uhockey's Profile
Special Occasion Restaurant in Philadelphia
Lacroix > Fountain for my $$$$.
http://endoedibles.com
Heading back to Philadelphia, tweaking the agenda.
I dropped my car damned close to your place - left it there for the better part of 4 days and no one messed with it, no tickets, etc.
Too bad you weren't in town, but there is always next time.
http://endoedibles.com
Heading back to Philadelphia, tweaking the agenda.
Ile Flotante was okay, not earth shattering.
Ice Creams were not house made (from Italian Market) and okay.
Apricote Meringue Pie was nice, but not wowing for $9 compared to cheaper options at Barbuzzo.
Vetri's was a seasonal bluberry pannacotta. It was just sort of boring. Not bad. Just 'meh'. Sort of a parfait, not really 'panna cotta.'
http://endoedibles.com
Heading back to Philadelphia, tweaking the agenda.
Brunch.
No Bread Pudding French Toast (listed online menu and main reason I went)
Pancakes looked like Bisquick so I skipped 'em.
No Duck Scrapple.
Went with the Gruyere Buns which were almost impossibly bland for something containing ham AND Gruyere.
No sticky/cinnamon buns (listed on online menu AND restaurant menu) so instead went with an almond croissant that may as well have been baked the prior morning.
http://endoedibles.com
Heading back to Philadelphia, tweaking the agenda.
Federal Donuts - Some great, most good, but not on par with some of the better spots in Chicago or NYC.
Green Eggs Café - Great service, good coffee, outlandishly good stuffed French Toast, free-wifi!
Paesano’s - rumors are true. Superb sandwiches. All very well balanced with, imo, no 'unnecessary' stuff. All the ingredients 'fit' and the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
John’s Water Ice - not my style, but the pineapple and chocolate were definitely good and you can't argue the price.
Frangelli’s Bakery - Regular donut = good. Blackberry donut - amazing.
Blackfish - service needs work, but the food is top notch and that $45 Tuesday tasting is the steal of the century. I've paid $35 for portions of foie gras smaller than the one on that tasting. The focaccia also is delectable. Worth the 1:15 to get there? Maybe not.....but maybe so.
Swann Lounge - rich people have fun the same way poor people do - they just do it on MUCH pricier drinks. Very friendly and professional staff. Ordered one drink and one dessert from Fountain and they even allowed me to stay after closing because the Kings/Yotes game went to OT.
Stock’s Bakery - Get in your car and go. Donut was really good. Pound cake actually does live up to the hype. Buttercake should be banned for being so decadent. Don't like that they only sell full (LARGE) portions, but they kept well and I gave them to Philly Ray for he and his family to enjoy.
Café Lift - Canoli French Toast. Unlimited refills of La Colombe. Free Wi-Fi. They had me at hello and are an all time favorite breakfast.
Pitruco - so damned cool. Efficient, friendly, great price, and surpirisingly very very good pizza. Smoky blitered crust, great toppings, and all for $9.
La Colombe - My thoughts on these guys are well known. My kitchen kinda smells like their shops.
Monsu - I don't know if they are doing good business, but at the price point they should be. Not quite as good as ModoMio, imo, but the bread and eggplant caponata on the table are tremendous, the gnocchi were perfect, and the rabbit was great. Dessert was weak, but in general I don't expect too much from Italian desserts outside a few places.
Isgro - Canoli, sfogliatella, Baba - win, win, win.
Le Virtu - was quite under the weather from being up till 1:30am the previous morning when I went here, but the service was very nice, the food quite good (bread service needs some work,) and although the pastas weren't as good as Vetri imo, they were very good rustic style pastas. Desserts were excellent for an Italian spot.
Tommy DiNic’s - half a sandwich for me, half a sandwich for the bum standing by the convention center wearing a Kings hat, and that was still a lot of sandwich. Got it with sharp and rabe and must say it was good, but not on par with Paesanos or Roli Roti (SF) in the grand scheme of 'pork sandwiches' in general.
Fountain - Disappointing. Went at lunch. Service was okay at best, disinterested at worst. Food was fine, but considerably overpriced. The souffle is worth the $14, but not much else on the lunch menu is.
Barbuzzo - So so glad I went here. The duck/chicken liver pate is delicious, the gnocchi dainty and well balanced with the lamb/mint, and both the caramel budnio and bread pudding are 'best of the best' desserts for the whole trip.
Bibou - Lovely space, amazing food, great meal. Desserts aren't going to win any awards, but the lamb rack, the trotter, the foie, the escargot, and most of all the bone marrow dish will all be remembered very fondly and service could not be better.
Café Estelle - Brunch. Strawberry Rhubarb French Toast. Unlimited refills of three types of coffee. Not as good as lift or green eggs, but a nice spot.
Kanella - best deal in the city, and solid from appetizer platter through dessert. Lovely service, portions adequate for sharing but not too much for a solo.
Alla Spina (twice) - The service is better than it needs to be. The food is better than it needs to be. The room is nicely laid out and although loud it is never deafening. I cannot comment towards the controversies on the beer list, but on the whole the pig tails, the mushrooms, the stuffed polenta, the sunchokes, and the poutine should not be missed.
Koo Zee Doo - Just go. Get the tasting menu. Sit back and wonder how the hell this place makes a profit giving such good large quantities of quality food at such a low price. I love the feel of the room, as well.
a kitchen - bait and switch menu, bland and boring food, servers that seem to not care if you are there. Would not recommend to anyone, ever.
The Dandelion - Most unexpectedly excellent meal of the trip (not the best, just the one I figured would be 'okay' that turned out 'really good.') Service is good, food is really good, the layout of the house/restaurant is fantastic, and although prices might be a touch high for what you get the chicken/duck liver terrine is ENORMOUS for the price, the scones are ~$2.00/ea, and the sticky toffee pudding is a steal at $7.
Vetri - Really not much I can say that I did not say the first time around. It is the best Italian food I've ever had, twice now, and the service is superlative. 18 dishes served and only one, a dessert, was 'meh' while the rest ranged between good (duck ravioli) and transcendent (spinach gnocchi, pork, quail.)
Those are my 'initial' thoughts, and since my blog is tremendously backed up they'll have to suffice for a bit. :-) I can expound, where necessary, until then.
http://endoedibles.com
http://endoedibles.com
Heading back to Philadelphia, tweaking the agenda.
Cheers to all you excellent Philly hounds who provided suggestions and a big thanks to those who made it out for great eating in your fine city. Though my blog is quite backlogged at this point, eventually all my thoughts will see equal facetime and I'll be sure to crosslink posts here at Chowhound to provide feedback to future hounds looking to eat well in the City of Brotherly Love.
All told I managed to fit in breakfast on all but one day of the trip and lunch plus dinner all five days and a 4th meal or snack on *most* days. Below is the total list of places I visited:
Federal Donuts
Green Eggs Café
Paesano’s
John’s Water Ice
Frangelli’s Bakery
Blackfish
Swann Lounge
Stock’s Bakery
Café Lift
Pitruco
La Colombe
Monsu
Isgro
Le Virtu
Tommy DiNic’s
Fountain
Barbuzzo
Bibou
Café Estelle
Kanella
Alla Spina (twice)
Koo Zee Doo
a kitchen
The Dandelion
Vetri
Thanks again to you all. I'm sure I'll be back sometime relatively soon.
http://endoedibles.com
Fiola and Elisir - Lunch vs. Dinner - any experiences?
Ended up at both and enjoyed both, though they are certainly very different experiences. I'm incredibly backlogged on my blog but in brief I went to Elisir for dinner and found the service subpar at best but the food to be both inventive and delicious. I ordered the tasting and added on both the Fantasy Foie Gras Torchon and the Egg in a nest with favorite dishes being both of the goose liver preparations and the softshelled crab while pastas and desserts were overall quite weak (leading me to CoCo Sala for more dessert afterward.)
Fiola, on the other hand, was visited for lunch and while the server was obvioulsy quite used to serving people who don't know much about food (the explanations were tailored for the TGIFriday's Crowd and I actually wanted to tell him to STFU as he explained the Vitello Tonato) they were quite accomidating and we ordered extensively with 4 pastas, 2 risottos, and 3 desserts for the 4 of us.
Highlights were the Brandade Gnocchi, Cacio & Peppe, and Cavatelli Sardininian Ricotta Gnocchi plus the Cod and Squid Ink Risotto. Weak points were the raved Lobster Gnocchi, the Vitello, and the desserts (though the Bombollini with Affogato was quite nice.) The house bread is not Italian, but damned delicious also.
Overall my trip to DC and Surrounding Environs led me to some GREAT spots and I met some even better people.
My total hit list for the trip is below, and reviews will eventually appear in my blog with cross posts here to the DC board.
The Ashby Inn
2 Amy’s
Sushi Taro
Kafe Leopold
Patisserie Poupon
Bibiana
Elisir
CoCo Sala
Society Fair
Buzz Bakery
Ardeo
The Source
Rogue24
Blue Duck Tavern
Birch and Barley
Virtue Feed and Grain
Trummer’s On Main
Old Ebbitt Grill
Fiola
Woodberry Kitchen
Wit and Wisdom
http://endoedibles.com
Restaurant/Bar with Great Food and a Television within 30 minutes of Clifton, VA
Just a bit of feedback - ended up at Virtue Feed and Grain - it is a GREAT spot for a game and aside from terrible parking due to some sort of festival going on in Alexandria (and the Kings losing their sole loss of the seies) it went without a hitch. Got back to Clifton in 33 minutes (was timing simply because of this thread)
Thanks to all for the recs.
http://endoedibles.com
The Manhattan Pizza Crawl, 2012. Maffei, Co., John's of Bleecker, Keste, Rubirosa, Forcella.
...my point was that rrems stated "If this is genuine Neapolitan pizza, I guess I am not a fan of Neapolitan pizza" when he/she in fact did not order something resembling a genuine Neapolitan pizza.
http://endoedibles.com
The Manhattan Pizza Crawl, 2012. Maffei, Co., John's of Bleecker, Keste, Rubirosa, Forcella.
Pretty sure none of those ingredients come on a "genuine" neapolitan pizza. Try the Margherita next time.
http://endoedibles.com
Rogue 24 in DC - Report
I've been a fan for too long to count my chickens before the eggs get all smashed to hell. **glass half empty** :-)
Can't plan till the schedule exists.
http://endoedibles.com
Rogue 24 in DC - Report
Okay, I'm probably still a bit jaded by the experience, but on the whole I will absolutely say that Rogue24 operates on the level befitting a US Michelin 2* restaurant.
Having been to many of the most highly touted US restaurants employing a decent degree of 'modernist' technique (Aliea 3x, Schwa, Avenues w/ Duffy, The Bazaar, wd~50, moto, VOLT, ink, etc) I will say that of the group only Alinea more consistently 'wowed' with each dish and while your mileage may vary, I found the setting at Rogue superior to all of them not only because of the open kitchen, but because the music fit my palate as well as the food while the servers were all absolutely on point at all times with ample descriptions, flawless timing, and a jovial attituted.
Aside from all of the above, other aspects of the experience that truly wowed were how smoothly the expiditing from the kitchen seemed despite a large number of tables at varuious stages in 'The Journey" and just how active RJ is not only with the kitchen but with the crowd - the man is like the dining room manager and the chef in the same breath.
I did a mixed drink pairing - IE, cocktails were served with booze while wines (save for champagne with the caviar dish) were replaced with distilations, juices, etc. The smoked coke with lime and hickory was a favorite, as was "The Dude" (themed from my favorite film ever, yet another area in which the restaurant's sensibilities matched my own.)
My full thoughts will eventually get blogged, though I'm hideously backlogged right now, but suffice it to say I had an amazing time and would easily place Rogue in my top 5 meals all time in terms of overall experience. Admittedly not every dish was an out of the park smash, but many were, and only one of 24 left me uninspired.
The 2* review from the local press is a joke.....and if you haven't been, you should go and verify that fact for yourself. While I liked Komi a lot (and no longer have any interest in Andres' games with minibar) for my money Rogue is the best restaurant in DC by a pretty wide margin.
http://endoedibles.com
Italian in Downtown Chicago
Agree with Chicgail 100% here. Having eaten at the majority of Chicago's top Italian spots and those in New York, not to mention DC and Philly, I think Cafe Spiaggia is an immense deal for the quality of the food, setting, and experience.
Spiaggia itself is absurdly overpriced and I had a disgusting service experience that would prevent me from even considering a return visit.
http://endoedibles.com
Rogue 24 in DC - Report
RJ is a great chef. Can't wait to see what they're turning out on Saturday, but will be mindful of the booze as I'm staying with family in Clifton.
http://endoedibles.com
Next - El Bulli? You can keep it. For my money, EL Ideas was far better (and 1/3 the price.)
...and yet the people who ate at Next ate the same thing I ate in March, and the people ate in February, and people are eating in May. :-)
If there is a menu as dynamic or changing as frequently as EL Ideas in Chicago I don't know of it.
http://endoedibles.com
Annisa - Yes the place is small and loud, but the food is delicious.
...maybe you should be more social. :-)
http://endoedibles.com
Restaurant/Bar with Great Food and a Television within 30 minutes of Clifton, VA
They appear to close at 2:30 and the game starts at 3:00.
We're actually eating dinner at Trummer's on Sunday, hence the proximity question.
http://endoedibles.com
Restaurant with a great bar menu and a Television?
I already inquired with P&K. Sixers are off that day and they claim they'd be happy to flip it to the Kings/Yotes.
http://endoedibles.com
Next - El Bulli? You can keep it. For my money, EL Ideas was far better (and 1/3 the price.)
I had 2 meals and doughnuts beforehand - I also ate 2 of the caramel foie gras. I could have eaten more, but I was fine.
http://endoedibles.com
Restaurant with a great bar menu and a Television?
Thinking Pub & Kitchen might be a good choice too.
http://endoedibles.com
Next - El Bulli? You can keep it. For my money, EL Ideas was far better (and 1/3 the price.)
Totally agree. It is avant garde dining. Like what Wolvesden LA, Um Segredo NY, and even Ludo are doing - but it is in the same place every day.
http://endoedibles.com
Rogue 24 in DC - Report
No. This is a 11 year old promise to myself. :-)
http://endoedibles.com
Next - El Bulli? You can keep it. For my money, EL Ideas was far better (and 1/3 the price.)
reviews like that are fine, but they don't tell me much. Mine take longer, but I'm glad people find them helpful. There are some other very wordy bloggers out there, though, and I enjoy them a lot.
http://endoedibles.com
Next - El Bulli? You can keep it. For my money, EL Ideas was far better (and 1/3 the price.)
I'm venture to guess I know about El Bulli than you, but perhaps I'm wrong. I'm not here to get in a pissing match. I know precisely what Achatz et. al. were trying to do with that menu and I'm glad I went, but the restaurant has so many fanboys at this point that it is assinine. Childhood was better, and also 1/3 the price.
As the only person I know to ever pass up an invite to El Bulli due to work, lets just say that in retrospect I'm glad I went to Next and leave it at that.
http://endoedibles.com
Restaurant/Bar with Great Food and a Television within 30 minutes of Clifton, VA
Further? I guess I don't know the local traffic patterns terribly well.
http://endoedibles.com
Rogue 24 in DC - Report
Ipsedixit doesn't have it so bad himself out there in LA. :-)
If the Kings make the finals I'll be looking for last minute recommendations from him soon.
http://endoedibles.com
Next - El Bulli? You can keep it. For my money, EL Ideas was far better (and 1/3 the price.)
I hope both restaurants are as good for you as they were for me.
http://endoedibles.com
Next - El Bulli? You can keep it. For my money, EL Ideas was far better (and 1/3 the price.)
It was #1 by a substantial margin. It is the second best meal of my life, behind Gagnaire.
Otherwise for 2012, Splendido Toronto, EL Ideas, Au Pied du Cochon, and WD~50 all impressed me more than Next - EL Bulli, and to be honest, I'll remember my meals at Atelier Ottawa and Joe Beef more in the long run, as well.
http://endoedibles.com
Next - El Bulli? You can keep it. For my money, EL Ideas was far better (and 1/3 the price.)
They are both restaurants utilizing modern technique and charging $100+, thus I can compare them, and I will.
I didn't say Next was not a good experience, what I said was that for $485 it is currently the 6th best meal I've had in 2012 despite being the second most expensive.
http://endoedibles.com
Next - El Bulli? You can keep it. For my money, EL Ideas was far better (and 1/3 the price.)
Just Next.
Alinea is dynamic and beautiful, in my top 3 culinary experiences ever.
Next, even the El Bulli menu, was fine - a nice experience but nowhere near the substantial hype. Everything is perfect, but if you went there daily you'd eat the same thing every single day. It is a formula. To an extent, the same is true of Alinea (though I've been there thrice and had ~70 different plates with none being less than excellent.)
Contrast the above to what Foss is doing at EL Ideas - or to a lesser extent the menu at Per Se, The French Laundry, or Saison that has a couple greatest hits but substantially changes daily...
I'm glad I went to the El Bulli menu at Next - but for the same price I'd have been much happier to dine at EL Ideas, Schwa, and somewhere else on back-to-back-to-back nights (or two of 'em in the same night. :-) )
http://endoedibles.com
