210 Washington Square West
Philadelphia, PA 19106
One of the most phenomenal restaurant experiences I have had in some time happened just a few months ago. My girlfriend and I had been dying to try Aimee Oxley and Stephen Starr’s Talula’s Garden since it opened earlier last year. Reviews had been rave, and I was excited to try it, even though sometimes I get weary of places with such rave reviews because I think that they aren’t going to live up to the hype. That was not the case with Talula’s Garden. My girlfriend and I went with her friend and her boyfriend, and we waited at the bar while we waited for our reservation. We wound up being seated about 40 minutes after we had a reservation for, but the restaurant gave us a complementary cheese plate to make up for it. Though it was a bit smaller than their normal cheese plates, I was still very impressed that they did that.
Our cheese plate came with a goat’s milk gouda, a sheep’s milk cheese with cracked black pepper, and a really tasty cheddar.All three of them were really delicious and a wonderful way to start our meal.
Our waitress was pretty good, but it was pretty clear that she had not actually eaten any of the food she was recommending to us. Luckily for us it worked out because everything was delicious, but I still would rather her have told me she had heard these things were good even though she had not tried them herself. We ordered two appetizers to share between the four of us; the golden potato gnocchi with buffalo milk tallagio, and charred brussel sprouts, and the crispy sweet breads, pickled peppers, mustard and sweet onion sauce.
My one complaint about the dishes would be that they were a bit small, and our waitress didn’t warn us about that. However, the taste and flavors that we encountered in both of them were unbelievable. The gnocchi were pan sautéed, but they weren’t as pillowy and light as Italian gnocchi usually are, but they were super tender and tasty nonetheless. They paired really well with the charred brussel sprouts which I had never had before. They were surprisingly strong in flavor, but that flavor was actually mirrored nicely by the buffalo milk tallagio. It was a creamy reduced cheese sauce that had tons of flavor. The sweet breads were in another world. I didn’t know if I was going to like them because they are organs, but they were actually really tasty. They were super crunchy grabbing a bite full of pickled peppers and smearing it with mustard really made the entire bite mesmerizing.
I had ordered the roasted leg of lamb with honey braised squash, braised kale, and a Nicosia olive vinaigrette for my main course, but I had the pleasure of tasting a bit of everyones and I have to say that the main courses were much better sized, and the flavors were incredible in each. The scallops were perfectly seared, the beef tenderloin was melt in my mouth tender, and the duck breast was tender, juicy, and magnificent. My lamb leg was absolutely fantastic. The lamb was perfectly medium rare and the seasoning was right on. The accompaniments were really a star too. The squash was fresh and light, yet sweet from the honey. I think I like the braised kale a bit better though. It was really tender and had a pleasant greens flavor without being too bitter. We had also ordered a bowl of the buttermilk smashed potatoes with chive. They were wonderfully rich, but they still had a nice freshness and lightness to the them because of the chives.
We were all pretty full, but we decided to order the cookie plate and share it between the four of us. The cookie plate came with a carrot cake cookie, a chocolate caramel salt bars, an almond boterkoek, and a chocolate nut candy cake cookie. All four were wonderful! The carrot cake cookie was really interesting, even though I thought it tasted a bit more like an oatmeal cookie than carrot cake. I really liked the chocolate nut candy cake cookie because it reminded me of a candy cake from tastycake. The best one in my opinion was the chocolate caramel salt bars because they were so ridiculously rich. Because we all shared them it wasn’t too much, but each bite was sweet and rich beyond my wildest dreams.
I wouldn’t hesitate to go back to Talula’s Garden for a second. Even though the meal was pretty much free because we had a gift card, I think that the amount I would have paid would be well worth it in the future. The food was phenomenal, period. Simple yet fresh ingredients wins every time over even the wildest and crazy culinary ideas out there. Go out and try Talula’s Garden as soon as you can and thank me later! Cheers!
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