#23 Audrey Claire

I just.. don't know where to start. I could start with the location, the amazing wait staff, the bill, the food, the atmosphere, how Audrey Claire met all of my expectations and more. I guess I'll start with the beginning.

Coll and I were looking for a BYOB spot to go to on a Thursday night and we both simultaneously suggested Audrey Claire. I have heard nothing but good things about Audrey Claire, other than that it is hard as hell to get a table on the weekend since they don't take reservations. Luckily, they do take them Sunday- Thursday, and making one 24 hours in advance was sufficient to get a table for 2 at 7:30. We sat down right away. The place was packed for a Thursday night, so I was happy we decided to make that reservation. The seating area was very small, we were basically sitting at a table for 4 with 2 other girls. Honestly, didn't even care. The reason for that could've been our amazing waiter. It just makes such a difference when you have good wait staff. He really took care of us. We ordered 4 small dishes instead of getting entrees and he asked if we wanted them in any particular order or if we were in a rush. We said no to both- and he timed the dishes out perfectly. We never felt hurried, even when there were people waiting for a table. After going to 23 different restaurants in the past 6 months, I realized how important it is to not have a waiter on your back the whole time. Coll made a good point last night- sometimes  you go into a restaurant and they push the food at you and you leave not even knowing what you ate or if you liked it. Audrey Claire- you've perfect the art of timing, and for that, I love you.

We started our meal with wine, obviously. They had the tiniest little wine glasses, but we decided it made us drink less, which is always a good thing for us.

 

Then we ordered the bosc pear and gorgonzola w/ toasted sunflower seeds flatbread. So that was amazing. I love the fruit & gorgonzola cheese combo and they nailed it.

 

 

Then came out our baby arugula salad w/ candied figs, fresh berries, french lentils and warm goat cheese. Another delicious dish, I don't think I've ever had candied figs, but I loved them. The warm goat cheese really made the dish.

 

 

Then, our most exciting order, butternut squash risotto w/ sweet mascarpone. Just, just, no words. Not too heavy or too sweet, just perfect.

 

 

Finally (by the way at this point I could barely breathe I was so full, but we marched on), the hummus platter. We originally had to choose 3 of the 5 types of hummus, but the waiter said we could choose 4 (adding to my love for him). We went with the spicy hummus, tzatziki,. pumpkin hummus, & sun-dried tomato and basil hummus. I felt a little bit more informed about these from my trip to Estia (see post #4). I wish we could've dug into this a bit more but we were pretty stuffed at this point.

 

Then the bill came, and it was $47. We only had to pay tip. Now this is the kind of place I am looking to spend my gift cards! No extra cost to me. People- go here and begin your love affair with Audrey Claire (wait does that rhyme?)

 

 

 

 

 

#22 Xochitl

Everyone  keeps asking me "Ryan, how many gift cards do you have left?!" After I sigh and complain about how much work they are I usually respond with "like 30-ish". So to clear that up, as of today, I officially have 30 gift cards left to use. Crap.

I love Mexican restaurants. I love gauc and margs and the atmosphere that comes with an authentic Mexican restaurant. I've actually eaten Mexican one night a week for the past 3 weeks (overkill?). Unfortunately, I only have 4 on my list, which is just not enough. So I have been strategically trying to space them out. Good thing Lolita is closed for renovation until January, so that buys me some time to use my last Mexican gift card.

Xochitl, pronounced " So-Cheet" (I was pronouncing it like Zoc-a-til- not even close) is a cozy bar/restaurant located at 2nd and Pine. Beautiful part of the city that I definitely want to venture back to. Every time one of these gift cards brings me to a new neighborhood of Philadelphia I immediately picture my life there and decide that I want to move. Not only have these gift cards expanded my palate, but they have also enhanced my love of the city. Okay- I'll stop!

The seating area in Xochitl was pretty small, but there was a large bar. There was a good amount of people sitting at the bar watching a game on TV. I could definitely see myself going back there to enjoy the bar room instead of the formal dining area.

The first great thing I noticed about Xochitl was their "Make your Own Guacamole" option. Like, yes. My dream.

The second thing I noticed was that their margs were strong. Holy cow. I think its funny how every Mexican restaurant "specializes in tequila". The waiters always go into so much detail about "their favorite margarita" and rave about the specialty tequila. I also know that the waiter's "favorite margarita" is going to be the most expensive drink on the menu. I've been around the block enough times to know their trick and I never buy in. After their long winded, detailed spiel about the $15 special margarita, I always go with the basic $9 margarita. Better luck next time, guys.

The third thing that I noticed about Xochitl was that the wait staff was on the pushy side. It was a Friday night at 8:30 and I was out with my roommates, Regan and Mal. I was in absolutely no rush to scarf my food down. We ordered the margaritas and guacamole and were enjoying the night. The waitress asked if we were ready to order and we told her we wanted a few more minutes. Then about 5 minutes later, the head chef comes to our table and asks us if had any questions about the menu and if we were ready to order. The waitress sent out the big guns. I felt slightly intimidated, so we started to order. We all got tacos, Regan got the chicken and Mal and I got the fish. The chef asked if wanted sides, well maybe I shouldn't say asked, he basically told us we needed sides. "The tacos don't come with side dishes and they aren't very big so we would definitely need something else." We weren't even that hungry, but he bullied us into ordering two sides for the table. The tacos came out and they were huge. We definitely did not need the sides. I'll say it again, we got bullied.


Lucky for us, the sides were hands down the best part of the meal. We got the Rice & Manchego (cheesy rice goodness) & the Esquites (Mexican street corn). If you ever go to Xochitl, please get these. Mal & I weren't fans of our tacos. The fish tacos were surprisingly spicy and had more slaw then fish. Mal said hers had an overly fishy taste. Regan said her tacos were "amaze". Guess I will go with the chicken tacos next time.

I was pleasantly surprised that with tip and my $50 gift card we each only paid $34. For 2 margaritas each, guacamole, an entrée, and sides, this isn't too shabby. One of my very, very few posts that I don't complain about the check!

 

I am excited to go back to Xochitl to sit at the bar and avoid any pushy wait staff. On Sundays- Thursdays they have a $28 Molajete Dinner for 2, which is right up my alley!

#21 Capital Grille

Another race to the finish- using a gift card on the day before the expiration date. Capital Grille was not a place I had been super excited to try. I know the prices, I've been to Capital Grilles before, just unenthused. I was even more unenthused because on the night we went, we had plans to go to a bar in Northern Liberties later. 13th & Chestnut and Girard & Frankford aren't exactly neighbors. But, alas, we do what we have to for the fans.

We went into Capital Grille with the mindset of sitting at the  bar- having a drink and ordering appetizers. So that is exactly what we did. Well, actually, we couldn't get a seat at the bar. It was filled with what seemed to be Friday night regulars. The bar crowd was what you would expect it to be, overdressed women, men in suits, etc. Luckily, we got a small high top in the bar area, right near the entrance (ideal spot for people watching). We had access to the full menu and to a waitress as well, which was exciting since we weren't actually sitting at a table.

We ordered the Calamari & the Prosciutto Wrapped Mozzarella with Vine Ripe Tomatoes. They were both what you would expect- amazing. The calamari had hot cherry peppers intermixed into the dish which really made the flavor pop. Plus they give you a huge portion. This was good since we were replacing appetizers for our dinner that night.

The prosciutto wrapped mozzarella doesn't look pretty in the picture below- but let me tell you- it tasted pretty. I go back and forth with my feelings on prosciutto, but this dish sold me. It was like bacon, but lighter and better.

And folks, that's all about what we could afford so we were outta there. 4 drinks, 2 apps, $70. Cannot avoid paying more than $50 anywhere I go! I will say that I really liked the atmosphere and that this gave us a chance to experience Capital Grille when we most likely never would have before.

 

#20 Amuse at the Le Meridien

I have been scrounging around lately because a number of my gift cards decided to expire in the fall months of 2013. Even though I have heard from multiple sources that gift cards are not allowed to expire, I didn't want to take any chances and force my blog followers to miss out on any life shattering, world changing posts. So with 1 day left on my gift card to Amuse at the Le Meridien, my mom offered to come down and take us out to lunch. WHEW.

Amuse is such a hidden gem! The Le Meridien hotel is located in an amazing location, right near Love Park. It was a beautiful day and in that moment I was happy that this gift card with its pending expiration date dragged me out of bed on a Sunday afternoon to experience Center City.

We walked into the beautiful hotel and noticed that Amuse was basically the Le Meridien's dining area. It was a small cozy area with a fireplace and beautiful city views. I do have to mention that it was a bit of a struggle to get a table for 5 people. The host was being very indirect and said "I just don't know if we will be able to serve you". Not, "there is a 15 minute wait", not "let me find a table for you", it was more like, "please leave, we don't want you". So we hung around the bar area (closed bar, btw) until this man figured out  how to serve us. We waited about 15 minutes and sat at a table right by the window.

There isn't much to say about the food, it was all very good. Pretty basic hotel food, but the service was on point. They even gave us a little free sample of a little tart filled with some goat cheese mixture. Collectively we got the Cesar salad, French onion soup, the spring quiche (I applaud Regan for this out of character order!), the chicken club, the French omelette, and the cheeseburger.

 

 

One of my shorter blogs, the most memorable thing was that my self proclaimed wine snob mother ordered a $7 glass of Oak Vineyards Chardonnay. She also guilted me into getting a glass which led me to pass out for an hour after I got home.

Oh and how could I forget our trip to Love Park. Such a wonderful spectacle on a warm Sunday. The smell of urine and homeless people just made my day! For some reason, in my head I had a prettier picture of the park. The woman voluntarily directing pictures in front of the Love sign while asking for tips really threw me off. Not enough to snatch one, though :)

   

#19: Alma de Cuba

 

Alma De Cuba, post 2 of my restaurant week series.  So pumped to write this. I've heard how great Alma De Cuba was, I've walked past the place many times, nestled on Walnut street among the shops, but I was still curious what it was all about. When I say that I've heard how great Alma De Cuba was, I mean mostly through my cousins, Melissa & Jeff's, raves. So I thought it would be a perfect idea to invite them down for restaurant week to join us at Alma De Cuba! I also prefer going to new places with people who have been there before. Sometimes these ethnic menus confuse me and its nice to have some back up.

Alma de Cuba was surprisingly big. It looks pretty small from the outside, but there were 3 floors with plenty of seating. The restaurant was dark, with candles and red lighting all around to make the place feel intimate and trendy.  Their restaurant week menu was pretty limited, only about 3 or 4 choices per course. That being said, I would have liked to order every option.

Melissa and Jeff talked up Alma de Cuba's El Jefe Mojito all summer, so clearly had to get that. It was worth the hype. The only complaint I have is that the glass was pretty small for being $12. (Are you shocked that I am complaining about a drink being too much money and too small?) Just a side note, you are not supposed to eat the sugar cane stick in the drink. Chewing it and then having to spit it out on your bread plate is not a good look.

 

 

During restaurant week you typically have to order your 3 courses up front. This is a lot of pressure. I slightly panicked and ordered the black bean soup, the Panca Glazed Chicken with yucca fries and plantains and the Tembleque for dessert. After I avoided saying any word that I didn't know how to pronounce to the waiter, I thought, do I even like black beans? What even is black bean soup ? I am going to get sick? Fortunately, it was delicious. I don't want to go ahead and say that I would order black bean soup from anywhere else just yet, but baby steps.

Other starter items we got were the Smoked Albacore Tacos and the Plantains. I didn't get a chance to try the tacos, so I am going to go ahead and assume they were good since everyone ate them pretty quickly.  The plantains tied the black bean soup for my favorite part of the meal. They were perfectly sweet with a buttermilk sauce. I basically ate most of my meal in plantains. Ugh, I miss them.

 

Melissa got the Cuban Shrimp and Grits for her meal and Brendan and Jeff got the Vaca Frita (skirt steak with rice and beans). I got to try both entrees and they were basically amazing.  

 

For dessert I was the only adventurous one and got the Tembleque when everyone else got the Alfajores (boring cookie sandwich). Tembleque is a Puerto Rican custard with a mango sorbet. I didn't love this. The custard tasted like flan to me, even though I've never had flan. It had a spong-ey texture and stood straight up on its own.

Overall, we had a great time at Alma de Cuba. Once Melissa & Jeff got over me taking pictures of their meals before they could have a bite with my obnoxious camera flash, we were good. We basically tried everything on the restaurant week menu, and if you know anything about my aversion to ordering the same thing as anyone else at the table, you know that this made me happy.

My advice for Alma de Cube: get the mojito, get the black bean soup, get the plantains, expect to pay a pretty penny!

 

#18 Ristorante Panorama

Post 1 of 2 of my restaurant week series of 52 first meals. I figure this is where I can really make the most out of my gift cards. Contributing $50 towards a 3 course $35 meal gives me a little wiggle room.

Ristorante Panorama (already annoyed that I will have to continuously type that out during this post, by the way) was located in the Penns View Hotel on the corner of Front & Market streets. Sounds easy enough to find, right? Nope. I already add at least 10 more minutes to my drive when I am going anywhere in Old City because I never know where the hell I am. 10 minutes extra was just not enough for us. Next time remind me not to use Siri to direct me. Once we finally parked and made our way through the foreign land that is Old City, we arrived at the Penns View Hotel which houses Ristorante Panorama. It was beautiful. It overlooked the river and had an amazing view of the lights of the Ben Franklin Bridge. There was some seating outside and I thought it would be a great place to go in the summer.

Regan & I met our friend Colleen at Panorama. We entered through the lobby of the hotel and then made our way back through a hallway to the restaurant. Of all the empty tables in the place, they sat us directly next to a couple. Why do they always do that, by the way? It has to be some restaurant formality that I am not aware of.

The cool thing about Panorama was that they included their entire menu in the restaurant week special. This was great because you knew you were going to get a good portion size
and that the food was going to be well prepared because they weren't just cranking out orders after orders of the same few dishes all night.

The waiter took our wine orders almost simultaneously as we sat down. Typically, I like to get my wine order in fast, but I didn't get a second to think about what I wanted. When we all ordered glasses of their house wines, we got a bit of a look. Clearly, people who eat here don't typically order the house merlot. I wanted to peruse the wine list to act like I knew what I was ordering, but frankly I would've ordered the cheapest glass anyways.

They started off some crackers on our table. We were all starved and annoyed that the only thing they were giving us was these pellets of dog food. It wasn't 30 seconds after I said "I'm putting this in my blog" did they come out with warm bread rolls with a delicious pesto dipping sauce. Touché Ristorante Panorama, touché.

 

We put in 3 apps that we could all share. We went with clams, calamari (duh) and the  'Mozzarella al Limone'. We were happily surprised that the mozzarella dish was basically fried cheese. All of the appetizers were great. Typical Italian restaurant apps, but I loved every second of them.

After much, much deliberation we finally chose what we wanted to order for our entrées. Regan got the Gnocchi con Provola Affumicata, homemade potato and ricotta gnocchi with fresh basil and fresh & smoked mozzarella in a light San Marzano tomato sauce. Colleen ordered the Pappardelle al Sugo d’Anatra, which was slow cooked duck over noodles. Saving the best for last, obviously, I got the Tagliatelle con Funghi e Granchio homemade pasta tossed with  mixed mushrooms in olive oil with chives topped with lump crabmeat. Regan's gnocchi was perfect. It was light and fluffy, not too thick. Colleen didn't love her duck (duck, though?), but she also didn't love most of her meal. Being from Scranton, PA and experiencing all of the fine dining establishments NEPA has to offer, I can understand her pickiness. I love love loved my meal! The fact that it was only tossed with olive oil and not a thick sauce made it easy to taste the flavors of the mushrooms and crab.
 

 

 

 

Now on to the dessert. After having a lot of appetizers and a pretty big entrée, none of us really wanted dessert, but since it is restaurant week and it is included, you can't not. Regan and Colleen both got the Profiteroli, or in English,  Italian creampuffs filled with vanilla pastry, served with dark chocolate sauce. The reason that my sister ordered this was because it was basically the only thing on the menu that didn't have fruit in it or on it. Yes, Regan refuses to eat fruit. And whenever telling someone that she doesn't like fruit, without fail, someone always asks, "But what about_________" or "Not even _______". I still do it. I once told Regan I would pay her $20 to eat one blueberry. She said no. My dad made her eat an orange once when we were younger, she gagged uncontrollably.
 

I ordered the cheesecake special. I thought it was great, but Colleen was like "that is great to you?!" So maybe it wasn't that good. I guess I was feeling weirdly optimistic that night.
 

So the bill comes. It's restaurant week, I am expecting this to be a breeze of a bill. Wrong, wrong, wrong. With tip, $180. Luckily, I only had to pay with my gift card and then add $10, but Regan and Colleen had to drop $60 on dinner on a Tuesday night which hurts my heart.  But great time, great laughs, great friends, lots of food. Can't wait to venture back in the summer for happy hour!

#17 R2L

R2L to follow dinner at Sampan. I've been wanting to experience R2L, mostly for it's infamous views. I figured going here for just dessert and drinks would be a good way to end the night and a great way to not spend more than $50. R2L is located on the 37th floor of 2 Liberty Place. As we were walking there, we looked up to the top of the building and said "Is that where we're going?". It just looked amazing to be able to be up that high.

After 2 wrong door entrances into Liberty Place (after a year of living in the city I still feel like I never know where I am going), we finally made it to the elevator that had only two stops- the lobby & floor 37.

Once we entered the 37th floor we realized R2L was a pretty lavish place. The lighting was dimmed and everyone was dressed to the nines. We had made a reservation, but decided to sit in the lounge area to be able to get the best view of the city. The dining room was pretty empty (as to be expected at 9pm on a Tuesday), but the lounge was almost fully occupied. Consequently, we did not get a seat right by the window. We were facing a somewhat awkward group people who looked like they could have been on a blind group date.  Not exactly what I wanted to look at or listen to, but we made the most of it.

Our waiter brought us two glasses of champagne to start, which was pretty amazing. With all of the free food we were getting at Sampan, plus this, we were starting to feel kind of important. R2L had an extensive wine list, so I just chose a random glass of Pinot Noir. Typically, I go with the cheapest glass, but since we had $50 so spend on 2 drinks and dessert I chose a mid-priced glass. After much debate about the dessert, we decided to go with  the Toasted Cinnamon Crunch, which was donut ice cream with hazelnut and cinnamon crackers. It was one of the most beautiful desserts I had ever seen. I didn't know how to go about eating it a first, but we definitely figured it out. It wasn't a huge portion, but it was fine since we were pretty full from dinner. The dessert menu also suggests a drink to pair with the dessert. This is something that I wish we tried. If it wasn't a Tuesday quickly approaching my bed time, we probably would have.

Then the check came.. $36. In such a debacle. I texted all of my friends to see if it was appropriate to leave the tip on the gift card. Most of them said no. This annoyed me because $14.00 on a gift card at a place like R2L doesn't really entice me to come back. So the waiter processed our bill and came back and said "If you would like to leave the tip on the gift card, I will need the card back" I could've kissed him- problem solved. I didn't have to spend any extra money and the waiter got a pretty nice $14.00 tip.

R2L was the definition of a romantic and intimate restaurant with its ambiance, lighting, service, and spectacular views of the Philadelphia. We also enjoyed the chance to take selfies on the elevator ride...