Restaurant Week Celebration...

Davio's

111 South 17th Street

Philadelphia, PA 19103

 https://davios.com/

My fiancé got a promotion during restaurant week, and she wound up picking Davio's from a list of places I gave her to choose from to go out to celebrate at. I was happy she did because I had been wanting to try it for a long time. There are things that I love and hate about restaurant week, but my overall philosophy is this; great restaurants can still do great things during restaurant week, and places that aren’t that great, still aren’t during restaurant week. I don’t ever think restaurant week should be an excuse for a bad meal at a restaurant. The only thing you can really say is that the menu isn’t full of its normal options. That being said, Davio's does it all right. They have some really nice choices to choose from, and dining there during restaurant week for a fraction of what it might cost outside of restaurant week, makes me feel like it really is a deal. 

The service was great from the get go, although it was so good, we almost didn’t know who was supposed to be our waiter. We had a few different servers helping us out, so the service was fantastic. They start the table off with a bread basket and some whipped flavored butter and hummus as well as some marinated olives. It was quite a tasty way to start the meal. 

For our first course, my fiancé and I decided to split the tomato bisque and the fried calamari. Both were very delicious. The fried calamari was some of the best I have had in recent memory. Perfectly crispy and fantastically seasoned, the tender calamari paired amazingly well with the pepperoncini and the aioli drizzled over it. The tomato bisque was delicious as well. It was very nicely seasoned and it had an element of richness to it. I loved the slight heat element that lingered after swallowing each bite.

For our main courses, we ordered the short ribs with risotto and the scallops served over vegetable hash. The short ribs were amazingly tender, easily cut with a fork, so no knife was necessary. The risotto underneath was a real show stopper. Still slightly al dente, the creaminess was matched only by the earthiness of the mushrooms dispersed throughout. It was a perfect pairing for the meaty short ribs. I loved the scallops because of the deep sear they had on their exterior, but the hash served with them was pretty lackluster. It was the only thing we had all night that was fairly tasteless and under seasoned. Had they served it with something else or with better execution, it would have been much better.

For dessert we did not have a tough time deciding what we wanted, since we were both eyeing up the limoncello cheesecake and the vanilla panna cotta. The limoncello cheesecake was awesome. The flavor was very prominent throughout and the graham cracker crust was the perfect flavor pairing for the sweet and tart cheesecake. The panna cotta was one of the best I have had. The texture was just right. Sometimes with panna cotta, it can get a little gummy, but this was silky smooth and the vanilla really came through entirely. The pistachios chopped up on top added a bit of texture to the dessert as well.

Three and a half pints for Davio's. Its definitely a unique concept; Northern Italian steakhouse isn’t something you see every day. The menu options are really fantastic and the service and execution are quite good. It's definitely worth a visit and I know I will be making some return visits! Cheers!