philadining

Chinatown's not a bad idea, both for price and being able to accommodate the size of the group. Several places have private rooms you can reserve, and it's not always obvious, they're sometimes on an upper floor that's only used for parties or banquets, etc. Sang Kee has a 3rd Floor, Tai Lake has a banquet room on the 2nd floor, The new Ken's Seafood has three private rooms of various sizes on their upper floors, I'm sure there are more... I've been with a group about that big at Ralph's in South Philly, and it worked out pretty well. It's a little further south than you'd wanted, but not too hard to get to. If they stuck to pastas and the like, you can keep it in budget, and while there seems to be some disagreement about the quality or consistency of Ralph's, but I've always had good luck, and I feel confident it will be better than the Olive Garden! More importantly, it's a very Philly kind of place.

From Laban's chat today (4/29/08) I'll have to agree with all of that!

Tria has a good beer and wine selection, and light food, but no steaks, no "ethnic" food and no TV for baseball. So it will cover some of your desires, but you may need to bar-hop a little to get the other things.

The buzz just continues to grow: Alex Chadwick from NPR visits Talula's Table and declares that it might be the best meal he's ever eaten. The radio piece is available for listening on this page along with some photos, and even a recipe. It's a little bit surprising that the Pope didn't drop by and canonize them while he was in the states, but hey, he had a busy schedule.

I might just be ordering the right things, but on my recent visits to the Cantina, the food has been as good as ever. Cochinita Pilbil, Goat Tacos, Avocado and Pineapple salad, the chocolate/banana empanadas... um... wow, actually, it's embarrassing, I just keep ordering the same stuff over and over again! So maybe I can't really say anything helpful about most of the menu. Anyway, I'm not sure I'd recommend going down there anyway, if they're concerned about getting lost outside of center city. It's not THAT hard to find, but between the one-way streets and the diagonal of Passyunk Ave, it can get dizzying. I can't think of one place where you're guaranteed to find a good steak/wine/ethnic/beer/baseball game on TV. The Standard Tap often offers a very fine steak frites, and they have excellent beer, decent wine, and good food in general, although I wouldn't call it ethnic. There's no TV. North Third might get closer for the steak/vaguely-ethnic food thing, and they have a good beer selection and OK, affordable wine. There's a TV over the bar, that depending on your timing, could possibly be showing a baseball game. The Royal Tavern might have a steak, it's not on the regular menu, but it's not unusual for one to be on the specials. (They've got an excellent burger, if that's a viable fall-back.) I wouldn't call the other stuff ethnic per se, but there's some variety. They have a good beer selection, and a surprisingly interesting wine list too. There's a TV over the bar that could possibly be showing a baseball game. Brigid's or Monk's might work for the food. Neither is a gourmet destination, but they have decent-enough food, huge Belgian beer lists, some wine too, but, again, no TV.... I'm probably forgetting something obvious, but I just can't think of a place that's sure to have the kind of food you're looking for, and is likely to have a game on... (ahh, just saw Katie's post about St Stephen's Green - that sounds viable. I sat outside when I was there and couldn't remember if they had TVs.)

I'd imagine a Fisher's pretzel dog would be really good, just because the pretzels are so delicious. Ooh, can you get melted butter on your pretzel dog? It may not quite be Fisher's, but I was pleasantly surprised at how fresh and light and good the Khyber pretzel was. And while I won't go so far as to say that beer is required, it is highly recommended...

Wow, sorry to hear about your experience Jeff! I didn't say anything even though it's in my general neighborhood, because I hadn't been there for a long time. I didn't stop going because it was bad, I just found other places I found more interesting. I have heard a few raves about it, and not just handmc's upthread. A year or two ago I randomly got chatting to an Indian guy who lives in the area and he told me he liked that place, that it was where he and his wife went if they felt like restaurant food. They were vegetarians, if that makes any difference. I've been planning on going back for some time, and just haven't gotten around to it. So hey, thanks for jumping on that grenade for us, we owe ya one! If the situation comes up again, I've had good luck at Desi Village, on Gulph Road, just on the opposite side of 202 from the mall.

I think truffles and caramels and turtles hold a little better than cupcakes do, so are more practical for their current situation. If we were someday to see an R+D shop with an oven in close proximity to a sales counter, I'll bet cupcakes would be a possibility. Or at least we should all hope so!

Tim, you should have made your brother get some meatballs, or something on noodles... But thanks for the report, it's interesting that they were running out of stuff. XLB take some time to make, and the filling especially is time-consuming, so this might be a problem for a while.

Oh, right, I kind of remember those... right - OK, but no big thrill.

We'd spotted Xiao Long Bao at another place in Chinatown, so made an exploratory run. As it turns out, the restaurant is in transition: they're new, but already changing the menu around, and so things were still a bit unsettled. They were out of many of the things on the menu, and we just barely scored the last basket of XLB. But from a conversation with the manager(?) later that evening, we're confident that this is a place to keep an eye on and try again soon. Xiao Long Bao These tasted pretty good, but the wrappers are a bit too thick and dense. Not bad, better than not having any XLB, but the ones at Dim Sum Garden are much more delicate and tasty. Pan fried Pork Dumplings I thought these were excellent. Not everyone agrees with me, but I prefer this pot-sticker style, fried on one side, steamed on the other. Pig's Feet These don't look all that attractive, but they were delicious! Very tender meat and a bit of fat, braised in a way similar to the classic "red-cooked" technique, the intense sauce carrying a strong star-anise kick. Chicken Feet These were not a big hit at the table, a little too plain. I noticed on the menu that there are two versions of chicken feet, one appears to be cooked in a similar way to the pig's feet, so we'll have to try that after they get things settled. Traffic driving in was bad enough that I was too late for the spare ribs and shu mai, so I'll let someone else describe those. Again, it's too early to say for sure, but I suspect this will be an interesting spot. Zhi Wei Guan: 900-block of Race, I don't recall the exact address...

I think this could be the greatest bar snack ever. The Khyber's Pretzel Dog. Why is it so awesome? 1) The dough is apparently made in-house, and freshly baked around your dog. 2) Salty dough + good quality hot dog = pig in blanket x 100. Somebody check my math, but I'm pretty confident of that equation. 3) The Khyber has beer to accompany it. It might be good without beer. It's profound with beer. It's not on the regular menu, but it's a frequent special. The only bummer: the Khyber kitchen is only open until 7pm. I'm told it gets too crazy with the live bands, and a cover charge at the door if people are just coming in to eat. Personally, I'd pay the cover to get in, to order a Pretzel dog, but that's just me...

Another quick snack from Indo Malay Kitchen in Exton: That's a "Tandoori Chicken Plait" which is to say, an airy, slightly sweet bread, with chicken and cheese on it. It's in a case just at room temp, but if you eat there they'll heat it up for you, or you can just pop it in an over for a couple minutes to warm it up a little. I thought it was really tasty, and the airy texture of the bread was very enjoyable. I also tried a curry chicken puff: Very light, flaky puff pastry, but the filling was a little dry. Probably would have been good with something to dip it in. There are several such stuffed/topped breads available, lots of dessert cakes and pastries, some chaat, dosas, and a few basic Indian dishes. No trace of anything Malay. There actually may be more food available, but they never seem to actually have any menus when I'm there, they say they're coming. But even if I'm just guessing at what things are, I'm already liking this place for a simple lunch or snack. I don't think it's super serious food, but very enjoyable for a quick bite.

There's a new contender in the Philadelphia Chocolate scene: Rick Nichols wrote a really nice article about R+D Chocolates, currently available at the Fair Food Farmstand in the Reading Terminal Market. AND!! R+D is featured today on Philly Mag's Taste Daily blog. A few eGulleteers have been lucky enough to serve as test subjects for early tweaks, and so can testify that they are indeed crazy good. Congrats to Rae + David for the much-deserved attention, and condolences to the rest of us, because I suspect the demand is going to outstrip the supply for a little while... oh, right, and they have a website: www.rdchocolate.com

Yeah, it's funny, we stopped-in about 1:30 on sunday, and sure enough, we spotted at least one customer with the Inquirer review in-hand. It seemed like a few tables were filled with likely Laban followers, but they weren't completely inundated, at least at that hour. I'm not sure how it was earlier. We did see a couple of groups that certainly appeared to be first-timers look in the door and give up when they saw no open tables. I suppose that's strong evidence that they were newbies: if they'd been there before they would have felt compelled to stick around, ensnared by the lure of steamed juicy buns. The food was excellent: XLB, pork/napa dumplings, vegetable buns, meatballs, chicken on a stick, pork chops on noodles. Even the mundane stuff is very satisfying and well-executed. For instance, you can't get much more basic that grilled chicken on a skewer, but it was tender, juicy and flavorful. I'd get it again. The meatballs are great. I think my favorite thing was the pork chops on noodles. The meat was tender and tasty, and there was a thick sauce that soaked the noodles nicely. Of course the XLB were great, although we were having some problems with them sticking to the mat on the bottom of the steamer, resulting in some tragic soup leaks. We'd eaten some XLB at another place a few blocks away a little earlier in the day, and although they weren't nearly as delicate, they solved this problem by having some cabbage on the bottom of the steamer, so we had no sticking or ripping. Despite any bun-removal trauma, it was a great batch of dim sum.

It's getting close to the Sly Fox Bock Fest (May 4, 2008) in Phoenixville. German food, lots of beer including several Bocks, and most importantly, Goat races.

If you have about 8 hours of your life to give up, read through this thread on Chowhound, featuring numerous reports by the inexhaustible "FelafelBoy,." He's a little fixated on lunch buffets and their sambhar, or lack thereof, but there's a lot of detail about the various options out in the burbs, especially in the rt 202/rt 30 area.

That ribeye at Osteria is crazy good. It also has the distinct benefit of allowing you to have a Lombarda pizza as an appetizer.

The fact that the owners did admit to what they were doing makes me think that they are more deluded than just plain old greedy or evil. I think they sincerely think that what they're doing is OK. That doesn't make it OK, but I don't think they were scheming to secretly rip-off the waitstaff, it seems that the workers knew what was up. If Arbol Cafe has found servers who are happy to work under their system, I suppose that's between them. But I agree that the owners need to be clear about what is happening. That's easy enough. They just need to write on the menu, or on each check, "service is included but we gratefully accept donations to help renovate the restaurant" or some such thing. That way the customer knows what's going on. But it's not totally black-and-white: the fact is that all kinds of things happen to tips that you as a customer may or may not intend. A lot of places pool tips, so that fantastic gratuity you just left your server might be getting split with a bunch of folks who never did anything for you. Maybe your waiter was great, but the busboy dropped dirty plates on you, the bartender made you a terrible drink, and the host was a jerk. Guess what, those guys are getting some of whatever tip you left. So it's not as if customers have complete control over what happens to tips we leave. That said, I'm in agreement with the above sentiments: the assumption is that tips go to the servers, and I'm not dining there until this issue is straightened out. If they adopt a service-charge-included pricing structure and pay their staff enough that they don't need tips, more power to them. If they want to solicit donations to help with the restaurant renovations, fine. They just need to be clear about what's what.

They charge for a basket (or half basket) of bread at Dano's Heuriger in Upstate NY, but it truly is very good bread. There's a wide variety, and it's freshly made. I was surprised about it the first time I saw it, especially given that some of their other specialties are cheesey spreads, so you kind of have to buy some bread to put them on. But in the end, the bread is good enough, and the price is reasonable enough that I never hesitate getting a full basket. And in this case, there'd be no reason not to take any excess home. They charge $4.75 for a full basket, $2.75 for a half. The smaller portion is plenty for two people, not that I've ever been able to stop at a half regardless of my party' size. half: whole: Of course, these were the prices last year, it'll be interesting to see if they feel obliged to raise them.

I love this image of the staff refolding napkins as customers are leaving mid-meal due to being ignored. Almost a perfect example of rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.

I'm finding myself totally obsessed with the Cantina's goat tacos. They've actually surpassed the Al Pastor at Taquitos de Puebla as my favorites. The roasted pineapple and avocado salad is pretty amazing too. Take a little of that salad and put it on the goat tacos: yow, you've really got something!

I'm thinking I might not do too well ordering at Old Original Nick's. What does "overboard on the outs" mean?

Is that really 5 steaks on the dinner menu? Not that there's anything wrong with that...

How about a Carnitas Torta?