Monday, March 28, 2011

Marigold Kitchen

It's been a few years since I visited Marigold, but I was skeptical because head chef Erin O'Shea left the restaurant. Much to my surprise, the new chef was able to take everything O'Shea had done and improve upon it, making a place I liked a lot even better.

To start, we ordered the cheese plate. This is one of the true pleasures at Marigold, and the portions are more generous than I remember. The three featured cheeses were a hard, mild cheddar, a blue cheese covered in vinaigrette, and a cheese that was similar to brie; I believe it was a Camembert. All of these were really good and diverse, and paired well with the honey and pears served alongside. A visit here without ordering the cheese plate is incomplete.

Throughout the evening, we had amouse bouche brought over bunches of times. In fact, there were so many that I can't remember them all. Some were really good, others forgettable. Some of my favorites included the chestnut filled ravioli, grapefruit soda, shaved parsnips, and all the desserts (best dessert was salted caramel).

For our appetizer we split General Tso's veal sweetbreads, which was a unique Asian fusion dish that was really tender. The mains were pork tenderloin and scallops with peas, bacon and mushrooms. The menu here has a lot of options, and I honestly had a hard time picking out my dish. Nothing disappointed.

The atmosphere here is nice. It's a converted West Philly house, and the rooms are small and it's a great place to dine. The servers here were fantastic; the manager checked up on us and we were well taken care of all night.

Bottom Line: This BYOB provides a great dining experience. I liked it before, and this last visit exceeded my expectations. It's fantastic food and service, and while it's not the cheapest, it's certainly a great value for a nice dinner.

Friday, March 25, 2011

Santucci's Original Square Pizza

Santucci's is a hole in the wall. A delicious, delicious, hole in the wall. The pizza is unlike any I've ever had, it's square pizza with the sauce on top. Really, there's no point in writing a review, because Santucci's is something you must taste to understand.

The sauce is perfectly sweet, the crust is tasty, and even with the sauce on top its surprisingly not messy. I know down the road I'm going to have cravings for the unique pie. I recommend sticking with the cheese pie; no toppings needed.

Monday, March 21, 2011

Adsum



I made my way here with my good friend Quinn on a Sunday for a quick bite to eat. I heard Adsum has a great burger. So at 5:30 we walk in and are seated at the bar. Sunday happy hour, not bad: $2 cans of Yella Pils and Phoenix pale ale.

The atmosphere here is kind of cool, it's trying to be an old time pharmacy. There are beakers and test tubes, and book shelves behind the bar filled with all kind of gadgets and books. Even though we were there pretty early in the evening and it wasn't busy, the service was surprisingly slack. We were the only people eating dinner and it took about 30 minutes to get our orders.

The burger is served with cheddar, which is not my favorite cheese for a burger. It's congealed before you can finish. The caramelized onions, however, were an excellent topping. But the size of the burger was the most problematic. It more of a ball shape than a patty. It's nearly impossible to fit into your mouth. To boot, my burger wasn't near the medium rare that I ordered. The duck fat fries, which were served on the side, were good and crispy, but had no flavor indication that they were cooked in any special way.

Bottom Line: This place is decent and unique. The service needs a little work, and if I'm back, I won't have the cheeseburger. I'm not going out of my way to visit Adsum again.

Bibou



I don't often use the word charm when talking about restaurants, but Bibou exudes charm. This small, quant BYOB in bella vista is where Carly and I had dinner Friday night. Even with 35 people, this place would be packed. I love that Bibou focuses on the small details. The bathroom was really nice. The butter was imported from France. Our server was attentive and gave in depth explanations of thie entire menu. These little things cultivate a really nice environment for dinner.

We opted for some Cabernet S
avignon to go with dinner. The menu here is set up in two courses, and there's a lot of excellent choices. We started with duck heats marinated with mushrooms. This dish had a lot of flavor, and the hearts were tender and succulent.

Main courses came out shortly after. Carly ordered the bone marrow special. Bibou only makes ten bone marrow specials each day, and when they sell out, thats it for the night. Pierre, the head chef, takes a cow bone and splits it down the middle. The marrow is scooped out, and then made into a delicious stuffing with mushrooms and breadcrumbs, and returned to the bone and roasted. Where else can you eat out of a bone? It also came with a side of some of the best roasted potatoes I've had in recent memory.

I ordered seared ahi tuna with cauliflower cuoscous with tomatillos and raisins. The whole dish was topped with a turmeric sauce . I ordered the tuna rare, and it was excellently cooked. My dish wasn't my favorite, but it was still way better than what I expect when I'm out to eat.
After dinner, Pierre had slow moment in the kitchen. He came out to each table individually and asked us about our meal and thanked us for dining with them. This simple gesture was really nice and wins big points in my book.

We also had dessert; a chocolate sampler. Chocolate mousse, a brownie thing and chocolate gealtto. Thses three different things were distinct and tasty, a perfect way to cap off our dinner.

Bottom line: This byob will impress you. Its an intimate place to grab dinner, not too expensive, and a real pleasure to enjoy. Hang around long enough to talk to Pierre and get the full experience.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Allentown Brew Works

I hit up Allentown brew works on a Saturday night with a crew of hungry and thirsty dudes. There was a small wait for our table, so we made our way to the bar. The whole place was pretty packed, but service was still pretty good. The decor is new and modern, but not memorable. The weirdest thing was the club and hip-hop tunes that were loudly pumping all night. Not enough to annoy me, but certainly out of place.

For beer, the brewpub features ten of their own on tap. Four are their flagships, which represent the bar well. The knuckleball is a great session ale with subtle flavor; a good summer beer and a light 4.2 ABV. The wit was also a nice summer beer, very similar to Hoegaarden. Fegley’s Amber Lager went down easy, but didn't have a ton of flavor. Similar to Troegs Hopback. Last of the flagships was the Pawn Shop Porter. It was a bit thin, but had a good flavor and went down more quickly than porters usually do.

My favorite beer of the night was the bourbon aged Insidious. It was a strong, flavorful, well aged beer. The Bushy's Pale ale was a standout as well, a good representation of a West Coast pale ale that is actually balanced instead of crazily overhopped. Brew works offers a beer flight of six 5.5 oz pours for $10. This is an great deal and offers a good sampling of all of the beer available.

We were so hungry that we ordered the appetizer platter to get a good sampling of the food offered. Chicken fingers, wings, and pierogies were all okay.

The app sampler also came with a small order of the bavarian pretzels. They were incredible. Really. The perfect combination of a breadstick and a pretzel covered in a butter garlic sauce. They were so good, in fact, that we immediately ordered a second helping.

For my dinner, I ordered a flatbread: bleu cheese, pear, walnuts, and prosciutto. The combination of these flavor was perfect, and I really loved this dish. Everyone else seemed to enjoy their food as well.

Bottom Line: The pretzels alone are reason to come here. For real. The beer is good too. They have some good happy hour specials as well. Dinner won't disappoint. I'm not in Allentown much, but I still have no doubt that this is one of their best offerings.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Johnny's Hots


My experience at Johnny Hots: I pull up to a tiny little stand off Delaware ave. It's populate with a bunch of guys standing around, mostly cops and construction workers, and a few people who have walked over from nearby. The menu has several sandwich options, but everyone seems to be ordering cheesesteaks and "the combo." I ordered the combo, a hot sausage topped with fishcakes on a white roll. I also got onions, long hots, and spicy mustard. My sandwich came out lightening fast, it was waiting for me even before I could put my change in my wallet.

The sandwich was good, and I scarfed it down pretty quickly. I didn't love the combination of sausage and fish cakes. The fish cakes have an okay taste, and the texture of scrapple. I did like the sausage, but nothing was amazing here.
Bottom Line: It's a good place, but not amazing. If I remember correctly, the hours are only breakfast and lunch during the week, and that makes it hard to eat here. The whole operation is really quick in and out, and it's proximity to 95 could make it a good stop if you needed to grab something before hopping on.