Beer Oasis in the middle of SuburbanTown

So, last Saturday, I spent the day doing adult things like helping brother shop for a new car and being an awesome person/sister. To reward myself, and the rest of our merry troupe, we ended up at Station Taproom in Downingtown, PA. Which, BTW, is absurdly far from the city, BUT literally across the street from the Septa R5 station, so good for you suburbanites living in this area.

I credit this find to Soopah because he had the handy Yelp mobile app on his BB and once we realized we were starving, he found this gem right away and OFF WE WENT.

:: Station Tap Room :: 
address: 207 W. Lancaster, Downingtown PA
what we ate: wings, fries, mac'n cheese, pulled pork, cubano, beers
So this place apparently JUST opened up and their website isn't even functional yet, but I am loving what they are doing here. The focus is on awesome beer, locally sourced food/ingredients (some of their produce is from Talulah's market in Kennett Square), and great service - all in a clean and spacious decor with a cool open kitchen concept.

First, the BEERS. As you can see, on tap, they were heavy on the Ales and IPAs here, but had plenty of bottled options and of course, wine as well.

We had a few pints of beer that the owner/bartender recommended. Then we saw the "Try a Flight!" message on the board. OF COURSE! How did we not see this previously?!

It turned out that you could get a flight of four 5.5oz beers for $7. Not bad, right?

#4 is the first beer on the left. My faves of this flight were the Sixpoint Righteous Ale and the Founder's Centennial IPA. They are just perfectly hoppy! As a sidenote, I'm really loving Sixpoint Craft Ales and Founder's Brewery. So happy to have discovered them.

When we put our order in (there were 3 of us), the owner was like "uhm, wow- aggressive" because we ordered 5 dishes. I don't think it was excessive; some could be considered appetizers, after all! Plus, obviously we can eat.

Short Rib Eggroll: fried + stuffed with collard greens
We kept going back and forth on whether or not to get this, but in the end, how could we deny ourselves an eggroll with short rib meat in it? It was flavorful, but definitely a bit on the greasy side. I think they have to figure out how to deep fry tender meat without having it retain all of the delicious but decidedly unhealthy oil.

Definitely an interesting dish, but I didn't love it so I doubt I'd get in on a return visit.

Cuban Sandwich: pulled pork + thick cut ham + swiss + spicy mustard + fries
Unquestionably my favorite dish that we ate at Station Taproom. It was just a really great blend of spicy, salty, rich flavors and the bread was just crunch toasted enough to give it the textures it needed.

I mentioned before that the service was awesome. Well, we didn't make it easy for the servers, mind you. Since there were 3 of us dining, I asked him to cut the cuban sandwich into 3 pieces for us. Not only did he do this, but he actually plated all 3 pieces separate so we could each have our own plate and fries.

OMG, the FRIES. The fries here were AMAZING. Hand-cut fries in the "english chip-style" where they were thick and super crispy on all the edges, but still soft on the inside. Totally a winner. Several of our dishes came with fries and we worried that there'd be much leftover, but seriously - we ate every single one off of each plate. Ridiculous feat.
   
Chicken Wings: thai curry sauce + bleu cheese 
Awesome wings. Here again, was another example of service that goes above and beyond - the owner let me sample the wing sauce base before we ordered! I really wanted to try the wings, but was hesitating because I don't usually like thai curry sauces (it's the coconut milk), so he brought us a cup of the sauce and let us try it out first. It was pretty incredible so we ordered the wings and devoured them.

In terms of quantity, you don't get too many - I think it came with 6 wings? I'd be hard pressed to make this a meal by itself. Still, it's really tasty and so worth ordering as a starter.

Pulled Pork sandwich: NC-style pulled pork (vinegar-based) + fries + coleslaw  
I was super excited about this because Station Taproom actually gives you 2 different options for the kind of pulled pork you'd like: North Carolina style with the vinegar-y base or Texas style with a thicker sauce (ketchup, cumin etc). We went with the NC style.

This was just okay. I suppose the downside to having 2 different preparations of pulled pork is that you don't really have pork simmering in the sauce over a long period of time. I suspect that they have pulled pork and then mix it in with one of the two different sauces. What you're left with was tender meat that hadn't really absorbed the flavor of the sauce. But again, the fries were so good!

Mac 'n Cheese: sundried tomato + olives + ? 
I wish I had taken a closer look at the menu to write this down. I had actually assumed I'd be able to pull it down off of the website and didn't pay close enough attention. What I can say is that the mac'n cheese was definitely UNIQUE and interesting; I've never had anything quite like it. You did have to make sure you got pieces of olive/tomato etc in each bite for it to be good, though. Otherwise, it was on the bland/boring side.

The other menu options definitely seemed worth checking out - lamb burger, regular burgers, truffle fries etc. Station Taproom seems like a wonderful option for beer and food lovers alike, that live in the area, and certainly can appreciate that it's a rare find. I don't know that I'd travel to Downingtown to eat/drink here, but I would definitely recommend it to others who live in the area. You can't go wrong with a knowledgeable staff, fantastic craft beer selection, good food and comfortable decor.  

Ekta Indian Cuisine - now also at Bryn Mawr!

Ekta has been one of my favorites in Philly for some time based on the following:

• It's arguably the best Indian food I have had. Ever. 
• The quality/taste is consistently lives up to my expectations
• The Fishtown location delivers essentially to all of metro Philadelphia. The delivery radius is actually absurd (Fishtown, Nolibs, Fairmount, Rittenhouse, Center City, Old City, Queen Village), and even though they have pulled back the boundaries a bit, it's still quite impressive.
• Relatively inexpensive.
• The leftovers reheat beautifully - almost the original state. 

Okay okay, I'll stop gushing about this place now. The reason for this post is that one day, we went online to Ekta's website and saw the flashing header had changed to say "NOW ALSO IN BRYN MAWR!" Apparently this has been true since February 2010. 

Bryn Mawr is only about 15 min from where I live, which is certainly closer than 250 E. Girard! I was ecstatic at the possibilities. I thought of all the times I craved just a bite of the amazing curries, sauces and tender meats that Ekta has to offer, but couldn't justify a long drive into the city.... seeing the convenient hours of business for the Bryn Mawr location, I realized I will never have to dismiss a craving for Indian food ever again! 

So, on Sunday, we decided to give Ekta Bryn  Mawr a whirl. Of course, we proceeded with caution. Would the Bryn Mawr location taste as good as Fishtown? Would their Tikka Masala still make us sigh contentedly and love life just a bit more at that moment? Would their Saagwala be so good that it would make us forget that Chicken Tikka Masala was actually our favorite with each new bite?

:: Ekta - Bryn Mawr :: 

address: 1003 Lancaster Ave, Bryn Mawr 

what we ate: samosa chat, chicken tikka masala, chicken saagwala, naan, pistachio ice cream

Sometimes, if I am eating Ekta cuisine with a larger group, I will try other items off of their menu. However, whenever it's just 2-3 people, we generally always order the same thing. Why mess with perfection?! The samosa chat, though, was a new addition for us. 

Samosa Chat: vegetable pastry topped + chick peas + mint + onion + tamarind + yogurt

This was soooooo interesting. I have never had anything like it. First of all, we were surprised that the dish was served COLD. It was layers of fried pastry dough that is used in samosas, flattened to form the first layer. Then around it and on top there were crumbled pieces of fried noodle-type looking things. It looked and tasted very similar to chopped up fried singapore noodles. Then, it was topped with chick peas, onions, mint, sauces, and a few slivers of ginger.

At first, it was weird trying to get used to the fact that this dish was cold, but with each extremely flavorful bite, I was convinced that the medley of flavors wouldn't be as profound if the ingredients had been heated up.  And to be quite honest, I'm not sure what part of this dish should have been heated up. Certainly, the yogurt and tamarind and sauce wouldn't have been? It was almost like a salad. Kind of.  

Chicken Tikka Masala: boneless chicken breast + creamy onion and tomato sauce

If you haven't tried Indian cuisine before, I always recommend that you start with Tikka Masala - it is definitely the most approachable intro dish. This is probably because Tikka Masala isn't really authentic traditional Indian cuisine, but rather an invention that originated with the Brits by tweaking an existing dish to friendly-fy the taste for Western palates. However it was born, I don't care, I love it. 

The sauce is usually orange in color, which is attributed to its creamy tomato base. I don't want to think about how much butter goes into this dish, but I do know it's enough to make it AH-MAAAAZING. It usually has chunks of roasted chicken throughout the spicy sauce and it's best eaten with rice or with Naan (Indian flatbread). 

I thought the Naan at the Ekta in Bryn Mawr was actually better than the Fishtown location. But, I concede it may be related to the fact that we actually dined in and had the naan fresh, rather than after it had been wrapped in foil for the better part of an hour. :)

[EDIT: Apparently, per Soopah, the "naan was hands down better than the naan in fishtown, takeout OR dine-in."

The Tikka Masala did taste slightly different than what we were used to at the Fishtown shop. I'd say it was a teensy bit less sweet, but it still tasted heavenly and I wouldn't really be able to tell you if one was better than the other - just that they were different. SLIGHTLY. 

Chicken Saagwala: chicken breast cooked with spinach + onion + tomato sauce + chopped ginger  

Saagwala is one of my newer favorite Indian dishes. It's essentially like a cream of spinach dish, with pureed or chopped spinach, excessive amounts of butter and ginger.     

The saagwala tasted the same as what we expected, thankfully. The one minor difference is that I felt like the spinach pieces may have been larger at this location? So - rather than pureed/minced, they were closer to a very fine chop? It doesn't really matter though, it was stellar. 

Pistachio Ice Cream

We don't know this for certain, but we suspect the desserts could be made on-site as well. We finished our meal with the pistachio ice cream, that appeared in this round molded shape. The ice cream tasted as though it had some yogurt in it, and was overall pretty tasty and refreshing.

About the comparison to Tiffin

When discussing options for Indian cuisine in Philly, inevitably there will be a debate about the merits of Ekta over Tiffin. The story is that the head chef at (the more well-known and well-marketed) Tiffin left the restaurant at the height of its popularity to start his own place - Ekta. Amusingly, though the owner of Tiffin has an MBA - which is evident from the masterful way he brands his restaurants - Raju Bhatterai, the chef/owner of Ekta, seems to just be mimicking Tiffin's business strategy. And appears to be succeeding!

Ekta is located a few blocks away on the same street as the original Tiffin location. A suburban outlet of Tiffin opened for business in Wynnewood. Raju opened his suburban version of Ekta a few towns down in Bryn Mawr. Personally, I wish both restaurants great success. 

If we're debating straight up food - the short version is that I prefer the fried samosas and pakoras at Tiffin, but the sauces and main dishes really shine at Ekta. 

Prices, Decor and BYOB!

Just wanted to add a note about this. Across the board, the prices at the Bryn Mawr location definitely were $1-3 more than in the city. I'm sure the disparity in rent for each respective zip code has much to do with it. It's not enough to really balk at, but did want to include that detail.

The interior decor in Bryn Mawr is actually very nice. Whereas the Fishtown location does feel very much like a makeshift dining room attached to a takeout counter, the Bryn Mawr location boasts of all the staples that are required to make a Mainline restaurant successful - cleanly and semi-formally attired waitstaff, friendly and attentive service, comfortable but solid wooden tables/chairs.

An added bonus - it's BYOB! There isn't much more to say about that.

Overall, you can't go wrong at either Ekta location. It's only wrong if you don't try it. There - I've said it. Consider yourselves judged until you do. 

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. :)