Marcus Samuelsson coming to Philly!

[mrbigjas]

aggressively and appallingly bad and badly served

This phrase has been stuck in my head for several days. whew!

[joanmlau]

Tried it with a few dining partners early this evening a bit before the major rush of diners entered. Got there early enough to sit outside for a few drinks, on a night that was perfect for sitting outside. Somehow, between those two tall buildings, it was cool enough to be quite enjoyable. The four of us had dinner, more or less family style, focusing on small bites, medium bites, (skipping bites and grilled) sides, and dessert. Menu descriptions are ~4 words long per item, sometimes less...hence it was hard to tell what you were getting.

Small bites:

Cold corn soup was very creamy without being thick (it wasn't cream that thickened it) with many kernels of crisp sweet corn. Had a foam layer of some other flavor. Lots of mouthfeel. Came with amuse bouche type prawns, which were marinated in a light lemony-tart dressing, also served cold.

Tuna tartare served on watermelon slices. Tuna seemed "torn" instead of "cut" resulting in funny shaped pieces, but was fresh, light, and not mushy.

Medium bites:

Salmon gravlax with blue potatoes. Salmon was very smoked, very oily (good!), drizzled with dill(?) oil and a dollop of tamarind sauce. The potatoes were firm and slightly sweet, not starchy at all.

Lobster dumplings. In a spicy soupbase not quite a consomme, small wonton wrapped lobster dumplings. This was the one thing I was not a fan of, as the spice was a little strong for the dumplings and overwhelmed the filling.

Cod cakes. Winner of the night. cakes the size of mid size sea scallops (slightly larger than the individually wrapped reece cups). Crispy on top, lots of cod, almost to a crab cake consistency. There was an artichoke sauce that went on top, light, subtle, lightly sweet and rather addictive.

Sides:

sauteed long beans in a bright golden sweet/spicy sauce. almost a bit too sweet, but punctuated by a slight amount of heat, from the pepper. very crispy.

fries. not your mickey D fry. came with a barbecue dipping sauce. each fry was covered in a nut/coarse breadcrumb mix, then fried. could still taste the potato, between the very crisp bites.

green curry noodle. second best dish of the night. a mix between spice and a thai basil/ curry sauce, thin rice noodles well tossed in the sauce, with steamed baby bok choy. I liked the light heat and the sauce. Bok choy was great, and not bitter.

Dessert:

Donut. the smallest ones you've ever seen, and for $6. Not light, like krispy kreme, but heavy yeast, like yum yum donuts, generously coated in sugar, still warm. Filled with cream cheese and black pepper. Pepper is very very subtle. Come with a supersweet raspberry dipping sauce. Note: takes extra time to make these as they are made to order. We ordered this immediately, then took our time picking our second dessert.

Brownie sandwich with banana parfait and almond flavored rice milk. The brownie was what brownies should be...dense, chocolately, and chewy, not cakey at all. The banana parfait was good, but I would have preferred the brownie and parfait separate, not made into a sandwich, as it was hard to manage on the plate.

Final thoughts: The seats were hard to sit on, making a long dinner difficult (if you go, get the soft comfy booths). Service was a bit spotty (I took silverware from an unused adjoining table when I couldn't get our own silver, though food was at our table). However, the food was a lot of fun, I like the flavor combinations, I like the little plates, and despite the presence of some foam on my food (ala vernon morales) I think it worked well. Django, in my opinion, is still the best at food pairings and flavor combinations, but this was tons of fun, and we enjoyed seeing all the things that came to our table. Also, after seeing some of the grilled items at others' tables, I was very glad to have skipped that part of the menu (who knows it may have been good). Portions are small but were satisfactory to me. We'd go back.