2nd visit to Vetri

[Kim WB]

Have reservations at Vetri tonite, 9 pm. We will be attending a charity thing at the PL Hyatt, and headed for dinner afterwards.

I went in the Spring, after a wine tasting. I remember a wonderful experience,but was a bit buzzed to recall details...

I'm realizing that it has been QUITE a while since I looked forward to a restaurant visit this much..its a great feeling! Last night, my thought before sleep was " Vetri tomorrow!" and my first thought this morning was the same...anticipation can be so much fun.

Edited December 9, 2003 by Kim WB (log)

[Kim WB]

As a member who used to post here would say, this meal was good to good plus. Not even near great. Dry stuffed pasta, and the guinea hen is so ordinary, even stuffed with foie. I'm a little blue on just how non-wonderful the meal was. I can provide details, but it would just depress me. I really wnated wonderful. I NEEDED wonderful. Ah well.

[herbacidal]

methinks you blew the place up in your mind to especially, perhaps unrealistically, high expectations.

i know i am wont to do that when i anticipate a place/trip/etc. for a long time.

[Kim WB]

methinks I was more buzzed during my first visit than I realized, and then did exactly that, herbacidal!

[Rich Pawlak]

As a member who used to post here would say, this meal was good to good plus. Not even near great. Dry stuffed pasta, and the guinea hen is so ordinary, even stuffed with foie. I'm a little blue on just how non-wonderful the meal was. I can provide details, but it would just depress me. I really wnated wonderful. I NEEDED wonderful. Ah well.

Oh ferchrissakes, tell us about the dinner! Nothing is ever as perfect as we want it, and when a dinner seems so, it's just one of life's bonuses. So tell us what you had! And why it wasn't what you were expecting.

[tim olivett]

I went to Vetri with my Chef when we were able to knock off work a little early one rainy night since we had both been looking forward to going and are somewhat new to Philadelphia's dining scene.

I hope that it was just that night, but like someone said, I had high expectations. Then again, hey, give me 30 seats and I'll just kill you every night. I have to say it almost made me depressed for weeks afterward because I felt like I lost what had been in my mind, a great option for eating out and celebrating special occasions in Philly. I was going to take my fiance for her birthday over the summer and they were closed and I'm glad we wound up having the omakase at Morimoto instead.

The meal (it's been a few months so I'll see what I can remember)

Pastrami cured Foie Gras for an amuse, OK to nice, the texture was nice, presentation felt a little undeveloped, just a slice and some mustard fruits on a b&b plate.

A selection of pastas; His wonderful and justifiably well known spinach gnocchi with brown butter and ricotta salata, certainly the quintessential "little pillows" (the literal translation of gnocchi).

A boring tasteless wild boar ragu with chestnut fettucine (or tagliatelle) that had an unappealing texture. The pasta was kind of translucent and gummy with out any particular flavor, chestnut or otherwise.

Crispy oxtail lasagnette which had a pool of oil on the plate and believe I'm not averse to a shmear (chicken fat) on things, fat is flavor and all that, but this just seemed to be a misstep.

A crepe with radicchio and gorgonzola cream was my favorite thing, the gorgonzola was probably dolce, the sweet younger gorgonzola and it was nice, pungent without being overwhelming and it played well off the bitter tinge of radicchio.

Then we had braised baby goat with which came accompanied by pommes boulangerie. I distinctly remember biting down on several miniscule, sharp pieces of bone.

Now and then , I will eat in little mom & pop carribean places to get a fix of oxtail or goat with some plantains and expect to get it chopped right through the bone with some shards that eventually wind up in the stew. So I'm not a priss. And I hate when people say "at these prices" but that's how I felt. For a $75 tasting menu I don't even mind when it came still on the bone. But I didn't think I 'd have to look out for ones smaller than a tic tac. For $75, you can pay somebody to come in an hour early and pick out the little bones. I'd never serve it like that, it certainly took away from the lusciousness of the dish.

I remember seeing Marc Vetri go through the dining room and I'm not sure if he went back in the kitchen as they were winding down. Like I said before, we showed up unannounced and I know they probably went a little further in accomodating us because of us being the chefs at the Moshulu but I would have been more particular for my peers (then again, the best philosophy is that every diner and every plate is important-that's what makes great restaurants great, instead of just good).

I certainly appreciated the maitre d' making room for us on such short notice and I feel a little guilty for this post, but, hey 4 stars and a $75 tasting menu? I remember when Mario Batali was at Po and had a 5 course, $35 tasting that was a notch above this.

The main thing was that I felt it was competent cooking, sort of what the Olive Garden in Heaven should taste like, but there were no surprises, no fireworks, no memorable twists. That's not enough when you have the responsibility of having that status (4 Bells) to be competent. I remember when we got 3 bells. It made me want to come in an hour earlier every day instead of figuring, ok, I can coast now.

That all being said, I could go for some of those gnocchi right now. Again it was a dissapointment, not a disaster, I'll give it another shot soon and post back. I'm still rooting for him but this time I think I'll order ala carte and make a reservation.

Edited December 29, 2003 by tim olivett (log)

[KatieLoeb]

Hi Tim:

Your comments on Vetri are quite interesting, and very much in line with what I've heard lately from various folks whose opinions I respect. I think the place was truly poised for greatness and got a lot of excellent national food media press initially, but ever since the local recognition, has been coasting (or worse) on its laurels.

I look forward to more comments from you as it's always interesting to get a Chef's perpsective on a restaurant. It may or may not vary wildly from my own experience, but I appreciate the sensibility behind the opinion.

Welcome to eGullet! We look forward to more thoughtful posts from you!

[Kim WB]

As a member who used to post here would say, this meal was good to good plus. Not even near great. Dry stuffed pasta, and the guinea hen is so ordinary, even stuffed with foie.  I'm a little blue on just how non-wonderful the meal was. I can provide details, but it would just depress me. I really wnated wonderful. I NEEDED wonderful. Ah well.

Oh ferchrissakes, tell us about the dinner! Nothing is ever as perfect as we want it, and when a dinner seems so, it's just one of life's bonuses. So tell us what you had! And why it wasn't what you were expecting.

Sorry, Rich, I've just recently had time to really catch up on some old posts...I don't recall much about the dinner at this time, only that the guinea hen was very ordinary, the skin was limp and underseasoned, and the pasta was dry and bland...I can't recall desserts, etc. or what the others at the table had.

[Suzanne F]

That in itself says a lot about the unmemorableness of the meal.

[mrbigjas]

Dragging this topic back up to the top because we had dinner at Vetri tonight, and had a really great meal. It was my second visit as well, although my first one was probably 1996 and I was much more of a novice when it comes to nice dining than I am now.

Apps: sweet onion crepe, crispy sweetbreads with pickled veg and baby arugula, and lamb sausage/mint pizza

Pastas: spinach gnocchi, octopus & spicy tomato spaghettini, and artichoke ravioli

Main courses: grouper with clams/cockles, leg of lamb, and roast goat with polenta

Dessert, the mango gnocchi.

Things were excellent. The thing that kinda made me laugh and think of that Craig Laban article afterwards was that I thought: you know, you could do just as nice a job and drop the price by $5-10 per dish if it were a BYOB with much more casual service.

And then I thought, you know, that kind of thought shows the direction that I (and to some extent, the general dining atmosphere in this city) have come--that I go out to a very nice restaurant, have a really great dining experience in general (including a restaurant actually serving me roast baby goat, which was amazingly good), taking full advantage of the service by asking the manager/sommelier/whatever guy for wine advice, which he happily gave and we had a really nice chianti classico--and the first thing I think is, it could be cheaper with more casual service and maybe BYOB.

I mean, how effed up are those priorities that that's what I think?

Therefore, I am rebelling against my first thought, realizing that it's based on the proliferation of cheap BYOBs in this town, and that there is still a place for fine dining here, to say: we had a really great meal. I have only very minor complaints about the food* or service. Also, I got sweetbreads and roast goat in the same meal. We had a nice bottle of wine from the low end of the list. We sat there from 8 till 10:45 and were never pressured to hurry or anything.

Also someone else picked up the tab, woo hoo!

*the sweetbreads themselves were great, and crisp as promised, but the pickled veggies and baby arugula served with them kinda overpowered the flavor of the meat.