"mmMMmm here you go"

Went to Seafood Unlimited with J. Gigs last night. I actually don't even want to review the food because it was totally unspectacular in every way. They do have a good happy hour special - $5 margaritas, $5 wines, $3 lager, and an array of snacks like shrimp coctail, fish tacos, mussels, chicken quesadilla etc. MEH.

The best dish was the fish and chips and even those weren't very good. The fish itself was good, but the breading was soggy wet so mostly, it was kind of depressing. They did have maker's mark though, so between a few glasses of those and a nice long catchup chat with J. Giggles, the evening wasn't a total bust.

Aaaaanyway, what I really wanted to mention was the super odd server that waited on us. He had this look in his eyes that just totally screamed "I wanted to bring your food, but then I got high."

He brought us our food orders and drinks, basically one by one - the reason I mention this is to really emphasize the frequency at which he was stopping by our table. Each time he dropped something off, he would, almost imperceptibly go "mmMMmm."

"mmmMMm here's your shrimp cocktail"

"mmmMMmm here's your maker's on the rocks"

"mmmMmm here are your fish tacos"

"mmmMMmm here is your mixed salad" 

This went on and on. It was SO WEIRD. And most definitely creepy.

I suppose I should include a picture. So here is one of the fish tacos. Don't get these; they are not good.

Components of this sad little fish taco include: fried tilapia (supposedly), shredded lettuce, tomato, tartar sauce (ick, wasn't expecting that to be in there).

:: Seafood Unlimited::
address: 270 South 20th St, Philly
PS - the website looks super nice, so it's easy to be fooled. But this place wasn't great, seriously. And it smelled like FISH the minute we walked it. So of course, we immediately asked to be seated outside; I would much rather take on mother nature and her neverending mosquito attacks than eat while smelling raw fishes.

The End.

Good Meal but the Death of my Scallop and Risotto dream

Heh. This is mostly a positive review. I promise.

Last night, we went to Mercato. To put things into context, you have to know this about me - Mercato is (hmmm, was, perhaps) one of my favorite places to eat in the city. Admittedly, it had been just about 2 years since I had last eaten there, but prior to that, I had eaten there at least 4 or 5 times in a year's time. Each time, I had ordered similar dishes and each time it had been consistently wonderful.

The dishes we ate last night were mostly wonderful, but I found several things very disappointing.

But first, the FOOD. Soopah and I both had the tasting menu, which at $48 for a full 4-course meal, is very reasonable. What I love about these set pre-fixe tasting menus that are offered at many BYOBs is that there is so much flexibility. You're usually allowed to order off of the entire menu and at Mercato, that was definitely the case. The tasting menu allows you to select one dish from each of the 4 sections off of the menu with very few restrictions (sometimes they do add an up-charge for certain dishes). Take note that this is a CASH only byob so come prepared. If you're forgetful like me, no worries - there is a deli a block away on 13th St that has an ATM for your use.

:: Mercato ::
address: 1216 Spruce St., Philly
what we ate: 4-course tasting menu
We really debated whether or not to partake in this. Mostly because it was super humid hot and we couldn't decide if we were hungry enough to eat 4 courses! The downside to the tasting menu is that they require that all guests at the table participate so it was an all or nothing decision. Because I had always spoken so highly of Mercato and Soopah was finally going to get to try, we opted YES. Also, I warn you - this is a long post. How can it not be since we both ate 4 courses each?!

INTRODUZIONE

Whole Grilled Artichoke: 

extra virgin olive oil + sea salt + zesty citrus aioli

This was delicious AND fun to eat. They take an entire whole artichoke, basically roast it, soak it in olive oil, then grill it to order. What results is an incredibly flavorful dish - with each leaf you pull off dripping and coated with coarse black pepper and olive oil. Add to that a few grains of seat salt that they offer on the platter as well as the creamy citrusy aioli and it's just DIVINE. 

We really took our time eating this and enjoying each leaf before we devoured the hearts at the end. (Hmm, that sounded odd...). 

Grilled Calamari: 

basil pesto + cannellini beans + radicchio + pepperdew peppers + scallion + parmesan slices

We attacked this appetizer all wrong at first. It arrives at your table, plated in a way and separates the calamari from the rest of the bean, pepper and radiccio salad. Of course, in eating it separately, we found that the basil pesto coated calamari was a bit flat and boring, while the salad had very complex set of flavors. 

It doesn't LOOK very pretty, but once we started eating both components together, we found that it tasted delicious. And MAN, do they use good cheese here. The parmesan slices were so nutty and flavorful - I could have just kept eating those all night. I don't think this would be our favorite dish and I doubt I would order it again, personally, but it was quite tasty. 

PASTA

Pappardelle: 

roasted mushrooms + caramelized cipollini + crispy parsnip + pancetta, arugula + sage brown butter + parmesan

We have been tempted by various papparedelle dishes at a bunch of places we've been to - Varga, Garces Trading co, but had always ended up ordering something else on those respective menus that we couldn't pass up. So this time, we were determined to order this dish.

The flavor of the roasted mushrooms were awesome! They completed soaked up the sage brown butter sauce and were extremely flavorful. The crispy parsnips were an interesting topping to this pasta dish - they almost tasted like casava chips and provided a crunchy texture, but I'm not entirely convinced that it added something special here. I was ambivalent about that. If I had to criticize, I'd say the pasta was probably a bit over cooked, but still delicious dish, overall.

Braised Rabbit: 

black pepper fettuccine + grape tomatoes + spinach + pecorino + garlic, white wine basil sauce

I had to order this because whenever I see rabbit or the menu, I feel compelled to give it a shot. I definitely wasn't disappointed. The garlic white wine basil sauce was super flavorful and the fettucini had a nice spicy flavor from the black pepper. Plus, the rabbit was really flavorful and tender and not at all gamey.

CULMINARE
Grilled Petit Tender Filet: 

garlic chive mashed potates + grilled asparagus + truffle butter

Soopah ordered this medium rare and it came out perfectly cooked. Also, apparently this is a newly adjusted recipe for the filet and it was excellent. The sauce and truffle butter work really well together and perfectly complement the meat (as long as you don't take too large a piece of truffle butter with each bite). 

See that huge white thing that looks like a slice of mozzaralla? That is the truffle butter! Crazy, right? But delicious, yes yes yes. 

Pan Seared Diver Scallops: 

wild mushroom and english pea risotto + parmesan crisp + truffle oil

Okay, this dish was so disappointing it was almost enough to mar the entire experience for me at Mercato - not that there weren't several other less-than-perfect factors (which I'll detail later), but all were forgivable except for this one. I have been referencing this particular dish at Mercato as the perfect example of how to do risotto AND scallops well - both in conversations and on this blog. Basically, I had ordered this every time I had been to Mercato and it has always tasted amazingly perfect. Last night, it was far from it.

Where do I begin? The scallops were most definitely overcooked. I know it's hard to cook scallops perfectly, but I expected so much more than this. As for the risotto, it was horrible. It was like they decided that since it was the end of the evening (we were the last table there), they may as well dump the rest of the parmesan that was leftover into this dish and then overcook the risotto itself. The result was a sticky clumpy pile of risotto that had stringy pieces of cheese hanging off with each bite. Way too heavy, wayyy too rich and not in a good way. The mushrooms were barely even noticeable and honestly, neither was the truffle oil - this is what happens when you OVER-CHEESE. 

Even more disappointing still, is when I mentioned to the server that this dish had decidedly gone downhill since I last had it and maybe had the chef changed since then, he basically dismissed it saying it was prepared in the same way it had been 2-3 years ago (and obviously I was just being a pain in the ass). Le sigh.

DESSERT: 

Tiramisu and Gelato Trio 

The tiramisu and the gelato trio (cappucino, dulce de leche, strawberry cream) were both pretty tasty, but nothing especially memorable. Plus, by this point, I was so sad about the state of the risotto dish that I had basically lost the will to eat or enjoy anything more for that evening.

DISAPPOINTING THINGS WORTH MENTIONING
Overall, the meal was good. There were definitely highlights and lowlights, but I found there were a few things that were extremely disappointing/annoying.

• Upon our arrival, we stood around for an excessively long time while the female server walked right by us no less than 6 times. Each time I said "excuse me" I was brutally rebuffed. With silence and not even a sidelong glance. 
• Our wine glasses were greasy and had what I swear was leftover butter smeared all over them.
• Though we asked for new replacement glasses, we did not receive until later when we were ordering.
• My water glass was also also dirty/greasy and they FINALLY gave me a new one, but never took the dirty one away. 
• There were a SH*T TON of mosquitoes hovering around our table and they really liked how I tasted, apparently. So I walked away with 9 new bites - Yes yes this is not Mercato's fault. I'm just saying it definitely detracted from the experience. However, what IS their fault is that we sat outside because the inside of the restaurant seemed like the depths of hell in terms of temperature. I guess they just don't turn on the AC until it's over 100 degrees

DESPITE THESE THINGS, though, we still had a pleasant meal, so I'm not sure if that can be attributed to the fact that we are just awesome and enjoy each other's company, if the dishes that WERE good were interesting and tasty enough to carry us through, or that we're just older and more patient now and recognize that every dining experience can't be a perfect one.... hmmm. Ew. Well, we're definitely not old, so it must be that we're AWESOME. 

Keeping it Real

We headed to Varga on Friday night to have dinner and drinks with friends who were in Philly for the weekend. Our entourage of Philly natives and out-of-towners included two of my oldest friends - Shana, Julia H (hi hi hi), Soopah, myself and a couple of Julia's hilarious new friends - an unintentionally hipster Canadian called Matt and a charming Southerner called Mark, whose accent surfaced with increasing levels of intoxication.

Food-wise, this will just be another quickie because I realize I can't review Varga every time I go, given the frequency! However, since I'm always singing never-ending praises of Varga Bar, just wanted to keep things honest and mention when/if I have a less than perfect experience.

Soopah and I arrived first and since we were starving, we had to go ahead and order dinner. We had the Kobe Burger and the Softshell Crab entree special and both were just okay. The Kobe Burger had similar components to the Kobe Sliders, but when it's the traditional burger-size, I guess it throws the flavor ratios off. So, while delicious, it wasn't as notable or memorable as the sliders. The difference could also be attributed to the fact that the sliders use boursin cheese, while the burger has cheddar. Normally, I would think the cheddar has a stronger flavor, but in his case, the boursin definitely has a better flavor.


Kobe Burger: lancaster county aged cheddar + apple-wood smoked bacon + caramelized shallots + organic greens + heirloom tomato + sesame seed bun

As for me, our server really swayed me and convinced me to order the Softshell Crab special. Since the last special we had eaten here (the delicious seafood pasta) had been a winner, I trusted his word and ordered the softshell crab entree.

Softshell Crab: battered softshell crab + spinach + lump crabmeat + tomatoes + capers + crispy potatoes + lemon garlic oil
Clearly, the description of the dish make it sound irresistibly appealing. Doesn't it? Even now, I feel like it sounds delicious, but then I remember how it tasted. Unfortunately, the crab batter was extremely salty and the lemon garlic sauce drizzled over the entire dish was so oil-heavy that it tasted like this overwhelmingly heavy film coating everything.

I love softshell crab, but this was really difficult to finish.

Ick. That is all oil. Don't get this dish~!

But thankfully, when the rest of the group arrived, they ordered the truffled mac'n cheese, a crabcake sandwich and kobe sliders and they thought everything was delicious. WHEW!

Perfectly Styled, but Oversalted

On Wednesday night, while looking for a place to watch the Flyers in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals (sadface), we had a chance to drop by Sampan for some food and what we had hoped, were game time beer specials. We did not find any game time specials, but we did find a beautifully decorated restaurant and very gregarious bartenders and waitstaff.

The restaurant was moderately packed for a midweek seating, which we were pleased to see. Sampan is another one of those newer restaurants that has been getting great reviews, and we hope to see it succeed. Rather than wait a few minutes for our table, we opted to sit at the bar, which is located in the middle of the restaurant, in front of the open kitchen, with the two separate dining rooms flanking it on either side.

:: Sampan Philly ::
address: 124 S. 13th St. Philly
what we ate: beer, oxtail dumplings, rabbit dumplings, "cheesesteak" buns, pork shoulder
What I loved right away about this bar is that though they only had three beers on tap, they were awesome ones: Stoudt's American Pale Ale, Flying Fish Farmhouse Summer Ale, and Brooklyn Brewery's Brewmaster’s Reserve Dark Matter. Unfortunately, we had missed the Happy Hour specials, so they were a bit on the pricier side, but at $6-7 a pint, that is fairly standard for good microbrews. Besides, as our very friendly bartender pointed out, the Happy Hour specials would have only knocked $1 off of the price of the pints anyway.

When looking at the menu, we found that there was such a variety of dishes on this pan-Asian inspired menu that we were having trouble making choices. Finally, we decided that we absolutely had to try a few of the dumplings and one of the meat courses.

Interestingly, there were a few items on the in-house menu that doesn't appear on the website, like the first dish we tried: oxtail and kimchee dumplings.

Oxtail &  Kimchee dumplings: diced tomatoes + soy sauce + scallions
These looked like traditional gyoza and the presentation was very pretty with the colorful red tomatoes diced and spread over top. Unfortunately, with each bite, we found that the marinated oxtail was quite salty. The saltiness might have been mitigated by a larger portion of kimchee, but strangely, the tiny negligible amount of kimchee used hardly contributed enough flavors to make its presence known.

From this dish forward, I was a bit confused by the plates that were delivered to our table. It seemed like the actually plates of food that arrived and were placed in front of us were slightly different than the menu had described. It was a bit odd and I couldn't help but feel like I was eating someone else's food that had been accidentally given to us!

“Philly Cheese Steak”: Bao Bun + Shallot + Sriracha
Our next dish was the Philly Cheese Steak dish, which was described to us as a bao bun that had the top half sliced off, toasted and topped with shredded short ribs and shallots. In other words, an Asian play on Philly's signature sandwich. Sounds good, right?

What arrived (and you may be able to see this from the photo) was a dish that looked like cheesesteak bruschetta. While the meat was indeed shredded short ribs, it was resting on top of what looked like slices of french baguette, that had been toasted then soaked in beef jus. Confused, we asked our bartender which dish had just been delivered and he confidently answered that it was the cheesesteak on bao buns...

Hmmm. Okay. So we thought, well, maybe looks are deceiving...

But after taking a bite, we were more convinced than ever that this was just sliced baguette. Also, more of a concern, was that the meat was again SUPER SALTY. Sigh. I almost didn't want to finish this because I found it to be so unpleasant. But we did - only because we were starving. Then we waited patiently for the next dish.


Rabbit Dumplings: Spring Peas + Bacon + Shallot

I had really high hopes for this one. I mean, with rabbit, you always have the fear that it could be game-y, but I've found it is usually deliciously flavorful when it's stuffed in a wrapper like a dumpling or ravioli. Once again, the presentation was beautiful, but the taste fell short.

I know you'd expect the bacon pieces to provide just the right amount of salt here, but the ridiculously salty rabbit meat itself once again made this dish difficult to enjoy.

Pork Shoulder: pickled cucumbers + greens + chojang (Korean-style spicy sweet chili pepper sauce)
Finally, our last dish arrived.This was probably the least tender pork shoulder dish I have ever eaten. Sigh. I did enjoy the Asian-pickled cucumber slices that topped each piece and I found the greens to be a refreshing flavor, but the meat itself was dry and bland, at best. And I didn't think that the overall flavors worked particularly well together either.

So yes, another disappointment.

It seems like the biggest draw for Sampan has always seemed to be their lunch menu - with its wide array of banh mi sandwich options and satays. I feel like I can't truly comment fairly on Sampan's food until I've given those sandwiches a shot, but as for dinner - I would say stay away from the items we ordered. After the final course, we debated next steps - we were still hungry, and thought it'd only be fair to try another dish from the menu (like the Pork Banh Mi), but we ended up just leaving without trying anything else. We disliked everything so much and had already racked up a surprisingly high bill that we felt there was little that could redeem the experience on this night.

Will definitely report back if lunch is any better. But for now, I don't really want to think about Sampan's food any more.

only the Kitchen Sink

Thank our lucky stars - we have been brunching more regularly again. There really are few things better than a relaxing Saturday afternoon that begins with a leisurely brunch of egg-y and meaty things with generous helpings of carby things like potatoes and bread!

Though the reliable standby has always been Sabrina's Cafe in South Philly, we have been making an effort to venture to other places since there are so many talked about Brunch offerings all over the city and we want to try them all. Sometimes, these adventures help us find true gems, like Day by Day (omg, I still need to write that review up) in Center City, but sometimes, we are left feeling somewhat unsatisfied - which is exactly what happened this past Saturday at Green Eggs Cafe. 

I had been wanting to go back to Green Eggs for brunch since I had stopped by a few months ago. Based on the croissant I had tried that day, I was concerned the food would just be MEH, and after our brunch visit, I'm not convinced it wasn't. Was that too many double negatives? Heh, I guess you could say, I'm undecided about this place, and I most definitely wasn't blown away.  

:: Green Eggs Cafe :: 

address: 1306 Dickinson St, Philly

what we ate: cheddar grits, breakfast burritos, "the kitchen sink" 

Trifecta made a big mistake on Saturday. Two of us ordered the same dish. Disast. Why would we do this?! I blame hunger, the unbearable heat/weather, and just plain short sightedness. Honestly, the lunch menu here has always sounded much more interesting to me, but for some reason, I felt like since we were brunching, I must have eggs. As a result, Soopah and I both ended up getting the breakfast burrito. 

Breakfast Burrito: flour tortilla + eggs + olives + corn + chorizo sausage + signature potato + tex mex cheese + topped with Pico de Gallo + sour cream + avocado slice + fire roasted red pepper black bean sauce

Looks like a long description, right? On the menu, they actually list all of these ingredients that are in the burrito and I was very excited about this. The burrito sounded hearty and I thought the olives and corn would be nice additions. What they don't tell you is that the "signature potato" includes huge pieces of red and green bell peppers. Which, in my hatred of that wretched vegetable, immediately makes me go EWWWWWW. 

Okay okay okay, I know that not many people agree with the EWWW assessment of bell peppers, but whatever your take on it is, it's undeniably a strong and very distinctive flavor. So, I'm sure for those folks that LIKE them, they add great flavor dimensions to dishes, but for those of us that really have a strong aversion to them, it taints the entire dish. ESPECIALLY, when they sneak up on you, like they did in the breakfast burritos. And, btw, the signature potatoes are in other dishes as well (like the kitchen sink, but I'll get to that later), so diner beware. 

I ordered mine without the black bean sauce and I think that is preferable. Otherwise, with the way it's poured onto the dish, you can't really avoid it if you find that you don't care for the flavors of the sauce.     

I want to say that if it hadn't been for the bell pepper sneak attack, I would have enjoyed this more. But then again, Soopah didn't really love it either and he digs bell peppers. 

I really wish I had stuck to my guns and ordered the Kobe Slider Trio off of the lunch menu, which sounded very tasty and interesting since it comes with 3 different styles of sliders. OR, the crunchy peanut butter stuffed french toast, which I'll be honest, I have been thinking about since my first glance at the menu. What stopped me from ordering them, you ask? Well, it's my goshdarn pickiness rearing its ugly (anti-Foodie) head. The description says that the stuffed french toast comes with a layer of cream cheese and I kept getting stuck on the idea that I'd hate it. It's ridiculous really. I have tried veal tongue and frog legs, but gave up on this dish before I even tried it because of cream cheese. I MAKE ME SAD. 

The kitchen sink: two eggs + cheese + our signature potato (!!!) + sausage + topped + homemade jumbo biscuits + sausage gravy 

If I had to break this down, I'd say the presentation definitely rocks, but the food itself was okay. The eggs and cheese part were pretty yummy - well cooked, but once again, the bell pepper factor in the potato mixture came into play here. J. Giggles hates bell peppers as much as I do, so again, too much sneak attack pepper taste. The sausage pieces were great. If anything, I wished there were a bit more of them throughout - but hey, isn't that always true? More meat, please! 

The biscuits (pretty sure there were 2 of them in there) were decent. They weren't buttery at all, so my guess is they bake these on-site just for this particular dish. I couldn't tell definitively, but I suspect if we had eaten them plain, they would have been on the dry side (like the croissant I had before!). As part of this particular dish, they were really really good. 

The REASON they were really good, however, is because of the decadent, creamy, savory sausage gravy..... mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. The three of us were scooping this gravy up like it was soup. Wow, I realize that sounds gross, but it was really so good. Super rich, but not overly salty or overwhelmingly heavy. Without a doubt, this gravy makes/saves this dish. Again, mmmmmmMMMmmmm. 

Stone Ground Grits: Southern style + aged cheddar + scrapple chips

I had high hopes for this - especially after we had delicious grits at Tap House last week. I was crushed to find that the Green Eggs version were nowhere close to the tastebud jackpot we discovered in U-city. The scrapple was forgettable, at best. Even now, hard as I try, I can't conjure up enough of the flavor experience to make something up about how I felt about it. The grits were cooked well enough, but was too cheese heavy. It is surprising that I say that, but I would guess they used shredded cheddar mixed into the grits, and the result was that it thickened the grits too much. The grits, while they tasted okay, were too dense and thick and piece-y - almost lumpy - and that's not what you want. At least, that's not what I want. 

Sigh. So sad. Cheddar Grits... you could have been so good. Ah well. 

Maybe it was the choice of items, maybe not, but Green Eggs Cafe is not a place I'll be rushing to return to - especially while there is the rest of the South Philly Brunch Belt to try. Or, in Soopah's case, Sabrina's to return to. Or in my case, Day by Day. 

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.

a taste of the season

in an effort to continue eating "healthy," we decided to try dinner at seasons 52 at king of prussia last night. i had heard some mixed things about this place - some of our friends had really enjoyed it, but craig laban had mercilessly blasted it as a tasteless, flavorless sham of a restaurant. with a range like that, clearly we weren't sure of what to expect here, but the menu looked interesting enough and i was very curious about the way food would taste "with every item under 475 calories."

:: seasons 52 ::

address: 160 north gulph rd, king of prussia pa (next to crate & barrel at KOP mall)

what we ate: steak and mushroom flatbread + chicken chile relleno + caramelized sea scallops + wood-roasted pork tenderloin

hmm, as expected of a mall location, the restaurant was very crowded/busy. we had made reservations for 7:45pm, but ended up having to wait until 8:10ish, which isn't terrible, but imagine what that wait would have been without reservations. the wine selection is pretty good here - they offered 4-7 brands of each kind of wine. i saw gascon malbec so was immediately satisfied with that. the beer selection, however, was definitely lacking. considering all the beers were $5-6 a piece, you'd think they might have some variety, but they only offered the suburban mainstays: bud, heineken, corona, sam adams etc. i suppose this was to be expected at a chain restaurant at kop, but still - disappointing.   

grilled steak cremini mushroom flatbread: fresh spinach + wisconsin blue cheese + caramelized onions

low calorie or not, this flatbread was really good. the crust was extra super thin, almost cracker thinness- like a lavosh. the portion size was really satisfying too; it's long and they cut it up into 8 good sized pieces. there weren't too many pieces of steak, but definitely enough that there was at least a bite of meat on each piece of flatbread. the mushrooms were sliced round and very flavorful. i think they use just the tiniest bit of blue cheese, but it adds the right amount of sharp bite to the dish. and the caramelized onions added a contrasting sweetness that really complemented the cheese. 

spicy chicken chile relleno: goat cheese + spinach + pico de gallo + polenta cakes

this chicken and cheese stuffed poblano pepper dish was one of the few things that craig laban had written kindly about in his review, so we were knew we'd have to taste this. personally, i feel like most stuffed pepper dishes never offer enough of the stuffing so the pepper often is thinner/flatter, but the one at seasons 52 provides ample stuffing in its pepper so it's almost bulging. both the chicken and the pico de gallo had a pleasantly surprising spiciness to them. this was the most flavorful dish of the night and it had a mix of flavors that were different (read: interesting) than any of the other dishes, so i can see why laban called this one out. 

the description of this on the menu didn't include the two polenta cakes, so we were surprised to see them on the plate. very pleasantly surprised, though. i love polenta cakes. yumm. i don't really understand how this dish is under 475 calories, because it includes 2 pieces of polenta, cheese stuffed IN the pepper, and cheese on top... however they did it.. it works. 

grilled caramelized sea scallops: with roasted asparagus + sundried tomato pearl pasta

a perfectly cooked scallop is like a unicorn. okay, maybe not, but it's really easy to mess them up. i wouldn't say these scallops were perfectly cooked, but they were very acceptably tasty. i really enjoyed the pearl pasta in this dish, but i'm a sucker for small pasta/rice type starches, like couscous, orzo, arborio rice, pearl pasta etc. 

this was a good dish, but i couldn't help comparing it the pan seared scallop and english pea risotto at mercato.  clearly, this is an unfair comparison, but the components are so similar that i couldn't stop. i guess i really wanted the seasons 52 interpretation to close enough to the mercato version. really, though, it wasn't even close. they are on two totally different levels, but that said, the scallop and pea risotto is one of my all-time favorite dishes and a really superb restaurant, so i should have expected it. 

wood-roasted pork tenderloin: on soft corn polenta + fresh leaf spinach + cremini mushrooms + sherry glaze

this wasn't very good. the recommended pork temp was "medium well" which supposedly would still leave a bit of pink color in the center. when we got our dish, there wasn't really too much pink showing. basically, it was bland and dry. the mushrooms were bland, the sherry glaze was bland. the only part of the dish that had noticeable flavor was the polenta, but it had a really weird consistency to it. the polenta here almost seemed gelatinous and the grains just weren't smoothly lumped. 

key lime pie mini indulgence

so aside from what i've said about the food thus far, i have to say that the service at seasons 52 is impeccable. it's the small things - like knowing the name your reservation was under and greeting you by that name when  you sit down, or checking up on you with a dish that you weren't convincingly enthusiastic about. but by far, what the waitstaff excels at is the elegant upsell. this is especially true for the desserts. 

before you can say no, they bring out the tower of "mini indulgences," and simultaneously place a spoon and a dessert place setting in front of each guest while telling you about each one. the dessert cups in the tower are refreshed each time they're presented so you can just pick one and they just give it to you - no waiting, no time to change your mind, etc. 

anywayyyyyy, we tried the key lime one and it was really really really good. i think this is supposed to be one of the head chef's favorites, though, so i would expect it to be excellent. perfect lime tartness and sweetness and i actually liked the texture of the key lime mousse. the graham cracker bits were also droolworthily tasty.

OVERALL, i'd go back to seasons 52 if

• i'm at the king of prussia mall
• i'm on a diet
• the wait at cheesecake factory is over one hour   

it's not a place i'd necessarily travel out to dine in again, but wouldn't mind if i ended up there.

OH! as a hilarious sidenote, one of the managers caught me taking pictures of all the food and he came over to talk to us because he was very concerned. i thought the taking-pictures-of-food revolution was common knowledge now, but apparently not. he was genuinely worried that we were upset about our meals and documenting it for some reason. hahaha. we had to assure him it was just because we love food and we love looking back to see all the tasty things we ate over and over again.

i don't think he understood. :)

i really HATE the flying monkey cupcakes

this has to be said. the CUPCAKES at the flying monkey at the reading terminal are terrible. TERRIBLE. i really like cake, so i mean, it's really hard for me to HATE a cupcake. i am particular about frostings so i don't really include that in the equation, but the cake itself... i am pretty lenient in my assessments.

well, the one at flying monkey is so terrible. and i am going off on this rant because i had it for the second time last week. the first time i tried a cupcake there, i was so disgusted i THREW IT AWAY. if you knew me, you'd realize that it takes a lot for me to throw away food, especially cake, but i did.

:: the flying monkey ::
address: reading terminal market, north 12th and arch st.
what we ate: cupcakes
the cake is DENSE, so dense you forget it's cake. but it's not dense in a moist way, similar to a pound cake. no, it's just dense, but also crumbly. sigh. and the frosting is neither light like whipped frostings, or creamy like a buttercream one. it's almost gelatinous. ALSO, full disclosure: i think the reason i'm so vocal about this cupcake is that it gets written up a lot for having very delicious baked goods, cupcakes in particular.

SIGH.

to be fair, i've had a lemon bar from the flying monkey before and it was pretty tasty. so i suspect their other baked treats are quite edible/enjoyable. but don't get the cupcakes. don't be fooled by their pretty colors and semi-interesting sounding flavors... they are the yucks.

peanut butter plaid: chocolate cupcake + peanut butter buttercream
the cupcake i had last week (my second, ever from here) was called "peanut butter plaid" and was basically chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting. as i said before, the cake was dense and dry. the frosting tasted like a watered down version of peanut butter - so less the flavor, less the creaminess. sadface. i threw this one out too after a few bites.

flyin' hawaiian: vanilla cake + pineapple coconut buttercream + crushed macadamia nuts
chiho ordered this one for dessert. he got mad at me for letting him buy a cupcake from the flying monkey. he also threw his cupcake out.

2nd Round of Goodness

Unfortunately the Trifecta was broken up today due to office distances, but the best part of us breaking up for the day, you get double the pleasure! mmmHHHmmmm! Yeah, that's right!

Sooooo...Here we go...

Location: Franklin Square, 6th & Race

What: Square Burger

Long line...umm....

crap! fuggit!

Two ppl = line waiting FAIL. They ended up bailing bc they had to get back to work by a certain time. boofriggittyhooo!!

Jake and I decide to stay...SUCKAS!!! When we finally get a little closer, we decide we're gonna split everything up and just get one of each bc when we look at the menu we want to try everything.

FINALLY(!!!) we get to place our order after a lil over half an hour of standing in direct sunlight! (I better not get a farmers tan!) The sun was beating down my back making me 'pit out' (not happy)

And now onto the food...and the people who made our food

classic cheeseburger - american cheese, pickles, onions, ketchup and mustard

overall rating - it tastes like a regular burger - absolutely NOTHING special about it whatsoever!

:sadface:

i really think i can make better burgers than what just went into my mouth....actually i KNOW i can....

philly dog - kosher dog wrapped in kosher salami, plum tomatoes, pickles, onions, cherry peppers, mustard

Have to admit that we weren't really excited about it...but then thought about it and we were both like...if we waited this long and for it being our first time...let's go balls to the walls!!!!I am so glad we got this...it really made up for the sad burger that I had just consumed. Salami to hot dog ratio...never tasted anything like it...the salami became one with the hot dog and it seemed like it was a new breed of 'dog!' (haha) Pickles had us confused for a bit that Jake had to go back up to the menu to see what it was that we were tasting. These were bigger chunks than what was in the burger...it was quite pickled garlicky goodness and that "vlasic' type of crunch! haha!

Overall rating - lets go get one right after work!!

Fries - the skinny ones...nothing great..would have liked for them to come out hotter.

"Cake Shake" - We were contemplating on whether or not we should get this...gave in and said fuggit...so the fatties that we are...we get ONE (2 straws..haha)

nice dollop of whip cream on top.....OMNMN!! There were bits of tastycake cake in this friggin shake.......for those of you that know that i'm not a big fan of sweets...umm..i probably may have finished the ENTIRE shake MYSELF!!! I KNOW, right??? The bits of cake were such a pleasant surprise that it kinda just made my day....also, an ENTIRE shake may not have done a pretty one for my tummy!! HAHA (tmi??) Yeah, I don't care!

I would return just for the dog and cakeshake...that's about it....too many kids running around that I wanted to pick them up and throw them in a damn strapped down seat and electric tape their mouths shut!

It's a beautiful day out guys!!

Happy Easter!

AMIS: fried artichokes

one of the 2 highlights of our experience at Amis. Overall, largely disappointing Vetri venue.