good bar food

[zeffer81]

the boyfriend and i have a tradition of eschewing valentine's day formal dining for a damn good meal at a local bar. we get top notch service with great food to boot. i always have one i've been wanting to try but i'm coming up short this year. any suggestions? i'm partial to cc and south philly. thanks for the suggestions!

[philadining]

Ansill.

[Vadouvan]

Ansill

That was too quick....

Wait......let me think......Ansill.

If you do want to spend more $$$, cosy great bar....Striped Bass.

Hanging out with "Suits" and chicks trying to hook up with suits (quite fun to watch like those national geographic animal mating scenes)............ Brasserie Perrier.

Make out at the Bar........ Bar Lyonnais

Downright Naughty activity at the bar.........Zee Bar.

Sushi at the Bar.................Morimoto.

Have the bar to yourselves..............Snackbar

Watch the chefs cook every detail of your food at the bar....Pasion

Guacamole and banging drinks at the Bar .....Caballito and Xochitl

Best food and value Bar none.......Ansill.

Edited February 14, 2007 by Vadouvan (log)

[Buckethead]

Ansill is doing a prix fixe tonight for valentine's day, you may want to call first and see if they are going to have room. Cantina los Caballitos is great and in SP. 1601 (10th and Tasker) has pretty good food as well.

[zeffer81]

thanks for the quick suggestions. i'm leaning towards places like the cantina, 1601 or royal (though i've been to all of them before.) dare i call them gastopubs? any ideas in that vein?

Although, Vadouvan, I must compliment you on your thorough and diverse reponse. it made me giggle as an added bonus! many of those places (snackbar, Xochitl are on my "list.")

[Buckethead]

thanks for the quick suggestions.  i'm leaning towards places like the cantina, 1601 or royal (though i've been to all of them before.)  dare i call them gastopubs?   any ideas in that vein?

Although, Vadouvan, I must compliment you on your thorough and diverse reponse.  it made me giggle as an added bonus!  many of those places (snackbar, Xochitl are on my "list.")

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Xochitl isn't in the same league as snackbar, the Cantina, or 1601 in my opinion.

*edited to add* By which I mean it's not as good as those places.

Edited February 14, 2007 by Buckethead (log)

[Tim Dolan]

"Gastropub" in Center City? I say either Good Dog or Nodding Head. Good Dog has good beer (and some wine) and better food, Nodding Head has good food and better beer, imho. Nodding Head also currently has a killer Chocolate Stoudt on tap, being that it's Valentine's Day and all.

[Rich Pawlak]

1. Grey Lodge Pub

2. Standard Tap

3. Johnny Brenda's

4. N. 3rd

5. Panorama

[urbanfabric]

-Tritone, provided you can get out of there before they start charging a cover for whatever entertainment they're offering.

-Royal

-Standard Tap

-N. 3rd

-Deuce

-Sidecar

...Dark Horse? I haven't eaten there in a while.

There's my list of bars with good food in the vein of gastropubs. With crowds that I wouldn't mind hanging out with.

[Vadouvan]

Tap upstairs...

Quieter, good duck confit, bugers, ect....dirt cheap too.

[taoseno]

i also like eating at the bar at Southwark, near 4th and Bainbridge, last time i checked, no rsvps needed.

[zeffer81]

"Gastropub" in Center City? I say either Good Dog or Nodding Head.  Good Dog has good beer (and some wine) and better food, Nodding Head has good food and better beer, imho.  Nodding Head also currently has a killer Chocolate Stoudt on tap, being that it's Valentine's Day and all.

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We were leaning towards Good Dog. If the weather isn't too nasty that's probably where we'll end up. Somehow I haven't managed to get there yet so I'm looking forward to trying a new place! Will report back.

[Andrew Fenton]

i also like eating at the bar at Southwark, near 4th and Bainbridge, last time i checked, no rsvps needed.

Ooh, good call. I love the bar at Southwark.

[Jeff L]

Tap upstairs...

Quieter, good duck confit, bugers, ect....dirt cheap too.

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This is true, upstairs at the Tap for sure. Love this place

[Rich Pawlak]

Tap upstairs...

Quieter, good duck confit, bugers, ect....dirt cheap too.

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This is true, upstairs at the Tap for sure. Love this place

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Upstairs at the Grey Lodge, too: quieter, no screaming dart teams, and killer bar food, mussels in red curry, spinach salad, cioppino, Scottish style fish and chips, spicy tilapia sammies, maybe the best cheesesteak in town and very good fries,among other good things.

[Jeff L]

Upstairs at the Grey Lodge, too: quieter, no screaming dart teams, and killer bar food, mussels in red curry, spinach salad, cioppino, Scottish style fish and chips, spicy tilapia sammies, maybe the best cheesesteak in town and very good fries,among other good things.

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I will concur about the cheesesteak and fries here, they are both exceptional. I got the feeling the OP was looking for a center city place though.

BTW, the dart players are downstairs at the Tap and they can indeed be annoying at times but that's part of the vibe there.

[KatieLoeb]

Upstairs at the Grey Lodge, too: quieter, no screaming dart teams, and killer bar food, mussels in red curry, spinach salad, cioppino, Scottish style fish and chips, spicy tilapia sammies, maybe the best cheesesteak in town and very good fries,among other good things.

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I will concur about the cheesesteak and fries here, they are both exceptional. I got the feeling the OP was looking for a center city place though.

BTW, the dart players are downstairs at the Tap and they can indeed be annoying at times but that's part of the vibe there.

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I'll concur with both of you. Grey Lodge has excellent bar food and is only a short ride from Center City. The upstairs is quiet and the beer and whiskey/bourbon selection can't be beat anywhere downtown.

Ohmigosh. Those curried mussels.

[Buckethead]

Well, I went to Ansill last night for the prix fixe and I gotta say it was a disappointment. I had never before had a less than stellar meal there, so maybe they've spoiled me. I've learned my lesson: no matter how good the place normally is, you will be disappointed by a special holiday prix-fixe. The scallops in particular were not good. There were three huge ones on the plate, and that was one course out of four, so I can't imagine they were the best quality scallops to begin with. I did really love the venison tartare and the hamachi ceviche, and dessert was good.

I don't hold it against them, though. As we were finishing up, another couple was just sitting down next to us. One of them had been looking at the menu for a few moments when I heard her say 'butternut squash SOUP?' It occurred to me that those are the people who would normally go to Ansill (or some other 'fine dining' type place) for Valentine's day, and I'm sure they left very happy.

[Jeff L]

And this is the main reason we don't go out to dinner for Valentines Day, Mother's Day, and any other holiday, especially New Years Eve. It seems that otherwise great restaurants simply can't get it right on these ridiculously busy nights and I choose not to participate.

[zeffer81]

Update: We ended up at Good Dog, which was the perfect low key meal on a nasty winter evening. Did I mention I got the best Valentine's Day present I could have asked for--a snow day!

I started with the Good Dog salad of romaine, dried cranberries, almonds and goat cheese in a a vanilla vinaigrette. You have the option to get a 1/2 or whole salad and I went with half bc it was my starter. When that salad arrived I thought the bartended had misheard me. It was huge! Although he hadn't ordered a first course, my boyfriend surrepticiously stole little bites of the salad (esp. the goat cheese!) It was delicious but so big that I wrapped it up for later, something I don't normally do with salads but there was more than half remaining. I then moved on to a brie and sun-dried tomato pesto sandwich. It was solid, but something I could have easily made at home. Didn't stop me from finishing it though!

The boyfriend had the Good Dog burger w/carmelized onions and stuffed with roquefort. Now, I don't eat meat but when he took the first bite into that burger and a flood of roquefort goodness spilled onto the plate, I seriously pondered carnivorism again. However, I refrained. According to him, it was the best burger he's ever eaten, hands down.

Both orders came with a side of fries--a mix of sweet potato and regular with an aioli dipping sauce. The sauce was great; I actually dipped my sandwich right in. I only wish it could have been a touch more garlicky. Maybe they were taking it easy for Valentine's Day...Unfortunately my boyfriend is not a lover of root vegetables. Being the wonderful girlfriend that I am, I picked out my regular fries and tossed them onto his plate. Both varieties, however, were rather limp, and lacked flavor and cripsness. Eh, aioli makes anything taste better, right?

Overall, it was a lovely night with the exception of the noise. I knew Good Dog got loud but I figured it would be quieter and emptier on a wintry V-Day evening. No such luck. No biggie though, I'd do it all over if I could. I'll definitely be back to try the mac n cheese with cornflake crust. Yum!

[lancastermike]

We were in town for the Phillies games on Friday, and a fine job they did. After enjoying the fireworks we went back to the Westin and went out for a drink and some food. We ended up at Nodding Head and were very glad we did. Sampled most of the beers and I found the Summit Double IPA to be the best. The Grog was a hit as well

As to the food, the Fish & Chips was perfect. A nice piece of flaky white fish fried perfectly. This was really good, as good as I have ever had. Others had burgers and our resident non-meat eater raved about the polenta puttanesca

Nice beer, nice food and a good place to drown our sorrows of the Phils dropping tow to the Mets. Also got us out of the hotel which was lousy with Mets fans

[Tim Dolan]

Seems like a good idea to bump this thread around this time of year. Anybody have anything to add? I do.

St. Stephen's Green. Had a very nice dinner at the bar there last weekend. I had a ribeye with blue cheese which was perfectly cooked and quite tasty, gf had red snapper that she loved. This place is definitely going to be in my normal rotation. Bartenders were cool and were encouraging a few patrons to try things that they weren't familiar with. Always a good idea, I say.

[philadining]

I think this could be the greatest bar snack ever.

The Khyber's Pretzel Dog.

Why is it so awesome?

1) The dough is apparently made in-house, and freshly baked around your dog.

2) Salty dough + good quality hot dog = pig in blanket x 100. Somebody check my math, but I'm pretty confident of that equation.

3) The Khyber has beer to accompany it. It might be good without beer. It's profound with beer.

It's not on the regular menu, but it's a frequent special. The only bummer: the Khyber kitchen is only open until 7pm. I'm told it gets too crazy with the live bands, and a cover charge at the door if people are just coming in to eat. Personally, I'd pay the cover to get in, to order a Pretzel dog, but that's just me...

[LizD518]

This seems like the best thread to look in for recommendations for dinner with my brother this Saturday. We are meeting in Philly because he lives in North Jersey and I live in Wilmington.

He likes steak and wine, I like ethnic foods and beer. We are both in our early 30s and will probably just want to hang around and drink and chat after dinner. If there is a baseball game going on that would be a plus (I won't dare hope for a Red Sox game! )

I'm going to look into the suggestions above, but I don't know anything about them. Any more details or other suggestions are welcome.

Oh yeah, Center City is probably best so we don't get lost!

Edited April 22, 2008 by LizD518 (log)

[rlibkind]

I think this could be the greatest bar snack ever.

The Khyber's Pretzel Dog.

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No beer, and the hours aren't any better (probably worse), and I doubt the hot dog is better or as good (though the pretzel part is superb), but Fisher's @ the RTM does pretzel dogs.