KooZeeDoo or KooZeeDon't

Sadly, very sadly, I would categorize my dining experience at KooZeeDoo as a BUST, not a must.

I need a moment to grieve.

Perhaps all this melodrama isn't necessary for a single disappointing dining experience, but the meal at KooZeeDoo had been something I had been anxiously awaiting for quite some time. Being a restaurant that serves homestyle, authentic Portuguese food, it was an interesting new addition to the Philly restaurant scene.  Craig Laban liked it, our favorite executive chef at Fond liked it, the JAMES BEARD FOUNDATION liked it, but I DID NOT! Neither did Geo (I had been dining with Geo quite a bit in recent days, mostly due to the fact that it was recently his birthday, and as with most birthday celebrations these days, we apparently had to celebrate it all week).

I will caveat this review by saying that the menu at KZD has changed since all of the aforementioned rave reviews. We did not find this out until we sat down since the website still had the old menu. So you can only imagine my sadness (and utter despair, really) when I was informed that the Baked Duck Rice was no longer offered on the menu! Okay, taking another deep breath. For the record, I am including pics of the menu at the end of this post so you can know what KZD actually offers, rather than tempts you with on their website.

:: KooZeeDoo ::
address: 614 North 2nd St, Philly
what we ate: potato and salt cod croquettes, chicken gizzards, octopus rice, pork and clams
This isn't to say that everything at KZD was bad. There were certainly highlights. I  mean, it is after all, a BYOB. Oh, and it's family-style, so the portions are quite large - which I guess can be viewed as a good thing and bad thing depending on how much you like or hate the dish. Okay, that's it, the end.

Fiiiiiiine. There were other highlights.

Pasteis de Bacalhau: potato + salt cod croquettes
For me, this was the best part of the meal. The outer layer of the potato was crispy and flavorful, and the salt cod was a perfectly paired addition to the soft potatoes.

They were served with lemon to squeeze over top, drizzled with a Portuguese olive oil, and with a concentrated tomato relish that really rounded out the flavors.

As you can see from the picture, the texture was very similar to that of a crabcake, but definitely tasted like salty potato mash with chewy fish.

Espetadas de Moelas: skewered chicken gizzards
This was another well-received dish. The chicken gizzards were extremely tender and tasted more like chicken thighs, than gizzards. If you are a gizzard lover, you would definitely enjoy these.

Again, we were given lemons to squeeze over top of this dish. These were grilled and warm and the juice was easily squeezed.

Clearly, the appetizers were good here. Which got us very excited about the entrees to come. As I had mentioned, the baked duck rice had been removed from the menu, but we came across yet another obstacle. One of our first entree choices had been the Entrecosto e Entrerneada, which was the grilled pork spareribs and pork belly dish. Our server informed us that because of the rain, the KZD chefs couldn't cook on the outdoor grill, which would really take away from that particular dish. He suggested that we make a return trip when the weather was nicer in order to really appreciate the dish to the fullest. That sounded like good advice, but of course, now I have no plans to return - HA.

Here are the entrees that we did end up ordering.

Carne de Porco a Alentenjano: pork + clams + crisp potatoes
This entree was a mixed bag. The clams were cooked perfectly and had very nice flavor, as did the potatoes, which truly were remarkably crispy and therefore, enjoyable. On the other hand, the pork itself tasted a bit dry and bland.

Arroz De Polvo: octopus + rice + chourico
Obviously, we ordered this because we thought it would be a good stand-in for the missing Duck rice. FALSE. This was, bar far, the grossest thing I have eaten in some time. It didn't even LOOK appetizing. The rice was PURPLE, for heaven's sake.

Even the octopus pieces themselves weren't very pleasant. The were enormously thick and oddly mushy/chewy. I still don't really understand how that texture was achieved, but just looking at these pictures again actually remind me of the flavor and taste and it is grossing me out. So, I will move on.

To sum it all up, I really wanted KooZeeDoo to be great. Not only because it's another small Philly BYOB, but because Philly still needs more variety of cuisine and the idea of having a Portuguese place in the Northern Liberties was exciting. However, the food itself fell quite short of my expectations. I sincerely hope that my experience was an anomaly and that others find the KZD fare more appealing to their palate, because I definitely don't want to go back.

As promised, the NEW MENU.