Meritage Philadelphia

500 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, PA

http://www.meritagephiladelphia.com/

We’ve been fans of the Center City Restaurant Week promotion for a while, having sampled El Vez, Bliss, and Cuba Libre during this prix fixe week. Often, the $30 price tag for three courses was a good deal, so long as you chose wisely. However, now that the price has risen to $35, and restaurants have clued in, I’m not sure we’ll be partaking as liberally as we have. Meritage, however, was our latest go. We chose it because it had been on my radar for a bit, and some sources liked it and thought it a good bargain for the promotion.

We met Mike in the wee bar for a little cocktail: he was muscled into a nice white by the sassy barkeep, while Rick and I went for a lovely cava as we enjoy the bubbly if given the chance.

After our drinks, we retired up a couple steps to the awfully red dining room (hence the color of the pictures to follow): I didn’t find it nearly as discomforting as Mike did, but I’m not altogether convinced it’s a great color for the small rooms.

After consulting with the sommelier, we ordered what was a wonderful bold white from Argentina. At around $40, it was a steal, and I continue to be impressed with South American wines — we have yet to have a truly awful one.

For the first course, Rick and Mike selected the tuna tartare, while I had the boston lettuce salad with maytag blue cheese dressing, avocado, and crispy pancetta.

Here, Mike and Rick win, which is hardly a surprise. I have to say that flavor-wise, I was content, though it was perhaps a bit too much blue cheese (I never knew that was really possible); I was a bit underwhelmed by the quantity though (of course, at the end of the meal, I was perfectly content with the quantity, so what do I know?), especially considering that the salad retails for $9.

For the main course, Mike chose the roasted chicken, presented on a Yukon gold potato puree;

Rick had the pan seared salmon on sauteed swiss chard;

and I had the gnocchi with puttanesca:

Again, Mike won. We noted that one doesn’t often get chicken dining out (especially when doing fine dining), because, well, it’s chicken. However, when chicken is done well, it can be really good, and this was. Rick seemed content with his salmon (I didn’t try it, what with my gnocchi fixation and the preponderance of mushrooms on his plate).

So, since I grew up in the hardly Italian-y Pacific Northwest, I only discovered puttanesca in grad school when my friend Seth made it, and I loved it. I liked the spice, and also the strange melange of flavors that I’m not usually a fan of — capers, anchovies, and olives are not on my top 100 list, but together in puttanesca, they work somehow.

Or at least they normally do.  Meritage’s puttanesca is sweet. Like Marie Osmond sweet. Like, too sweet. I mean, I don’t think puttanesca is supposed to be sweet at all, but I was willing to give it a little leeway, but the more I ate, the more I was just overwhelmed. It was odd. The gnocchi themselves were fine (not the pillows of transcendence that Osteria provided, but that’s just unfair, probably), but the sauce was just plain strange.

So, it was then onto dessert; Rick selected the banana bread pudding (natch), while Mike and I chose the chocolate tart with a cranberry compote:

Both were fine; I think we won over Rick, who commented that the banana was not exactly unwelcome, but perhaps unnecessary. The coffee, served from mini french presses, was delightful.

So, Meritage? Eh. The food was good (nothing offensive, really), the service largely good (our server had her flighty moments), and the setting was good. The bill came to a relatively whopping number over $200 owing to our predilection for the potent potables, but that was understandable. No need to go back, but perhaps a need to re-assess our fascination with restaurant week.

Shut Up

Foobooz calls it unholy, but I think a Marc Vetri-Stephen Starr union would be delicious in about 18 different ways.

Make this happen people.

Thai Place

700 Nutt Rd., Phoenixville, PA 19460

No pics for this one:(

Rick and Stephanie’s birthdays are right near each other, so we typically go out for a meal with her and Tony; this year it was Thai Place, which is a great name: “where do you want to go for dinner?” “the Thai Place?” All restaurants should be named like this. We’ve been here before and I have yet to be disappointed. It’s a skosh too expensive for what you get though, IMHO. But, it’s still good.

For appetizers, Rick and Stephanie got the vegetable Tom Yum soup with lime leaf and lemon grass. Rick seemed to like his, while Stephanie wasn’t too impressed. Tony liked the chicken satay, which had the same peanut sauce as my Salad Kack, which really wasn’t that special, but had these fried tofu “croutons” that were really good. Tony and Stephanie both had pad thais of various flavors; I’ve had it before and liked it quite well. Rick had the chicken Gang Pa (country style curry): red chili curry without coconut milk, cooked with string beans, straw mushrooms, with bamboo shoots, bell peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, and basil leaf. Note the first prepositional phrase: this curry is without coconut milk, so it gets two stars on the spicy scale. Without the coconut milk to cut the chili, it came full force. Rick liked it quite well though. I got the Chu Chee Curry with pork: red curry with lime leaf flavor cooked with coconut milk, red pepper, zucchini, string bean, and basil leaf. I really liked mine. I loved the sweetness and the combination of the vegetables. It was a great meal.

So, the cost? For all four of us, it came to $64 before tip. OK, so that’s not bad (note, it’s BYOB). I think I’m still thinking back to my college days when Thai food seemed really cheap. We have another Thai place near us in Limerick that we have only had takeout from, so perhaps we need to actually eat there so we can determine what the best Thai is in our area. Sounds like I need to add something to the To-Do list.

PS: I just realized that I didn’t get Thai Iced Coffee. What the hell was I thinking?

Cafe Nordstrom

Nordstrom, The Plaza at King of Prussia

I have a soft spot for department store restaurants. My Grandma Dolly was a big fan of Frederick & Nelson’s at Everett Mall, so we would often do some shopping and then settle in to, what I believe was called, the Arcade Cafe for her to have a ton of coffee and me to have a club sandwich. The special treat with Grandma was to go down to the Frederick’s downtown for the Santa breakfast. It somehow must be in the genes, because mom and I would also stop fairly often at the cafe at Nordstrom in Alderwood Mall for a blue plate special. There is something elegant about such places — an escape from the hoi polloi at the far too pedestrian food court — and I’m glad they exist.

I had forgotten that the Nordstrom at KoP had a cafe, but then Rick remembered and decided that we had to try it. The cafe at this Nordstrom is their “marketplace” concept, which, frankly, was a clusterfuck: you get in a completely indiscernible line near some paper menus (nothing overhead or posted), then order and pay at a cash register. Then, you go find your table, and then someone serves as sort of your server. It’s like you were at a buffet, but there’s no buffet: they’re going to bring out what you already ordered. It’s an incredibly odd mix of informality and formality, which, in a way, sort of makes sense for the odd but normal for me department store restaurant.

The room itself is pretty nice, and even includes a view.

I started with a good though crouton-less french onion soup; turns out that I didn’t really miss the crouton, and that the cheese was just enough. For our main meal, Rick had the Rustic Vegetables:

They were good, but to me a bit too rustic.

I ordered the blue cheese and pear salad, which came with candied walnuts and a champagne vinaigrette.

Do you notice something? Yeah, no blue cheese. So, I hailed a server and asked about the lack of blue cheese, and he said he’d go check it out. He came back and said they were out. Huh. He apparently alerted a manager to my surprise at getting swindled out of a titular component, so she came over and offered me something else (nope, hungry) or for it to be comped (ding). Now, that may in fact have been a bit over the top for missing a few tablespoons of blue cheese, but that is the Nordstrom way, so I was happy in the end.

Will we be going back? Doubtful: it’s relatively expensive (I think both our entrees were around $9), and the experience was odd, not soothing. I’d rather just grab fast food Indian or a big old salad at the food court, I think. However, we are definitely going to try The Zodiac at Neiman Marcus some time, because I refuse to let the dream of department store dining die. Also, please post any fond remembrances of department store dining, or contemporary finds, because I don’t want to be the only one!

Ray’s

14 E. Germantown Pike, East Norriton, PA 19401

http://eatatrays.com/

“Classic” diners appeal to me, in some strange way. It’s not like I was alive during the 50s to get the whole sock hop, sharing milk shake, checkerboard floor, going steady vibe. However, these places often are friendly and do what they do well. For a few years now, I’d wanted to go to Ray’s, in part, because it is always packed. My first trip was no different: we stood in line for a bit for a table, and the line soon extended out of the door. Part of the reason for the line was there just being a lot of people there; the other part of the reason was this woman:

She seemed to be confused much of the time, and was, in general, just not a very efficient or effective hostess.

However, once we were seated, I was glad I got such a plumb seat in plain view of this:

Because, you know, what says retro diner like a Jamie Kennedy send-up of breakdancing?

There is a soda fountain part of the restaurant that looked cute:

So, all is not lost.

As noted, it was very busy, and the service was just OK. My bottomless mug o’ coffee did in fact have a bottom at times, and the food was a little slow getting to us. Rick got eggs and turkey sausage and I got a combo meal that was bacon and eggs and a stack of pancakes . No, I didn’t eat all of it.

Overall, the food was just fine. The helping of bacon was good, but the quality was uneven–some crispy, some soggy, some lean, some fatty. The potatoes were underdone–I need some crisp there, and there was very little. The pancakes were nice, but the syrup was unwieldy and uninteresting. Rick’s breakfast was also ho-hum.

Now, dependable, nothing outstanding diner food would be great to have, were the prices were not a bit too high–I think the total ran over $20, and it just didn’t warrant that expense. Maybe they’re paying for the neon bills or something. I don’t know; I think I’d try Jem up the road over Ray’s again, neon and all.

Changes!

Per Phil’s swooning over it and my fond remembrances, Amada has taken over Pasion’s place on the Top 5. I know; you’re reeling.

The main reason for this is that Pasion is no longer with us, and while it may in fact be in the Top 5 all time, it’s not alive, and since the blog is all about sharing, then I should share something that people can enjoy.

Amada was absolutely wonderful. We had “La Mesa de Jose,” the $45 tapas menu devised at the chef’s discretion and were just blown away. The plates were unending and roundly wonderful. The service was great, and the setting (we were in a back room) was intimate and stylish. I highly recommend Amada and especially the tasting menu.

Osteria

640 North Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA 19130

http://www.osteriaphilly.com/

For quite a while, we’ve been coveting a reservation at Vetri, the little Italian boite in the gayborhood that many laud as the finest Italian restaurant in Philadelphia, if not the eastern seaboard, and therefore presumably America. No, I’m serious. Mario Batali said so.

However, reservations are difficult to come by, so all of Philadelphia rejoiced when Marc Vetri opened Osteria, a slightly less formal and definitely larger restaurant north on Broad–an odd place to put a restaurant, but give him marks for gumption.

We tackled it with fellow foodie, Donna, who had heard great things about both places from the national paper of record. We made a reservation on Open Table, and, though we were a bit early, they seated us relatively quickly. However, the table left some things to be desired. First, we were placed in the adjoining greenhouse space. The problem with the space was not temperature-related, though I assumed on a cold winter’s night that it would be cool. The problem with the space is two-fold: it is noisy (as conversations rattle off of the glass walls and the stone floor), and it just lacks any warmth of character. The tables are far apart, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but the arrangement lacks the excitement of the interior spaces. Second, the table was plainly a two-top that had been transformed into a three-top. I asked the server if this was indeed going to work, and she assured me it would. It did, sort of: as the meal progressed, we were soon playing a game of plate and glass Twister, trying to find space for everything, and eventually moving things to the ledge above us to create more space. Overall, I felt like I was getting a bad a less-than-great table in a less-than-great space: not the kind of first impression one should give–everyone should have similar experiences of comfort, as much as possible.

However, the food made up for the space, as did the service. Since my memory is horrible, I can only remember what I had (this was about a month ago), and barely that.

We shared the pizze polpo — octopus, tomato, red chili flakes, and mozzarella:

Yeah, it was that good. It was perhaps a bit more “done” (read: burnt) than I would like, but the flavors and textures were wonderful.

My primi piatti was a gnocchi with parmesan, because I love me some gnocchi. The first place I ever had gnocchi? Salzburg, Austria, August 1992. One remembers these things. Anyway:

A little crock of heaven, frankly. I can say with certainty that this was the best gnocchi I have ever had. Unlike most gnocchi, these didn’t go into your stomach and expand, creating eight times their weight in dumpling goodness. No, these were light gnocchi, but certainly not “lite,” as that cheese and oil were there to help things along. God it was good.

Finally, I had a venison special, because, well, why not? I don’t remember how it was prepared, but it came with some potatoes:

It was very good. Not knockout, blow-me-down, but very good. (Also, can you see how cramped we were? Sheesh.)

From what I can remember, Rick had a soup (very good) and lamb (I think?); I don’t remember Donna’s first course, but she got the rabbit for dinner, and it was good as well. Perhaps they can fill things in in the comments. Here are pics to refresh their memories:

Perhaps I went in with crazy expectations, but who couldn’t? The meal was very good–food quality across the board great, excellent service, and fine drinks (limoncello!). However, I really think that initial impression somewhat soured me; moreover, I just wasn’t slapped upside the head by anything except the gnocchi, and that was just a little crock. I would definitely go again, and I would definitely recommend it, and I definitely still want to go to Vetri, but…it’s not in my Top 5. Sorry.