Kanella

[Andrew Fenton]

The Cypriot breakfast is indeed on the lunch menu, and it looks terrific. Eggs, ham, halloumi: what could be wrong? Kanella isn't open at breakfast hours, but I suppose that the dish would be an ideal breakfast for the late risers among us.

Oh, and I note that the current issue of GQ also has an article about breakfast spots (I think the only Philly location mentioned is Little Pete's, for scrapple.) I guess all the cool men's magazines are doing that nowadays...

[Buckethead]

So I'm reading Laban's Kanella review, and wondering yet again what the point of the bell system is when the bells appear to have no relation whatsoever to the text of the review. He lavishes praise on the chef, the food, and the service. The worst he can say about the servers is that they can be 'quirky', yet he admits that 'each of our waiters proved to be charmingly enthusiastic, skilled pros.' The only words written about the food that are not *glowing* are these:

'There were few disappointments - a bland baby octopus; some overspiced green beans; a few bones left in the whole dorado.'

That's it. The rest of the food is described as 'transcendent', 'masterful', one dish is described as 'one of the most profound dishes I've eaten all year.'

So that's only good for two bells?

[Mummer]

So that's only good for two bells?

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My newspaper says Excellent - Three bells.

When I saw that, I said, "Damn! It will be months before I have that Cypriot breakfast."

[Buckethead]

So that's only good for two bells?

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My newspaper says Excellent - Three bells.

When I saw that, I said, "Damn! It will be months before I have that Cypriot breakfast."

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Three bells is more like it! But online it has two bells:

http://www.philly.com/philly/restaurants/2...08_Kanella.html

I wonder which one is Laban's actual opinion? Maybe this is his way of saying it's 2.5 bells?

[Mummer]

I'd figure the print edition is more tightly edited, altho' things are probably tough all over a bankrupt paper.

[Rich Pawlak]

Bells are EXPENSIVE, people!

I'm sure it's just more Inquirer cutbacks. Times are tough all over, you know.

[rlibkind]

As of this writing, it's now three bells online

Hey, mistakes were made . . .

[zeffer81]

Just got back from a lovely dinner with my family. Quick recap (after many glasses of wine.)

After we ordered, they delivered bread with some sort of tahini dip which was good, but nothing out of this world. Started with the dip trio: skordalia (very garlicky and tasty); lentil with a hint of anchovy (not an anchovy fan, couldn't see past that) and baba ganoush (very tasty but almost unnaturally creamy compared to other baba ganoush that I have tasted.) Our server brought this appetizer out first explaining that the pita is best right off of the grill, and he wasn't kidding. The other appetizers were warm lamb salad with preserved lemon, roasted shrimp on cous cous?, avgolemono, which was the soup special, grilled octopus and, at the server's suggestion, bireki, which consisted of phyllo dough stuffed with feta, honey and thyme. I don't eat lamb or shrimp, but both were reported to be quite tasty, especially the warm lamb salad. The octopus was fair, but not as flavorful as I would have hoped or expected. The soup came in a large bowl and was flavorful and entirely traditional. The bureki was probably the highlight of the appetizers, especially the side of roasted beets that accompanied the dish.

For entree we had rabbit stew (Mom and fiance,) goat stew (Dad,) grilled lamb loin (bro,) pasta (sis,) and grilled whole dorado (me!) I only tried the pasta and dorado, but Mom and fiance reported that the rabbit was good, not great. Dad polished off his stew, but he'll eat anything, so he's not a good judge. Overall, both of them were tasty but a bit on the spicy side--or so I heard. My brother absolutely loved his lamb and "I don't even like lamb," he reported. My dorado was nicely charred on the outside and perfectly cooked on the inside. The waiter fileted it tableside, pulling open the aforementioned grape leave to expose a noseful of steaming thyme. I'll agree with LaBan that there were a few errant bones, but the fish was otherwise prepared perfectly. My sister's macaroni or "makronia" came with tomato, peas, yogurt and cheese. It was a thick, hand rolled (I'm guessing) generous serving of pasta with a spicy, tomato-based sauce. The sister and I shared our two dishes, and the fish and pasta went together nicely, with the subtle flavors of the fish balancing out the tangy pasta flavors.

We finished with dessert and coffee. The table got a combination of thick, syrupy Greek coffee and "regular" coffee which came in a french press, which is always a nice tough. The desserts were outstanding. We got the trio of house made ice cream, which changes nightly but we were lucky enough to get mint, clove and cinnamon. I am not an ice cream eater, but each flavor was better than the previous one. I was most impressed with the mint ice cream, which was the most obviously fresh and flavorful, although all of them were amazing. We also had the chocolate mousse, which was a bittersweet chocolate topped with a lavender ice cream, which provided a great balance to one another. My sister got the almond and date tart. I didn't love it, but it's a matter of taste--she adored it.

Overall, the service was kind and effusive. Our server, along with the entire staff, was beyond friendly and went above and beyond to accommodate our needs. There is just something about that place that makes you smile and want to join in the fun! Everyone there, from the hostess to the servers to the chef seem like they're having a great time doing what they do--and that means a lot.

[jm chen]

Kanella's starting up brunch again, as of this weekend. Saturdays and Sundays.

[philadining]

A few weeks ago, a few of us dropped by Kanella for a partially off-menu dinner. The plan started as a regular dinner, but started morphing into something more extravagant when one of our party mentioned that he'd noticed some crazy stuff being served as staff meal, and had asked the chef if we could get something like that with a few days notice. Chef Pitsillides offered to make some unusual, traditional dishes if he had some time to acquire the ingredients.

About a week later, we made our way to Kanella, and placed ourselves completely in chef's hands, asking him to just send us whatever he wanted. Some of it was from the menu, some of it most definitely was not!

WARNING! Following are some graphic photos of animal parts that one might not be used to seeing on a plate, so if you're a little queasy about where meat comes from, you might want to skip this post!

We started with a few things from the menu:

Warm Middle Eastern Lamb Salad

Roasted Shrimp

Fried Haloumi Cheese

Horia Tiki Salad

Grilled sausages

And then... the main event:

Roasted Lambs Heads

These required just rolling up one's sleeves and getting messy, picking off bits of tender meat. While it looks a little like a horror movie when presented like this, we've been enjoying cheeks and tongues and various other dishes derived from the heads of various animals in some fairly upscale settings, so we shouldn't be squeamish about confronting the origins of those meats.

The heads had been boiled and then roasted, so it was pretty easy to remove the tender meat from the bones.

But, it was a little messy...

And we weren't done yet.

Next were roasted Wood Pigeon and Partridge

Pork Chop

Goat Stew with Fried Okra

Kanella is a BYOB, and although we probably should have gone with wines from the region, our knowledge of the indigenous wines of Cyprus is a little weak, so we improvised and ended up doing pretty well. Among the highlights:

Amazingly, after all that food, we still felt like dessert, and I'm glad we indulged, because they were all delicious.

Almond And Date Tart with kanella ice cream

Homemade Ice Creams: Kanella, Rosewater, Mint

Assortment Of Traditional Cypriot Pastries

Galatoboureko: filo pastry filled with semolina custard

Lemon And Yogurt Mousse with thyme syrup

Warm Chocolate Mousse with lavender ice cream

It was a consistently delicious meal, I don't think there was a single course that I wouldn't get again. Highlights for me were the warm lamb salad, the sausages, the goat stew, the wood pigeon, and of course the lamb heads. I'm not quite as fearless as some at our table, so I steered clear of the eyes and brains and some of the unidentifiable stuff, but I quite liked the cheeks and tongue and various little bits of whatever.

Another thing that impressed us was that the accompaniments to all the dishes were quite delicious, and we found ourselves raving about the beans, or the chickpeas, or the okra, or whatever the main dish was sitting on. So everything was extremely tasty top to bottom, and we found ourselves mopping-up sauces and eating every last bean. Or at least trying to...

Big thanks to Katie for getting the ball rolling on this, to Kenrick for arranging the off-menu stuff, and most of all to Chef Pitsillides for coming up with a really interesting and enjoyable dinner.

[Andrew Fenton]

Those are some nice-lookin' heads you got right there, Phil. I'm pretty sure I saw them on the cover of the Death Metal Cookbook. Just out of curiosity, how much were you charged for them?

[philadining]

Those are some nice-lookin' heads you got right there, Phil.  I'm pretty sure I saw them on the cover of the Death Metal Cookbook.  Just out of curiosity, how much were you charged for them?

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You know, I can't remember exactly, but I do recall having strangely contradictory reactions to the bill - the most important one was that we all thought it was totally reasonable overall.

I seem to recall that the six of us paid about $60 each (including tax and a good tip) for the whole dinner, which I think was very reasonable. We had a ton of food, and it was all really good. At the same time, I remember glancing at the itemized bill and thinking that the special-order stuff, like the heads and the birds, seemed a little pricey.

But in the end, none of us cared, the meal was delicious, the whole thing felt like a good value, so there didn't seem to be any point to worrying about the prices of individual items.

[KatieLoeb]

I agree. I remember thinking the "special" stuff was a little spendy compared with some of the other items, but the overall price was quite reasonable for the feast we had, the service and the pleasure of chatting personally with the chef for the better part of the end of our meal. I definitely felt like an honored guest, a feeling that's far too rare in most restaurants. We did walk in and give them carte blanche to "feed us", so we really have no room to complain. It was delicious. They couldn't have been nicer. It was worth what we spent. End of story.

[Buckethead]

I was there for dinner this past week and the waiter said they had one lamb's head (and neck!) for one lucky table, we ordered more conservatively but I remember him telling another table that it was $40. We did get the pacu ribs, those were awesome.

[philadining]

$40 sounds plausible...

[jm chen]

They've also got a sign up that they can do a few things roasted whole with notice -- I think they listed goat, pig, and lamb -- and to call for prices.

(Amada's "whole" pig doesn't have the head on it, at least not as the default, but with Kanella I'm not so sure.)

[Andrew Fenton]

A whole lamb would be stupendous. I'd love to do that, one of these days.

[KatieLoeb]

Agreed! Such a feast would be positively epic. Not so much for the lamb..

If anyone wishes to inquire about the feasibility of this, I'd be totally in. My schedule is as yet unknown for the foreseeable future, but I'm certain with enough notice almost anything is possible. I'd be happy to bring lamb-appropriate wine as well.

[Capaneus]

I vote for the goat. Much harder to come across decent roast goat than good lamb - admittedly in discrete parts - prepared in any number of ways.

[KatieLoeb]

There's good goat to be had at Restaurant Acapulco (1144 South 9th Street), I'm told. It's that place with the neon goat in the window across the street from Taquitos de Puebla. There's good curried goat on the menu at Jamaican Jerk Hut too. Just sayin' this isn't a goat-free zone or anything...A whole roasted goat is a different matter.

I would try the lamb or the goat, truth be told.

[Andrew Fenton]

There's good goat to be had at Restaurant Acapulco (1144 South 9th Street), I'm told.

Why yes there is! I haven't been back in a couple of years, though. THAT has to change!

[Capaneus]

There's good goat to be had at Restaurant Acapulco (1144 South 9th Street), I'm told.

Why yes there is! I haven't been back in a couple of years, though. THAT has to change!

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Assorted versions of goat stew are easy enough to get. Actual roast beast is a different matter.

[I_call_the_duck]

Wow, that looked amazing. We went there for the first time last week, and had a great meal. No roast beast for us, but there was a special app of pork cheeks atop of lima beans, which was amazing. (The only problem was that I had to share with a couple of other people.)

[jm chen]

I vote for the goat. Much harder to come across decent roast goat than good lamb - admittedly in discrete parts - prepared in any number of ways.

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Goat report! Did a roast goat experience with a few folks at Kanella last week. Delicious, of course. But very mild and not "goaty" -- due to the youth of the kid, and the chef himself said he liked his a little older. We didn't have enough people to go in for the whole goat, so ended up with a few large pieces instead -- maybe two legs and a shoulder? A good amount of meat, not excessive, and we did apps and desserts as well. The only thing that comes with the goat automatically is fried potatoes (which are, incidentally, out of this world.)

For roast meat bargain-hunters I think the suckling pig experience at Amada is a better value (that one's closer to $40 a person before tax and tip, this was more like $60) but it was a solid, unusual, delicious meal.