Restaurants From A to Z... In Review

Eating out in Philadelphia once or twice a week has never been easier. With restaurants on just about every block, you can't help but to be a bit adventurous from time to time. The challenge, however, is to broaden your horizons and go beyond the "tried and true" favorites where you know your chances of getting a good meal are pretty high and going into an unknown atmosphere.

For me, those are often the best meals, the ones where you have that moment of surprise when you try something new or something better or something just done differently than you have ever seen it before. And essentially, that was part of the point of this year's challenge, to get out there and see what the Philadelphia restaurant scene has to offer. In addition, it challenged me to go off the beaten path and explore places I had never heard of or seen before and probably would never have otherwise discovered. While I don't believe I reviewed a meal outside of the city limits (despite putting a number of suburban outposts up for vote), at least half of the places we ended up going are not trendy or well known or even convenient to get to. But part of the fun was discovering new neighborhoods and walking into a strange space without any expectations. We dove deep into south Philly, headed out to the Northeast and Mount Airy, and circled back and forth to Queen's Village, Northern Liberties, and Rittenhouse Square a number of times.

So how did we do foodwise? A mixed bag. Actually, all in all, there were probably more misses than hits, and two of the best meals I had all year weren't even in the review rotation (Dinosaur BBQ in the Bronx and Bolete in Bethlehem). But there were several standouts that I remember well -- the cheesesteak at John's Roast Pork, the gnocchi at Cucina Forte, and even the most recent lava rock shrimp at Zocalo. These are the types of dishes that always encourage me to walk into new surroundings and give new places a try. There is nothing wrong with the old reliable, but there is something fun and exciting about trying something different.

A lot of restaurant reviewers will rate a restaurant with letter grades or stars or bells, but in my mind, the question is always, "Would I go back there again?" So with that in mind, here in my year in review:

So Long To

• Azul Cantina -- Surprisingly, the only place on our list to shutter its doors was the first visit. Azul Cantina closed less than a month after we visited and has since reopened as VargaBar.

Have Been Back To

• Hymie's -- Old World Jewish deli the way it was meant to me. Huge sandwiches, great matzo ball soup, and just enough yentas to make you laugh as they kvech at the wait staff.
• John's Roast Pork -- If I had to pick a favorite from among the 26 places on the yearly jaunt, this would be it. It is the kind of place that makes Philadelphia great. The best cheesesteak I have ever had -- the sesame seed roll, the perfectly melted cheese, the perfectly seasoned steak. I makes me hungry just thinking about it. Part of me wishes John's had more accessible hours, but part of me also likes that you have to make an effort to get there for weekday lunch. I can't say enough good things about this tiny South Philly shack.
• Oyster House -- I went back with an ex (ex co-worker, that is) and was pretty disappointed. The oysters are exceptional, but my meal was bad. I'd still go back but probably only for the Happy Hour bivalves.

Will Go Back To

• Cucina Forte -- The gnocchi was divine, just melt in your mouth good.
• Meme -- If nothing else, I need to try the Thursday lunch fried chicken.
• Vetri -- It's just very pricey, but it's worth the splurge for a very special occasion.

Might Go Back To

• Geechee Girl Rice Cafe -- The wife didn't like it, but I did.
• Kanella -- If only because our waiter was the best one we had all year.
• Noble American Kitchen -- Beautiful space, ghastly prices, good food.
• Parc -- I suspect someone will drag me back one of these days, though I personally was not impressed.
• Memphis Taproom -- Worst meal I had all year, but too many friends have raved about this place so I'd be willing to give it another shot.
• Restaurant School at Walnut Hill School -- You get your money's worth, but I'd only go later in the semester when the student workers have a little more experience under their belt.
• Sweet Lucy's -- Good food, just too far of a drive.
• Uzu Sushi -- I liked everything about Uzu, but it's a crowded field for sushi in the city right now.
• Wine Thief -- It's just a hike from Center City and not really exceptional enough to justify a trip out to Mount Airy. I liked Geechee Girl better.
• Zocalo -- Very good Mexican, but very iffy location.

Never Go Back To

• Branzino -- You can do far better near Rittenhouse.
• Divan's Turkish Kitchen -- One of the nicest interiors I saw all year, but inferior food.
• Erawan -- Not a good vibe.
• Fuji Mountain -- See Uzu Sushi.
• Imperial Inn -- Not a big fan of their cleanliness.
• Le Virtu -- I liked this more than some others, but it's not special enough to stand out among more convenient Italian BYOs.
• 10 Arts -- Biggest disappointment of the year.
• Kong -- Blech.
• Novito Bistro -- They just weren't very nice people.

So what comes next? I have some ideas, though I'll probably take a break for a few weeks. Writing thousands of words for public consumption over the last year has taken its toll -- it became more and more difficult to become motivated to write comprehensive reviews these last few months. Certainly, though, we'll do something a little bit different that will hopefully be enjoyable to write and to read. I guess we'll see.

"Z" is for Zocalo

It's an unsettling feeling when you walk into a restaurant, especially a large restaurant, and you see that you are the only customers. For me at least, alarm bells instantly go off. "Run, run! There must be a reason no one is here, namely, the food sucks!" More than a few times during our yearly journey, this has unexpectedly taken place. And across the board, my instincts were proven right time after time. It would be great to think that you would get special attention being the only patrons at a place, but often, you are a nuisance that they just want to get out of there.

All this said, a bit of gratitude to the couple who walked into Zocalo a few minutes after us, saving us from this horror. While it's probably ridiculously to say that our food would have been any better or worse if they hadn't arrived, I'll give them some credit nonetheless.

Zocalo is oddly situated right in between the Drexel and Penn campuses, but it's a bit pricey for the college audience. It's a huge place that can probably seat at least 200, but on the cold, windy night we went, it was barren. Strangely, we were seated as far away from the front of the restaurant as possible, though I do have to give props for the fact that our grumpy hostess/waitress sat me on top of a heat grate. The wife and I both needed to warm up after the short walk from the car.

Unlike some of our recent duds, Zocalo was true to its theme, with Mexican decor, Mexican music, and (gasp!) an actual menu full of Mexican food. Now, this wasn't typical dumbed-down Mexican -- although they did have enchilidas. For the most part, it was more creative combinations of ingredients presented with flair. There was a lot on the menu that looked interesting, and it's always nice when I can pick between 3 or 4 entrees confident that I'll enjoy any of them.

I knew we would start off with the guacamole -- the wife just can't resist -- but even this wasn't your typical chips and dips. The guacamole and salsa were presented together on one platter and were meant to be combined with each scoop. I generally prefer a chunkier guacamole, but this was very good.

The entrees were even better.

I got shrimp with a spicy tomato sauce and charred peppers. Doesn't sound all that exciting, but it was served in a scalding hot (and I do mean scalding hot) lava rock bowl. Not only did the bowl serve as a hand warmer, but it ensured that each taste was fiery, which I love. Nothing worse than lukewarm food. It was a bit of a challenge to eat everything because I had to be very careful not to touch the lava bowl and burn myself. I had to reach around the bowl to take a taste of the rice and refried beans, which were served on a different plate but also much worth the effort. At first glance, the shrimp seemed kind of scrawny, but they were actually the perfect amount of food when combined with the tomatoes, onions, and peppers. It was an excellent dish.

The wife's entree was similarly good. I have had a fair amount of strip steaks in the last few years, but this was one of the best ones I have ever had. Incredibly tender and flavorful without a whole lot of fat. Really, really good.

Overall, an excellent end to the year.

On to the full review...

THE FOOD: What was so nice about Zocalo's menu was that there was a great amount of variety that catered to many different tastes, likes, and dislikes, but they didn't take shortcuts and just sticks tacos or burritos on the menu. That would have easy, but it would have made Zocalo just like so many other middling Mexican restaurants.

THE DRINK: I had a very tart Mexican margarita (although I was warned of this by our waitress when I ordered it). It wasn't awful, but it wasn't good. They had some interesting cocktails on the menu so I would definitely go in a different direction next time.

THE STAFF: Our waitress was grouchy. I was in a good mood and tried to lighten her up with some humor, but she would crack a chuckle or two and then go bad to being Mrs. Grumpy. Oh well.

MAD PROPS FOR: Our "friends" at the table across the room. We didn't share a word with them, but I appreciated the fact that someone else was there.

OVERALL: This was right up there with Xochitl for the best high-end Mexican I've had in the city (though just a shade below). Unfortunately , it's in a weird location that we can't walk to and isn't near anything else in West Philly so you really need to go pretty much for the food alone (though I guess the campuses aren't too far to walk on a nicer day)

THE CHECK: $80 for the two of us. Zocalo is probably a tad bit overpriced compared to other restaurants in its genre, but it's worth it.

And that's it! Twenty-six restaurants in 365 days! Phew!

I'll put together a "Year in Review" piece within the next day or two recapping everything we've been through, but it's nice to have completed this by the end of 2009 as planned. One more item to cross off of my to-do list.

B"Y"OB is for Ava's -- Errrr, I Mean Novita Bistro

Inevitably, it was going to happen. Restaurants come and go, especially in this economy. When this blog started, the first restaurant on the list -- Azul Cantina -- went bye bye within a month. And now, near the tail end of our journey, we were stymied by Ava's Cafe, whose closing was announced in the Dec. 17 Philadelphia Inquirer. But no worries, loyal reader -- put down your egg nog because this only required a minor audible to visit the runner-up for our latest vote, Novita Bistro.

Novita Bistro reminded me of a Seinfeld episode. It's the episode where Jerry walks into the restaurant across the street from his apartment owned by Pakistani-born Babu. Jerry looks through the menu quizzically, wondering why there are franks and beans, along with other traditional American items, on the menu instead of Pakistani dishes. It just didn't make a lot of sense. While it wasn't quite to that extreme, there were several things about Novita Bistro that make you stop and say, "Babu? Is that you?" For anyone who has been reading along these last few months, this unfortunately is not a unique issue for supposedly "ethnic" Philadelphia restaurants.

On its website, Novita Bistro bills itself as a Lebanese outpost. There are some very good Middle Eastern restaurants that remain true to their roots -- Figs in our neighborhood is an outstanding example -- that have managed to figure out how to tweak traditional dishes to be more palatable to a wider audience while remaining true to their unique roots. But ravioli? Gnocchi? Scallops with mushroom sauce? No. Nein. Nyet. All three of these were options on the menu at Novita Bistro.

Unfortunately for the wife, she had not done her homework and ended up with some of the lesser items on the menu -- the sickly looking scallops and the gnocchi that certainly did not appear to be homemade. I stuck with something that was more along the traditional Lebanese lines -- lamb tagine with cous cous -- and was rewarded with an excellent dish. The lamb was cooked and seasoned perfectly, it was properly presented in a tagine cylinder (I don't know what it's actually called but it is specific to tagine), and the cous cous was decent and plentiful. Unfortunately, that was the lone highlight of the meal.

The ambiance was similarly confusing. Novita Bistro is located in an attractive space and smartly decorated with a open kitchen in the back. But a music mix one part Middle Eastern and the second part Sinatra? Just bizarre. I'll give them a little leeway since we were the only patrons in the restaurant, which as always was a little off putting, but it was still a strange choice.

Novita Bistro has a lot of potential to serve as a neighborhood hotspot (it's near Graduate Hospital) catering to an up-and-coming yuppie crowd. Supposedly, according to a customer who came in to pick up a takeout order, it usually is crowded and is doing well. The weather and the date of our visit (Christmas Eve Eve, a few days after the big snow) probably meant it was a slow night for a lot of restaurants, but I couldn't help wondering if Novita Bistro would be going the way of Ava's unless they get their act together and figure out that people don't go to a Middle Eastern restaurant for Italian food.

On to the full review...

THE FOOD: "All of our desserts are homemade," our waiter told us as he listed the evening's options (tiramisu? creme brulee? Ugh). There was not a single ethnic item on the list -- would a baklava or something similar have killed them? -- so we got the lemon tart. I don't know what "home" it was made in, but there was nothing fresh or particularly interesting about it. Not a good capper to the meal.

THE DRINK: It's a BYOB. Nice wine glasses.

THE STAFF: As much as I hate being the only table in the restaurant, it is nice just to be able to shout out your order. Our waiter, though, wasn't very simpathetic when we expressed our displeasure with the food. More of a, "Sucks for you" attitude.

MAD PROPS FOR: The location of Novita Bistro is great. It's not an area well known for its restaurants, but there is a huge potential clientele. If I were to open a neighborhood-focused restaurant, this would be a prime location.

OVERALL: Another disappointing overall meal, although my entree was quite good. Nothing else, however, from the plain old white bread with olive oil, the wife's dishes, and the desserts, were above average.

THE CHECK: $65, with tip.

At long last, 25 meals later, we have reached the final entry for the year (and just in time too as the calendar reminds me).

Ineligible restaurants for round 26...

• Zahav -- I know that a lot people love this Old City Israeli restaurant (I also know some people who don't). I'm pretty much stuck in the middle.
• Zakes Cafe -- You could do worse for suburban Sunday brunch.
• Zorba's -- I probably should go again since it's so close, but there just is something about Fairmount's Greek restaurant that turns me off.

Candidates for round 26 (a surprisingly robust number of "Z" restaurants to choose from, so we're back to our usual setup):

• Zavino -- Talk about a last-minute option. Set to open Dec. 30, it's going to be a small pizza shop with a few antipasto dishes. http://www.zavino.com/
• Zento -- I'm amazed at the number of small sushi joints there are downtown. Here's another one. http://www.zentocontemporary.com/
• Zinc -- Still looking for our first high-end French choice of the year. http://www.zincbarphilly.com/
• Zocalo -- Authentic upscale Mexican in West Philadelphia. http://www.zocalophilly.com/

"X" (sort of) is for Kong

Of all of Philadelphia's neighborhoods, Northern Liberties might be my favorite for food (Queen's Village is either a little ahead or below, depending on what has opened and closed). Not only does Northern Liberties have a diverse mixture of cuisines, with Italian, Spanish, Southern, and many others, but you also generally don't have to spend a ton of money to eat there. In other words, you get what you pay for.

And in that spirit, I guess Kong is OK. It is relatively reasonably priced, but it really doesn't give you a lot back for the buck. It's not quite traditional Hong Kong street food, and it's not quite "dumbed down" Asian food for an American audience, which leaves it kind of floating between in never-never land. I get the sense that the owners sat down with the chef (or maybe they are the same people -- I really don't know) and the conversation went like this.

"We should try to recreate the fried cow's brain in spicy chili sauce I had last summer in Hong Kong."
"How about instead, we make pan-seared beef tenderloin in a mild peanut sauce?"
"I guess we can compromise. We'll go with grilled hangar steak in a spicy peanut sauce."

As in the NFL, restaurants rarely work when they don't have a good game plan. You either win by focusing everything you have on one thing or you lose by dabbling in a little bit of everything. Kong just doesn't know what it wants to be, which is too bad because there is a lot of potential here. The space is very inviting and it is just far enough south that it gets a little bit away from the Northern Liberty bar scene. It could be very cool and very hip and really fill a niche that I think could be really popular. If Tiffin could do it for Indian food, why couldn't Kong for Hong Kongian (or whatever the right adjective would be) food?

I'm convinced that Asian cuisines are going to be huge in the next decade in the U.S., both due to the continuing international influence of the Far East and the growing availability of some of the more exotic ingredients common in Asian cooking. It's as if the owners of Kong understand this, but don't quite get how to execute it. I am told that one of the co-owners (who also own Bistro 7, which is such a different restaurant that it is amazing) is Asian and Kong is an ode to her heritage. I just wish it had been more authentic.

Our meal got off to a lousy start. I asked our waitress, who was wearing a hideous, hideous outfit that looked like someone threw up on it, to tell me about one of the beers on their drink list. She replied, "It's good. People seem to like it." Wow, talk about insight! Needless to say, I steered away from asking her too many other questions about the menu since it didn't seem like she would be much help.

It wasn't that the food was bad -- it was just kind of boring. Tricked-up fried rice with egg and crabmeat. Unevenly cooked spicy beef in a grilled pita with various condiments (the condiments were the best part of the meal). A fried banana rolled in sugar with a chocolate dipping sauce. I mean, nothing was that bad, but nothing was that good either. A month from now, I won't remember a thing about this meal. Which is never a good sign.

On to the full review...

THE FOOD: My main entree was my biggest disappointment. I am a big fan of food that requires you to construct it to your personal taste. If the pita had been separated from the beef, the beef from the sauce, etc., it may have been much better. Unfortunately, it was kind of goopy the longer everything sat together. The first pita was pretty good, but the second was not great. It didn't help that the pita was cold. The dessert was a big failure. It was just a really lazy presentation and not very tasty. At least the banana wasn't rotten.

THE DRINK: My beer was fine and relatively cheap. Kong had some drinks that sounded interesting. The bar was packed while the restaurant was pretty empty. That should tell you something.

THE STAFF: Our waitress defined frumpy indifference.

MAD PROPS FOR: I know it's pretty juvenile, but I like when you go to Kong's website and it screams at you, "KONG!" "KONG!"

OVERALL: I can't see Kong lasting very long in a very competitive neighborhood. There are a lot of excellent restaurants in Northern Liberties -- Il Cantuccio, Honey's, Standard Tap, Bar Ferninand -- that are in Kong's price range but offer far better quality food. You need to be very good to succeed there and Kong just isn't there yet.

THE CHECK: $50 for the two of us. That was the saving grace (get, it "saving" grace. Ha, ha, I kill me).

Before moving ahead, I do have to mention a fantastic meal I had Saturday night at Bolete in Bethlehem, PA. Talk about a restaurant that knows exactly what it is and how to execute its concept. One of the best meals I have had in a long, long time. It is worthy of all of the published kudos it has received. I highly recommend it if you ever in the neighborhood. Shout out to Rone-Rone for arranging the visit.

On to the Ys...

Ineligible restaurants for round 25:

• Yardley Inn -- Very country-clubbish haunt in the suburbs. Lots of dark wood paneling. High-end food.
• Yum Yum Chinese Restaurant -- OK, I have never actually been here, but judging by the neighborhood it is in and exterior of the restaurant, my guess is that it is "Yuck yuck."

I really thought there would be enough "Y" restaurants to choose from, but the choices are pretty sparse. So we'll go with a different theme for this round, presenting four BYOBs to choose from:

• Ava -- Seasonal Italian restaurant named for the owner's daughter (good thing they didn't name her Dumbass). http://www.avarestaurant.com/
• Cafe Apamate -- Venezuelan tapas a la Jose Garces (with different owners). http://www.cafeapamate.com/
• Novita Bistro -- I've been on a Middle Eastern kick recently thanks to Nanee's Kitchen in the Reading Terminal. This is a little more upscale Lebanese. http://www.novitabistro.com
• Ristorante Pesto -- What's a list of BYOB's without a South Philly classic? http://www.ristorantepesto.com/pesto/home.asp