Restaurant Review: Strip-T’s in Watertown

 Fried brioche doughnut (toppings change seasonally), $8.

The chef has given the burger ($15) a similar upgrade. The patty, made from a blend of chuck, skirt steak, and beef cheek (which gives it more natural fat than most burgers), is placed on a brioche bun slathered with a mixture of butter, smoked miso, and confit-lemon-peel-enhanced aioli. The fine-grained, firm meat kept the burger from getting too gooey, but it was the flavor-packed sauces and house-made pickled onions that packed most of the punch. While the accompanying thick-cut fries sometimes arrived cool, they were virtually greaseless.

Of the larger plates, expertly sautéed roasted striped bass ($22) was the most distinguished, thanks to a wonderful red-curry sauce. Meanwhile, a fat bratwurst—seared pork-and-provolone sausage ($18) served with red quinoa, sautéed radish greens, and sliced ­jalapeños—benefited from the melted chunks of cheese that oozed out when the meat was cut. Other entrées were less successful. Buttermilk-fried chicken ($18) tasted leaden and greasy despite a thick, browned buttermilk batter. The “dirty rice” with it, really more like fried rice, was dry and clumpy, with strong-tasting, domineering pieces of liver. And then there was the fish stew ($18), full of flavorless seafood and overly acidic favas and peas, and the steamed mussels with potato purée and crispy herbs ($16), which tasted too strongly of lemon juice in both the potatoes and the broth.