Monday, September 8, 2014

Forking Delicious...



Fork
306 Market Street
Philadelphia, PA 19106

I asked my family for a gift certificate to Fork for my birthday last year. I didn’t know much about the place at the time except that it had been a powerhouse in the Philly restaurant scene, but that its fame had been fading in recent years as more and more new restaurants opened with more and more talented chefs running the kitchens. What I did know before we wound up going there for dinner was the owner had brought in Eli Kulp, a culinary star from New York, to run the kitchen. The new menu looked phenomenal, and I was interested to see what he could do.



From the moment we stepped in the door, we knew we were in for a treat. The décor is pretty neat. There is a tree in the middle of the restaurant, which I thought was awesome, and a central bar. The kitchen is open so you can see the chefs working as well. The meal started with delicious cocktails, one with bourbon, fernet branca, mint, grapefruit, peychaud’s, and another with rye, sweet vermouth, amaro maraschina and old fashioned bitters. Amazingly tasty way to start the meal. 




They next brought out their house made mini bagels with house made cream cheese. Holy crap I wish all cream cheese tasted like this! I don’t usually like cream cheese, but this I could have spread on just about anything. It wasn’t as sweet as cream cheese usually is, and the consistency was absolutely perfect; smooth and spreadable. The same could be said about the Italian bread and butter that my fiancé said “was better than most of the bread I had in Italy”. It was fantastic, with a wonderful exterior crust and incredibly soft and moist in the middle. Again, the butter was of perfect consistency and amazingly creamy. 




Fork’s portions are on the smaller side, so we asked our waitress, who was phenomenal by the way, what our strategy for ordering should be. We would up ordering the eggplant stracciatella, grilled octopus with lemon sauce, suckling pig with three hour pear, chickpea postage stamps, fig pie and brown butter tart with coffee ice cream. The eggplant stracciatella came out first and it was impressively simple. The taste was magnificent. Stracciatella is a kind of soft cheese that is made by stretching and shredding. The eggplant was pureed and spread onto a thin cracker, a delicious combination for a single bite.




The charred octopus with roasted potatoes and lemon sauce was next up. We didn’t love the lemon sauce, but the octopus itself was very tender and had a delicious char to it. The potatoes were nicely roasted as well. Our main courses took a while to be served, which we barely noticed because we were enjoying the meal so much, but our waitress bought us a round of drinks to apologize for the kitchen taking so long, so I got to enjoy the deliciousness that is a Blanche de Chambly on her recommendation!






When our mains did come out, we were floored. Impeccable execution and out of this world flavors. The chickpea postage stamps were phenomenally done. The small raviolis were made from chickpeas, and a beautiful sauce of sesame, raw artichoke and spiced lamb ragu rounded out the perfect dish. Not to be outdone, our suckling pig entrée was inventive and unique while being succulent and flavorful. Pig appeared three ways in the dish; as house made headcheese, house made liverwurst and roasted suckling pig. The liverwurst was doused with a whole grain mustard that popped with each bite, making that amazing flavor profile of liverwurst and mustard even more spectacular. The pork shoulder was very moist and tender. The fat had rendered down perfectly leaving the pork juicy as can be. The three hour pear was strange, yet delightful. It still had its perfect pear shape, but it pretty much fell apart when you bit into it, leaving a mouthful of sweet pear juice.




While we weren’t as blown away with the desserts as we were with the savory portion of the meal, they were still outstanding desserts. You can suck me in with any dish using brown butter, especially if it is in a dessert. It just adds a nuttiness and richness to the dish that really cannot be compared. The fig tart was good, but I wish the figs were a bit riper. They seemed to be a little bit hard. The tart itself was great, buttery but not greasy, sweet but not cloying. The coffee caramel and coffee ice cream were the perfect flavor pairings to go with the figs because of the bitterness to them. All coffee ice cream should taste as good as this one. Wow. You definitely got the punch of coffee in each and every bite. The brown butter cake with pears was fantastic as well. A little crumbly topping, a quick scoop of a creamy ice cream and a fresh bite of fruit make for a deadly combination.

Four and a half pints for Fork Restaurant. We were blown away by the level of cuisine and the incredible service during our meal. Eli Kulp is killing it all across the city, but Fork really is some next level stuff. I cannot wait to go back. You will not be disappointed if you check it out, but if you don’t, trust me you are missing out! Cheers!

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Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
I am a food lover living in Philadelphia.

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