Restaurant Week

[zeffer81]

Where y'all going?

I always find it so hard to decide, although I tend towards the places that let you choose one app, one entree and one dessert. Also, I try to steer clear of BYOs, cause they're all I can usually afford.

Where and why?

[jelly]

La Famiglia, because it was terrific last restaurant week and is a place we can't normally afford.

[Felice]

Where y'all going? 

I always find it so hard to decide, although I tend towards the places that let you choose one app, one entree and one dessert.  Also, I try to steer clear of BYOs, cause they're all I can usually afford. 

Where and why?

←

What's restaurant week? I'm flying home to Philly for a wedding next weekend and arrive the 21st, but I don't remember "restaurant week".

[mrbigjas]

it's a week where a lot of restaurants serve 3 courses for $30.

i'm always torn about whether to bother going or not, since so many places simplify their menus so much that i wonder whether i'm getting a real taste of the restaurant or not.

[KatieLoeb]

Here's more info and a list of participating restaurants for Philadelphia Restaurant Week 9/18-9/23/05

[KatieLoeb]

Dinner at Audrey Claire this evening. A last minute but very worthwhile evening spent sitting at the outside tables on a lovely cool evening Between the four of us we tried:

Baby arugula salad w/fresh berries, French lentils and warm goat cheese

Grilled octopus w/extra virgin olive oil, lemon and fresh herbs over field greens

Steamed littleneck clams w/jalapeno, pancetta and shaved garlic

Grilled artichokes

Great apps! Everything was delicious and the clams had some serious spice kickin'. Grilled artichokes were awesome! The Arugula salad was good but paled compared to the other choices.

Entrees sampled:

Market herb crusted pork tenderloin w/melted roquefort papipillon and roasted beet-baby arugula salad

Crispy duck breast w/moroccan couscous w/dried fruit and ginger and cherry-olive jus

Grilled Atlantic salmon w/calamata olive tapenade

and tuscan potato-artichoke salad

Very tasty entrees. The duck was cooked mid-rare, which was just perfect for this entree. Pork loin was moist and tender with a very tasty sauce and the beet salad was a sweet acoompaniment. Salmon was moist and tender and not a morsel left behind.

Dessert was a bit hit or miss. Two of us ordered the citrus arborio rice pudding and that was delicious. The other choice of "peach" bread pudding was light but not peachy in the least. Our waitress asked for our honest feedback on the bread pudding since it was a new dessert and we told her the texture was great but it needed more flavor. We suggested a liquor component of some sort.

All in all a lovely meal with great company and a bargain, I've always thought Audrey Claire to be one of the more consistent BYOB's in town and they did not disappoint. Chef Paul was very helpful when no one was answering the phone for a reservation earlier today and I stopped by in person to try hook up a table. His advice to just stop by was welcome and indeed we were seated speedily and at a prime outside table on this lovely cool night. It was a pleasurable dining experience and the food and service were top notch. Audrey Claire's menu was not dumbed down for restaurant week in any way. It was just a bargain!

[davidbdesilva]

Haven't to Audrey Claire in years but your report Katie makes me want to go back. I agree that the food is very good and I personally love that type of atmosphere. Last year we had a great meal at Le Bar (and spent way too much on great wine), this year it was a toss up between Pasion and Brassiere Perrier. Based on what the menus looked like, we chose Brassiere and will be going Tuesday night. I'll report back but I expect a great meal. Its been my experience that the better restaurants don't dumb down the menus during restaurant week and that you do get a good feel for what the food is like there on a regular basis.

[percyn]

Went to La Famiglia last night and got the thickest wine list ever (approx 14" thick mainly because they have 1 wine per page side, with label and vintages, etc)

The food was excellent. My wife has the insulata for starters, and a veal course as an entree. I had the crab cakes for my first course and filet in barolo wine as the main course. There was only 1 dessert option on the menu, which featured 3 mini desserts, including a delicious pear cooked in wine.

The service was good, but we did feel a bit rushed, enough though we had ordered a bottle of wine. This is an upscale place and we were dressed appropriately, but did see a few people in jeans and a collar t-shirt, who were seated at a distance.

By the time we ordered a $120 bottle of wine, bottled water, etc, our bill was over $100/pp, but to be fair, we could have ordered a cheaper wine by the glass.

Might go again with some friends later this week.

Cheers

Percy

[godfrey]

I just gave up my reservation for two for Pasion! tonight at 7:00 at the seviche bar, if anyone wants to pick it up...

godfrey

[I_call_the_duck]

Tomorrow, we're dining at Lily's Café at Lacroix, and we're going to try to get to Le Bar Lyonnais later this week.

When choosing a place to go for Restaurant Week, we pick the places that a) we haven't already been, b) we normally wouldn't be able to afford, c) don't usually offer a prix fixe, and d) offer the best "bang for the buck".

[jelly]

We were there Sunday night too. Didn't feel rushed though. Our seating was at 6:30 and I guess we left around 8:30. There was a long line of people waiting to get seated when we left.

The food and service were very nice. We both had the veal. I had the gnocchi app and S.O. had the mozzarella capreses. I had forgotten how intimidating that wine book is. The sommelier was very helpful.

[gabe]

We went to Fork last night for the first time and were very impressed. The Mrs had an excellent glass of grenache and I the Fork 75 cocktail (gin, triple sec, champagne, on ice). Apps were country pate with grainy mustard, cornichons and lemon confit -- delicious -- and beet salad. Very well dressed and executed. The pate plate was especially generous. Main courses were hanger steak with shoestring-style yucca frites and chimichurri -- substantial and succulent -- and perhaps the best salmon dish I have had at a restaurant in a long time, the filet wrapped in grape leaves and grilled to a perfect medium-rare. That was accompanied by jasmine rice speckled with fragrant black sesame seeds and pickled yellow tomatoes.

The dessert list was long and fabulous (nothing was off limits for restaurant week). I decided on warm figs and kiwi fruit in balsamic vinegar with vanilla gelato. It was pure bliss. I don't even remember what my wife had.

This was a seriously complete dining experience -- we weren't made to feel cheap at all, and the service was friendly and attentive all night. I think Fork did restaurant week wonderfully -- meaning we'll be back.

[davidbdesilva]

Had our meal at Brassiere Perrier last night and enjoyed ourselves, albeit feeling a little underwhelmed. Resy was for 7 and it was completely full by then. We had a lovely server who was very friendly, attentive, and always kept our wine glasses full. For apps wife had the yellow tomato gazpacho and I the cavatelli with pancetta, both very good. For entrees wife had horshradish crusted salmon and I the sauteed skate, again both very good and very impressed with how perfectly they were cooked. Desserts were a good chocolate tart with pistachio ice cream and a very good pineapple upside-down cake with excellent ginger ice cream. We enjoyed a very nice bottle of Vouvray, which was fairly priced at $40. The food was straightfoward and very good but I guess I was expecting a bit more. While being a very good meal overall, it paled in comparison to our restaurant meal of last year at Le Bar Lyonnaise. But then, maybe that's why I was expecting more? The restaurant is beautiful and I love what they do with lighting there.

Edited September 21, 2005 by davidbdesilva (log)

[I_call_the_duck]

We had our dinner at Lily’s Cafe at at Lacroix, and have to say that we weren’t that impressed. They did offer a two wine pairing for $18—a glass of brut and either a sauvignon blanc or merlot. The brut was nice—dry and a little crisp. The sauvignon blanc was not that great, nor was the merlot. The food was good, but not remarkable. My husband had the Terrine of Diver Scallops (which went very well with the brut) and the Crisped Loup de Mer. I had the Parsley & Lily Soup which I found a little bland and the “Bonnet” of Beef. Everything was served cold as if they were already plated. And call me naive, but the portions were tiny. We couldn’t help but wonder “where’s the rest of it?”. For dessert, we ordered Warm Valrhona Chocolate Tart and Fromage Blanc Cheesecake. Both were good. The chocolate tart was a little burnt but tasty (and not very warm), and the cheesecake was light—almost like a mousse. The best part of the meal was probably the chocolates that came with the bill.

The service was fine, but we felt very rushed. No sooner did we place our order did they start to bring out our dishes. This happened throughout the entire meal. We were barely finished with one course when a waiter would bring out the next one. We were seated at 6pm and were out before 7:30, and only because my husband was lingering over the remainder of my nearly full glass of wine that I wasn’t able to finish with my meal. To the waiters’ credit they did not hover or sneer at us, and were actually pretty friendly.

Hopefully, our experience at Le Bar Lyonnais will be better.