Satterfield's Restaurant

Birmingham is home to excellent fine dining restaurants. Satterfield’s Restaurant is one of them! Nick and I love going to fine dining restaurants to celebrate anniversaries, birthdays, and just life in general. Sometimes we just have to celebrate just because! Satterfield’s menu is fresh and exciting. Chef Rita Bernhardt is bringing her touch to familiar Southern tastes - Nick and I were both blown away by the flavors that she is bringing to the menu. I just want to take the time to also comment on their exceptional staff. Chef Bernhardt’s husband, William Barial, is the general manager at Satterfield’s. He’s bringing warmth and hospitality to the dining room. He’s so friendly! He made our dining experience something special. We cannot say enough about the owner of Satterfield’s, Becky Satterfield. I have never met a more inviting person in my life - she is absolutely amazing. While your there, take advantage of Jen’s vast knowledge of wine pairings with your meal. We didn’t pair wines with our meal because I’m highly sensitive to wine - it makes me break out. It’s a curse I tell you! We’ve been to other fine dining restaurants in Birmingham, and we are here to let you know - Satterfield’s Restaurant is on par with those establishments. Now let’s talk about the food!

Note: The lighting was very dim. I did my best to take photos of the food - some were taken with ambient lighting while others were taken using a light source. If you want some amazing pics of their food, check out Satterfield’s Instagram Account.

We ordered drinks before our meal. Since I couldn’t drink wine, we ordered an Old Fashioned and I ordered a Whisky Sour. Okay, I know it’s weird that I can’t drink wine but I can drink bourbon. But it’s the truth. I can’t drink beer because it makes me sick, wine makes me splotchy and makes my head tingle (and headaches - ugh), but bourbon isn’t a problem! Just makes me hot but I can handle that. The drinks were fantastic!

Their homemade bread was brought to the table with our drinks. We started with the sourdough raisin bread and ate it all with their homemade butter all over it! Then tried the corn muffins and could have eaten many… MANY more… Oh and the plain sourdough bread has THE BEST chew. Perfectly sour and delicious. I would really order a loaf if they sold it that way. Maybe I can show up at the door at the closing and see if I can buy bread from them. Not even kidding… well yea I am because that would be weird. Right?

The Crispy Deviled Eggs with caviar and smoked pepper aioli were unlike anything I’ve had before in the best way ever. The egg whites were fried which brought some delicious crunch and flavor to the egg. It tasted like the edges of a fried egg cooked in oil - those crispy bits that I LOVE! The yolks were creamy and the caviar brought a delicious pop. It was the perfect bite - crunchy, smooth, smokey, salty egg deliciousness.

This photograph does not do this dish justice. At all. It is the Cucumber Buttermilk Soup. It’s a chilled soup with chilled shrimp salad, herbs, and summer peppers. The shrimp salad, herbs and summer peppers are presented in the bowl at the table. The cucumber buttermilk soup is then poured over it table side. The presentation prepares you for the dish because it is absolutely fantastic. The soup is smooth and the cucumber and buttermilk is a match made in heaven. The shrimp is so delicate - I really thought it was lobster or another shellfish because it tasted so rich! The pop of herbs in each bite was refreshing - I knew I tasted fresh parsley, cilantro, and I couldn’t figure out the other herb - I later found out from Chef Rita that it was fresh dill. You have to try the soup when you go and experience it’s flavor. Promise you’ll love it. Of course I was being nosey - other tables really enjoyed the soup as well.

The next dish we ate was the Grilled Scallops with caramelized fennel puree, bacon, and spring pea salad. Nick’s favorite shellfish is a scallop - when it’s cooked well. And this scallop dish was absolute perfection. I wish there was another way to describe it….but alas, there isn’t… it is perfection. The scallops were so incredibly soft and buttery and tender….. oh let’s not forget delicate. The fennel puree wasn’t that pungent anise flavor - it had a soft subdued flavor with a crunch of fresh fennel. The crunchy bacon pieces were scattered around the summer peas. Mmmmm we polished off this dish - we left no pea behind. Believe me when I say, it was the best scallop dish we’ve had in a while. When we come back, I’m going to have a hard time not ordering it.

The next dish was the Jurgielewicz Farms Duck with grits, turnips, peaches and greens. The duck was rich, cooked perfectly, and tender. It was paired with tart peaches, bitter greens with crunch (not cooked to death - y’all don’t overcook your greens), over creamy grits. Doesn’t that sound amazing??? It WAS amazing! I ate each bite with some duck, peach, greens, and grits… the combo was excellent. Now I’m wondering if it would taste good with pork because I don’t usually cook duck at home but I have to try this combo again. Maybe I can just make it vegetarian. MMMMmmmmmmm…. With all of these dishes, we could tell Chef Rita takes time and care to balance the flavors and textures of each dish. I work at trying each dish and savoring it to decide what is it that I love about it or dislike about it. In this case, it was all love.

Along with an exceptional Executive Chef, Satterfield’s has a fantastic Executive Pastry Chef - Chef Brittany Garrigus. When you’re ready to eat dessert, be sure to ask the wait staff about their recommendations. I know the Beignets are excellent but order another dessert recommended by staff! We got the PB&J Dessert. Oh my lord have mercy on our taste buds. It was fresh blueberry sorbet with peanut butter mousse. The mousse was creamy and smooth and was piped onto a bed of peanut butter crunch that tasted like crushed butterfinger but MUCH better. So you had the creamy peanut butter mousse with a candy-like crunch, the fresh blueberries, AND the cold fresh blueberry sorbet. Grown up PB&J that I want more of.

We almost didn’t have room for dessert but we made it happen. We would be absolutely insane if we didn’t leave room for dessert here.

If you have an occasion to celebrate, celebrate at Satterfield’s!