Stellar French Cuisine...

Bistrotte La Minette

623 South 6th Street

Philadelphia, PA 19147

bistrotlaminette.com/ 

Since August of 2013, I have been living within walking distance of Bistrotte La Minette, but I had never been there. I love good French food, and Philly’s French cuisine is top notch from what I have heard. I have not experienced enough of it, but I am working to change that. Bistrotte La Minette is one of the places I heard fell into that top notch category, so I took my fiancé there for our five year anniversary.

When we first arrived I was pretty ticked off. They sat us next to the hostess stand near the front window in a spot where there really shouldn’t even have been a table. I know restaurants want as many seats as possible, but listen to me when I say…SOMETIMES LESS IS MORE! No one likes to sit in those awkward spots where there really shouldn’t be a table. Luckily it was nice enough for us to request to sit outside. After that first hiccup, our meal was pretty flawless. Some delicious wine and drinks to celebrate, delightful food and good service on a beautiful October night. What more could we ask for?

The kitchen sent out small bites of cheese bread that were absolutely fantastic as an amuse bouche. They were like little puffs of air with a cheesy surprise inside, and were definitely a great way for us to start. My fiancé and I decided to split everything as we usually do, with our choices being the butternut squash soup, escargot, lamb shank and beef cheek bourguignon. Our appetizers followed the cheese bread, and they were up to the same amazing standard. I wouldn’t say it was the best escargot I have ever had, but it was very nicely done. The snails were very tender, and the garlic butter each was drenched in was herby and rich. I loved the tiny croutons on top of each as well. They added a bit of textural difference for the sometimes chewy snails. The butternut squash soup was out of this world. The texture of the soup was perfect. Each and every bite was creamy and rich without being too heavy. The toasted hazelnuts brought an element of char and a nice bit of crunch to the bites they were included in. I could have eaten a gallon of it!

Our main courses were just as stellar as the rest of our meal. Sometimes French sauces can get too heavy and too rich, but these were expertly prepared. Both the lamb shank and the beef cheek were fantastically tender and not overly complicated. No knives necessary! I love the red wine aspect of the bourguignon. They paired extremely well with the root vegetables they were served with to give the dish a bit of freshness and lightness. I sopped up the sauce with bread after finishing up the plates as well. 

For dessert we went very traditional with the Tarte Tatin. Hands down the best Tarte tatin I have ever had. A lot of places serve these huge chunks of apple and they don’t get as much flavor packed into them as they did here. These apple pieces were smaller and they had soaked up quite a bit of that caramelly goodness. The crust on the bottom was perfect as well. It was the perfect amount, and crunched well when bitten into. The caramel ice cream was absolute perfection. It complemented the apples very well.

Four pints for Bistrotte La Minette. Outstanding food served out of the kitchen here, and with a little help from an improvement in service, they could really be killing it. I love the atmosphere and the decoration as well. This place definitely transports you to a small French restaurant in Paris. The authenticity is unmatched. Check it out because I am sure you will love it as much as me! Cheers!

A Taste of BKK...

Circles Thai Cuisine

812 North Second Street

Philadelphia, PA 19123

http://circlesthai.com/menu-northern-liberties/ 

My fiancé and I would love to find a really amazing and authentic Thai place in Philadelphia. We have tried a few places since our trip last year, but none of them have quite measured up. We headed up to Northern Liberties to try a place we had heard about and see if it finally measured up. That place was Circles Thai Cuisine. 

I was a little worried when we got there, because we were the only people in the place at first. That changed a little while after we got there, but it always makes me a little apprehensive. The restaurant was dimly lit, making for a romantic setting. I wish I had remembered it was BYOB, but I didn’t, so we just had to endure without. The menu was pretty interesting with tons of traditional Thai dishes, and some that were definitely a bit more on the thought provoking side. We ordered the Papaya Pok Pok Salad, seitan pumpkin curry, pork pad kee mow and mango sticky rice for dessert.

The papaya salad was up first, and I thought it was a pretty tasty rendition. It was beautifully presented, and the flavor was definitely authentic. The flavors of the green papaya, tomato, carrot and peanut are all brightened up with the lime dressing and heat from the Thai chiles. It left me with that slight mouth tingle that I have come to expect from Thai cuisine. My only issue with the dish was that the papaya was that it was a little tough. I am not sure if that means it was not ripe enough or not marinated properly, but something was off with its texture. Everything else about the dish was spot on though.  

Our main courses were up next and they fared pretty well also. I was a little apprehensive about the seitan dish, but it wound up being my favorite of the two. Both were very traditional Thai flavors, well, the pumpkin I am not so sure about, but the curry base was definitely Thai. I really have come to enjoy seitan, especially the more that I have it. It really eats like meat, and it is always flavorful when cooked properly. The pork pad kee mow was intensely flavorful as well. It had some heat as all my favorite Thai dishes do and it was packed with noodles and veggies.

I really didn’t want to order mango sticky rice for dessert because I knew it was not going to taste as good as it had when we traveled to Thailand, but my fiancé is obsessed with it, so we did wind up ordering it. It was about as good as I imagine mango sticky rice can be here in the States, but it just wasn’t the same. The Thai mangoes just taste different, and they get the sticky rice the perfect creamy texture every time. Its worth ordering here at Circles though, because it was definitely the best I have had around here. 

Three pints for Circles Thai Cuisine. I think the restaurant itself has some great innovation in its menu, while still keeping true to classic Thai dishes. The flavors were great. I will definitely make a return visit because it is the best Thai I have found in Philly. Try it and let me know what you think! And if you know of anywhere better, please point me in that direction! Cheers!

Turn Around and Go...

The Turning Point

300 Route 73

Marlton, NJ 08053

www.theturningpoint.biz/ 

My aunt had heard about a new brunch place that had opened up in Marlton, so we decided to head out there as a family one Sunday morning to give it a try. Brunch is a tough thing to find in South Jersey, and especially good brunch, we were hoping it was going to be a hit. We headed over to the Turning Point to check it out. We waited a little while once we all got there, but eventually we were seated at a large circular table in the middle of the restaurant.

The first thing that was noticed by people at the table was how dirty the silverware and drinking glasses were. It was disgusting. The other problem was that it took our waiter forever to do anything. He was nonexistent, especially after we said the dishes were dirty, he brought new ones, and we told him the new ones were worse than the first ones we had. We spent a lot of time waiting for things that we asked for all afternoon.

Once the food did arrive it was less than stellar. Everything was pretty bland. I had ordered the Tuscan omelet, which came out lukewarm. The cheese has almost already resolidified. There seemed to be almost no seasoning in any dish that day. I tried a bite of a few different peoples dishes, and they all needed salt and pepper at the very least.

Half a pint for the Turning Point. It was a very lackluster brunch only made worse by the service and the cleanliness of the cutlery and glassware. They definitely need to improve a lot if they want to hang around for a while. South Jersey needs some better brunch options for sure, but this isn’t one of them. Stick with the diners! Cheers!

Service Blunders All Around...

The Palm

200 South Broad Street

Philadelphia, PA 19102

www.thepalm.com/ 

My fiancé and I went out with one of her coworkers and her boyfriend for the final night of the second week of restaurant week to the Palm for a night out. We picked the Palm because they had a nice set of options to choose from and I felt like we could really get a good deal there. The place is pretty pricey otherwise, but for $35 dollars for three courses, you couldn’t really argue with it. 

The service didn’t start out very good. It took us a while to be talked to once we were seated. We did eventually get a fairly rough waiter to come over and take our drink order while we looked over the rest of the menu. When they came back with our drinks, the badly mannered waiter continued his roughness while taking our orders. I wasn’t looking forward to continuing the meal with him as our server, but we sipped some drinks and powered through. 

First up for my fiancé and I were the golden beets carpaccio and the oysters for me. The golden beets were presented beautifully and they matched up really well with the goat cheese they were served with. They were really rich in color, but they had the same earthy taste as regular red beets. The oysters I had were pretty good, but nothing amazing. They were very small, but the horseradish sauce dolloped on top was a nice bit of bite and the lemon squeezed over top was the perfect finishing touch. 

The whole point of heading to the Palm was to get to try a place that doesn’t usually fit into our weekly budget because the meal was much cheaper than it would have been usually. For the price of one of the steaks usually, you could get the entire three course meal. I had to try the steak, so I ordered the filet mignon and my fiancé ordered the scallops. The steak and scallops both had a really nice sear on them. They were both served with great sauces as well. I really wish the steak had come with something, but it was really perfect other than that. The temperature was great, it was seasoned properly, and it was very flavorful. 

Dessert was just as good as the rest of the meal. My fiancé and I again ordered two different things, for me the Tiramisu and for her the banana cream pie. I was a little apprehensive ordering the tiramisu in a non-italian restaurant, but I didn’t need to be, because it was delicious. It wasn’t particularly boozy which I appreciated because I prefer my Tiramisu not to be. It was very creamy and delicious and it had a fantastic coffee flavor. The banana cream pie wasn't so much like any banana cream pie I had, but maybe that was a good thing. It was really delicious. The caramelized bananas on top really nailed the banana flavor, and the crust was fantastic. I just wish the crust was a bit thicker. There wasn’t enough to go with each bit of filling. 

Two and a half pints for the Palm. If it wasn’t for the service, it would have been a much better rating. It really ruined the experience for me, which was a shame because the food was really at a high level. I know you get what you pay for, but that’s why I am glad it was restaurant week because the experience wasn’t great. The food is worth going back for, the service was not. Cheers!