salt and vinegar fried shishito peppers.  I love these.  Really well done yet some where so spicy that tears came to my eyes.  The creme for dipping and the tomato jam brought the spice down a few degrees.  Nice touch.

Fried Belly Clams. Fred's favorite.  These are amazing.  Just the right amount of crisp using ground cornmeal for the crust.  Dipped in a bacon fat aoli which is decadent and a light roasted tomato vinaigrette which works perfect.

Golden Gazpacho.  My friends loved this.  Yellow tomato gazpacho with a hint of ginger.  Large shrimp on the bottom.  Wasn't my thing.

Second round which was on the house.  Glad we got to try.  Thai Coconut Soup.  Todd has always cooked food with an Asian slant.  The first time I had his cooking was at my friends house and it was a total Thai meal.  This soup is amazing.  I'd rather dip in to this when the weather is cooler but it was brilliant.  Rich but not overwhelming coconut based soup with a slow poached egg, pearl onions, thai bail, crispy guanciale, shitake mushrooms and kale.  Mixing up the egg is the key.

Fluke Tartare.  A mixture of piece of raw fluke, grape tomatoes, pickled oyster mushrooms, watercress and a yuzu vinaigrette shaped into a cylinder.  On the side are crispy baby yams.  Nice.

This particular dish is clever and if they were open for lunch, I'd drive over and pick it up.  Spicy chopped tuna tartare inside a wrapped soft taco also stuffed with house smoked bacon, one heirloom tomato, a serrano chili and a creme sauce.  Wow!

Third round was spaghetti mixed with florida rock shrimp, lardo, beet greens, brussel sprouts, golden sun-dried tomatoes, fresh chilis and a tomato puree.  Really good and surprisingly light.

The grilled tuna is supposedly the thing to get.  I am not a huge fan of grilled tuna but this was really well done.  Sliced rare tuna served with orange peel, crushed coriander and an edamame puree and half a grilled japanese eggplant. 

Had to have a salad in here.  This was really well done.  Roasted red and golden beets with quartered heirloom tomatoes mixed with roasted hazelnuts, shaved cheese ( like a ricotta salata ) topped with mustard greens.  Really nice and light.

Dessert, but of course.  The ice cream sandwich is amazing.  Round brownies between salted caramel ice cream.  Can't go wrong.


I had to try the orange and olive oil cake.  An orange bundt cake with a grand marnier icing and olive oil ice cream.  I admit, I basically ate this entire thing myself.

Going back...absolutely.  Not only is the food good the vibe is great.  Friendly, easy with good lighting.  A win win all around.