Goodale Station offers sophisticated cocktails and culture-hopping dishes: What to order
Goodale Station is reaching for the sky. And this fine-dining restaurant with eye-popping Downtown views from the rooftop of the Canopy by Hilton hotel gets close to that lofty goal.
Wait. Time out.
I actually wrote those opening sentences about Goodale Station years ago. But shortly after typing them into my laptop, Gov. Mike DeWine halted restaurant dine-in service due to the COVID-19 outbreak in March of 2020.
Realizing my three meals of “before-times” research would no longer be relevant, I shelved my review plans, and Goodale Station faded into pre-pandemic memories. Then, a couple weeks ago, I stumbled onto the document that preserved those sentences.
I don’t believe in fate, but I sometimes wonder if fate believes in me. In any event, how could I not revisit Goodale Station?
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Restaurants can change greatly over time, and Goodale employs a different chef since my 2020 visits. But that old intro held true and was wholly reusable (a surprising instance of “past-me” assisting “present-me”).
This still holds true, too: Goodale comprises multiple disparate spaces, and their views are not created equal. Sit on the wonderful south-facing patio, and you'll be dining up in the Columbus skyline overlooking the LeVeque Tower. The adjacent, glassed-in bar area is also terrific and offers a dramatic skylight and roomy sofa-style seating. With its rambling cityscape vistas, the little north-facing patio has aerie-like appeal, too.
You can and should request such preferred spaces when making reservations. And if shown to an interior spot without much of a view — this happened to me once when Goodale wasn’t close to full — ask to sit elsewhere, preferably in or near the bar.
Wherever you’re seated, expect a nightclub-like soundtrack in a casual but upscale, sometimes-boisterous setting with mostly light colors, furniture like you might see on a fancy veranda, and several see-and-be-seen guests. Except for a possible odd seating drama like I experienced, expect service that’s friendly, considerate and knowledgeable.
And expect sophisticated cocktails. My favorite was the tiki-adjacent and potent (two rums), bright (lime and pineapple), fragrant (cinnamon plus clove notes from Velvet Falernum) Jack Sparrow ($13). But I also enjoyed the herbaceous, spicy margarita-like Field Day ($14) and the Ripoff Artist ($14) — a pleasantly astringent riff on a well-made Manhattan. If a classic is calling, Goodale’s straight-up Manhattan ($17) and margarita ($14) are first-rate and discounted to $9 during a good-timing happy hour.
The culture-hopping menu of chef Jonathan Olson — whose resume is dense with impressive hotel eateries like The Keep Liquor Bar and Restaurant at Hotel LeVeque — is conveniently organized into “start,” “share” and “main'' columns containing an eminently manageable six items each. Most everything I sampled had lively yet balanced flavors, but the sizable “start” and “share” dishes offered the best values and the most entertainment.
For example, the simply titled “watermelon” starter ($14) was a hefty and refreshing creation in which the starring fruit was carved and compressed into not-watery blocks. These arrived stacked like a pyramid and garnished like a taco with spicy, rich and garlicky salsa macha, plus a shower of cotija cheese, offset by minty basil and an arugula-based salsa. That combination might sound weird, but it rocked.
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Cotija reappeared atop one of many Asian-leaning compositions here: roasted-to-sweet shishito peppers ($13) enhanced by Sichuan peppercorns, spiced cashews plus a creamy-zippy “miso vinaigrette” that tied together this enjoyable snack’s salty, sweet and mildly spicy accents.
Goodale’s popular take on Korean garlic bread ($13) was a soft, round loaf with the irresistible qualities you’d expect from this Korean street food treat that became a recent social media sensation: a crispy crust, super-smooth cream cheese, loads of in-your-face garlic and pronounced sweet notes.
Tofu banchan ($14) might be a loose usage of “banchan” — those delightful small plates served in Korean eateries. Name aside, this dish was fun to eat. Similarly textured and sized, pan-roasted tofu and purple eggplant cubes were enriched by a fruity and mildly spicy, fermented-chile-based paste and showcased by spicy and vinegary, Sichuan-style cucumbers.
For something big and meaty likewise coated in an umami-forward glaze, it’s hard to beat the barbecue-like, fall-off-the-bone sticky root beer ribs ($18). Mine had only faint root beer notes but were definitely sticky and yet easy to gobble up too quickly.
India was the inspiration for the aloo masala ($13). As with most items here, Goodale put its personal, crowd-pleasing stamp on this potato-and-chickpea curry by amping up the umami and fruitiness, going easy on the chile and serving the veggie stew with good naan sprinkled with “fermented serrano.”
Moving to mains, the three-cup chicken gets its name from a Chinese/Taiwanese preparation traditionally made with a cup each of soy sauce, rice wine and sesame oil. Goodale’s ginger-hinting take evoked a “cheffed-up” version of Filipino adobo, a dish I can never get enough of. Frankly, I wish I’d gotten more than the two moderate-sized thighs I received here for $28. Then again, that price reflects delicious boneless meat cooked sous vide-style until succulent, then appealingly heat-blistered and presented with puffed rice and salty, soy-drenched shiitakes.
The wild salmon ($31) was plenty big and plenty good. Skillfully seared fish arrived atop summery and colorful platemates — bulgur wheat enhanced by a corn-okra succotash, pickled tomatoes and onions plus cilantro oil — that hinted at tabbouleh as reimagined in the American south.
I love the hot and cold interplay of pie a la mode, so the caramelized banana-stuffed, fried spring rolls ($10) served with vanilla ice cream and a coffee-rum sauce was a fine dessert choice. And one more reason, barring another plague outbreak, I won’t wait three years before visiting high-flying Goodale again.
Goodale Station
Where: 77 E. Nationwide Blvd., Downtown
Contact: 614-227-9400, goodalestation.com
Hours: 4-10 p.m. Mondays through Fridays; 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 4-10 p.m. Saturdays; 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 4-9 p.m. Sundays.
Price range: $12 to $34
Ambience: casually stylish, fine-dining spot on a hotel rooftop with great Downtown vistas, some see-and-be-seen guests and very good servers
Children's menu: no
Reservations: yes
Accessible: yes
Liquor license: full bar
Quick click: Come for the stunning rooftop views, stay for the sophisticated cocktails and well-executed, Asian-leaning, culture-hopping dishes.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Here's what to order at fine-dining restaurant Goodale Station
