Paradiso (South Philly)

[Siouxsie]

My father's lady friend had a GC so we checked this out tonight. It was a bit uneven.

The tasty crusty bread came with a trio of dips: pesto, white bean, sun-dried tomato. These were pretty good! I had a glass of a 2004 chardonnay that was OK (forget the name).

She and I shared a salad of spinach, pancetta, parmesan, roasted pear, and cider vinaigrette. Also good--the best part of the meal, in my view. Dad had the lentil soup and said it was too thick.

The entrees were the problem. She had the branzino, which was good, although she wasn't crazy about the skin being left on one side. They also messed up her veg substitute. Dad had the chicken and also asked for a veg substitute, which they got wrong too. He noticed the waiter didn't write the subs down and that may have been the problem. By the time it got fixed, his chicken had got a bit dried out.

Mine was the most unhappy. I ordered the pasta special: handmade fettucine with crab, roma tomatoes, thyme, basil, and shallots. The pasta itself was great, but what I really got was some crabmeat in a basic red sauce. It was kinda bland. The waiter and manager both came over and insisted on having the chef re-toss it with more red sauce, but by that time it was just more of the same and everyone else was done. I guess I was lured by the description and the dish just didn't live up to my imagination based on that description. I appreciate that they did try to fix it though. Good service, overall.

Dessert was the bread pudding, which was pretty good. We were also comped our dessert drinks, so that was a nice finish.

I might go back, but would order differently. To do it again, I'd be likely to just stick with apps and those bread dips!

Happy munching,

Siouxsie

[serpentine]

Siouxsie:

I visit Paradiso fairly regularly with my own parents, and find the food to be generally excellent, with a few caveats, and I would say that you folks managed to eat some of those caveats. The pasta dishes are more rustic than the rest of the menu, and I find the tomato-based sauces to be often clumsy. The soups are hit-or-miss; I've been disappointed with a couple of soups there. But I love the rabbit cacciatore, my mom can't get enough of the octopus, calamari, or whatever seafood salad is being served, and the desserts are usually all winners.

It's pretty traditional for the skin to be left on the outside of the fish when its pan-seared or grilled. It's easy to pull the meat off of the skin, but if your dad's lady friend is squicked by the skin, she may want to stay away from whole fish.

Edited January 3, 2008 by serpentine (log)

[brescd01]

My wife and I ate at Paradiso on the recommendation of my tailor, who is a distant relative of the owner. The food was not outstanding but it was very good and everything was tasty. The service was exceptionally warm, and I mean exceptional. What is the type of service that is not so fawning as to be annoying but generous enough that you feel really, really relaxed? In any event, we will go back there, though I can see that the menu is kind of limited so we will have to limit the visits so as not to get bored.