My spouse and I
dined for dinner at Edge Restaurant on a Saturday evening in late July 2016.
Edge is open for dinner only on Mondays through Saturdays (closed on Sundays).
We made a reservation using the online Open Table reservation system, or you
can telephone instead. Metered street parking is available, or you can park in
one of two nearby city garages (one of which is connected to the building that
houses Edge Restaurant by a sky bridge on its second floor). The restaurant opened
in 2002, and it has employed the same chef for its entire existence (which
seems remarkable!).
Edge Restaurant is
located in Downtown Bethlehem, steps from historic Main Street yet in a newish
building. Edge is the closest restaurant to the Hyatt Place Hotel, yet it is
not far from the Hotel Bethlehem either. Edge offers both indoor dining and
outdoor dining, either on their new stone front porch or on the side patio
protected by an awning. A small dining alcove located off the main dining room
can be separated by drawing a curtain for private dining.
Edge Restaurant serves
upscale continental cuisine. Its website calls its food Asian and French, but
it seems more international and all-encompassing to us. The menu is extensive,
with selections arranged in several categories: small plates, medium plates, salads,
and large plates. It was difficult to narrow down our selections because so
many of the dishes sounded delicious. Because of the menu format, you can
either spend a little or spend a lot, depending on whether you want to share
some appetizers or order a complete formal meal.
As a bread course,
a server offered us a choice of two types of rolls (multi-grain and white),
along with dipping oil that contained a sprig of rosemary and a clove of
garlic. To start, we shared two appetizers: the brie and the pork belly. We
expected a traditional baked brie wrapped in pastry, but the dish was served in
a small ramekin filled with melted cheese and bits of apples and cranberries then
topped with pecans; slices of a hearty toasted sourdough bread was served
alongside. The pork belly was also an atypical presentation, with many large
crispy/fatty chunks lightly tossed/lightly coated in an Asian sauce along with
sliced scallion. As our second course, we shared one of the specials of the
day, a Napa cabbage salad, which contained shredded cabbage and a few cubes of
chicken, topped with thin crispy Asian noodles (this was our least favorite
dish of the night). For our entrees, we ordered the Thai chicken curry and one
of the day’s entrée specials (butterfish). The curry was delicious, with large
cubes of chicken, cauliflower, sliced fingerling potatoes, diced red bell
pepper, and peanuts coated in a creamy coconut milk sauce, and served atop
jasmine rice; for us, the mild flavor with just a small “kick” was perfect. The
chef served the tasty butterfish steak atop of succotash of corn, sauteed
onion, and edamame beans, and crispy bacon bits. We shared the scrumptious salted
caramel chocolate tart for dessert, with a flaky pastry shell filled with a
thin layer of caramel topped with a thicker layer of chocolate ganache, and
then set upon drizzled chocolate and caramel alongside rosemary whipped cream.
We enjoyed our
meal at Edge Restaurant, and its menu is so extensive that it is possible to
return several times before we exhaust all options.
March 2018:
