Distrito

I wanted to check out this Garces restaurant. While dining with my friend Matt, we went to check out his Mexican tapas venture. The meal is good, but doesn't blow one away. To add to the average dining experience, the decor of the entire place is quite kitschy.

Even though the portions are pretty small, they're also pretty filling. The food doesn't come out as quickly as I'd like; dinner took about 90 minutes and we were often sitting without any food on the table.


Overall, the dishes are hit or miss. For the chips and guacamole, the chips were far too salty and I've had better guac from the grocery store. We ordered two ceviches, and neither were as acidic as they should be. I believe ceviche should have a noticeable citrus base, and the shrimp and octopus didn't really. I still enjoyed the octopus, but the shrimp is a miss.
Long time since I've been out to eat!

The fruit salad with lemon sorbet was pretty solid, and overall, the mains were good. The mahi tacos has great, slightly smokey flavor. The chorizo fundido is a cheesy mess that you place on small tortillas, again, pretty good. Scallops were great too.

The best part of the entire meal was the mushroom flatbread, and it's the only thing I ate that left a lasting impression. Dessert was fine but forgettable.



Beer here is disappointing. They have about five drafts, but two were kicked, and charging $6 for Dos Equis and a dollar less for Corona bottles is is huge stretch.

Bottom Line: The meal was pretty good, and the service was good too. I just can get better food at at better price a few other places. I enjoyed dinner but don't see myself ever visiting again.

Village Whiskey

There are only so many ways I can saw wow. From now on, I will question anyone who says "Blah blah blah has my favorite burger..." with "Have you been to Village Whiskey?" Because it's really that good. It's an all around phenomenal burger.

Dan and I had lunch here last week. It was a beautiful day, and Village Whiskey has some great outdoor seating. They run tables along the wall like most places, but they have a bit more room than normal and an awning to provide shade. We didn't step inside, but I'm sure it has a nice atmosphere. The service during our whole meal was good; I'd be surprised to find anything less at a place like this.

True to its name, this spot has an incredible selection of whiskey. We didn't partake, but I'd like to at some point. The beer list is decent, even though everything is one or two more dollars than it should be. There are about six draft beers that rotate, along with a decent bottle list, including about ten large format bottles. We split a 25oz bottle of red and white for $25, which isn't bad at all. This Dogfish Head beer is a a whit aged in pinot noir barrels. I really love it.

We both went with the burger. There's an option to get a $24 burger with blue cheese, bacon

and foie gras on top. It sounds like overkill to me. I went with the regular burger with blue cheese. When it came out, I didn't like the looks of the burger. Large chunks of blue cheese topped a patty that looked larger than a hockey puck. I thought this huge patty was ridiculously oversized. It only took one bite to change my mind. To start, the burger was more tender and juicy than any other I've had. Second, the ground beef was so lightly packed that it was almost barely formed. This gave the meat great texture, and was why the patty seemed so large. The burger was perfectly cooked and seasoned. The blue cheese was a fantastic addition; it's quickly becoming my favorite cheese for burgers.

The burgers don't come with any sides, so we put in an order of fries. We decided to splurge and order the duck fat fries topped with Sly Fox cheddar sauce and braised short ribs. It's a bit of overkill. It's also delicious. Every part of this side dish is well executed. If you can forget that it's well over 1000 calories, you'll be able to enjoy these beefy cheddar fries. To be honest, I think I'll order the plain fries next time.

Bottom Line: The burger here is amazing, and it's reason enough to visit. It's a bit pricey, but that's what you should expect for the area. If you eat meat, I highly recommend coming here. A little more effort in the beer list is desired, but other than that Village Whiskey doesn't disappoint. I look forward to my next visit.

Essentials:

118 S 20th St (20th and Sansom)

215-665-1088

Hours: M-F 11:30-2am, S&S 4pm-2am

Avg Ent: 8-12, with a few crazy outliers

Reservations: Not taken

Cash Only: No

Amada: Restaurant Week

As soon as I found out the dates for Restaurant week, I was on the phone making reservations at Amada within minutes. I met up with Quinn for drinks at Eulogy, and we then headed over for our 8pm reservations. We only waited a few minutes before we were seated. Amada is a huge, sprawling restaurant. The decor in the front in like a classy general store with a nice long open bar, while the back turns into a normal dining room after the open air kitchen.

Quinn had done a good bit of research (and I hadn't) and picked out everything that we ordered. Amada, like Chifa, is tapas inspired. Small dishes, meant for sharing, populate the table during the whole meal. For our first course, we started with an aged Manchego cheese. It was served with honey and apple slices, and the combination of these three were heavenly. We also ordered Serrano Ham, a thinly sliced antipasta style dish. This was good, but lacked the flavor to carry itself. The texture was more impressive than the taste. We followed up with goat cheese and roasted veggies on bread; nothing memorable here. We also had an order of garlic shrimp, and this tasted great.

The second course started with seasoned wild mushroom. I can't stress enough: These were amazing. That dish was one of the best things I've tasted in months. Excellent mushrooms in an even better marinade. We rounded out the second course with grilled chorizo, which was very good. We also had lima bean salad. It was okay. It had a weird texture and there were many menu ideas I would have rather tried. Lastly, we had grilled calamari, and that was great, too.

We had each of one of the desserts. I'm not a huge dessert person, and neither of these were that good. The best part was a complimentary almond wafer, which was basically a larger delicious fortune cookie.

For drinks, I usually don't expect much from nice restaurants. Amada, however, has a good, small selection. They have one representative from several styles: pilsner, IPA, lager, red ale, and stout. And they're all solid selections and normally priced. I had two Founders' Centennial IPA. Quinn stuck with the sangria and enjoyed that a lot. Amada has an extensive wine list, but I ignored it.

Bottom Line: It's easy to see why this spot is wildly popular. I've heard that it's even better off restaurant week. The atmosphere is cool and the service was great (Thanks Shelly!). Overall, the menu contains some hit or miss items, which is unfortunate. I was pleased with my meal, but this isn't at the top of my list for places to eat in the city. With the exception of the lima beans, everything was very good at the least, and spectacular at best.

Essentials:

217 Chestnut St

215-625-2450

Hours: Weekdays, 11:30-2:30, 5-10; weekend 11:30-2:30, 4-12

Avg meal: 40-60

Cash Only: No

Reservations: Required

Chifa

Chifa was my first stop for restaurant week. I was excited for my first stop at a Jose Garces restaurant, as the man has quickly become Steven Starr's main competitor over the last few years. Restaurant week is when over a hundred restaurants over the city offer a three course, prix fix meal for $35. However, portions and quality vary greatly.

I met with my friend Bryana and we were seated quickly, right on time for our reservations. The atmosphere is weird here. Low lights, modern/trendy decorations, terrible but trying to be

cool and in the background music. Overall, it just wasn't my thing. This doesn't make a huge difference though. Our server was excellent. Attentive and friendly, she made the dining experience better.

The menu is Peruvian/Asian fusion food, which sounded random until our server explained. You should ask during your visit. The menu

is set up for sharing, and between the two of us we ordered four different first courses, four seconds, and two desserts. I also opted for the wine pairing which offered a glass of red and white wine. While not amazing, they were modestly prices and matched well with a majority of the food. I also opted for the wine because the beer list was average and overpriced: Flying Fish, Dogfish Head, PBC, ect for $6 or $7.

Dishes are brought out in the order they are prepared, which was a bit faster than I wanted to eat them. We started of with civiche, which was deliciously well prepared. Our pork belly bun came out next, which is a star of the menu. The meat was delicious, but I thought the bun was bland and in poor ratio to the rest of the dish. Despite my complaint, Bryana declared it her favorite dish. We had spring rolls next, which were my favorite. They were flaky and perfectly seasoned. The BBQ ribs were the last of the first courses. It was good, but if you want ribs, go to a place that does ribs, because I wasn't impressed. The meat wasn't memorably tender, and the sauce was average.

Pho started our second course. This dish was poorly made. The spiciness from the jalapenos

overpowered any other taste it might have had. Further it was made from noodles only a few inches long, making it almost impossible to eat with a fork or the provided chop sticks. We were served mussels next, which were great. The sauce was thick and flavorful, the best mussels I've had outside a Belgian joint. Another fantastic dish came out next, seasoned rice mixed with scallops. Chifa did the best job with the seafood dishes. Our last dish before dessert were mushrooms, and they come out in a dish that looked like a pot pie. The crust was unnecessary, but the mushrooms were cooked in a great sauce and were excellent wild mushrooms.

We had hit and miss dishes for both courses. We sampled both desserts from the menu. The first was coconut and passionfruit sorbet dish. This was nice and tangy, but not the way I love to end my meal. I was much more into the other dessert, chocolate ganache with hazelnut brittle.

Bottom Line: With the offerings of a lot of different dishes, the portions are small, but the meal ends up being adequate. Our server told me that the restaurant week menu was a good representation of the regular menu. The whole night was good, but hit or miss. I would have been disappointed if I paid full price, and I honestly can't see myself going back again. If you do have a strong urge to try this place out, opt for the small $18 lunch special. It's almost exactly half of the restaurant week dinner offering. Chifa cooks up interesting fusion dishes, but doesn't quite hit the nail on the head.

Essentials:

707 Chestnut St

215-925-5555

Avg dinner: 35-55

Cash Only: No

Reservations: Required