Ralic's on South
119 South Street
Philadelphia, PA 19147
Unfortunately, a while back I fell victim to something that I know happens to people all over all
of the time. I ignored my better judgement, and I visited a restaurant with my
girlfriend based solely on the good things that I had read about it on Yelp. Now
usually and even more so after this experience, I use Yelp as a tip guide to
find good dishes that people like before I go, rather than use their whole
reviews as a reference. While it can be helpful, there are certain aspects of a
meal that can skew a whole person's review, but at least from my experience,
even people that have bad reviews tend to mention great dishes that they had.
It was a Friday during Lent, and I was excited about the prospect of finding a
great seafood place so near to my girlfriend's apartment. We walked down to
Ralic's on South that evening in hopes of finding a gem.
From
the moment we walked in, I knew we might be in trouble. There was maybe six
other people eating in the restaurant, not always a tell tale sign, but it can
be. We were seated and the waiter took our order for drinks, a margarita for
me, yes I know, mistake number one, and strawberry margarita for her. When he
brought out the drinks, he took our food order: lobster bread pudding, sesame
seared tuna, and cod with green beans and roasted potatoes. After the waiter
left, we cheersed with our drinks, took a sip, and both looked at each other
with faces of disgust. The drinks were awful and when I say awful, I mean AWFUL.
Watered down, not enough booze and no flavor, these drinks were not a good way
to start off our meal.
We
rarely saw our waiter all night. I don’t really know what he was doing, because
there was no one else for him to be attending to, we were the only table he
had. He showed up again when he brought the lobster bread pudding out. It had
taken a good 25 minutes for him to bring that out, which I thought was just
crazy. It wasn’t the prettiest plate, but we dug in nonetheless. It was almost
as bad as our drinks. It was a big pile of mush, with no flavor, no seasoning,
and completely lacked texture. There was only one piece of lobster in the whole
dish, and a few kernels of corn dispersed throughout. I was ready to get up and
leave at this point, but we stayed and waited to see if the entrees redeemed
them at all.
The
dish I picked had been raved about on Yelp, so I thought maybe it would be
their saving grace. After an additional 30 minutes to get our entrees, which
were a seared rare tuna steak and a piece of cod, our entrees arrived. Again,
visually unappealing, and they did a really crappy job of slicing it. The tuna
was torn on some pieces and the pieces
were all different sizes. I tasted it and really couldn’t believe how bad it
was. First off, it didn’t even taste like tuna. Second, it was ice cold in the
middle, as if it had been defrosted and then slapped in a pan to cook it. It
wasn’t even hot on the outside. It was chewy as well, a complete and utter
failure. The celeriac root puree was gummy and had no seasoning what so ever.
The green beans were just like any other green beans out there, nothing special
about them, but probably the best part of the dish. My girlfriend's cod was
just as bad if not worse. It was undercooked, with juices running out of it,
again as if it had been cooked without being fully thawed. There was no sear to
the fish, and the texture was really gross. I think she had three bites or so
before she said enough. We eventually got to see our waiter and asked for the
check immediately, because it had been an awful night from start to finish.
No
pints for Ralic's on South. The food was horrendous, the service was abominable
and the attempts at making margaritas were laughable at best. I don’t even what
to know what dessert would have held for us. I learned my lesson, and I will do
my research better from here on out. I am usually so thorough, but this one got
me, and I apologized to my girlfriend about it. She isn’t used to me picking
bad places, but this one took the cake. Avoid it all costs! I should mention that Ralic's on South has since been rebranded into a restaurant called the Headhouse Crab and Oyster Company, and there is a new chef with tons of experience at the helm. The new reviews and reports seem to be much improved, so I look forward to trying the new concept sometime soon! Cheers!
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