philadining

Called up on a recent tuesday, and they could only squeeze us in at 9pm, but we took them up on it, and I'm glad we did. None of the problems that we run into before, everything was very carefully cooked and quite delicious. The menu's been tweaked, as it often is, but has the same basic array of offerings, just slightly different preparations. I really like that, although one has to embrace the fact that your favorite dish might not be quite the same next time you go. The octopus app is gone, but there's a grilled squid salad that features perfectly tender rounds of squid, fresh greens and a solid chile pepper kick in the dressing. Bruschetta is served with fresh mozzerella and roasted peppers on two of the toasts and a gorgonzola dolce and fig on the other two. Simple, but satisfying. Crab cakes are a little different, unfortunately they got inhaled before I managed to sample the new sauce. Chestnut pappardelle had a surprisingly delicate texture. The earthy wild mushrooms had a little bit of grit, but a wonderful deep, dark flavor that melded smoothly with the nutty pasta. Gnocchi were impossibly light, kept from floating off the plate only by the rabbit ragu on top. I have no idea how this chef manages to make lasagne light, but he does, even this version with crumbled sausage in it. The veal cheeks have been replaced by braised shortribs, which had developed an intense flavor and melting tenderness, sparked-up with a little citrus and horseradish. There's also a skirt steak, sliced atop a cool bean salad and doused in an herby sauce that reminded me of chimichurri. This was pretty freaking awesome... Catfish was very moist and tender, accented with tomato and chile. Chocolate budino, a minty creme brulée, a zabaglione, all the desserts were quite nice. They're still offering the $30 4-course menu and it remains a ridiculous bargain. I think the portions have actually gotten bigger, so although they warn you that each course is small, they are actually lying. I can handle that kind of deception. It's pretty loud in there, but other than that, I have few complaints. Except that the good reviews have made it hard to get in. Sorry to add to that syndrome...

I've been back to Siam Lotus a few times since my last post, and I think this is really solid place. I especially liked the Kang Phed Ped Yang: slices of tender duck in a coconut-milk based red curry, with pineapple and cherry tomatoes. The Phad Ped Kai Yang was spicier than it seemed like it would be, another red curry, this time with chicken, little spherical Thai eggplants and bamboo shoots, but no coconut milk to calm it down. One of our party recently got that Poe Tak soup, and it was again stuffed with more seafood than can actually fit in the bowl. I'm still confused. He liked it, and was somehow not sucked into the space-distortion vortex that apparently exists inside their serving vessels. Satay is pretty standard, which is to say, good. A salad with grilled pork had an assertively limey dressing, and a good dose of spice. The creme caramel is not to be missed, and is the perfect antidote to a smoldering palate. Worth noting: they have a better beer selection than most Thai places...

I was really hoping to get there, but got diverted by some other socializing... I'm glad to hear I might be able to hit it next weekend! But I did hear from a friend who went and said it was good: $40 price fixe, 3 courses, a few choices for each course, Piffy menu (escargots, veal cheeks, duck confit w/choucroute, etc.) Sounds good to me! If a few more us don't get our acts together and go, we might have to declare a moratorium on whining about missing Pif. I mean, what's he gotta do? Bring it to us? Hmmm...Piffin...

I guess if the distinction is the default saucing, and the american cheese, the rt100 border (Exton, Lionville, Eagle) is still in the philly camp, mostly... no automatic tomato sauce (although one can certainly get it by ordering a "pizza steak.") Cheese varies: there's not much whiz to be found out this way, but one can find it sometimes. Don't know if that helps...

Cochon 801 East Passyunk (at Catherine) 215-923-7675 We dropped by opening night at Cochon on friday. In all the excitement, I managed to forget my camera, so, sorry, no pics. We think they were very smart in taking only a limited number of reservations, and turning away walk-ins, so that they could start out at a reasonable pace. We really appreciated that they preferred to concentrate on getting it right, rather than packing people in. And they did indeed get it mostly right. There may have been a few opening jitters, but nothing major, overall everything was very smooth. There were no specials this night, but plenty to choose from on the regular menu, about 7 starters and as many mains. (And yes, the menu grammar is pretty clean!) We skipped the onion soup, mussels and mixed green salad to start, and opted for scallops, escargots, chicken livers, and haricots verts salad. These were all very good, but we especially liked the scallops, seared perfectly and placed atop a frisée salad. The haricots verts salad was really terrific too, with crunchy green beans, shallots, tomatoes and a vivid vinaigrette. Escargots were tender, accompanied by wild mushrooms and a concassée of tomato in a garlic Pernod sauce. We could have used a touch more of that anise bite from pernod, but perhaps we're just hung up on the old Pif version. A couple of the snails were a little gritty, I'm not sure if they just hadn't been disgorged properly, or if we got a little shell, but a couple of them were a little crunchier than is ideal. Still, flavor was good, we soaked up the sauce with bread, we just say, more Pernod! Chicken livers were fried crispy, accompanied by crunchy walnuts, in a slightly sweet sauce. These were nicely done. We weren't totally knocked-out by them, but none of us were huge fans of chicken livers, we just thought we'd give them a try. They were good, I'd be interested to hear what others think. For mains, we felt there was no choice but to try both of the pork dishes, the place is called Cochon after all... The braised pork shoulder was large, tender and full-flavored, sitting atop lentils du puy, some chopped roasted brussels sprouts mingling around the bowl. This was very satisfying, although we found ourselves wanting more of those brussels sprouts, so we'd lobby for more, and bigger chunks, of the sprouts. I could really see eating this all fall and winter... The pork chop was gargantuan, served over a fennel hash. The chop was so huge that there was a bit of variation of doneness from bone to edge, but it was mostly very juicy, and even the more-done outer edges were pretty enjoyable. The pork had really good flavor and the hash, spiked with a little bacon, was addictive. Sea Bass was perfectly grilled - it actually looked a little over-done to me, but I was wrong, it was pleasingly moist, and the assertive char on the skin-side was delightful. The risotto underneath was inoffensive, but unmemorable. The braised Lamb Shank looked like something from a medieval royal buffet: a huge knot of tender meat with a long bone protruding skyward. A dark, intense sauce was pooled in the bottom, along with sliced fingerling potatoes and diced rutabaga. It had a pleasingly assertive lamb flavor, developed over the long, slow cooking. We were so stuffed that we didn't have room for dessert, and the offerings were pretty sparse: a creme brulée, a black and white cake, a cheesecake. Presumably there will be more eventually. It's a little loud in there, even in a less-than-packed house, but that seems unavoidable these days. Service was very friendly, if a little rough around the edges, but hey, it was the first night! Overall, a very auspicious beginning. We liked it a lot and look forward to trying the rest of the menu, and whatever specials will be offered eventually. This looks to have the potential to be an almost ideal neighborhood spot, with comforting, delicious food. More reports, and hopefully pics, to come!

In Uduppi's defense, the stuff at 12-O'Clock is one of my lame variations on the make-your-own panipuri. It was actually quite tasty, but if it looks like a poor rendition of something, it should be blamed on me!!

Your pics are fine Percy, I could have taken the night off! It was a very enjoyable meal, with a few real knock-out dishes. Amuse Bouche - Veal Cheeks Wild Mushroom and Pheasant Lasagna Pumpkin Gnocchi with Porcini Cream Country Pâtés - Duck, Rabbit and Venison Escargot Bordelaise with Wild Mushroon Cigar Crispy Japanese (Suzuki) sea bass, artichoke hearts, bourbon tomato coulis Roasted Partridge, huckleberries and shiraz reduction Fromages Caramelized Fig Napoleon with Tahitian Vanilla Gelato - As mentioned, we had a last-minute addition to our party, and quite understandably, the kitchen couldn't add-on another tasting portion on such short notice, so he just ordered off the menu, which was not exactly a hardship! He got a Goat Cheese Souflée And the House-Smoked Pork Chop (which really was as mammoth, and delicious, as it appears, although it was in better focus in person.) as Percy mentioned, a Pumpkin Risotto was subbed-in in an attempt to compensate for a couple of the creamy dishes up front. It's true that very often lactose-intolerant people can eat aged cheese like was grated on top, but that wasn't the particular issue in this case. It was a nice thought, and the rest of the table was happy to polish it off! Overall, I thought the food was excellent, the lasagna near the beginning perhaps my favorite. Or maybe Carl's porkchop.... My fish was quite moist and tasty, so I have no complaints there, and I really enjoyed the tomato coulis that accompanied it. I thought the escargots got stomped-on by the abundant bacon in the dish, but it was still quite good, especially dipping that crunchy mushroom cigar in the sauce. I liked the gnocchi, but thought the pumpkin might have been a bit too subtle. I'm on the fence about he huckleberry sauce, it did complement the partridge, there was nothing wrong with it, but I'll agree with Percy that I might have preferred a less-fruity flavor. But that's purely a matter of taste. The bite of braised veal cheek at the start was an unusual amuse-bouche, but an intensely delicious one. Oh, and I feel like the bread rolls are much better than before! Service was very good: friendly, knowledgeable and efficient. The only down-side to an otherwise very enjoyable meal was some confusion about dietary restrictions. We'd mentioned that someone in our party had a dairy allergy, and another had a shrimp allergy, and after some initial hesitation, they assured us it would be no problem. We certainly have sympathy for how difficult that can be for a chef in a small kitchen, in a busy restaurant (all tables were full that night) but having eaten in this restaurant several times, including having tasting menus twice, it didn't seem like it would be too much of a stretch to avoid milk and cream and cheese, or sub-in something else. But both the lasagne and the gnocchi were pretty dairy-heavy, and were served to the sensitive party without comment. The servers did forward a sincere apology from the chef shortly after those dishes were served, I'm sure it was an honest oversight, and we do understand how it can be hard to keep track of various restrictions, but it put a little crimp in the enjoyment of the meal. Among everyone at that table, we've eaten a lot of tasting menus around town, around the country, around the world. It's generally been our experience that the restaurant will ask about food allergies and work around them, either adjusting what the whole table gets, or making tweaks for the particular diners. We were at one tasting recently that made a dairy-free versions of more than one dish, and I'd gotten scallops substituted for shrimp at another dinner without complaint just a few weeks ago. Again, we can certainly see how a myriad of restrictions could make it impossible to do the kind of creative, spur-of-the-moment, whatever's-fresh, kind of meal that Birchrunville offers. And indeed, a day or two before the event they had told us that they couldn't work around our restrictions, that we'd have to order off the menu. And that's fair enough, I can respect a chef deciding that some array of restrictions is too confining. It doesn't make it any easier for the kitchen, but in our defense, we weren't just being picky, offering a long list of things the various people at the table would prefer not to eat, we had two specific physical allergies. And we've generally been able to work around them. But that's making the dinner sound like a bit of a downer, which was not at all the mood of the night. It was a very nice meal, with good food, good wine, good company, just a touch too much cream! This is still one of my favorite restaurants, and I wouldn't hesitate going back for a tasting menu, or for off-the-menu dining any time. Thanks again to Percy for getting it organized, and to everyone for making the trek out!

I see a few chaat offerings here and there, but for instance, at Desi Village in King of Prussia (are they related to the one in Langhorne?) they have Panipuri, but it's pretty lame in comparison, in terms of the variety of fillings. And my waiter seemed more mystified than I was about how to eat it. Desi Village's Aloo Papri Chaat, however, is excellent. But it is kind of cool at Uduppi to have a wider selection than I see on most appetizer sections of standard menus, and to be able to eat as much as one likes. As for the spicing, nothing took my head off in terms of heat, but several offerings had a solid burn, and aside from heat, I didn't have anything I thought was bland. The filling in the dosas was pretty tame, but as I mentioned, the Mysore versions had some spice in the dosa itself. But I can't comment on the standard menu. That said, although it's not a direct comparison, I think the spicing is more intense at Devi in Exton. Their Mysore Masala Dosa had more chile heat for sure, especially the filling. And several curries from their buffet have had me pretty lit-up, especially on the nights they do Sri Lankan dishes. (photo tech note: I'm opposed to using flashes in restaurants, so that's all available light, shot with a Nikon D-50 Digital SLR, with an 18-35mm f3.5 lens. My 50mm f1.8 does a little better in low light, but the depth of field is really narrow, and it's more sensitive to unstable hands, so I've been having better luck with the wide-angle.) (oh, and thanks!)

I'm probably repeating myself, but for pizza in Collegeville, you really should check out Marzella's (right on the corner of East Main and 5th Ave.) It's somewhat ideosyncratic pizza, but I really like it. And there's a pig on their sign, which is almost always a reliable indicator of a great place.

A few of us hit Uduppi Dosa House for chaat night (wednesdays) and really enjoyed it. (just FYI, if you're googling or something, as you can see from the photo, this topic has the name spelled wrong - it's one D, two Ps) There's a small-ish, but perfectly sufficient buffet with several different items, any one of which could keep me pretty entertained for an evening. But it is a dosa house, so you are offered a freshly-made dosa as you arrive. That's two (spicy) Mysore Masala Dosas, on top of a plain Masala Dosa. They were very tasty, and nice and fresh and crisp. The Mysore version had a nice spicy kick to the dosa itself, but the filling was fairly tame, seemingly the same as for the regular Masala Dosa. The main attraction of the buffet is the Panipuri: little crispy puffs, in which you knock a hole, and fill with your choice of condiments. We didn't quite have the filling thing down at the start, but watching folks mix up batches of varying concoctions gave us a better idea of how it goes, and our later constructions were much more elaborate! And I'm not quite confident of my dipping in the masala water technique, but hey, even our clumsy attempts were pretty tasty. Oh, and they had deep-fried chile peppers too. Those were really tasty, but not surprisingly, delivered a bit of a kick! I think my fave of the night was the Pav Bhaji, the little sandwich filled with spicy potato and chickpea curry. But then, the puff-pastry thing with spicy veggies was pretty awesome too. That white-ish mound in the back is Aloo Papri Chaat, which I must say, doesn't really do so well on a buffet line. It's one of my favorite snacks when mixed-up fresh, but done ahead, it turns into a soggy mass, the texture is just all wrong, and that mix of crunchy, soft, tangy, spicy is the main appeal for me. I'm not sure what these other things were, but they were pretty good, although the cold, yogurt-y thing in the front was not especially thrilling to me. But overall, we really enjoyed the food, and it's about $12 for an all-you-can-eat buffet, with a fresh dosa. I'm eager to go back and just eat Pav Bhaji, and work on my Pani Puri filling chops. I don't know of any place else doing chaat around here, so it's a nice change of pace, and generally well-executed.

Katie, if you can make it in to Matyson for lunch, maybe they'll be serving something like this: We got it at dinner, and it was quite excellent, and a very generous portion for $5. And the foiecathalon: we were amused, impressed, and humbled, by the four people who came in as we were finishing up, all wearing bright red "We Love Foie Gras" T-Shirts. They had indeed been doing a foie crawl, this was their 5th place of the night. So it is possible... I think they said their fave version had been at Bar Lyonnaise, downstairs from Le Bec Fin, but I'm not sure if that was before or after they had sampled the Matyson version.

Matyson often offers a themed multi-course fixed-price menu monday-thurs, but I'm embarrassed to say I hadn't taken advantage of them before this. But something about this week's offering "Old School Classics" caught our attention: But first - Matyson was participating in the Foie for Five promotion, so we couldn't really pass that up: Foie Gras, Onion Marmalade, Cranberry Vinaigrette This was a ridiculously generous portion of foie, perfectly seared, set-off beautifully by the sweet onions and tart cranberries. A toast and some sprouts cut the richness. Fabulous. (Did you get the part about it costing $5?) - OK, on to the old-school menu: Lobster Consommé Deep, rich flavors, in a perfectly clear, light consommé, with a tender nugget of lobster floating within. Old-school technique, perfectly contemporary feel. I really wish we saw more soups like this. Tuna Nicoise Olives, egg, and tomato vinaigrette Nicely-seared tuna, crisp veggies, a little salt from the olives and the potato crisp, a little acid from the dressing, made for a well-balanced and delicious course. Duck Confit a l'Orange Butternut squash This might not look like much, but the duck was so tender it was barely clinging to the bone, in classic confit style. The orange sauce was surprisingly light and delicate. Excellent. Tornados Racini Pan seared filet mignon, crispy potato, foie gras & truffles Yet another huge slab of foie, almost obscuring the pillowy-tender filet mignon underneath. A crispy rosti-style potato was an ideal accompaniment, soaking up the winey sauce. Oh yeah, toss in some shaved truffles too, why not? This is so old school, it was considered passé decades ago, but I think it's time for a resurrection! The beef was surprisingly tasty on its own, but combining it with these other ingredients makes it clear why this was a classic dish. The sauce was lighter and cleaner than some of those stodgy old-fashioned roux bombs that often plagued this school of French cooking. we added-on an order of french fries, because, as I now firmly believe, that is one thing you should ALWAYS get here. Because they rock. Carrot Cake It's not often that one can say a carrot cake is light, but this one was, and yet vibrantly flavorful. A great rendition of this classic, maybe better than the Frog/Commisary recipe. (Oops, does saying that get me thrown out of town?) We couldn't resist sampling yet another dessert, because, you know, chocolate. I forget the exact name for this, but it's a super-intense brownie and bitter chocolate semifreddo. I loved it. This special menu, which included everything except the initial foie course, the fries and the chocolate dessert was offered for the crazy-cheap price of $45 (before tax and tip.) This was one of the most delicious and satisfying meals I've had in a long time regardless of the price, but factor that in and it's undoubtedly the best value I've seen in years. Here's the bad news for you folks: this particular menu is only offered for one more day. It could reappear someday, but who knows when, if ever. So if you have the opportunity, and if they have a table (they were pretty full) go on thursday 10.04.07, and get this. Heck, toss-in a plate of foie for $5. Big thanks to Dave for noticing this menu and getting the ball rolling. I'm really glad we went!

I believe so, but I've gotten fairly negative reports from some friends who have gone recently. But I don't have personal experience from this decade, maybe not the previous one either...

I'm pretty confident that this is the first time I've ever seen this phrase in print, certainly here on eG. Thanks everyone for the descriptions, and Percy for the pix, sounds like a great meal, and I look forward to the next one!

What?!?! Are you people sleeping rather than editing and posting pictures?!?! you must have no compassion for the rest of us...

As of yesterday, Michael Klein had a list up on the Inky's Food & Drink blog that contained no errors I could spot. ← That's Food and Drinq to you, bub...

I'm not exactly sure what to make of these two divergent experiences... I tried the new-ish Joey's 2 Famous Philly Cheesesteaks in Phoenixville (OK, get this - the original is in Detroit...) There was definitely a bit too much nostalgic South Philly schtick on the walls on in the menu for a place in the Philly area. It might make sense someplace where nobody's ever heard of a cheesesteak, but seemed a little surreal here. That said, the first time I went in, I got a perfectly credible cheesesteak, not mind-blowing, but pretty decent. There's a fairly extensive menu of hoagies and cheesesteak varaitions with silly names ("The Godfather" "The Mambo Italiano" etc.) as well as wings, Italian pasta dinners, etc. I went back about a week later and was amused to see about half the menu scribbled-out in black marker, but they still had most of the cheesesteaks and hoagies, so I didn't really care. It was mid-afternoon, so things were pretty slow, but after I ordered my steak, I happened to look over at the grill and see the guy pull a wad of pre-cooked meat out of a pot, and give it a quick toss on the flattop, adding some onions. About 15 seconds later, he slaps it in a roll, wraps it up and sets it aside. THEN I hear them drop my fries. Mind you, there are two customers in the shop including me, and there are, no kidding, ten people behind the counter, some of them in suits and ties, so things should be running tight! Still, they couldn't coordinate the fries and the steak, and worse still, couldn't make me one fresh. I'm thinking the pot of meat is a bad sign, but hey, at some of the iconic places they're not exactly cooking one up special for you, and I wasn't even sure that was my steak, and my other one was tasty, so I figure I'll roll with it. A few minutes later, my name is called, I get a bag, and I go. As I'm driving away, I unwrap the steak, and not only did the meat have a watery, mushy texture, but they forgot the peppers that I'd requested, and paid for. In their defense, there were only ten of them working, and a huge rush of two of us customers... The fries were terrible: seemingly fresh-cut, but soggy, limp and pale. So, I guess it serves me right for getting a Famous Philly Cheesesteak via Detroit. I should have known - the phrase "Philly Cheesesteaks" was right there, staring me in the eye, warning me off, but I succumbed to the phaux philly trappings, thinking it was some folks from the city trying to do a real steak joint out my way.

yeah, what they said... I especially love the pork sandwich and the duck salad. For the record, when I've had the mussels there they have not been gritty, did have chorizo, and were really quite delicious. I wonder what they could be doing wrong? Mussels don't really live down on the bottom, especially not the farm-raised mussels we usually get, so they shouldn't be sandy...

Those pairings offer a great alternative, especially for smaller parties. That was my main concern about the $20 per person corkage: that price is totally reasonable, even generous, for folks intending to match each course, opening several bottles, which is easier at big tables. But it could be a little daunting for, say, a party of 4 that just wants to open two bottles. Being able to spend that same money and get matched wines (at at an appropriate-sized pour for a monday night!) is an excellent solution, thanks for offering it! This makes it even more heartbreaking that I'm tied-up that night, I'm SO bummed to have to miss it. Somebody's got to take some pictures!

Hey Al, Welcome, and thanks for those tips!

It should be noted that the Rochester white hot is often dressed with "hot sauce" which is not too different from the Greek-style chili-ish stuff John mentioned being served elsewhere. Those white hots are usually grilled. And also, just north of New York City in Mamaroneck, I'm not sure it's a whole new variant, but Walter's grilled dogs are really quite fine, especially because they're split before grilling. That's a double dog, well-done, with an alarming amount of mustard. I'm not sure any of the components is individually outstanding, but the whole package is delicious. And the building is cool.

Love the idea of the tasting menus, the menu looks great! Just to double check - corkage at $20 per person? I guess over the course of several wines during a dinner that's not too bad, and better than a per-bottle charge, but $80 corkage at a table for 4 is feeling daunting. Maybe not enough to dissuade me from doing the BYOB... Anyway, looks exciting, thanks for doing it!

I understand that this is a closeout, but there is no mention of it at the store. It looks as if this is a regular item that normally sells for $34.99. Is there any reason to believe that it won't still be available at this price for awhile? ← The manager confirmed that it is indeed a closeout and that it will not be available (at least for some time) once the inventory is gone. BTW, the Phoenixville store does not have this item displayed out front, but they do have it in the back storage area. ← There are still several bottles in West Chester as well. One fewer as of last night....

It's a little too early to really assess what the Silk City Diner will be like under Chef David Katz, who many of us remember from M. He's only recently taken the helm, and is slowly changing the menu, so it's hard to know what to ascribe to him and what to Chef Peter Dunmire, who opened the place, and has since returned to North Third. But we were in the mood for well-made diner food, so gave it a whirl in early september. Southern-Fried Chicken Drummettes Mac and Cheese with country ham and peas Corn Soup with Crabmeat (special soup of the day) Meatloaf Hot Roast Beef Sandwich with Gruyere and onions Bread Pudding, Brownie Sundae The quick and dirty assessment? Starters were fantastic. The chicken drummettes were light and crispy and flavorful. Mac And Cheese had a great crunchy top over a creamy interior, with deep flavor from intense ham. The corn soup was especially stellar, sweet, creamy, and a great base for the ample crab. The meatloaf and beef sandwich were well-made, but kind of conventional. They definitely were well-made diner classics, but I'm hoping to see some more distinctive spark. We'll see. Both desserts were very good, and huge, I don't think we realize the bread pudding was chocolate, or so generously portioned, so the brownie sundae was a little redundant, but hey... Overall, looks promising, but I'm going to wait a little longer to let Katz settle-in before I make a final assessment.

Grilled Shrimp with Herbs in Fresh Rice Noodle aside Ginger-Thai Chili Sauce Avondale Sauvignon Blanc 2006 Seafood Albondigas with Tomatillo-cilantro Salsa Avondale Chenin Blanc 2006 Stuffed Calamari with Wild Mushroom and Duck Rillettes Avondale Rose of Cabernet Sauvignon 2007 Braised Duck Leg with Green Tomato Confit and Roasted Butternut Squash Avondale Cabernet Franc 2004 Grilled Pork Loin with Maple Syrup Sauce with Crispy Onion Rings Springfontein Pinotage 2006 and Springfontein Shiraz 2005 Avondale reserve Syrah Poached Pear in Lemongrass and Sake with Red Beet Sorbet Avondale Muscat Blanc 2006