PhillyLunchBox

Konak Review

KONAK
228 Vine St
215-592-1212

Citipaper reviews Konak:

Service is quick, efficient and gracious. The meal begins with quince preserves, butter and warm triangles of pide bread. The preserves are the kind of thing Americans would eat for breakfast on toast, but here they serve to jolt the system with just enough sugar to stimulate the appetite for bigtime eating.

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In the salads are variations of flavors you'll find in other Middle Eastern cuisines (just don't say Greek): lemon juice, olive oil, eggplant and tabouli. The shepard salad was refreshing and crisp with diced tomato, cucumbers and scallion. The quince preserves ultimately gave way to more savory bread toppings, like a finely chopped eggplant salad with green pepper and onion, and the "spicy" ezme, a relish of roasted peppers, red onion and walnut sauce, which was actually more acrid than hot.

Kebobs and other grilled meats play a major role on the menu, though there are also several fish and vegetarian entrees. Islim kebob was a dome-shaped centerpiece of braised beef cubes covered with impossibly thin strips of eggplant and served in a pool of tomato sauce. The architecturally impressive dish looked so solid that it might be difficult to break into, but in fact the eggplant was soft and melting. The meat inside, however, had grown disappointingly tough and a bit dry.

Anyone try this place? It's doubtful that I will check it out, because of all the excellent middle eastern cuisuine minutes from work.

Bliss

Bliss
220-224 S. Broad St.
215-731-1100

Citipaper reviews Bliss:

Anyway, a Cabernet Sauvignon is just right with a rosemary-scented lamb shank that was not overwhelmingly huge as some tend to be, but "falling off the bone" as others can only aspire to. Parsnip purée is a good accompaniment and a lovely way to present a much-maligned vegetable. It's interesting that there is only one pasta on the menu, a gnocchi appetizer with sun-dried tomato pesto. Some of the pastas that I recall from Avenue B were wonderful, but I think Martorella is using more of the Asian touches than anything. There's a gingery chicken breast with bok choy and wasabi rice, stir-fried red chili prawns with Chinese celery, tiger shrimp rolls and happily crispy red snapper, absolutely delicious with a complex sweet and sour sauce whose ingredients I won't even endeavor to guess.

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Bliss certainly looks like the "in" spot right now, and Chef Martorella circles the room, greeting regulars and old friends. Our efficient waiter reminds us about dessert, and all look good, vaguely Italian, but not earth-shattering: The créme brèlée is very creamy, but not unusual. The mocha semifreddo has great flavor but is barely frozen -- more like a mousse. Best of all is a tart citrus panna cotta, quivering beside some sweet grilled pineapple.

Francesco Martorella is a formidable chef who was named an "American Super-Chef" by Food & Wine magazine, and who has gained many other honors. His approach to cooking is seasonal and global, resulting in combinations that may be unexpected, but are never forced. In fact, his menu is the essence of simplicity, allowing natural flavors and judicious seasoning to shine. It is by no means inexpensive (with $5 for sides and $7 for desserts tacked on), but it is safe food for people with deep pockets. Right now, the only off-note seems to be the TV at the bar, but I hear that the risotto beignets on the bar menu are worth having to watch Iverson score yet again. Don't get me wrong -- I'm all for the Sixers winning, but not when I'm trying to concentrate on the sophisticated food in front of me. With my back to the bar, I could even reach a state of bliss.

Blue Sage Vegetarian Grille

BLUE SAGE VEGETARIAN GRILLE
772 Second Street Pk., Southampton
Phone - 215-942-8888

Philadelphia Weekly reviews Blue Sage in Southhampton (my old stompin grounds):

For three and a half years, chef/owners Holly and Mike Jackson have been preparing a generous all-vegetarian--and more than half vegan--menu of eclectic West Coast-meets-the-world dishes. There are Thai pot stickers, Indian khorma, stuffed winter squash, goat cheese polenta gnocchi--and not one visible trace of tofu or the imitation meat products Mike refers to as "the kind of food that goes in quotation marks."

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Entrees were mixed. On one hand, there was the salad-y Cubano supper platter, which had loads going on, but might have been better suited as an appetizer. In the center, half a red bell pepper held a generous helping of fresh cilantro-tasting creamy guacamole studded with oven-dried tomatoes. Beneath the pepper was a tasty and sweet jicama slaw, laced with extra cilantro and a touch of chipotle smoke.

Alongside were a half-dozen fried sweet plantains (always a welcome addition), a pile of watercress, and pico de gallo-like cubes of mango and pineapple. It was good, but just wasn't quite hefty enough for a main course.

On the other hand, a wild mushroom risotto was as hearty a vegetarian dish as they come, more like a stew than a risotto. Small wedges of savory golden beets, grilled carrots and asparagus hid among the hearty arborio rice, made rich with cashew puree. On top was a rich layer of oyster and shiitake mushroom caps.

I grew up in Southhampton and I always pictured a meat-eating crowd...

Melograno's worth a two hour wait??

Melograno
2201 Spruce St.
Philadelphia, PA 19103
(215) 875-8116

Craig La Ban thinks so:

The wait for a table tonight will be two hours.

Rosemarie Tran gives her earnest estimate as cheerily as such news can be delivered,
without a trace of haughtiness.

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Wide ribbons of homemade pappardelle arrive tangled among truffled mushrooms and toasted walnuts. Another version of pappardelle has a lively tomato sauce studded with salty olives, sweet scallops and shrimp. The ravioli stuffed with airy mashed potatoes, pecorino cheese and leeks are like divine Italian pierogi. Shined with brown butter and topped with a plume of fried sage, each was so delicate that I savored them with my eyes closed.

Other pastas show Demontis' knack for refining textures and steeping flavors.
He finishes cooking his penne in its pancetta-tomato sauce so the pasta absorbs that smoke and spice.
And his fresh fettuccine has such a perfect al dente snap that the ingredients that grace it - sweet peas,
roasted cherry tomatoes, and garlicky white wine sauce - taste all the more alive.

I think my mouth watered just reading this review...

read the full review here.

Philly Weekly Reviews Tritone

TRITONE
1508 South St.
Phone 215-545-0475

Philadelphia Weekly Reviews Tritone:

Ricks, the pompadoured, tattoo-covered latter-day rockabilly master of quiches at Fergie's, is an eclectic talent who cooks serious Creole red beans and rice, barbecue buffalo wings, a homemade vegan burger that's no laughing matter, and grilled 'gator and meatloaf, all with cult followings. But mostly this guy can fry food. For real. As one Tritone regular puts it, "Ricks is an artist when it comes to the deep fryer."

Ricks offers more than onion rings and mozzarella sticks to the gods of grease. He pulls off such flash-fried delights as salmon-and-spinach spring rolls, catfish tenders, fried pickles and--sweet Jesus--fried candy bars. Fried Oreos and fried ice cream, too. Seriously.

Fried Oreos.. Ok you've got my attention.. I'll be there REAL soon.

Rise and Fall of Striped Bass

Inquirer columnist Rick Nichols has a nice story about the rise and fall of Striped Bass:

Another day we shall grapple with the more cosmic implications of Stephen Starr's bargain-basement acquisition of Center City's crown jewel, Striped Bass - his 10th and, if current trends hold, hardly his final Philadelphia restaurant.

It had been coming. Starr's $1.3 million bid for Neil Stein's bankrupt beauty had been the only one on the table for weeks.

But in the end, it still had the power to shock - the collapse of a restaurant that had been the city's gold standard (well, after Le Bec-Fin), that had single-handedly stoked Walnut Street's revival 10 years ago, that for its rumored troubles and its founder's public flameout had retained an unmistakable magic and veneer of solidity.

read the whole story here.

LaBan reviews Bridgetown Mill House

Bridgetown Mill House
760 Langhorne-Newtown Rd.
Langhorne, PA 19047
(215) 752-8996

Craig LaBan reviews Bridgetown Mill House for you suburbanites:

The massive veal chop was a dream of butter-soft flesh accented with almond oil and paper-thin rounds of crunchy radish. An incredibly tender two-pound lobster arrived out of its shell beside a cannelloni stuffed with more lobster and a subtle tangerine sauce scented with vanilla.

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The John Dory was another poster dish for sweet-meets-savory. The fillets were perched over warm rice porridge flavored with a "deconstructed carrot cake" of shredded carrots and gently sweetened cream cheese. It was an unlikely mix, but it worked.

This sounds great... Can I hitch a ride to Langhorn? Read the full review here.

LaBan revies Kabob Palace

Kabob Palace
4201 Chestnut St.
Philadelphia, PA 19104
(215) 222-0306

Craig LaBan reviews Kabob Palace:

Come at any given lunch hour, and you will find a parking lot filled with taxis on break - a fair mark of the food's authenticity as well as the pedigree of owner Waheed Sheikh, himself a former cabbie.

There are no fancy trappings here; in fact, it's downright funky. But I found some of the most vivid Indo-Pakistani cooking I've tasted in this region, virtually identical in style and variety to most Indian cuisine, but with sharper spice and more dynamic flavors.

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The mutton karahi takes 40 minutes," Sheikh warned.

We weren't fazed, though perhaps we should have been. One of the perils of eating on the fringe is that you can wait an entire evening for your mutton to be cooked, only to realize much too late that it may never come at all.

In fact, we were packing our things to leave when Sheikh finally emerged, nearly two hours late, with our steel bowl full of mutton, glazed in a dark gravy beneath shreds of ginger and cilantro sprigs.

The smell alone was worth waiting for, an intoxicating billow of gingery steam that brought us back to the table. The meat was superbly tender; the flavors were extraordinary, so complex it was like savoring a Pakistani mole that tickled my throat with a sensation at once spicy, roasty, herbal and mysterious, with an undercurrent of almost cocoa-ey depth.

I don't think I've ever had mutton... But to quote Seinfeld "Hey, salad's got nothin' on this mutton."

For the discerning foodie on the go

Business 2.0 has a nice article about great lunchtrucks around the country:

BUSINESS 2.0

December 2003

Street Food for the Discerning Palate

By Andy Raskin

Got 10 minutes between meetings -- and a rumble in your belly? In these five business districts, eating from a cart doesn't have to mean eating junk.

NEW YORK - Hallo Berlin

The self-proclaimed "wurst pushcart in New York" serves up juicy knockwurst ($3), bratwurst ($3.50), and weisswurst ($3.50). Regulars choose what proprietor Rolf Babiel calls his Dictator Special ($5 to $6): two sausages (of Babiel's choice) smothered in steak sauce, fried potatoes, onions, and red cabbage. Babiel got a letter from Chicago mayor Richard M. Daley's office inviting him to relocate, but the East German transplant refused to leave Manhattan. "I am used to da love und da hate," he says.

At 54th Street and Fifth Avenue.

PHILADELPHIA - Mom's

It may not be the legendary Gino's, but 17-year-old Mom's can't be beat for cheesesteak deliciousness per square foot of kitchen space. Folks line up at the small stainless-steel cart for the pizza steak ($3.50) -- sautéed chopped beef topped with provolone and Harriet "Mom" Antanasiadis's homemade marinara, which is spiked with oregano and garlic. The Italian hoagie ($3.25) also ranks. Prepare to use every inch of the five or so napkins wrapped around each order.

At Sixth and Chestnut streets.

Read the full article here...

Pickles Plus Reviewed

Pickles-Plus
113 S 16th St
(215) 561-0990

Berkserker and I stopped by "Pickles Plus" for a quick bite today. It's a little deli style eatery on 17th Street. You can order at the deli counter for takeout or sit down and have a bite like we did. The theme of "Pickles Plus" is.. you guessed it.. Pickles. They have a bowl of fresh pickles at every table... and if you're adventurous, they have pickled green tomatoes. I loved it. The pickles are great.. Especially to munch on while waiting for your food. The menu offered typical deli style fare. They had an insert with some specials, so we went with that... I ordered the Roast Beef panini with horseradish cheddar dressing. Not feeling very original, Berkserker ordered the Turkey panini. Just a word about the service.. It was raw.. I enjoyed it however.. Very South Philly. Here is an example, "Can I get a coke with that?" Our waitress, "No." Then a pause for some uncomfortable silence (strictly on my part)... Then without even looking at me, "We only have Pepsi..." When the sandwiches arrived, I was impressed by the creativity. The sourdough rolls were grilled and inverted, with the inner doughy part facing out... Berkserker, being a traditionalist, put the sandwich back to a classic format. Anyway, the meal was excellent... One quick note, our waitress wasn't finished with us yet. She dropped by to ask us how things were going, and Berserker was still working on his sandwich... she commented with an impatient tone, "Still working on that sandwich, huh?"