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.