Archive for the ‘Restaurant Reviews’ Category
will’s a little fussy
t says: g and I joined m and n and kp for n’s birthday the other day! It was a blast – good friends, good wine, and somewhere-around-good food. Check it out!
March 2013, Saturday Dinner, Party of a LOT. m was smart and arranged a fixed price menu. We were promised 4 courses for $65 (1 appetizer, 1 entree, 1 dessert, 1 piece of cake) I thought that that was a bit high to pay, but m had already calculated in the tax and tip, so then it came about equal to what g and I refer to as “a special occasion meal” … and n’s special, so we were cool with it!
garlic leek soup: it looked pretty, but g felt it was nothing more than a solid soup – nothing profound like fond’s soups – just some garlic and leek flavors that predominated, with a rich base. It was solid.
escargot and chicken liver: at first the sweet and sour flavors tasted kind of like general tso’s sauce on the escargot, but then when mixed with everything else, the dish made more sense (it needed the oomph from the liver to balance out the sweet). However, it was short-lived as there were FIVE total escargots on the plate – five! booo. It was a shame because when all the favors combined, it was actually a very nice symphony in there!
the tetra-chicken: there were at least four preparations of chicken on this plate, and while some of them were snoozeville (the poached breast had a nice texture but underwhelming flavor and was underseasoned), others were great (that chicken skin was ridiculous). It was good fun trying to figure out what was chicken and what was not (given all the shapes of the items on the plate), but ultimately, as soon as you found your favorite “piece”, you were less inclined to go back and eat the other pieces …
steak and mushrooms: this dish was a little disappointing. First off, let’s just put it out there: it failed to reach Garces Trading Company goodness (and certainly would come in at a higher cost). The cut of meat was nice, and the application of heat was technically sound, however, the flavor was underwhelming – it was reminiscent of the steak we had in Paris (the one at Le Chateaubriand, not the one that gave us gastroenteritis). So in the end, it tasted like steak, which is good, but it just didn’t taste like a $30 entree steak. Does that mean it’s kinda-sorta-a-fail? The veggies and mushrooms were a nice touch (although underseasoned), but weren’t enough to carry the dish home. Sorry will.
In all, as the title of the post suggests, we found Will to be a little to “fussy”. We like the idea of pushing the envelope, but sacrificing flavor depth is not an adequate trade-off. For example, the food at Fond is not quite as “fussy” as Will’s, but in the end Fond’s dishes are reliably delicious and will knock you on your ass if you’re not ready for them (and will likely be cheaper to boot!). Sorry Will – for right now, I can’t join the love-fest of all the critics, and I’m going to have to pass. Fortunately, the friends and wine that night more than made up for the food – it was a fabulous dinner overall! Oh – I almost forgot – the desserts were actually quite good – including the chocolate cake they made for n’s birthday! I think that I enjoyed the desserts more than the meats, so that was a splendid finish to the meal – I give them props for not snoozing on dessert!
a cheu dinner … gesundheit!
t says: kp, a, and v went out to dinner without g and me. That’s cool – I’m sure we were working or something. In any case, here for you, they recount their tales of that wonderful April night …
April 2013, Thursday Dinner, Party of 3. We had a one hour wait and and decided to hit Varga Bar before Cheu Noodle Bar.
Varga Bar Chicken Wings: We got their chicken wings, knowing we’d get wings at Cheu. Varga’s were very approachable. They had a nice tang glaze which could have used a touch more heat. Overall, refreshing with tender, juicy meat with mild duck fat flavor. The blue cheese dip was much more for the celery than a needed accompaniment of the wings.
And now for the main event: the newly opened Chew Noodle Bar:
Uncooked ramen with spice: Brought us back to college with a great crunch and impressive heat.
Scrapple: The sweetness of the dish was the most memorable note. A subtle scrapple, not the typical savory punch you in the face type pork concoction. The crunch of the outside had the perfect sizzle but the overall loaf was soft.
Dumplings: Light and airy, again a subtle way of presenting pork with a mild deficiency in salt.
Buns: First, ask nicely and get all three types. The pork had mild crunch on the bun with subtle sweet meatiness of ridiculous soft pork belly. Maybe the crunch in all three was due to cucumber? The “burger” had perfect cilantro pop to a meaty party, but our party disagreed on how good it was overall. The mung bean is best described as an Asian, falafel so good my mother would eat it!
Wings: Sadly undersalted, but great crunch and no grease. Juicy and tender, much like Varga’s, but again a need for more heat.
Cold sesame noodles: Light airy noodles with less starch and more flavor… Dare we say better than Han’s? (t interjects: for real? no way! now I have to go there!)
Briskest noodle soup: What. A. Mess. By far the weakest link due to a starchy Asian broth (that was more like gravy) and overcooked soggy noodles. And again, the dish lacked salt.
a and v say: So … in summary … right now, the feel of the place is a hybrid between Alla Spina & a typical Philly BYOB (with an Asian flare!). Would we go again? Definitely but be ready for some inconsistency and to have “minor” dishes stand above the big boys. This place has promise but they need to get their noodles/soup in order. The undersalting is a surprise but could be due to a lack of MSG-type flavor enhancers (a good thing) or a want to be “under instead of over” (a less good thing). Oh, and one final note, GET THERE SOON WHILE THEY ARE STILL BYOB.
pancake-off: cochon vs. honey’s
t says: There are two kinds of brunch spots in Philly … the kind that everyone knows about and waits for religiously every Sat/Sun morning … and the kind that, for some inexplicable reason, go unnoticed. (Actually, there’s a third kind, too: the expensive kind like at the Four Seasons or Lacroix … but who can afford that regularly?) For this post, I’ve put adsz fave Cochon vs. everyone-and-their-mother’s-fave Honey’s for Battle Pancake …
Challenger: Cochon’s Banana and Chocolate-smothered Pancakes – just as fluffy as it used to be, but now served on a plate so you can behold it’s massive height! It features this banana-nut-laden bread (that’s different than before when the banana and walnut were just on top of the pancake) – and I know that it looks burnt (I was about to complain when I first saw it), but when I tried it, it actually added this really addictive toasty flavor and a super-light crunch to the outside – it’s more like a burnt sugar than a burnt bread – very weird. I’ll dock them the points for the appearance as it looks a bit dark, but I’ll leave the points alone for taste, as the pancakes were truly delicious – I can almost finish the entire plate!
“Champion” (by wait time): custom concoction of banana-chocolate-PB pancakes at Honey’s. Ultimately not as fluffy and loses points for undercookedness in the center of one of the pancakes – likely due to poor distribution of stuffings causing concentration in the center, thus making it more difficult to cook … sorry guys – i can’t take the blame if you’re a little sloppy. I ate around the undone area – it was fine, but at +1.50 per topping, the bill racks up so it’s as expensive as Cochon’s.
Winner: definitely Cochon. And that’s not to say that Honey’s was bad – aside from the uncooked part, it was quite delicious. But I think the problem is that it’s not remarkable; I could make the same exact pancake at home … actually … I could do it better. However, Cochon’s fluffy pillow of love is something that I know that I can’t make at home no matter how hard I try (if someone gave me a recipe, I could give it a whirl). Consequently, I have to give Cochon the nod for better pancakes. Because of this, I just don’t foresee us waiting in line for Honey’s on the weekends, ever. Plus, Cochon has other little “perks” of going … like this:
“Widowmaker” … no – that’s not what it’s called on the menu … but it should be! This guy probably has ~2500 calories, 2473 of which are from fat … it’s totally crazy (and crazy-delicious! it’s sr’s favorite! and i think that v even tackled it once!)
sbraga: taste of the south
t says: What follows is a blow-by-blow account of a dinner kp had at Sbraga. It is rare to hear kp gush about a restaurant like this. So now that’s twice that Chef Sbraga proves that he can cook (for the first time, see here)…
kp says:
Duck Fat Biscuit with Bell Pepper Jam (no pictures): The biscuit looked nice and fluffy with multiple buttery layers. It was definitely nice and airy on the first bite with a nice subtle hit of duck fat. The bell pepper jam was delicately sweet with small amount of heat at the end; I wish though it had a been a little more heat like a jalapeño jam. For a Southerner this was a nice way to start off the meal.
Pimento Cheese Stuffed Jalapeño: Now I was happy they were taking a Southern Staple and stuffing it into a jalapeño- something I have always wanted. So on first cut the cheese comes oozing out. It was warm and gooey with nice heat of paprika too. The outside crust was perfectly crunchy and not too heavy. It was served with some creme fraiche that was a great cooling element after the warm heat.
Collard Green Oysters Rockefeller: I love oysters and these crunchy delights were just amazing. They had this beautiful parmesean bacon crumble on top that was perfect to the salty ocean water flavor the oysters. The substitution of collards for typically spinach was money because that mild bitter taste was just perfect.
Eggs over Easy and Grits with Benton’s Bacon Crumble: By far the standout of the meal was this grits dish. I am very particular about grits (t interjects: no seriously – taste kp’s grits one day and you’ll find out why) and these were perfectly cooked. They used broth from poached bacon to start the grits. They were perfectly creamy and seasoned to perfection. The eggs and bacon were a nice cut of salt into the grits. The romano cheese and prosicutto on top were a nice cold contrast to the hot eggs and grits. You could tell a lot of love was put into this one.
Crab Fritter, Pickled Green Tomatoes & Hominy: I really liked the fact they switched up the classic fried hushpuppy into a crab fritter. I loved how they resisted frying the green tomato too. The crab fritter was nice and crispy on the outside and then interior was nice a soft. The tabasco mayonnaise as the dipping the sauce was a nice subtle heat with meal. The acid of the pickled tomato was nice cut into the heaviness from the fritters. I do wish though that fritters were a little more crunch and browned a little more for my tastes.
Tennessee Hot Chicken, Cole Slaw, White Bread, Pickles: WOW! So this a traditonal Nashville fried chicken dish. Typically fried chicken with paprika and cayenne in the flour and after being fried the whole thing is dowsed in hot sauce. Now the most drastic thing about Sbraga’s version was NO sauce. But I won’t harp on him for doing this because the crunchy batter was perfectly seasoned with the right heat and even a little bit of tang too. The first was a heavenly mix spicy crunch crust with juicy meat of the guinea hen. Each bite had great heat (I wanted more but I like spicy) that didn’t set your lips on fire. Now the coleslaw and ranch dressing was a lot of cream to accompany the chicken and I think a little overpowering for the chicken. I wish they had put a little less ranch on the plate and made the coleslaw with just vinegar and no mayo. There take on white bread was amazing, a simple crustless small piece served with the pickle was nice and simple and a good contrast to the slaw and chicken.
Smothered Pork Chops, Brussel Sprouts: So these were a delight, typical of Southern “smothering’ which means onions, tomato gravy that a meat is baked in. There version was just beautiful the meat was perfectly cooked and the gravy was nice and fatty with sweet onion taste. The gravy had the right thickness and salt and just really brought out the mild pork flavor.
Pecan Pie, Bourbon Ice Cream: Now I love pecan pie, probably my favorite dessert after red velvet cake. The portion size was perfect after such a large meal. The crust was nice buttery flakiness. The filling was just the right amount of sweet with the pecans. But the real star of the plate was the bourbon ice cream- just phenomenal- sweet caramel and honey with nice bold smokey bourbon flavor.
Fitler Dining Room
t says: g and I have been psyched about the Pub & Kitchen expansion for quite a while; Meme wasn’t bad (for dinner), but it just wasn’t thrilling enough. And as the P&K crew moved in, set up shop, and painted over Meme’s yellow, g and I have been peering in windows and open doors (when we could – they kept stuff under wraps for a while), hardly able to contain ourselves. For the record – it’s not because we think P&K is actually all that good in terms of food, rather, just because the new Fitler Dining Room is physically the closest restaurant to our front door … so of course we were hoping for deliciousness!
February 2013, Sunday Dinner, Party of 3. We got together with bw to celebrate FDR’s opening. The menu looked a little pricey, but we just had to try it. I have to say that the person on the phone wasn’t particularly nice to me when I asked how much corkage would be, addressing me with a tone of superiority as if it would be unthinkable that a patron would want to bring their own wine to their establishment. Look. I’m sure your wineguy/gal did a very nice job on your wine list. I’m sure that your wines taste fine. All I’m saying is that the emotional connection I have to a wine that I went out of my way to hunt for and acquire (and in some cases, transported thousands of miles on a plane) might make something taste more-better than something I know that I’m paying a 100-200-300% markup for … (As a former neuroscientist and human being, I can safely say that state of mind dramatically affects perceived tastes … why else does “every table wine in every restaurant in <insert French or Italian city here> taste way better than those in the US”? It’s cuz you’re frickin’ in that French/Italian city on vacation! duh!). Ok, stepping down from my soapbox: I did find a cab franc on their list that was actually quite delicious – almost worth the amount that I paid for it! And g sipped on Gruet – an old-time standby in our home for bubbly wine. bw had some other sparkling which I’m not recalling …
Now for the the pictures!
the inside of the place is dimly lit (in a good way) and featuered nice dark tablet-tops, plenty-big wine and water glasses – it really looks quite nice in there – like a good date spot. Also, the servers are clad in Japanese selvage denim aprons (but they couldn’t tell me more about them – I was quite intrigued! I might want to acquire one of those!) It has the feel of a small-cozy Brooklyn restaurant but with a nice clean aesthetic and a dose of nonchalance (real nonchalance – not contrived hipster nonchalance). That said, the servers were spot-on with a polite attitude, constant attentiveness, and precise execution – it was like they’ve been doing this for months, not days …
pillow-soft gnocchi and tender escargot. no – the escargot on their own were not as nearly as good as Bibou’s, but the glory of this dish is that they are not the star – they contribute one component of flavor that is so deftly combined with each and every single other item on the dish. I went hunting so that each fork could have a little bit of everything, and boy was I happy when it worked out. Who knew a toasty hazelnut, a wondeful gnocchi, a tender snail, some herbs and carrot would all come together into something so delicious? True, the combination is a little “fussy”, but boy is it worth it.
salad: fresh, crisp, nicely dressed = delicious. simple and to the point … like a sharp knife.
Shortrib: deciding to see what FDR would do with an already-awesome cut of meat, I ventured the shortrib – I didn’t care if it’s “soooo 2008”. It was the most expensive thing on the menu, coming in at ?$28?, but hey – I’m worth it. Well, the hunk of meat was ginorous. Seriously – look at it! The bone reminded you of what exactly a cow rib looks like. The meat was cooked perfectly with a beautiful glaze/jus, and it balanced beautifully opposite the Cab Franc I had ordered. If I might make one request, it would to have ~20% less meat and give me a little more starch for balance. Every single thing on the dish was perfectly cooked – but I would like a counterpoint to the meat that’s a little more substantial.
“special”arctic char: precisely cooked on top of a sweet butternut squash puree. It was a beautiful piece of fish, but the skin was impervious to the butterknife that g was given – but that’s not a negative of the cookery, rather, an issue of useless knives – don’t hold back on giving fish-eaters an actually sharp knife! (PS if you were really baller, FDR, you would have non-serrated steak knives – I haven’t seen a restaurant with these yet as they necessitate hand-cleaning, but I would give you such mad props if you had these and selvage denim aprons)
carrot cake: solid dessert item – the ice cream really stole the show, but the cake and obnoxiously-splattered sauce tasted good as well – I have no beef with this dessert aside from its presentation …
bw had an assort of items as well, however, I suspect that he was a little less thrilled. For his main, it featured a few versions of pork, including a boudin blanc (aka sausage). He, too, felt that a little more counterpoint to meat would have been nice – be it a starch or vegetable – as otherwise it was a plate of meat. The cheese selection was a little on the wimpier side, but you can’t expect Talula’s Garden’s cheese-person at every restaurant, right?
So, in summary, I have to say that we saw a lot of things we liked at FDR, including a high level of cookery and a lot of good flavors. Going forward, I think striving for a bit more balance in the components of the dish is going to be key in those meat dishes. The tariff is quite high – between the $25+ entrees and the no-BYO+no-corkage-allowed, meaning that I fear that this place is going to be more of a “date” place for g and me (kinda like Valentine’s Day occasion). That’s sad because g and I were hoping that this could be “our” place – but it’s not allowed to be if you can’t afford to go there at least twice a month. Oh well – it was delicious, and now we know we can go, so we’ll keep it in our back pocket … in case of forgotten holidays or last-minute-out-of-town visitors.
P.S. if anyone knows where I can get one of those aprons, hit up our email!
P.P.S. yea – Philly Mag is going to <3 this place … which is sad because they also <3 Meme, too, and look what happened there!
#biwinning @ BLM
a says: Vday Dinner 2013, Party of 2. We had heard many good things about Bistro La Minette (BLM) and were very excited to try it. A cheesy Hallmark holiday like Valentine’s Day seemed like the perfect opportunity. With a bottle of French red in hand (corkage), we trekked toward South Street to see if they could rock our romantic socks.
We were seated promptly (in the back, event room) and quickly transported to a French state of mind. BLM does not have the kitschy, Parisian feel of Parc but it does feel decidedly French bistro via Philly BYO (though it’s not). I started with the foie gras special and v the poached egg with mussels. The foie was lovely and comes in a close second after Fond’s. The bread crumb crust added a nice crunchiness/texture and the blood orange cut through the richness of the fat – a well balanced dish. The mussels were also rich, but complex and balanced. It reminded us both of a Cochon brunch dish (not a specific one, just in execution).
We then split the Bibb lettuce salad to pace our meal and get some greens on our plates. The dressing was perfect, very refreshing. Our waiter then surprised us with their escargot dish. (I had mulled it over against the foie while ordering.) The plating was innovative – little ceramic containers just big enough to fit butter, one escargot, and a toast bite, in that order! The contents, poured on their homemade bread was very satisfying. While they weren’t Bibou caliber, they were very good and an innovative interpretation.
Both entrees were well portioned and less delicate than one might expect at a French bistro – hearty without being excessive. v had the beef cheeks, which were tender and tasty, with (French) gnocchi that could stand with many-an-Italian style. However, the accompanying jus was off, a flavor slightly out of place. I had the rabbit and tagliatelle which was also very good. The meat fell off the bone and exceeded my expectations but the tagliatelle was lacking. The dish needed something to bring it together (More jus? A sauce?). It being Vday, we ended our meal with a shareable dessert, puff pastry with cream and raspberries. The presentation was clean and it was a nice balance of sweet/savory, crunch/cream, and freshness from the raspberries.
We thoroughly enjoyed our meal and actually became more excited when the check came (Say wha??). Our very competent waiter didn’t charge us for the escargot (#obvi), mussel appetizer (#winning), or corkage (#biwinning)! I guess amour was in the air for everyone at BLM that night. We will definitely return to try more of their bistro riffs and specials, hopefully with g & t in toe!
Sbraga surprises
t says: g had been wanting to go to Sbraga for some time. We had wanted to go with a and v, but couldn’t quite get our acts together (and Sbraga’s always too busy on Fri-Sat nights!). So on one Monday, we ditched a and v (actually, we did invite them, but they were indisposed) to go and celebrate g’s new job. What better way than a surprise Monday night dinner? Let’s just say that g and I were in for a wild ride …
February 2013, Monday Dinner, Party of 2. We entered Sbraga after getting fooled by the side door on Pine street and were greeted by a host who, while nice enough, needs to learn how to button up his shirt a bit more – there is no need for anyone to be showing off that much chest … well … unless you cross into d-bag territory, which I’m hoping no restaurant actually employs to be their front of house. So that was first of many surprises that evening …
The atmosphere in Sbraga is very interesting. Half of it is rustic, as one might expect from a Philly chef like Sbraga. But the other half is fancy, with white tablecloths, turned-way-down lights, and ridiculously large dishes (you’ll see below). But there are other elements need to be called out. For one, I’m not sure who designed the Sbraga logo, but what’s the deal with the typography? There are all kinds of spaces between certain letters and not other ones. It’s like SBR_A_GA … what is that? But, as I have no formal graphic design training, I asked g, who confirmed that it is indeed cringe-inducing. Whew! First I thought I was just simply not cool enough to “get it” – at least now I have company! This leads me into another, but related, cringe-inducing item of the evening: I’m pretty sure I saw t-shirts and hats bearing the Sbraga name for sale … Now maybe it was a joke, and maybe the bar wasn’t really displaying merchandise for sale, but if it was, I have no choice but to hang my head down and shake it back and forth in a disapproving manner. For real? Come on guys! Now if the shirts were funny or a “shtick” like at Le Pigeon, I’d be down for it (I have often thought of buying the foie gras one, but fear that I might be a target for projectiles from friend and foe alike). But a shirt just to milk the several-years-old Top Chef victory is a bit much. At least make them buy something food-related, like a chef’s spoon, or a wineglass or something …
Ok, and then the final problem of the evening …
g and I brought an Oregon Pinot Noir along, knowing full well that there’s a $25 corkage fee – but we brought it “just in case” we weren’t able to find suitable options (better to be safe than sorry!). We were happy to see that there were actually lots of wine options at Sbraga. First off, there’s a +$35 supplement where you can add EtOH pairings to your tasting menu ($49 for 4 courses), which sounds like a deal! But because some included carbonated beverages, which I cannot tolerate, I took a peak at the drink menu to see what “else” could be substituted in its place … then I got distracted by their red wine list. At first, I thought, “gee! that’s cool, they have zwiegelt and a Greek red on the menu!” So that was a plus. But then I started reading the rest of the entries … and was shocked …
red wine list
As you can see, I looked at their wine list for Oregon Pinots, thinking that maybe I’d not disrespect their sommelier/wineguy by not asking them to open ours and just going with theirs. But Trisae? Really? $135? Allow me to illustrate:
yea … and this is me not even googling for cheaper prices …
That’s right, it’s a 300% markup (almost). Holy crapballs. Not to mention it’s even cheaper elsewheres (the bottle I had cost me $28). And it’s not even that good of a wine – check our review here (look at the 12/19 tasting note)! With a bad taste in my mouth, I eschewed the winelist, realizing that I could no longer have faith in the wine program if they were going to consider Trisae to be one of their most expensive red wines … So we pulled out our own wine: Adelsheim’s 2009 Boulder Bluff. Damn – now that was a great bottle of wine!
Ok … self-back-patting aside … let’s talk about the really surprising occurrence of the evening, as poor design, weird atmosphere, peculiar merchandise, and horribly-overpriced wines are, in actuality, not all that surprising …
carrot soup: this carrot soup is g’s new flavor of the month – it looks like a puddle of orange-yellow, but was so full of flavor depth that we’re pretty sure that it involves animal somehow – maybe in the “marshmallow”? for real, this was the best soup we’ve had in years (GTC vichysoisse included)
pork belly appetizer: truly surprising, with just the right combination of spice and sour pickles and sweet – it was a masterful way to play around with pork belly and give it the lift of a crudo or ceviche – beautiful!
truffle risotto: in this example of a ridiculously over-sized dish, there’s a black truffle risotto that was so full of flavor (and not just truffle) that g demolished it. I completely forgot what I had because g’s was so good
pork sandwich, with broccoli rabe and cheese: this was the absolute-best-thing-we ate that night. One taste and g completely forgot about her Meatloaf, which, while good (and apparently something they’re known for), was completely outclassed by this dish. It tasted exactly like the absolute best pork Italiano sandwich that Tony Luke’s could ever make … but clearly was fork-and-knife-worthy. It made me pause and reflect on how the flavors could be so deep, when it was just a slab of meat, a slab of ?bread pudding?, some green, some cheese, and some sauce … but it was. As I breathed in and let the flavors dance on my palate, I was reminded of Talula’s Table ca 2008-2009 – the duck-and-beans dish! It had this supreme sense of comfort, but a finish that just kept going on and on – it was like a fine wine (if only wine could taste like a pork sandwich).
It was after the 3rd course when g and I realized that the food here was crazy-good … like old-Sikora-good (i.e. the guy who made those first Talula’s Table diners so awesome). We were kinda-sorta-ready for a letdown of over-hypeness when we first walked in, so this was shocking. Sure, there were two dishes that we are kinda-sorta-neglected, but the other ones were just so awesome that I’m not sure if that’s fair to say the other ones were unremarkable. I will say, though, that the weakest parts of the meal was the dessert; the cheese plate cheese plate and a deconstructed banana split were fine, but definitely not near the level the rest of the meal was at (and nowhere near Talula’s Garden’s offerings).
So, in sum, g and I find that this place is totally worth $49 for the food, which I think is a huge accomplishment, when a four-bell, critically-adored place like Zahav is barely worth the $42/pp price in our eyes. Thus, Sbraga joins the ranks of other “worth-it” fixed price menus, like Sundays at Little Fish and Bibou. I think that going forward, their biggest challenge is going to be the “everything else” aside from the food (i.e. all the stuff I slammed them for in the beginning of this post). I wish them the best of luck – you know we’ll be around for sure … with our own bottles of wine in hand, but around nontheless …
after dinner sneeze 