thank you for buon appettito

[kosoffj]

Loooonnnggg time lurker here who had to post to thatnk you guys for this fabulous restaurant. Went saturday night and had a great dinner! Hubby and I had 2 soups (lentil and meatball and escarole (soup of the day)), chicken cacciatore and veal piccata, and everything was fabulous. YUM!

Service was a bit slow (apparently a waitress called out, and they have been very crowded recently due to “some good reviews” per our waitress – wonder from where? )) but they made up for it by filling our wait time with free bruscetta and free salads. (Not to mention free shots of lemonchello at the end of the meal). The owner (also the chef) and staff were all really really nice about everything. If you don't want to byob (about 2/3 of the restaurant had wine carriers with them), they had a decent selection of wines at moderate prices.

Total was 51 bucks for a really fun night (2 bucks a bottle corkage, in case anyone cares), wasn't anything fancy, just very quality italian cooking. can't wait to go back

Thanks again!

[Carolyn Tillie]

Congrats, and welcome to eG... after all these months/years???

[Greg Salisbury]

Hey, Jen, welcome to eGullet. Your relentless pursuit of the next great meal (and your excellent reporting of said meal) make for great reading; I don't get out that much, so it's nice to eat vicariously through your posts.

[KatieLoeb]

Welcome to eGullet and the PA forum! Looking forward to your continued participation.

I tried that meatball escarole soup when I was there a few weeks ago and it was awesome. I compare Buon Appetito to eating Sunday supper at Nonna's if Nonna were a professional chef! The staff was very kind and myself and two dining companions enjoyed our dinner very much.

[mrbigjas]

I haven't had it at Buon Appetito, but I'm pretty convinced that escarole/meatball soup is pretty much one of the few perfect foods in the world.

Edited to say that also it's just about the only other thing I'll order at Marra's besides pizza.

Edited February 25, 2004 by mrbigjas (log)

[kosoffj]

thank you for the welcome!

i've been lurking since a bunch of you "jumped ship" from the other board

katie, you are right, it's just like grandma's cooking only better!

I am a sucker for italian wedding soup (which is basically what the escarole soup was minus the pastina), but the lentil might have even been better! Although it's pretty much splitting hairs cause they were both fabulous.

(As an aside, Greg - I never got to thank you for hosting the 16 of us that night for dinner a few moths back, we had an awesome time, and your staff did an admirable job with a large group, everyone raved about the whole experience)

[kieran]

when i was in town i went to buon appetito with mrbigjas and mrsbigjas and some other friends and the only thing missing was the limoncello! the seafood risotto i had was chockfull of a variety of excellent seafood (and living in seattle for a couple of years now i feel comfortable saying i know from excellent seafood!), and i was also particularly impressed with the antipasti we ordered, especially the mozzerella cheese. it was definitely worth a stop on my visit.

[shacke]

Buon Appetito has apparently reopened at 19th and Sansom. Can you imagine? If its still great and soon to be a gnocchi's throw from the new Capogiro? wuh-oh

Evan

[dagordon]

That's really funny, I was just about to start a new thread about this when I saw this one.

We were in mourning after the first Buon Appetito closed. We would call or even drive by the restaurant periodically, almost in denial, hoping to see signs of activity. We thought we would never taste those stuffed zuchinni flowers again...

So when we heard late Thursday night that they had reopened -- and only a couple of blocks from us -- we were ecstatic. We confirmed the rumor with our own eyes and made a reservation for dinner yesterday.

It was as good as ever. The space is much nicer than their old one, I think -- more upscale, and roomier. We started with calimari stuffed with various seafood in red sauce, which was delicious, and prosciutto and buffalo mozeralla, which had been a favorite of ours at their original location. (Unfortunately, no zuchinni flowers this time, but apparently they'll have them soon.) Followed by linguini with scampi, mussels, and clams, and veal marsala. The main courses were excellent. And Ciro would come out quite often to make sure everything was ok and that we were enjoying ourselves. It was great to see him again.

This is incredibly exciting.

[shacke]

Buon Appetito has apparently reopened at 19th and Sansom.  Can you imagine?  If its still great and soon to be a gnocchi's throw from the new Capogiro?  wuh-oh 

Evan

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Maybe I was missing the elephant in the room but I looked all over for this new location and can't find it. Has anyone spotted it??

Evan

[mrbigjas]

northeast corner of 19th & sansom, i think. where saffron house was.

[herbacidal]

As of early summer, that place was the Mansion; when did Buon Apetito move in? Early Oct/late Sept?

Evan, what's the source?

[shacke]

I heard today it has already closed. That was fast.

[dagordon]

I heard today it has already closed.  That was fast.

←

Yeah, very sad. They were on vacation for a while in January, I think, and they never reopened, as far as I could tell. They must have really been hurting to close so soon. I feel guilty for not going more often, and telling others to...

[KatieLoeb]

Could the northeast corner of 19th & Sansom Streets be entering the Twilight Zone of Cursed Restaurant Locations?