Chester County Restaurants

[SaxChik]

while we're on the topic of sweets ... i wanted to give some props to sweet jazmine's bakery in berwyn. they're famous for their cheesecakes, but all their cakes, brownies and muffins are sublime!

we got our wedding cake from them ... the bottom layer was chocolate chip pound cake with chocolate cheesecake in the midde, the middle layer was sweet potato cake with cinnamon cream cheese frosting and the top layer was white cake, vanilla cheese cake and apricot. it was covered in buttercream and tasted AMAZING.

i try and stop in there at any given opportunity (birthdays, anniversaries, the need for a sweet potato muffin ...). they usually have all sorts of samples out, so if you want to try before you buy, you can. it's on bridge street off rt 30 in berwyn. i'm not sure i would have found them, had i not been looking for a wedding cake, but i'm really glad i did.

[Rich Pawlak]

Details on the CRAWFISH BOIL at the Station Bistro in Kimberton can be found HERE.

I knew it was only a matter of time before Craig Miller started showing us his Cajun chops!

[percyn]

Went to Jasper's in Downingtown (78 W Lancaster Ave, next to Rita's water ice). This restaurant is located in a converted white Victorian house and the driveway is easy to miss. It was a Wed, but the place got pretty full by 7:30pm or so.

We were presented with an Amuse Bouche of Asparagus and (Grilled) Chili soup, which was an interesting combination, though a bit too salty...an unfortunate trend which continued through our dinner.

We ordered appetizers of Warm Goat Cheese salad and Grilled Quail with 3 Onion Tart. I was impressed by the quantity and quality of the quail dish, for under $10...though the quail was just a touch over done.

Wife ordered the Fillet, which came with provincial vegetables, while I ordered the Lamb Loin. Unfortunately the chef was again heavy handed with the salt.

Service was friendly, but could be more finessed if they want to be considered a fine dining restaurant (e.g. we had to remind the wait staff for replacement silverware, etc).

Cheers

Percy

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Laban reviews Jasper's and nearly a year later still finds the service missteps I experienced and reported.

[philadining]

More Phoenixville developments:

A sign on one of the storefronts in the new strip-mall adjoining the Acme supermarket says "Phoenix Diner." I personally believe that all diners should be required by law to stay open all night. Here's hoping this one will!

[mod*betty]

I can't help seeing the irony in the fact that the new "Phoenix Diner" which is located in a strip mall (and therefore isn't a diner at all in my book) is right across the street from the uprooted and displaced Vale Rio diner sitting in Puleo's back yard!

In other news, based on the recommendation of this board we tried Wasko's on Friday and got an Italian Zep and a prime rib sub/hoagie. I was pleasantly surprised by the prime rib, with the recommended bbq sauce and raw onions, though the cheese was not mentioned on the menu. It isn't something I'd normally consider ordering but the flavors worked together really well and I ended up eating more of it than I thought I would. Not sure what the diff is between a zep and a hoagie, but the Italian was nothing special in my book. I would've preferred to have 2 prim ribs!

Other local scuttlebutt-

The building on the corner of Bridge and Gay will be an Italian resto owned by the Black Lab folks. Ciao?

Unsubstantiated rumor that Starbucks may have pulled out of the Fountain Inn deal.

Marly's "American BYO bistro" to open at 108 Bridge Street- maybe where the old ice cream place was?

Baxter's coming to town in June across the street frome that.

Ryan's pub is currently doing the renovations on the old Washington Hotel.

[Rich Pawlak]

I've been told that seats for lunch AND dinner are quickly filling up for the Station Bistro's first ever CRAWFISH BOIL next Thursday (5/22) in Kimberton. I snagged a few seats in the afternoon myself, thankfully.

[Rich Pawlak]

Glad I went early to the Station Bistro today. As the day started darkening at around 5, in came the crowds for the Crawfish Boil. Not only were the mudbugs big, sweet and expertly boiled--and easy to peel, the seasoning was nice and zippy, and the red beans and rice was earthy, soupy and wonderful. Cant wait until NEXT Thursday. Well worth the 90 min drive from Princeton.

Edited May 23, 2008 by Rich Pawlak (log)

[philadining]

Recently had another Spiedie from Spiedie Bistro in Phoenixville. As I expected, they've simplified the menu significantly, retaining most of the spiedies, but streamlining the salads, and adding bison burgers and portobello burgers.

I Got a Blutarski Spiedie (with provolone, peppers and onions) made with beef, and it tasted very good. it still felt like it took a little too long to get the sandwich, but I liked that it was cooked to order. In any case, it seems like they might be getting in the groove, I just hope people can find them in their space back off of Bridge street. There's a parking lot in back, but I'm not sure that's obvious from Bridge street.

[philadining]

I know a few of us are fans of the Prime Rib sandwich at Wasko's in Phoenixville. In case you needed convincing:

Go ahead, get the provolone, barbecue sauce and onions. It sounds wrong, but it's so right...

I noticed that they offered a kielbasy sandwich on friday, and had more sausage in the deli case. Then I noticed packages of pierogi from Czerw's, so I had to get some.

Both the pierogi and kielbasy are from Czerw's in Port Richmond, and apparently the guy at Wasko's makes a run down there most every friday, so there's likely to be fresh hauls of sausage and pierogies most fridays (he has frozen Pierogies all the time) And if you want to order something specific, check www.kielbasyboys.com and ask him before friday, and he can probably get it for you.

Yes, that's right, it might just be more convenient to get great Polish food in Phoenixville than in Center City Philly.

[percyn]

Just a note to say that I revisited La Crêperie Café Bis after my initial disappointing visit in Dec last year.

This time there were only 5 patrons on a Sat morning (more came in around lunch) and even though they had only one waitress initially, they managed to get the food out in 15 minutes. I order La Complete, pictured in Philadining's review upthread and it was just as he describes it....not as crispy, but pretty good (everything tastes better with an egg on top).

They get extra points for their orange juice, which is not only fresh squeezed, but rather squeezed to order at the drink bar.

This experience gave me the strength to consider another visit for lunch or dinner. Still not sure I would go in when they are busy.

[chellie]

Baxter's coming to town in June across the street frome that.

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The Baxters-owned restaurant is creatively named 101 Bridge. It's in the old Superintendent's building across from Iron Hill at .... 101 Bridge St - that old eyesore that looked like it met the wrong side of a cluster bomb.

(long review alert!!)

My husband and I ate there on a whim tonight and found out it had just opened yesterday. The outside of the building is largely unchanged; the facade was cleaned up really well, new windows, all the busted-up parts of the roof and such have been replaced. The inside is really nice but not pretentious. We didn't opt for the full tour of the place, but it seems to have 3 or 4 small dining rooms plus a bar area on the first floor. The second floor looks unfinished right now, not sure if that'll be finished as additional seating space or what. There's a black and tan color scheme and they seem to be going for near-fine-dining. Unfortunately the lighting inside is rather dim; it wasn't an issue at the start of the meal but by the end when the sun had set it would've been impossible to read a menu. That's my only complaint about the place.

They have a short menu - a single page of starters & salads and a single page of entrees. There's a good mix of selections though, something for nearly everyone. I didn't see any vegetarian entree options, so those non-meat-minded might want to call ahead and see if Chef will prepare something off menu.

Fresh rolls and homemade butter are complimentary. I'm not sure if the flavors will change, but we were presented with regular butter, roasted red pepper butter, and blueberry butter. I could've eaten the blueberry butter on its own, but all three were delicious.

The starters are seafood-heavy. There's a lobster bread pudding that sounds incredible, mussels, a tomato-crab bisque, and a few other seafood items. The salads are fairly standard (Ceasar and an Italian salad) save for the spinach radicchio with sundried cherries and strawberry vinaigrette. That sounded incredible too.

We opted for the Ratatouille Napoleon to start as my husband is shellfish allergic. He's also somewhat picky, and wasn't too terribly excited about a mix of zucchini, yellow squash & eggplant, but I talked him into it. He's glad I did. It was absolutely amazing. The squash was rolled together to look like a big rose and it was served with a warm tomato sauce and cold, crunchy pickled onion. The eggplant was pureed and intermixed with the squash. Did I mention it was amazing? Mmmm. It was priced at $8 or 9 I believe and the portion was plenty large enough for the both of us to share.

Entrees are fairly basic on the surface: a few steak options, chicken, pork, and plenty of seafood. They range in price from $20-30 per plate. The real surprises come with the sides the proteins are paired with. Hubby immediately decided on the pork tenderloin and it took me a few minutes to choose between the filet mignon and and panko crusted scallops with crab ravioli. I wound up with the filet so we could sample each other's meals.

The pork is wrapped in applewood bacon and served with braised cabbage, sweet potato puree, and a roasted pepper marmalade. The filet is served with wilted spinach, onion frizzle and grilled black truffle potato gnocchi. The presentation on both dishes was beautiful, and we were both amazed at the portion size. The filet was probably 8oz, nice and thick. The pork came as three generous medallions each about 1.5" thick. Both meats were cooked perfectly.

As I said, the real surprises are in the accompaniments. You can tell a lot of thought and creativity went into choosing them. The grilled truffle gnocchi was honestly about the best thing I've eaten in my life. There was just enough truffle in there for the flavor to come through but it didn't overpower everything else, and grilling them made for an amazing crunchy exterior. The marmalade with the pork was also fantastic, as was the sweet potato puree. We didn't have a complaint or critical remark about anything on either plate.

Right now the dessert menu is short: cheesecake with berries as well as chocolate mousse served in a white chocolate cone. Our waitress recommended the cheesecake but I just had to try the mousse dessert and I'm glad I did! Another extremely generous portion plenty large enough for two - it's a homemade white chocolate cone served point-end up. You break through the shell to get to the mousse. It's served with caramel and chocolate sauces, an assortment of fresh fruit including some of the largest blackberries I've ever seen, and an almond flavored triangle of puff pastry. Yum. Yum. Yum. I can't confirm, but it tasted like the white chocolate was salted a little, which in my opinion makes most anything sweet all the better. It was $9 and well worth every penny.

There's a full bar with quite a few beers on tap and the wine list has a lot of variety without being overwhelming. Several wines by the glass, and the bottles are in the $25-50 range. I had Bella Sera Pinot Noir (one of their house wines) with dinner and hubby had a Yuengling. The bartender on staff seems knowledgeable; hubby ordered a pomegranate martini to drink with dessert but they didn't have the pom puree for it yet. The bartender recommended a raspberry Cosmo in its place - it was strong and very tasty. Hubby said it was a good replacement for the pom martini.

Service was very nice. Our waitress was knowledgeable about the entire menu and was friendly without being obnoxiously friendly, if that makes sense. She seemed happy to be working there which is a good sign in my book. The general manager was visible and made a stop at each table to check on things. We bumped into him on the way out and stopped to comment favorably ... okay, to RAVE about the food. He chatted with us for a few minutes, shook hubby's hand, thanked us for coming and said he looked forward to seeing us again. Nice guy.

The Executive Chef's name is John Schaeffer/Shafer - not sure which variation of the spelling. We'd not heard of him before (hubby's a chef and knows most of the names in the area, if just by reputation), but judging by this meal he's really someone to watch out for.

Our tab came to $90 for a starter, two entrees, dessert, a glass of wine, a beer, the Cosmo, and a soda.

Right now they're only open for dinner but they'll be opening for lunch in July sometime.

The verdict: we're already talking about going again ASAP. The only thing I can think of to improve on is the lighting inside, otherwise this was easily one of the best meals either of us have EVER had. The Black Lab has some serious, serious competition - 101 Bridge blows it out of the water by far.

Edited June 27, 2008 by chellie (log)

[Natasha]

I read in Main Line Today that Francis Trzeciak of Birchrunville Cafe is now the executive chef at the Inn at St. Peter's. Has anyone been there lately? They have lovely outdoor dining and the addition of Trzeciak could make this a real destinantion restaurant.

[Tim Dolan]

Just had a so-so lunch by myself at the Black Lab. Got an order of duck confit potstickers that were much more along the lines of oven-baked dumplings. The wrapper had the consistency of a dried out cracker and there was hardly any duck in the filling, but the mango-jicama salsa and hoisin sauce made them tasty enough to be average. Also ordered steak frites, with the flatiron steak being cooked a bit past medium when I ordered medium rare. Made it pretty bland. I really enjoy this place so I'll definitely be back, but it looks like the freshman squad was in the kitchen today.

[chellie]

Update on 101 Bridge:

They're only open for dinner right now but will be opening for lunch sometime in July.

They also have a "bar menu" with sandwiches and burgers in the $10 range - you just have to ask for it. Apparently the pastrami sandwich is quite good, and we may just have to go back this week to test that review out.

There's some additional reviews & comments are posted at the Around Phoenixville blog.

[doviakw]

I read in Main Line Today that Francis Trzeciak of Birchrunville Cafe is now the executive chef at the Inn at St. Peter's. Has anyone been there lately? They have lovely outdoor dining and the addition of Trzeciak could make this  a real destinantion restaurant.

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We and a couple of friends dined at The Inn at St. Peters on Kentucky Derby day. The dinner was exceptional and the wine list surprisingly affordable with some good selections. I don't recall the details but we opined at the time that the meal was comparable to The Birchrunville Cafe. We read later that Francis Trzeciak had become executive chef but I don't recall whether that was the case at the time we were there.

In any event, The Inn at St. Peters is worth a visit. The food was great and the prices, while not cheap, were less than we expected.

[Tim Dolan]

I stopped by the Spiedie Bistro today for lunch. Not bad. I had a chicken sandwich with hot sauce and blue cheese as well as a very good chicken and corn chowder type of soup. From the looks of things they took the beef option off the menu so it's down to just chicken or pork. I enjoyed my sandwich, but I thik the marinade might have been a tad bit too strong. I'll stop by again when my taste buds are in need of a good jolt. I definitely agree with the comments earlier about how a spiedie is nothing more than a marinated meat sandwich and not terribly exciting.

Edited July 11, 2008 by Tim Dolan (log)

[percyn]

Had chance to try 101 Bridge in Phoenixville (484-927-4481). They have done a good job in renovating the space and I am glad to see someone using this historic building.

Now on to the food...

There were a few interesting sounding things on the menu such as Scallop Tart, Tuna Tower, Lobster Bread Pudding, etc which caught my eye, but since I had heard about the Ratatouille Napolean, I knew what appetizer I wanted before setting eyes on the menu.

The presentation and assembly was a little surprising but in a good way (we can use a little more creative thinking in the suburbs). However, the assembly of the dish took away the dept of flavor you get when all the ingredients have been slowly cooking together for hours.

Wife got the Wild Mushroom Cannelloni - with roasted tomato sauce and Parmesan whipped goat cheese(?)

For our main entrees I got the Earth and Sea special - Hawaiian Snapper roll in a wonton wrapper over Asian salad (had some seaweed in it) and Moroccan spiced lamb over mashed potatoes and spinach. Interesting combination of the Asian and Moroccan styles on the same plate. The snapper roll could have benefited from a touch of salt and the lamb could have been spiced a little bolder. The special was priced at $30, which is on the higher end for dishes in the suburbs and for that people expect better execution of the dishes, similar to Majolica a few blocks down the road or Birchrunville Store Cafe a few miles away.

Wife had Shrimp over goat cheese scallion polenta, roasted tomatoes and lemon basil butter. We were glad to see that the shrimp was grilled and the polenta was smooth and creamy. I was a little disappointed when we got a faint tint of amonia from the shrimp. However, since only my palate detected it, we did not send this back, but in retrospect, we probably should have.

Dessert (not pictured) was dark chocolate mousse in layered puff pastry (like a Napoleon). It was good, but a pet peeve of mine is powdered sugar sprinkled all over the plate.

Overall, food was good and hope they tighten up the execution of the dishes over time, service is friendly and there are few more items on the menu I would like to try, including the "bar menu". Said they would open for lunch probably in early Aug.

Cheers

Percy

[chellie]

Had  chance to try 101 Bridge in Phoenixville (484-927-4481). They have done a good job in renovating the space and I am glad to see someone using this historic building.

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I wonder if they changed something up with the ratatouille; one thing I noticed about it was the depth of flavor despite being semi-deconstructed. The plating on ours was a bit different than your photo too.

We haven't had a chance to go back yet (just returned from a week in OH for my sister's wedding - I did her wedding cake so I've been consumed with that project!)...the question remains if our exceptional experience is the one-off or if percy's not-as-great experience is. We liked our meal so much I hope you just hit them on an off night, percy.

My stepdaughter and I hit Spiedie Bistro (Phoenixville) for lunch today while out and about. I was talking to James there and they have indeed removed the beef option; he said they were only selling a couple sandwiches a day with the beef and wound up having to trash too much, so they're down to chicken & pork. I'd only had the beef on previous visits, so on James' recommendation I got the chicken in my "President Scroob" (meat, lettuce, tomato, onion, feta). It's aggressively marinated, as mentioned above, but I enjoyed it a whole lot. Super-picky Kiddo got the grilled cheese kids' meal which comes with milk (which she hates) and yogurt (which she hates). James gave her a cookie in place of the milk - nice touch.

Amusingly, Kiddo wound up eating about a quarter of my sandwich and we shared an order of the fries they just added to the menu. They're oven baked and served seasoned, so no grease and no ketchup needed. She's looking forward to going back so she can get her own chicken Scroob.

Continuing on the Phoenixville theme, Kiddo and I will be enjoying our Saturday tradition of dinner at Franco Ristorante and dessert at Brown's Cow tonight!

[chellie]

Hubby, Kiddo and I decided to have a "quick" lunch at the new PJ Ryan's in Phoenixville today (next to the Colonial at the old Hotel Washington).

The inside is really nice. Someone dumped a lot of money into this place. Looks to be two large bar areas in the back section, lots of dark wood and LOTS of HD TVs on the walls. The front section is like a typical dining room space with large windows that open to allow for sorta-alfresco drinking & dining. I would've liked the sit up front but we were herded into one of the (empty) bar areas. At least the booth was big & comfy. Plenty of beers on tap including Magic Hat and Victory.

I'd seen the extensive menu already (and the prices) so I was expecting some pretty good food. Not great food, mind you, but pretty good.

We shared an order of "potato boats" which were just pre-packaged potato skins served with cheese and bacon. I thought at first they must've been hollowing out the taters and aging the cheese in the kitchen to order for the amount of time they took. If the place was busy I could understand the too-long wait, but we were the only people there. They were alright, but nothing special. Not worth the ~$8.

Hubby got a pastrami sandwich and I got a Reuben. Much like the "potato boats," the sandwiches were merely alright. I've never quite had a Reuben like this one; it had all the necessary components but I couldn't taste a single one of them. It was oddly bland and uniform and I can't figure out why. The corned beef was bland, the sauerkraut barely had any tang, and the cheese wasn't very cheese-tasting. Hubby's pastrami fared a little better. It was peppery and somewhat flavorful, but nothing more special than you'd get from the deli counter at Giant. The fries were decent - they have those batter dipped crunchy kind. The kid loved 'em and I didn't hate them.

Nothing we ate was worth the price tag at all. A $9-10 sandwich should be better than this.

I suppose the sandwiches and apps are good for food to soak up the alcohol one would drink here, but I wouldn't feel confident ordering a $20 entree for dinner. I won't be back for the food.

In other Phoenixville news, has anyone else heard anything about Majolica? Over the last few days I've heard from a few sources that they're either going to close up shop or close the current location and move somewhere larger. The sources are fairly knowledgeable so I'm not writing it off as nasty rumor quite yet.

[philadining]

Michael Klein's Food and Drinq blog reports that Francis Trzeciak has ended his association with the Inn at St Peter's.

That's too bad for the Inn at St Peter's, which was also very good under the previous chef, Martin Gagne. But it's probably good for the Birchrunville Store Cafe, which will once again get Trzeciak's full attention.

[percyn]

Sakura Japanese Restaurant

For the past 11 months, there is has been a small Japanese restaurant tucked away between the Superfresh and American Bar & Grill in Chester Springs/Lionville off Rt 113.

The first time I stopped there was on a weekday when I had some good quality sushi, including Amberjack, which is a little hard to find in these parts of the woods. During that visit the sushi chef mentioned that they will have live scallops on Friday, so I went back to try them.

Scallop sashimi - scallops were medium sized but very tender and sweet.

Uni sashimi - was of average freshness and quality

Sashimi dinner - 15 pieces of maguro, hamachi, saba (mackerl), octopus, shrimp, red snapper and saki (salmon) with a bowl of rice. The fish at Sakura is one of the best in the area and maybe on par with Bluefin in Plymouth Meeting but not as good as Fuji in Haddonfield.

Wife ordered Beef Negimaki and a non-raw-sushi special of chicken teriyaki with some california rolls - not such to praise here...unfortunately I think sushi/sashimi is the strong point of this restaurant

[percyn]

Marly's is the latest edition to the now thriving Phoenixville restaurant scene. The day we visited, Marly's had been open a week or two and while I realized it might be too soon, I decided to try it anyway.

The decor and ambiance were fine. Dining room was about 1/3 to 1/2 full. Wait staff opened our wine and provided an ice bucket within minutes of us sitting down. Took a bit longer to take our order, which consisted of:

Bento box appetizer special which included "salmon roll" (which was cooked salmon in a rice paper wrapper) which tasted like it was pre-made and sat in a fridge as bits of the wrapper seemed a bit dry. The chicken satay was a miniature version with 2 bite sized morsels. Pan fried wontons and sesame noodles were not particularly memorable. As this was a special and the price was not mentioned (nor did I think about asking it), I was a bit surprised at the $17 (I think) price for a not so well executed bento box, when I could get a much better rendition at any of the Asian places in the neighborhood. A bit of a shaky start.

The Salmon and Shrimp entree I ordered with curry and cashew was a well balanced dish which portrayed what the kitchen was capable of. The curry was very mild and accented rather than overpowered the natural sweetness of the salmon and shrimp. My only recommendation would be to serve the salmon with a crispy skin.

Unfortunately, my wife's Agnolotti (priest hats shaped ravioli like pasta) with wild mushrooms was not the best example of the kitchen's potential. The pasta seemed like it was frozen at one point and had not been completely cooked (much more raw than al dente).

Through the course of the dinner there were a few service mishaps, though that is to be expected of a new restaurant. When they came to clear our plates and asked my wife how she liked the pasta (seeing her plate almost untouched), she was honest and they were kind enough to apologize and remove it from the bill.

So, where do we stand? There is certainly room for improvement, but I also got a glimmer of hope based of the kitchen's capabilities, so I will give them some more time and try them out again.

Edited August 18, 2008 by percyn (log)

[percyn]

Went back to 101 Bridge in Phoenixville. Seems like the kitchen is started to find its groove. On this visit we tried:

Duo of white cheddar and Old fashioned tomato soup - The favors were very good, the temp though could have been a little hotter. On a side note, I would like to see a local restaurant do a white gazpacho.

Scallop Tart - A good idea and the scallops worked well with the cream filling, though the tart seemed to be a touch sweet, which perhaps overpowered the gentle natural sweetness of the scallops.

Wife got the Sauteed Chicken w/mashed potato and au jus- Nice crisp skin while the breast meat was still moist and succulent.

I tried the bar menu and ordered a Burger with Gorgonzola and caramelized onions - The burger was cooked to perfection and the hand cut fries put this burger a notch above the competition. In fact, I liked this better than the kobe burger I had at another restaurant.

Overall a good meal and good service. Next time I am going to try the lobster bread pudding which a table next to us had ordered.

Oh, and they are open for lunch now.

[chellie]

I tried the bar menu and ordered a Burger with Gorgonzola and caramelized onions - The burger was cooked to perfection and the hand cut fries put this burger a notch above the competition. In fact, I liked this better than the kobe burger I had at another restaurant.

Overall a good meal and good service. Next time I am going to try the lobster bread pudding which a table next to us had ordered.

Oh, and they are open for lunch now.

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Awesome on the lunch news!!! Hubby has recently discovered that he loooooves Thai food so we've been frequenting Thai Place (near Giant) for the past month. I think we've achieved the status of "regular" there at this point, as the staff greets us like old friends now. Sounds like we'll have to hit 101 for lunch this week or next! Do you remember how much the burger was, percyn?

[percyn]

Sounds like we'll have to hit 101 for lunch this week or next!  Do you remember how much the burger was, percyn?

Don't recall the exact price but seem to recall it was pretty reasonable...like under $10.