Now open five years, Green Pig Bistro has become a reliable restaurant for food that is on trend but not under its mercy. Much maligned sliders are redeemed with fried chicken in a mini-biscuit sauced with the balanced spice of a honey hot sauce. It’s four bites and then over, but I’m thankful for the time we had.
The pig in the title might make it sound like it’s a Southern restaurant, which it is at times, like that slider and the 5-inch cast iron filled with cornbread and a heaping pat of maple butter melting on top. (This doubles as dessert.) But then porcini mushrooms, greens and pancetta in a lamb ragu cuddle up with ricotta cavatelli for a bowl of textures and flavors: creamy, smoky, bitter. But what Green Pig might do best is fish, with elegant presentations of crispy skin and silky flesh: flounder this time, over a cauliflower puree that is in no way, as so often cauliflower is employed, a healthy substitute.
Green Pig Bistro
Modern American | $$$
1025 N. Fillmore St., Arlington