One Tequila, Two Tequila, Three Tequila...Floor!

Tequilas

1602 Locust Street

Philadelphia, PA 19103

www.tequilasphilly.com/ 

One of the places that I chose for my girlfriend and I to eat at one Friday night was a Mexican restaurant called Tequilas. They are known for their selection of tequilas (a bit obvious I know), but they are also known for their authentic Mexican fare that has quietly kept the place packed for many years. It was surprisingly large inside, and we were taken to a table near the back to dine.

The tables were a bit close together, but that seems to be the case in many dining establishments in Center City. We both ordered drinks, and we pored over the menu trying to decide what deliciousness to partake in. I enjoyed the Alma Blanca, a habanero infused tequila based drink, made with pineapple juice, ginger liqueur, and lemon juice. It was really tasty, but I didn’t get a whole lot of the habanero. It was faintly there, but I was looking for a bit more of a kick.

My girlfriend had quite a laugh with the waiter once she spoke Spanish to him. He was quite the character. We delved into the house made tortilla chips and the pico de gayo, tamarind dipping sauce, and pickled jalapenos while we sipped our drinks. The salsa and dipping sauce were really fresh and delicious. I always love homemade tortilla chips, and these were especially nice, with a real prominence of corn flavor.

We had ordered a Veracruz style ceviche to share as well as an order of empanadas with beef and cheese. The ceviche had a really nice bite to it from the pickled onions and Serrano peppers. It was fresh and light, almost palate cleansing from all the acidity. The fish and shrimp were tender and just cooked enough to remain fall apart tender in each and every bite. The empanadas were a bit strange. They weren’t the traditional style of empanadas I have experienced in my life. They weren’t fried at all. They were more of roll ups than empanadas. The fact that they were a bit strange in shape and form didn’t take away from their taste. The meat and cheese combined nicely with the dough for a tasty little morsel of an appetizer.

I had ordered a spicy pork dish for my main course that I am not really the sure what the name was. It was basically pork medallions cooked in a rich, thick, and spicy sauce. The taste was phenomenal, but the pork was a bit overdone for me. It’s a shame that it was, because the entire dish other than that was outstanding. The plantains were super caramelized and sweet. The refried black beans were really creamy and delicious and when mixed together with the rice, the perfect combination was complete. 

For dessert my girlfriend and I had a cake that was half flan, half chocolate cake. It was really interesting. I like chocolate cake, and I like flan, so one would assume I would like the two combined, and I did. But there was something about it that threw me for a loop and I couldn’t figure out what it was. It was delicious; creamy and rich, but I think the texture was a little funny for me, like there was air bubbles in the middle of it or something.

All in all, Tequilas was a pretty delicious meal. There were a few missteps, but they were pretty minor. The service was great, the food was delicious, and the ambiance was pretty cool. I will definitely be returning at some point, and I think you should go try it too and let me know what you think! Cheers!

Winter Restaurant Week #2...Italian!

Spasso’s Italian Grill

34 South Front Street

Philadelphia, PA 19106

www.spassoitaliangrill.com/ 

My sister and her family moved back home a few months ago, so I invited her and her husband out with my girlfriend and I for restaurant week as a welcome home present. We had plans to go to Spasso’s Italian Grill in Olde City, so we met at the eighth and market train stop and walked down to the restaurant together. 

When we arrived we were seated right away. The restaurant is pretty cozy inside, and based on first look, the dining room seemed pretty small. However after walking to the bathroom, I realized there were three other smaller dining rooms like the room we were in and a bar. The place is huge! The restaurant week deal that they had going on was four courses for $35. You got the choice of an appetizer, penne pomodoro, a choice of an entrée and a dessert. We all started out with beers, and our waiter took our orders and brought us out some bread and an eggplant dip a lot like a baba ghanoush. We devoured the bread and dip because they were fantastic and waited for the rest of our meal.

I had ordered the arancini, which is a deep fried risotto ball, and my girlfriend had ordered the calamari. It was the first time I had delved into the awesomeness that is an arancini, and I have to say that I will be doing so every time that I see it on the menu from now on. I haven’t seen it on many menus, but it was so unbelievably good, that I will be eating it every chance I get. The crispy breading was only made better by the creamy and cheesy ball of rice inside. The calamari was pretty good as well. It had a really thin breading on it, and it was pretty crispy. I would have liked it a bit crispier, but overall it was very good.

The penne pomodoro was the mandatory course, and it was pretty good, but it didn’t really wow me. It was good pasta, and the sauce had some nice flavor, but it didn’t really do anything spectacular for me. It was however cooked perfectly al dente, so that was really nice.

Our entrees just continued to impress me. All of the pastas that came out were clearly handmade. I had ordered the crab ravioli with a pesto cream sauce, and my girlfriend had ordered the gnocchi Gorgonzola. Both dishes were absolutely phenomenal. My raviolis were huge, and the crab stuffing was wonderful. The pesto cream sauce paired amazingly well with the crab, and I was completely stuffed by the time I ate them all. The gnocchi Gorgonzola was delicious as well. It was some of the lightest gnocchi I have ever had, and the cheesy cream sauce was the perfect complement to it.

I think the best thing I had all night was the dessert I ordered, which was the cannoli. It was easily the best cannoli I have ever had, and I would honestly eat it every chance I got if I had it available to me more often. The cannoli cream was a little grainy, but totally in a good way. It was so amazing, and I savored each and every bite. Everyone that tasted it agreed that it was to die for.

I would love to take many more people out to Spasso’s. I had a great time there. The food was phenomenal, the price point was great, and the atmosphere was fantastic. Give it a try and I am sure you will love it! Cheers!

Noodle Bliss...

P.F. Chang’s

500 Route 73 South

Marlton, NJ 08053

www.pfchangs.com/ 

A couple months ago I was out at a client for a few days with someone I work for in Marlton, and he left the choice of a lunch place up to me for the day. I hadn’t had Chinese in a while, so I suggested P.F. Chang’s in the Promenade shopping center, and he agreed. 

It had been some time since I had been to a P.F. Chang’s and I had never been to this particular one, so I was pretty excited about it. As I browsed over the menu, I came across a dish that I was familiar with, but that I had not noticed on the menu before. It might have been there, but I hadn’t experienced the amazingness that is Dan Dan noodles since I went to Han Dynasty. I had to order them, so I did, and waited with great anticipation to find out how good they were.

I was pretty hungry by the time the noodles came out, and I was very impressed with how delicious they were. While not as good as the ones that I had in Philly, they were pretty darn tasty. These ones were a bit different because they had more meat on top and they were served with julienned cucumbers mixed in as well. I really enjoyed the addition of the cucumbers because it added freshness and an element of texture that really complimented the dish nicely. I ate every last noodle, cucumber and piece of chicken in the bowl and I was completely satisfied afterwards.

I really enjoyed my visit to P.F. Chang’s, and I will definitely be going back again sometime soon to get myself some more Dan Dan Noodles. You would be wise to do the same! Cheers!

I Would Have Rather Gambled Away My Money...

The Coffee Shop @ the ACH

Boston Ave and the Boardwalk

Atlantic City, NJ

http://www.atlanticclubcasino.com/dining 

My family and extended family all headed down to the ACH hotel in Atlantic City for my cousin and cousin-in-law’s birthdays. We stayed over on a Saturday night and we woke up around 10am for breakfast before we checked out and headed back home. There are a few different restaurants in the hotel to choose from. We decided to eat at the Coffee Shop. I wish we had chosen some place different after eating there, but we will get to that in a minute.

From the moment we sat down at our table, the service was complete crap. They had one woman serving in the dining room that we were sitting in, so it took way too long to take our order as well as way too long to get our food. I ordered a ham and cheese omelet with rye toast and hash browns. No one really ordered anything that should have taken very long to make, but it took forever to come out, and by the time it did, the food was lukewarm as if it had been sitting under the heat lamp for a long time. 

I can imagine the omelet would have been good had it been hot, but the cheese had started to re-solidify in the omelet, and the eggs and ham were downright cold. The hash browns weren’t very good either. They were cold and they weren’t even crispy on the outside. The only thing I really enjoyed was the rye bread. 

I would recommend eating at a different restaurant for breakfast if you stay over at the ACH in Atlantic City. The service will most likely be better, and the food will definitely be better. Avoid the Coffee Shop if you can help it. Cheers!

Winter Restaurant Week #1...Steak!

Del Frisco’s Double Eagle Steak House

1426 Chestnut Street

Philadelphia, PA 19102

http://delfriscos.com/.php 

I made the decision last time restaurant week came around that I wanted to start trying a steakhouse that I probably wouldn’t be able to afford otherwise during one of the two weeks that it is offered in the winter and the fall. This time around my girlfriend and I decided to try Del Frisco’s Double Eagle Steak House for the first week of restaurant week. It was a place that I had heard a lot about from my friend’s parents, so I was really looking forward to a really nice evening.

We arrived quite a bit early and we were planning on going to the bar just to have a few drinks, but they were very accommodating and sat us early. They took our coats and then walked us through the restaurant and up the stairs in the back so that we could be seated upstairs on the second floor. The restaurant is decorated tremendously well, and I enjoyed the entire look of the place. The music was a little odd and didn’t seem to match the vibe that they were going for. We then decided on our meal from the restaurant week menu; the baby greens salad with julienned apple and citrus vinaigrette, the chicken noodle soup, the 8 oz filet with château potatoes, the filet medallions with peppercorn sauce and château potatoes, a side of tricolor cauliflower with truffle oil, the chocolate mousse, and the bread pudding with Jack Daniel’s sauce.

The salad was a really nice start to the meal. The combination of the apple and the citrus vinaigrette were a really nice and clean start to the meal. The candied walnuts added another element of texture that rounded out the feel of the salad perfectly. However, we were a little perplexed by the choice to serve chicken noodle soup at a steakhouse. It didn’t seem to jive with the menu at all. It was good, but how can you really mess up chicken noodle soup? You can’t really do much to make it special either, so to us it was just a mistake on their part. 

That being said, they more than made up for it when the entrees came out. The steaks were incredibly delicious! Mine had a nice crust on the outside, was seasoned nicely, and was super, duper tender. The filet medallions my girlfriend ordered were super tender as well, and the peppercorn sauce that they were served with was a wonderful addition. Both of them were served with château potatoes, which I had never heard of. They were peppery, creamy, and some of the best potatoes I have ever had in my life. I had never had château potatoes before, but I know that I will be ordering them again if I get the chance. We split an order of tricolor cauliflower with truffle oil. You could really smell the fragrance of the truffle oil when it came out, and I enjoyed the cauliflower quite a bit. 

I was really surprised by the dessert course. I was only really looking forward to the bread pudding because I am not a huge fan of chocolate mousse and neither is my girlfriend, but I thought it was absolutely fantastic. It was by far the best chocolate mousse I have ever had, and I wish more places made it like that. It was thicker than usual, and the texture was absolutely mind blowing. The bread pudding was good, but they ruined it in my opinion when they put raisins in it. I like raisins, but I hate them when they are in desserts, kind of like how I like tomatoes, but hate them on sandwiches. I don’t know if it’s a texture thing or what, but the bread pudding would have been better without them.

Del Frisco's was a definite hit for us during restaurant week. I would love to go back and order off the regular menu, but I am not sure when that might be. The food was fantastic, and I think you all will really enjoy it. Give it a try! Cheers!