Takeout Review: Hayden Block Smoke & Whiskey

Address: 1136 Kensington Rd NW; Website: https://www.haydenblockyyc.com/

The first time I had Hayden Block was sometime near the end of the pandemic or sometime when things opened up too allow for some social gatherings to take place. It was at my apartment and we had a D&D session that night (so it was a Friday haha). Funny enough, I lived 550m from its sister restaurant Comery Block, which I still haven’t been to.

We ordered an assortment of smoked meats and sides, many of which I’ve forgotten now, but I know I wanted the watermelon salad because apparently I wouldn’t shut up about it. Now I make my own watermelon salad and it is just as good.

Between that time and today, I’ve had Hayden Block a couple more times, including a late night dine-in as they have half priced meats after 10pm. If I’m being honest, 10pm is very late for me nowadays and at that time all I want is sleep, not so much food.

Last year my coworker told me about how she ordered from Hayden Block for Thanksgiving and would be doing so again at Christmas, so I decided to give it a try last Christmas. We had company and very fluid plans so I figured this was the best way to get everyone fed and not feel too annoyed if people just didn’t show up because I sure as hell would be annoyed (ok, let’s be honest, I’d be pissed) if I spent the whole day cooking and no one showed up. Besides that, we are only two to three people so making a whole turkey with all the fixings is a lot of food to try to finish on our own.

We ordered one tray at Christmas. We chose the Smoked Brisket over Turkey and it came with homemade stuffing, green beans, mashed potatoes and gravy, cranberry BBQ sauce, and a Turtle Cheesecake. We added on 1/2 lb of Smoked Brisket, Burnt Ends, Maple Smoked Pork Belly, Hot Links and Corn Bread and Honey. I also made a 10 minute mac and cheese in the Instapot (that ended up taking longer than 10 minutes). This fed three of us for like 4 days. The picture of the tray below is our leftovers after like day 1 or 2. Also, I’m going to apologize for the bad picture…this was my phase of capturing everything in the picture using a top down approach which is not the most aesthetic, but it does the job.

This time for Thanksgiving we got two trays: one turkey, one brisket. Both trays came with sweet potato casserole, green beans, mashed potatoes and gravy, homemade stuffing, cranberry BBQ sauce, and pumpkin pie. The contents of both trays were crammed into one which made it really hefty to carry. We also ended up getting the cornbread with honey butter again.

The Cornbread came cold, which was the same as last time as they are made in a big batch and then packed. We just warmed them up in the oven and they were good to go. This year, we felt the sides were a little underwhelming. I found the stuffing to be very dry and a little crunchy, the mashed potatoes were lumpy, the mashed sweet potatoes were a very desserty, and the green beans…I didn’t even realize there was bacon in it until the end.

The turkey and brisket though were definitely the stars. Neither of them were dry and though it doesn’t looking like a lot, we got two meals each out of that.

My rating is as follows:

• Service: 4.5/5

  • We had preordered the Thanksgiving meal about a week prior for pickup on Sunday, October 13. Originally, we tried on our phones, but it had some issues logging in, resetting password, and generally putting the order through. So we ended up having to order through our computer and it didn’t allow us to change the date of the pick up but this was less of a concern since it was obvious that pick up was on October 13 and not the day of the order.

  • The Thanksgiving meal can be eaten at the restaurant or picked up, but is not available for delivery. Having done this for a few years now, they have the system down pat. We were greeted at the door and pointed to a stairway at the back that led upstairs. Once upstairs, they had all the orders laid out (except the hot tray) and one person ran point on it all. We were in and out in less than 10 minutes.

• Food: 4/5

  • I can’t quite remember from the first time we ordered at Christmas, but this time we found the sides to be a little underwhelming. So much so that next year, I think we’re going to just order the meats and make the sides ourselves.

• Price: 4/5

  • Really good price. Especially since we’re a couple. Making a whole turkey with all the fixings is a little much. I like turkey, but I don’t want to be eating it until Christmas…where there’ll be more turkey. Each tray costs $40 and there’s enough food in there for at least two meals, depending on how much you eat.

• Overall Rating: 4.167/5