Mike M.'s Profile

I went to Le Bec for Restaurant Week last night. While I know you can't truly judge a restaurant experience based on restaurant week, I feel that in the spirit of today's Top/Iron Chef culture of competitive cooking, a restaurant should be able to deliver a good meal under pressure and in extraordinary circumstances.

That said, I'm sure Le Bec on an average night comes nowhere close to the chaos I witnessed. All floors of the restaurant were packed and waiters hustled and bustled around. In the middle of it all, Georges Perrier walked the floors making funny faces and yelling things in his heavy French accent. Clearly a man who demands perfection, but he seemed to be enjoying himself-- it was pretty cool to be in his domain; to know that this restaurant was his life. My fiancee and I actually thought this environment made the experience more fun.

I believe some other yelpers bemoaned getting a different treatment as RW diners, but on Friday night, we were seated in the beautiful main dining room amongst a mostly older crowd. Both tables next to us were ordering off the RW menu, as was everyone else around. In fact, it was the only menu set out for all the guests. Additionally, all the glasses of wine were reasonably priced, from $8 to $15, and there was a $35 bottle.

I kicked things off with the country pate... combined with the sweet dried fruit things it came with, it was quite good, very french. My counterpart got the escargot, which was delicious. Great butter-garlic sauce with nuts. For my main course, I got braised short rib with hanger steak. The hanger steak was very good and the mashed potatoes and carrots were absolutely delicious. I've had better braised short rib though (see my review of NYC's Craft). My fiancee got scallops which she enjoyed, but she reported them to be a little gritty. For dessert, we got the Gateau de Le Bec Fin (choco cake and ice cream) and the lemon meringue tort. The cake was amazing, perhaps amongst the best chocolate cake I've ever tasted.

All their weekday specials may lure me back in sometime in the offseason, but I think If I'm shooting for the big $100+ prix fixe French dinner, I'll go to LaCroix... but it's a close call. I kind of picture those restaurants as arch-enemies, and it's a fight I'd love to be caught in the middle of.

I've gone to this truck a couple of times on Saturday mornings in Clark Park. Both times were this winter on freezing days so the wait was relatively short, but I've seen the long line on nice days. The tacos are uncannily good. You know the story: eggs, potatoes, fresh guacamole, tomatoes, cheese, onion... it's a masterpiece. This may be the shortest yelp I've ever written. There's not much more to say other than these tacos are awesome.

I'm not sure if 10 Arts would get 5 stars from me every day of the week, but everything I ordered the night I went was fantastic. I kicked things off with an appetizer that was a special, a foie gras pate. The portion was unsurprisingly small, but each bite was fantastic. My main course was a striped bass in a garlic sauce. It was a pretty big, thick piece of fish-- cooked perfectly and the sauce was delicious. Here's a tip: be very sloppy when you eat the bass so that chunks of it fall into the sauce. When you get all done, scoop up the remaining sauce and fish chunks and experience food nirvana. The sauce also had Chantarelles, which I believe is French for "Awesome mushrooms." I capped off my meal with a trio of ice creams, and each one was delicious and original. I think they vary by night though. This restaurant is expensive, over $60 a person easily, and the portions vary greatly. If you're concerned about getting a decent amount of food for your money, ask the waiter about the portion size of what you're interested in first. Also, if you're looking for an appetizer on the regular menu, one of my friends got the mussels as an appetizer and they were amongst the best mussels I've ever had. The bucket was pretty big too. The dining space is a little weird because it faces into the Ritz Carlton hotel lobby, but there's also a room in the corner behind the coat check. That's where we ate, and we found the atmosphere and service to be excellent.

Always searching for the best cheesesteak in the city, I looked past the namesake roast pork and went for the grill during my trip to John's. Like many yelpers, I'd wanted to try the place for quite some time and finally I took advantage of a day off around Christmas to grab lunch in between shopping runs. The no wiz was a bit of a left turn, but I figured I'd keep an open mind. The sandwich had a pretty good mixture of well melted cheese and steak and the bread was above average, but not the best I've had. I think what made the biggest impression on me was the size of the cheesesteak. It definitely felt bigger than Pat's, Geno's, Tony Luke's, and Jim's. I rolled in around 11:45 and there were a couple other people there, but the line grew quickly behind me as it seemed people were queuing up much faster than steaks were rolling off. It was a tiny place and I could imagine the staff getting an attitude given this daily situation, but everybody seemed pretty friendly. Overall, I wouldn't say this is the best cheesesteak experience in the city, but it's worth checking out if you're free before 3PM. Just walking into the tight pork shack will immediately let you know you're in for a unique experience.

Come to the continental for weekend brunch, workday lunch, or dinner and you'll get three varied experiences. I think I like their brunch best, it's a relaxed take on American breakfast with a bit of flare. Prices are low and service is friendly. Weekday lunch is pretty blah... The Continental transforms into a machine serving burgers and sandwiches to the business crowd. Prices are on par with everything else in Rittenhouse. Dinner is an experience that must be done right: go with a group, get some stuff to share, try the more interesting dishes. They'll be hit or miss, but you'll find one thing you really like. The last time I ate dinner here, I got the Pad Thai... not a very interesting choice, but I've had so many bad Pad Thai's out that I have no idea why I ordered it. It turned out it was pretty awesome.

Ultimately, you'll probably just want to come here to drink the cleverly named martinis. The rooftop bar is a lot of fun and was the site of the biggest bar tab my coworkers and I ever rang up. Well, it'll probably cost at least $40 a person to get drunk here, but at least getting to that point will be delicious and fun.

Here's another random question... when I first started going here, the Tang and Vodka martini was called The Buzz Aldrin. Now it's just called The Astronaut. Did Buzz Aldrin attempt to sue Steven Starr?

I was actually pretty surprised that I hadn't reviewed this place already. North Third seems to be a spillover bar... it absorbs the wake of Standard Tap being too crowded at night or Honey's being too crowded for brunch. Personally, I think I like North Third better than both of the aforementioned spots.

Waits for gasps...

North Third consistently delivers good food (the hipster approved beer selection is a given in nolibs) and an ever changing menu. The service is friendly even when it gets more crowded. Dinner is good and goes beyond standard pub fare. Also, I always notice something new in the eclectic decoration... do they change pieces of it occasionally or is it really that complex? Saturday and Sunday brunch is a relaxed affair here; there's always a table and a nice selection of breakfast and lunch food and drink. If you like chili and eggs, this is the place for you.

Last Saturday morning, I found myself taking a drive down to Newark, DE with my friend, Justin, in order to retrieve his cell phone which he left in my friend Steve's car. While we were in Delaware, we decided to try to see The Men Who Stare At Goats in one of their many (few) tax-free theaters. The closest showtime was at the Cinemark 10, so after a bit of head-scratching and iphone checking, we were on our way to the southern reaches of Wilmington. The theater was old... no stadium seats, 80s fun house colors and decoration, the stench of popcorn baked into the walls and the carpet. That said, the place was only slightly cheaper than its neighboring modern cousins. The crowd was sparse and hushed, and all shuffled to their respective theaters like detainees marching to their holding cells. The sound system choked out a workable 2 channels of audio and the film flickered and cracked with an age not expected from a week old movie, but overall the experience was pretty good. I didn't interact much with the staff, but they seemed friendly enough. It felt like the type of place I could bring in outside food without raising an eyebrow from the workers. As we left, we said "never again," but a minute later we agreed that there would probably be a circumstance where we'd be at this theater again... if it doesn't close first.

Whoa, what the hell happened to this place? I remember going a couple years ago and the food was good but overpriced. Now the food is overpriced and as mediocre as anything you'd find in a Friday's or Ruby Tuesdays. Maybe worse. If I remember correctly, the incarnation from my visit a few years ago was a vaguely French menu. The menu of today seems to be a crudely printed and confusing bar menu. It's hard to tell what this place is supposed to be. We were seated in a undecorated room on the second floor where the service was excruciatingly slow. The food was nothing special, but definitely overpriced for what it was.

The bar scene might still be alright downstairs, but I'm not risking a return visit to find out. There's plenty of other restaurants (White Dog, New Deck, Bubble House, Mad 4 Mex) that will offer a better experience for a cheaper price. Well, White Dog probably won't be cheaper.

I went to Chifa a couple weeks ago to check out the Buns and Beer special and the buns, in fact, were delicious. My only complaint about the special is that I wasn't that interested in the 4 beers. I love beer but I can drink beer anywhere-- I was at Chifa for that Jose Garces deliciousness ... or Garcliciousness.

Well, I needed more food than just buns to absorb that beer so I ordered some duck confit ceviche (I can't say no to a duck confit), scallion pancakes, and a beef and potato bowl called Lomo Saltado. The scallion pancakes were a plate of 4 or 5 tiny pancakes, very heavily fried and delicious. Speaking of fried, they also brought out some fried dough bread things which were absolutely delicious; the type of thing that you'd eat 20 of and wake up in a hospital if they kept giving them to you. Finally, I found the Lomo Saltado to be pretty interesting. It was like a beef rice bowl but with potatoes instead of rice. The beef was delicious and likewise with the potatoes. I ended up with a bowl full of remaining veggies as I found them to be a bit on the soggy side... but there was also a crapload of them and it was a fairly hefty bowl of food so no real complaints with this dish.

Oh a note about that beers: I was impressed that they had some good local beers on tap instead of trying to gouge me on a bunch of imported bottles. Nice choices.

There's definitely more stuff on the menu that I plan on returning to try!

I stopped by Taglio looking for something new, something interesting, something tasty. They offered pizza and pasta by the pound... that was the first indication that I was about to be ripped off. I ended up getting some square pizza that didn't even fill a 8" x 8" box. I got about half a box of brocolli rabe pizza and less than half a box of mushroom, olive, and some meat pizza (this was more expensive). The pizza wasn't quite deep dish, more like a french bread pizza level of thickness. This serving cost me $12.31. $12.31!! Now, I don't mind shelling out good money for good food... but it's not like this pizza was topped with foie gras or caviar. It wasn't even served to me, it was takeout. After I picked out my slices, they were tossed in the oven for a few minutes. By the time I got home (less than 10 minutes later) they were somewhere between cold and luke warm.

So... $12.31 for some barely warm pizza with some interesting toppings. As if broccoli rabe is some premium topping! C'mon! This place seems to be somehow affiliated with Gia Pronto, which I enjoy, but they've overshot the mark here. There's only so much I'm willing to pay for reheated pizza.