New Philadelphia Restaurants Fall 2015

[hramz3]

 

The thread is titled "New Philadelphia Restaurants 2015", I'm not sure why you'd expect opinions on the cheesesteak (ugh) or the roast pork and rabe sandwich (High Street on Market).

 

 

Ditto. That question made my head hurt. 

 

I'm most looking forward to Neuf. Lachman has really impressed me with Nord, and this is another obscure cuisine that I little access to.

[Buckethead]

I checked out the new Kanella over Apopelypse weekend, it was as great as ever. The space is very nice, much more inviting than when it was Village Belle and a big step up from the spartan (though comfortable) setting at the old location. Our service was a little off (wine glasses empty for too long) but the servers were mostly new faces to me, I guess with the bigger space they've had to hire some new help. I couldn't swear to it but I believe the signage and menus all said just "Kanella" and not "Kanella South". The wine list is inexpensive, if I remember correctly the prices topped out at $14 with several $8-$9 choices, including some Greek varieties that you don't see very often in restaurants, like Retsina. The food was spot-on as it usually is at Kanella.

[Holly Moore]

My favorite cheese steak nowadays: The Spot food truck. . Spot uses sirloin instead of ribeye because "sirloin is made to be cooked fast. Ribeye isn't." Had mine with Cheez Whiz and sauteed onions. They use the same onions as for their burgers, another plus.

 

 

Cheesesteaks junkfood? Hardly.

 

Can't wait to get to Neuf. Along with north African fare they are serving a traditional Marseille bouillabaisse - broth and fish as separate courses.

Edited October 6, 2015 by Smithy
Added photo at member request (log)

[huiray]

Ditto. That question made my head hurt. 

 

 

It would be nice to know of new cheesesteak restaurants opening up too - and which *would* be classified as restaurants if they weren't, say, food trucks or push carts; or a take-out counter only.

[gfweb]

Cheesesteak and restaurant don't usually go together. There may be a few tables, but the thing is meant to be 'to go'.

[huiray]

Yet most of the cheesesteak places have customers who eat the stuff right there on the premises, at those tables or even at stand-up counters. They're restaurants.

 

ETA: Even those two "reviews" referred to above have the cheesesteaks consumed on the premises, when the stuff had just been assembled, as it is meant to be eaten as I understand it - rather than the congealed stuff which it might become if one were to cart it away to some other place some distance away. (Hardened congealed Cheeze Whiz --- not something that strikes me as delectable)

Edited October 12, 2015 by huiray (log)

[gfweb]

To me, a restaurant has many tables with waitstaff,  chairs, a menu and metal cutlery.

[Buckethead]

Can't wait to get to Neuf. Along with north African fare they are serving a traditional Marseille bouillabaisse - broth and fish as separate courses.

 

Can you elaborate a bit on this bouillabaise preparation? I tried Neuf last week, ordered the bouillabaise, and was served a dish of fish, shellfish, and veg with no broth whatsoever. I figured it was some broth-less version of bouillabaise I'd never had (I don't get it often), but from what you're saying, that's not true and they totally forgot to serve us the broth course. That would be a big letdown for a dish that costs (I think) $28. Of course, everything else we had was also a letdown so we figured the bouillabaise was just ill-conceived, not incomplete. Even without that apparent screwup, I wouldn't recommend Neuf, I like Noord a lot but the menu at Neuf made a lot of promises that the dishes just didn't deliver on.

[Buckethead]

Can you elaborate a bit on this bouillabaise preparation? I tried Neuf last week, ordered the bouillabaise, and was served a dish of fish, shellfish, and veg with no broth whatsoever. I figured it was some broth-less version of bouillabaise I'd never had (I don't get it often), but from what you're saying, that's not true and they totally forgot to serve us the broth course. That would be a big letdown for a dish that costs (I think) $28. Of course, everything else we had was also a letdown so we figured the bouillabaise was just ill-conceived, not incomplete. Even without that apparent screwup, I wouldn't recommend Neuf, I like Noord a lot but the menu at Neuf made a lot of promises that the dishes just didn't deliver on.

 

Seems it's too late to edit my post, anyway there was actually a little bit of broth in the bottom of the bouillabaise dish. It was actually ordered by someone else at my table, not me, and they just let me know that it wasn't totally devoid of broth as I said. It was pretty scant relative to the other ingredients, if the restaurant did intend to serve the broth separately that would have been a nice addition to what we got. As I said above, even discounting the bouillabaise entirely, nothing else I tasted made me want to return.

Edited October 12, 2015 by Buckethead (log)

[Holly Moore]

Traditionally, the bouillabaise broth is served first and then the fish with some more broth.  See link:  http://www.hollyeats.com/Miramar.htm

 

Neuf told me through Facebook that this is how they would be serving it.