JG Domestic

JG Domestic is one of Jose Garces' newest restaurants. It is in the Circa Center, the time crystal looking building attached to 30th Street Station. Set in the lobby of the building, the decor and absence of walls gives the restaurant the feel of a fancy, open air ranch. It's certainly the nicest and probably "best" place to eat if you are waiting at 30th Street Station. I picked up my wonderful mother at the station and we decided to visit while waiting for my sister to get into town.

As expected, JG Domestic offers good service. The beer list is small, but respectable. I ordered the house beer, a Victory brew that bears Garces' name. The style wasn't listed, but this bitter, amber ale is probably an ESB. Mom ordered a glass of house wine and wasn't impressed. Prices here are a bit above average, but within the normal bounds for this type of restaurant.

The lunch menu has a lot of choices, and I opted for the blue plate special. Wednesday's special, fish and chips, was exactly what I was craving. Sadly, it did not live up to my expectations. The amount of fish on my plate was laughable, close to half the normal serving size of a typical fish dish. The fish was breaded in small pieces, a la fish-sticks. These were set on a large bed of well seasoned fries - but fries should never constitute the main portion of a meal. Alongside my meal was a small ramekin of salad with a delicious green goddess dressing. My favorite part of the fish and chips plate was the condiment, a malt vinegar aoili that had the perfect taste and texture to compliment the fried fish.

Mom ordered the Cobb salad, which was topped with blue cheese, avocado, bacon, and grilled chicken. I was a bit jealous when her plate arrived; it looked fantastic and she really enjoyed her order.

Bottom Line: JG Domestic offers decent lunch specials and a good place to eat in a location that's relatively sparse otherwise. It's on par with Garces' other locations, but honestly, if I find myself stuck while waiting in 30^th Street Station again, I'd much rather check out the surprisingly extensive beer list at Bridgewater's.

Cafe Lift

Previously, I'd only been to Cafe Lift for lunch. In addition to the great paninis and sandwhiches they offer, Life has a solid breakfast lineup. I wasn't the first to figure this out; at 10am on a Sunday there were quite a few people waiting to get a table.

The menu, which offers a lot of good choices, is supplemented by a chalkboard boasting about 6 different daily specials. It took me a while to narrow down the choices. I love the open kitchen, because you can get a preview of nearly every dish as it is served up and delivered.

I was out with Carly, and I ordered the panchetta frittata. It was made with sweet onions, kale, gruyere. It was perfectly cooked, the saltiness of the panchetta and cheese complimented the eggs. It was served with multi-grain toast and breakfast potatoes.

Carly also ordered from the specials, granola pancakes. I don't usually enjoy sweet breakfast, but even I had to admit that this dish was delicious. The granola cakes were topped with bananas and raspberries. Local honey and house made whipped cream were served alongside and made for perfect toppings.


The service here is pretty good, not amazing. The coffee is decent and has free refills. The portions at lift are generous, and the ingredients are high qaulity.

Bottom Line: Philly has a lot of good brunch places, and this is certainly in the upper echelon. Lift won't blow you away, but the ever rotating specials and overall cool atmosphere will make Lift an ever popular brunch option.

Shake Shack

Shake Shack may have the best ground beef I've ever eaten. This is perfectly flavorful, juicy, griddle cooked beef that's ground fresh daily. Respectably, cheese is only offered as American, and the meat and cheese combine in a truly delicious fashion. If your lunch is like mine, a double shake burger will come out with lettuce, tomato, cheese, two patties, and "special" (thousand island) sauce on a squishy white bun, wrapped up in a wax paper sleeve.


This is all quite similar to an In-N-Out burger, but doesn't have the same quality of tomato and lettuce that the fantastic West Coast chain offers. In fact, the relative average quality of everything besides than the meat and cheese is what keeps the burger from being truly amazing.

While Corner Bistro still wins in my heart for favorite NYC burger, that's more because of the establishment as a whole. As I've said, the ground beef here is unbeatable.


I didn't partake in the name sake, but I'd like to try a shake at some point. The fries were average crinkle cut potatoes, nothing special. Be prepared for long wait here, or try and time your visit in between lunch and dinner on weekdays.

Bottom Line: These cows make my mouth water.

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.

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.

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 Savignon 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.