Django, Philadelphia

[KatieLoeb]

- the tables around us were served an amuse-bouche, but we weren't. I assume they just forgot us (and didn't ignore us deliberately), but it feels like something of a slight. Again, I don't know: is this petty? Should I have complained?

Maybe you only get the amuse if you order Al a Carte?

[philadining]

ahhh, finally, I've been waiting for a Spelt tasting....

[I_call_the_duck]

- the tables around us were served an amuse-bouche, but we weren't. I assume they just forgot us (and didn't ignore us deliberately), but it feels like something of a slight. Again, I don't know: is this petty? Should I have complained?

Maybe you only get the amuse if you order Al a Carte?

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Still have to report on our dinner, but we ordered the prix fixe, and got an amuse (duck). It was goood.

[Andrew Fenton]

ahhh, finally, I've been waiting for a Spelt tasting....

Yeah, it's kind of a goofy idea-- would you have a wheat tasting, or an oat tasting?-- but I was interested, for just that reason. If it showcases what can be done with spelt, then heck, why not?

Maybe you only get the amuse if you order Al a Carte?

A good point! When you make reservations, be sure to tell them that Al sent you.

[Vadouvan]

Andrew, what days of the week is that $30 special valid ?

[Andrew Fenton]

Sunday- Thursday, I believe.

[Tim Dolan]

I went back this past Friday night and had another thoroughly enjoyable meal. The amuse that evening was a small slice of rare hangar steak with some type of citrus puree. I was slightly skeptical about that pairing, but it was a pleasant surprise. After that I started off with the escargot and pulled duck in an herb-roasted garlic sauce. The escargo were very tender and the duck added a nice, meatier contrast to that. The flower pot bread came in very handy for mopping up the remaining sauce. GF had the gnocchi which were in a red sauce with pancetta i believe. Quite tasty.

For an entree I had their version of surf and turf, which was filet and seared scallops served. The filet came out perfectly med-rare and was delicious. I thought it was slightly odd how the dish was presented, the filet was sliced and the scallops were tucked inside the filet. I guess they were going for a scallops-wrapped-in-filet kinda feel. Anyway, it tasted pretty damn good.

I was wondering about what I was missing since I have only been to Django recently and they have apparently "fallen off" in the past few years. I remember thinking that if what they're serving now isn't what it used to be, then exactly how good could that have been? This question isn't meant as a defense of the restaurant and has everything to do with my limited culinary knowledge than anything else, but this statement definitely helped put it in perspective...

I suppose, too, that six years ago, when they opened, Django was doing something that was really different and out of the box for Philadelphia; at this point, a lot of places have caught up or passed them.  What was once really noteworthy has become a lot more straightforward.  There's nothing wrong with that, and in fact, it brings the restaurant closer to its original mission as a good neighborhood place

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If I had to knock anything, I would say that this time it took quite a while for the entrees to come out after the apps. Not a huge gap in between but noticable. Also as many of you know the tables are pretty cramped,so it's easy for others to hear your conversations. The table next to us gave us their $.02 as to what they thought was good when we were looking over the menu. They meant well and you could say that this situation adds to the charm of the place, but I know it drives some people absolutely nuts. I'm a gamer so we wound up talking to them on and off for the rest of the night.

In the end, whenever you leave a place and think to yourself "why don't I come here more often", as I did, they've gotta be doing something right.