Tutti Frutti

Frozen yogurt shop?

Don't care. Don't care. Don't care.

Hey, what's that? Are those cream-filled choux pastries in the back of your frozen yogurt shop, Tutti Frutti?

We care a lot!Oh, I've been avoiding the Tutti Frutti chain serving frozen yogurt ever since they opened last year on Walnut St. in Center City. Why? Not because I love frozen yogurt (I like it enough), and am afraid I'll overindulge, but because I freakin' love choux-pastries (profiteroles, eclairs, beignets, and churros to name a few), and the Japanese cream puff, a choux pastry filled with cream, is their main draw in Tutti Frutti's back-of-the store bakery.

Yep, just walk right past the wall of frozen yogurt nozzles like you just don't care.
I go gaga over choux pastries that are filled with pastry cream, and the Japanese cream puffs that Tutti Frutti serve are pretty much pudding bombs.

A la the Japanese cream puff chain, Beard Papa, Tutti Frutti serves up puffy, buttery, eggy pastries filled with various cream flavors — vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, green tea, mango, berry.Without a side-by-side taste test, I couldn't tell you who — Beard Papa or Tutti Frutti — makes a better pastry, and, since Philly doesn't have a Beard Papa, it's sort or irrelevant. Tutti Frutti wins!

Now, I'll wait another year before allowing myself within 30 feet of Tutti Frutti's back bakery.

Tutti Frutti also has other baked goods, including Famous 4th St. Cookies.

Don't Care. Don't Care. Don't Care.

Tutti Frutti
1315 Walnut St., Philadelphia, PA 19107

El Rey Happy Hour

We intended to hit up Steven Starr's Ranstead Room, the speakeasy-esque cocktail bar, immediately after work for pre-dinner drinks, but it turns out that Ranstead Room doesn't open until 7 p.m. Ranstead Room, apparently, is best for post-dinner drinks if you take your dinner early like I do.

That's cool, because we saved, like, a gazillion dollars by skipping Ranstead Room's pricey drinks when we settled for the happy hour at El Rey.

El Rey is Ranstead Room's adjoining Mexican restaurant that's been all Stephen Starr-bedazzled with colorful, kitchy paintings and posters. Yeah, Starr really lucked into the retro bones of the Midtown Diner that formerly occupied the space at 2013 Chestunut St. for this roadhouse Mexican-themed restaurant. The serpentine Formica-topped bar, and arched alcoves behind the bar could not have been improved on, and thank goodness Starr kept them.El Rey's "uno, dos, tres, quatro happy hour" runs Monday through Friday from 5 p.m to 6:30 p.m. Steak, chicken, fish, cheese, and veggie tacos are $1. Tecates are $2. Coronas are $3. House margaritas are $4.House margaritas are on par with most bars and restaurants. The salt crystals on the salted rim were unpleasantly boulder-sized.
We got a platter of fish, cheese, and veggie tacos. The fish-eater declared the fish, and the fish taco in general, bland. Much better were the cheese and veggie tacos. A rectangular slab of mild cheese was the centerpiece of the cheese taco, but the pickled vegetables added a zing. The vegetable tacos with sauteed mushrooms, pickled onion, and carrots were the most flavorful of the bunch, and, if I had to do it again, I'd order all vegetable tacos.

The tacos are pretty small — about 3 to 4-inch diameter corn tortilla shells — so these tacos are priced right at $1.

So, for the price of one drink at the Ranstead Room, you can have three or four happy hour margaritas at El Rey. Win! And, for much less than the price of an entree you can have a whole platter of tacos. Win!

As for the regular menu? I've heard some dishes are great, but others are duds. We only tried one dish from the regular menu, and came up losers.Chilaquiles is a Mexican dish that makes the best use of stale, day-old tortillas by frying them, and simmering the fried tortillas in sauce until softened. El Rey's version were still crisp and whole, more like nachos covered with salsa verde and two fried eggs. Not inedible, but these are not the soft chilaquiles I'm used to.

So . . . happy hour at El Rey is a yay! Just know that if you're getting off work and are around the corner from 20th and Chestnut.

El Rey
2013 Chestnut St., Philadelphia, PA 19103
215-563-3330

Marabella Meatball Co.

Meatball mania hits Philadelphia!

OK, maybe not mania, but there does seem to be a soft rumble in the city for the little round balls of Italian comfort food. Meatballs are making an appearance on menus around town, and Marabella Meatball Co., a quick eats restaurant specializing in meatballs, just opened up in Center City.

Marabella features beef, pork, chicken, and vegetarian meatballs that you can order in a hoagie roll, as sliders, smashed on a round roll, with pasta, or just by themselves in a bowl. Customize your order with a choice of sauce (tomato, marinara, mushroom, or Alfredo), cheese (aged Provolone, Fontina, Piave Vecchio, or Gorgonzola), and toppings (broccoli rabe, spinach, olive tapenade, sun-dried tomato, proscioutto, mortadella, Ricotta, or pesto).

If you don't feel like customizing your meal, choose one of the eight sandwich creations on the menu that Marabella has already dreamed up. A couple of salads are also on the menu.I was curious as to what Marabella's veggie meatballs would be like, suspecting they would be dense and falafel-like, but came away very pleased to see a loose ball of roughly chopped garbanzo beans and broccoli. Yes, broccoli! I just love vegetable sneak attacks.In order to try out a few of the sauces, I ordered three sliders, each with a different sauce — Alfredo, mushroom, and marinara. All of the sauces at Marabella are seasoned well, but take the safe route by skipping aggressive seasonings. You are not going to be hit over the head with garlic or pepper at Marabella.

The mushroom sauce is a base of Alfredo with mushrooms, and when both the mushroom and Alfredo sauces are paired with the veggie balls, the combination comes off as sweet, thanks to the mild sauces and sweet broccoli. For a little contrast in flavors, I'd recommend the bright and acidic marinara with the subtly sweet veggie balls.

Marabella is a great place to indulge in Italian veggie meatballs, as you won't find them at classic red gravy Italian joints in the city. Do note that the veggie meatballs are not vegan.

Marabella Meatball Co.
1211-B Walnut St., Philadelphia, PA 19107
215-238-1833
Mon-Sat: 11am-9pm

b.b.go

Can Center City sustain two fast food-style Korean restaurants within mere blocks of each other? Giwa, the hugely popular Korean joint that opened in 2006 on Sansom St., now has competition from the newly opened b.b.go on the corner of 18th and Ludlow. Or does it?

b.b.go dubbs itself as a "fusion rice bar, " and serves a limited menu of rice-based Korean dishes. Bibimbap and Dubbap are the two main offerings, with each dish having a handful of variations depending on desired ingredients — tofu, chicken, beef, pork, etc. Also on the menu are pajeon, japchae, dukbokgi, and gimbap.My main reason for visiting b.b.go was to eat gimbap, Korea's answer to sushi and an answer that I actually prefer to Japanese sushi, but have difficulty finding in Philly. b.b.go's menu lists beef or tuna gimbap, but I thought I'd ask if they had veggie gimbap. At noon, only an hour after opening and before any sort of lunch rush had started, b.b.go told me they had sold out of the two orders of veggie gimbap they had made (if I am to believe that they even made a veggie version), and, apparently, had no interest in making me any.
Unlike at Giwa where you can order bibimbap cold or in a hot stone pot, at b.b.go cold is your only option. Your choice of brown or white rice is topped with various vegetables in the case of the vegetable bibimbap or the tofu bibimbap, and a fried egg upon request.

Zuchinni, mung bean sprouts, carrots, lettuce, daikon, spinach, and silken tofu topped this bowl. With the exception of the pickled daikon, all of the vegetables were plain — but fresh! — and the tofu was unseasoned. I prefer more pickled and fermented vegetables on my bibimbap. Perhaps the heacho bibimbap with seasoned seaweeds would have suited me better.

Kochujang, a spicy pepper sauce, is squirted on top by the server only upon request, and if you want more, you'll need to get up from your table and squirt some more from the couple of kochujang bottles sitting on the ledge with the utensils and napkins.
The accompanying miso soup is mild and innocuous.The accompanying kimchee is spicy, but, as far as kimchee goes, this is mild stuff.Tofu dubbap with mushrooms, carrots, broccoli, and onions is nicely spiced (I asked for medium), but is also sweet and saucy. This is actually how I would like my cheap Chinese take-out to taste, but not my Korean food. The accompanying salad of iceberg and sliced radishes with Italian dressing was an unpleasant mystery.

b.b.go currently has an off-the-menu bento lunch deal that will get you most of the way around the small menu, and then you can decide for yourself which fast food Korean restaurant is tops — Giwa or b.b.go?

b.b.go
20 S. 18th St., Philadelphia, PA 19103
215-569-8600
Mon-Fri: 11am-9pm
Sat: noon-8pm
Sun: closed

Philadelphia Chutney Company

Ever since the announcement at the beginning of the year that Philadelphia Chutney Company would open in Center City, I have patiently been anticipating the arrival of a casual place to get my dosa fix in Philly, a city strangely lacking in Southern Indian cuisine. Besides the linen-topped dining at the fabulous Palace at the Ben, which only serves dosas during their Southern Indian Sunday brunch, I'm not aware of another place in the heart of the city to grab a dosa.Philadelphia Chutney Company is a bright, small, fast-food style restaurant smack in the middle of Center City, that conveniently does take-out for workers that need a fast meal. Delivery up to 10 blocks will also be available soon.For those unfamiliar with a dosa, it's a large, round crepe made from a fermented rice and lentil batter, with ultra-crispy edges and a soft center folded around various fillings. Dosas are usually just shy of 2 feet long, and can be a meal in themselves.

If you care for a thicker bread around your fillings, order a uttapa, which is simply the same batter used for a dosa, but made thicker and not as large.

The Philadelphia Chutney Company has 15 dosas/uttapas to choose from. The sada dosa, a plain crepe with no fillings; and the masala dosa, a crepe filled with a spiced potato filling are the only two traditional dosas you'll find on the menu. All of the other dosas are a fusion of Indian and Western flavors for those who prefer more familiar flavors and tamer heat levels. Fusion dosas have fillings like arugula, avocado, roasted tomatoes, balsamic roasted onions, goat cheese, Jack cheese, and veggie chicken.

Everything on the menu is vegetarian. Veggie chicken and veggie tuna can be found sprinkled throughout the menu of dosas, uttapas, and wraps.Philadelphia Chutney Company's dosas are delightfully thin and crispy, but, with any dosa, are best eaten immediately before losing it's crisp. The masala dosa filled with potatoes spiced with turmeric, curry leaf, and mustard seed is right on.The curry chutney veggie chicken dosa with slightly wilted spinach, and sweet balsamic roasted onions flirts only lightly with Indian flavors. There is enough spinach to make one feel healthy, and the veggie chicken is sparse enough to not weigh one down. While I adore traditional dosa fillings, I can get behind the fusion.
Cilantro, curry, mango, tomato, or coconut chutneys come with the dosas, but be sure to pipe up your preference, as the coconut chutney or cilantro chutney seem to come standard.
At $2.50 for an order of two, the samosas might be the best deal on the fairly priced menu which tops out at only $8. About the size of a large man's palm and packed full of spicy mashed potato filling, an order of crispy, fried samosas with sweet tamarind chutney will leave you full all day.If you like spice, be sure to order the gobi Manchurian appetizer, an Indo-Chinese cauliflower snack surrounded by a thick, fried batter and smothered in a spicy, faintly sweet, Indian tomato sauce. It's like Chinese sweet and sour pork but with a vegetable and Indian twist. By far, the favorite dish of my visit. (If I were a dosa newcomer, I would have said Masala dosa was my favorite.)The hot masala chai was weakly spiced. Sugar comes on the side, and can be added as you see fit.

It was well worth the long wait for The Philadelphia Chutney Company; they did not disappoint. My only wish is for my favorite dosa, the traditional and very spicy, ginger-spiked Mysore masala dosa, to make an appearance on the menu. Maybe as a chef's special?

Philadelphia Chutney Company
1628 Sansom St., Philadelphia, PA 19103
215-564-6446
Mon-Thurs: 11:30am-9pm
Fri-Sat: 11:30am-late
Sun: closed

Village Whiskey

If there's a blockbuster movie, you can bet that I'll wait the 9-12 months for it to come out on DVD, and then wait another year or two before I watch it...if even at all. Similarly, with great patience and disinterest is about how I approach much-talked-about restaurant openings. I'm in no hurry to be seen, or be in the know.

And so, I waited for a good while to visit Jose Garces' whiskey emporium, Village Whiskey. In fact, I never even planned on visiting Village Whiskey until I saw that the neighboring restaurant I intended to dine at did not have outdoor seating, and, well, it was such a lovely evening, so decided to take up residence at one of Village Whiskey's outdoor tables.
Village Whiskey showcases over 100 bourbon, rye, Irish, blended, and Scotch whiskeys, but don't miss the wines, beers, and delicious sounding cocktails also on the menu. With most drinks costing more than the food, we went the economical route and ordered a bottle of Village Sangaree for $28. One of the better sangrias I've tasted recently, this mix of whiskey (of course!), orange curacao, red wine, Fees Barrel Aged, Fees Orange, sugar, and lemon juice poured out 6-7 healthy wine glass servings, making the Village Sangaree one of the wisest drink choices.

Vegetarians will find most of their choices on the small menu under the bar snacks column: tater tots, deviled eggs, soft pretzels, and cheese puffs. If there is a deviled egg on a menu I will order it. Village Whiskey's deviled eggs are filled with a creamy, salty (but not too salty), pickle-studded filling. Perfect and familiar. Nothing avant garde, just classic.Also, be sure to check out the assortment of pickled vegetables, each individually served in a hinged canning jar accompanied by black olive tapenade, whipped ricotta, and toasted sourdough. A steal at $4, the cherry tomato pickles were both sweet and tart without being overwhelmingly so. Perfection, really. Thanks to Meal Ticket and the recipe for Village Whiskey's pickled tomatoes they posted, you can recreate them at home this summer. I've heard many complaints about Village Whiskey's duck fat fries being limp, but our fries fried in vegetable oil (not on the menu; you have to ask) were perfectly crispy. Maybe skip the duck fat indulgence next time, guys. I'd also skip the Sly Fox Cheddar cheese sauce; it was so mild and flavorless that the flavor of the potatoes outshined the sauce. The cheese sauce was ignored in favor of plain ol' ketchup.
Garces' 8-ounce beef Village Burger tops most Philly burger connoisseurs' list of best burger in Philly, but how does Garces' veggie burger stack up? Well, the crunch and tang of the bright pink pickled cabbage was not enough contrast to the mushy black bean burger, creamy guacamole and soft sesame seeded bun. The veggie burger was tasty enough and a pretty bean patty, but it does not live up the the Garces legend. Stick to the starters, my veg friends.

With the exception of the $26 famed foie gras-topped Whiskey King burger and the $28 Lobster roll, the food prices at Village Whiskey are quite reasonable. What is not reasonable are the drink prices, especially the straight whiskey drinks, which will put you back anywhere from $6-$70, with most parked somewhere right in the middle.

If I had to do it again, I'd do it all much the same — cheap and delicious bar snacks with an economical bottle of cool sangria.

Village Whiskey
118 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, PA 19103
215-665-1088
Mon-Thurs: 11:30am-12am
Mon-Thurs: 11:30am-1am
Sun: 5pm-12am

Fish

This review of Fish will be about as useful to fish eaters as mainstream restaurant reviews are to me. Not very.

Fish is the bigger (but still small) and newer sister to Mike Stollenwerk's tiny (and currently closed due to building structure problems) Little Fish, a restaurant that got the whole town talking about Stollenwerk's simple but spectacular fish dishes. Bigwigs also took notice, as he's cooking up a meal this August at the James Beard House in New York, no less.

If you don't eat fish, like I do, you probably have no business eating at Fish, a restaurant with almost nothing but fish on the menu. But what if you have a loved one that adores Little Fish, never gets to eat there (because a certain someone doesn't eat fish), and has a birthday? You suck it up, and take them to Fish, the next best thing to Little Fish — and currently the only option if you want Stollenwerk's work.Complementary bread is dolled out by the piece from the waitstaff on an as-needed basis, and is accompanied by a tangy goat milk butter.

As a vegetarian, I could eat four things from the menu: a salad, and three of the four sides. I've seen worse at restaurants that were significantly lesser in quality, so I can't complain. And I'm not. I know where I was.

Even a simple salad of arugula, Feta and tomatoes dressed in a vinaigrette gets attention — each grape and cherry tomato half was of a different variety, making each mouthful interesting.For my main, I ordered the spaeztle side. The crispy, pan fried German egg noodles were perfectly salted and seasoned, and topped with musty slivers of white truffle. Not skimpy, but not large — it's a side, after all — the spaeztle left me with enough room for dessert.The bacon ice cream sounded fabulous, but I went with the thick, ganach-like chocolate tort with pretzel crust and salted caramel ice cream. After the sweet and only slightly salty ice cream was no longer around to balance the overwhelmingly rich tort, I put my fork down and called it an evening.

Even though I couldn't eat the main attraction at Fish, I could tell that everything was cooked and prepared with care and skill.

Each of the six varieties of oysters available were ordered by my partner, as well as some fish dish. He loved it all. Asked to compare Fish to Little Fish, he said they both were equally good, but Fish seemed more refined, and he preferred the more relaxed dishes of Little Fish. So there's that, if that is more helpful to fish eaters than my review

Fish
1708 Lombard St., Philadelphia, PA 19146
215-545-9600
Mon-Sun, 5pm-close

Devil's Alley

I never considered stepping foot into Devil's Alley until Burger Club Philly held a meeting there. Don't know why, but it just looked like a college douche bar. I still can't tell you who frequents Devil's Alley, as I haven't been back since Burger Club and we were sequestered in the back part of the upstairs, but I will say that the two-story restaurant and bar in Center City didn't seem nearly as douchey as my imagination made it out to be. The downstairs dining area looked kinda classy, actually.

Before Burger Club, I sidled up to the upstairs bar alongside a handful of downtown suits for a happy hour sangria that was sweet with a low class maraschino cherry as the fruit and not nearly as alcoholic as I'd like.

I switched things up and went with one of their many interesting sounding specialty cocktails. Above is the Zypher with Hendricks gin, muddled cucumber and jalapeno. The drink had just enough spice to be interesting, but I played bartender by dumping two sugar packets in the drink to take the bitter edge off. Better!
A side of grilled sweet potatoes are just that. Piping hot would have been nice, instead lukewarm going on cold.
Everyone knows that I'm not the kindest to restaurant-style mac and cheese, especially with weird toppings like the sweet tomato jam (tastes like really sweet ketchup) that Devil's Alley uses to top their mac and cheese, but I somehow didn't mind the small portion of bland and creamy noodles. Order the large portion, and I might complain a little louder about wanting sharper, more pungent cheese and no weird toppings.
Devil's Alley makes their own veggie patty with a blend of grilled vegetables held together with Goldfish Cracker crumbs. Spicy with lots of flavor, the not overly-mushy nor too-thick patty with crispy edges is definitely on par with, if not better than most in-house made veggie burger patties. What won me was the sweet and savory red onion marmalade — more like a confit — on top of the burger. Big flavor! The lettuce leaf and pale tomato (it was February, so they get a pass on the tomato) were skipped. The bun was mysteriously crunchy at the edges, like it was left to toast a little too long, although other diners did not have such bun issues.

In eating my way through more than a few veggie burgers in Philly, I'm finding that locking down a good veggie burger, much less one that trumps all, is difficult. Unlike meat burgers, there are a wide range of ingredients used in veggie patties, varying textures, and flavors that cover the entire spice rack. Ultimately, veggie burgers are highly subjective. I subjectively liked Devil Alley's burger. Who'd a thunk it?

Devil's Alley
1907 Chestnut St., Philadelphia, PA 19103
215-751-0707
Mon-Fri: 11am-close
Sat & Sun: 4pm-close
Sat & Sun Brunch: 10am-3pm

Mi Lah

I feel like a really bad vegetarian for not patronizing Mi Lah, an all vegan restaurant in Center City that opened October 2008, sooner than now, but, you know, Philly has lots of great eats to tick off my list. What's a girl to do? Complimentary bread and herbed butter started us out.
Then we received a huge plate of fried coconut crusted King mushrooms garnished with lime and cilantro. We really enjoyed the sweet coconut crust and meaty mushroom starter. This dish would be perfectly suited as a fried bar food, and we were wishing for a special dipping sauce. We behaved and ate the appetizer with a fork, since we weren't at a bar.
Going with the server's suggestion of their favorite dishes, we ordered the cauliflower au poivre with fried sweet potatoes, and spinach salad in cream sauce. This dish is a whimsical take on steak, fries, and salad, with the cauliflower slab being the steak, the fried sweet potatoes being the fries, and the spinach, obviously, the salad.

A longer roasting, or maybe a dunk in the fryer, would have taken some of the rawness and crunch from the cauliflower and imparted a sweeter caramelized flavor. The fat sweet potato fries are not visible, but are underneath the pile of spinach with sweet, creamy dressing. Perhaps due to the thickness of the fries, or the soaking in dressing, the sweet potatoes were not as crunchy as they could have been. This dish, unfortunately, is a victim of poor plating. By simply not piling all the components of the dish atop each other, Mi Lah could have maybe avoided soggy sweet potatoes, and even added a little color from the orange sweet potato fries to the presentation.
Pistachio gratin with roasted butternut squash and brussels sprouts in a lemon beurre blanc was comforting and warm, with the vegetables being cooked to the perfect tenderness and the peppery sauce plate-licking good. Little crunchy bits of pistachio added a nice textural contrast to the layers of potatoes.
Who here loves Pepperige Farm 3-Layer Cakes? I do! (Even if that Cake Fart girl did ruin my associations with the dessert. Yeah, go back and check the video. That's a Pepperidge Farm 3-Layer Cake.) Mi Lah's vegan chocolate cake with chocolate ganache frosting tastes like a vegan version of Pepperidge Farm cakes, so while it tastes kind of boxed, I absolutely loved it. The chocolate sauce was a little thin, though.

Mi Lah frequently gets compared to Philly's other fine dining, and highly lauded, all-vegan restaurant, Horizons, but I'm not ready to compare the two. My meal at Mi Lah was good enough to return and sample some more, especially since my partner has had two positive experiences at Mi Lah during lunch.

The dinner entree prices were a buck or two higher than I felt they should have been, but the fact that Mi Lah is BYOB more than evens out the bill. Next time, I will probably return to Mi Lah for the cheaper lunch menu featuring sandwiches and flat breads not available on the dinner menu.

And, if you're a fan of the huge weekend brunch, Mi Lah has a $20 prix fixe Sunday brunch that includes a cup of tea or coffee, a plate of fruit with muffins and scones, a pitcher of one of their fruit juices or mimosa mix (remember to bring your own champagne), plus a choice of a brunch main from the menu. Sounds like a lot of food (and a bargain) to me!

And, try to get get seated upstairs, if you can. While similarly decorated as the downstairs, the upstairs dining room is larger and airier with a more pleasant feeling.

Mi Lah
218 S. 16th St., Philadelphia, PA 19102
215-732-8888
Lunch: Mon-Sat, 11am-3pm
Dinner: Mon-Sat, 5pm-10pm
Brunch: Sun, 11am-3pm
BYOB

Continental Midtown

I'm pulling this visit to Stephen Starr's Continental Midtown location from the way back file...because it was warm outside at the time when we ate on Continental's roof deck. Ahh, warmth and sunshine.

Continental Midtown is Stephen Starr's global tapas and martini lounge themed restaurant with olive shaped light fixture, car seat inspired booths (looking a little worn these days) on the first floor, swinging seats on the second floor, and a free standing fireplace on the roof deck. Trendy or cheesy? It's your pick.

This only makes my second visit to Continental, and I believe the first visit a few years ago was under a similar situation - need a place to kill some time and grab a snack before heading elsewhere. And I'm almost certain that I ordered the exact same thing. This is what happens when menus never change (a bad thing if you like variety, or a good thing if you have a favorite), your diet limits your choices, and kitchens are not flexible.

The mixed drink come with a shaker of extra drink, but since the glasses and shakers are so small, it's really like you're getting one average to large drink instead of what looks like two drinks.I wanted to order the summer rolls without the meat, but the kitchen could not or would not make the rolls to order (an inflexibility at about half of the restaurants I visit that serve summer rolls, which I don't understand, because they're the simplest, fastest things to make), so I ordered the tofu-chive dumplings. The chili oil and sweet soy sauce covering the plate and the four garlic and tofu-filled dumplings packs enough kick to make my taste buds happy, and makes a nice small snack.I shared the massive bird's nest-like pile of shoestring french fries with another, and while it sure does look large, these skinny fries with a side of Chinese mustard sauce leave you wondering if you even ate a plate of fries. I would love to know how many potatoes actually are used to make a plate of Continental fries. One? Two? Besides not being filling (if shared), these are the most awkward things to eat. They don't stay on a fork easily, they're hard to grab with your hands, and since you grab or stab a mini jumble instead of one long fry, getting them in your mouth is a bit of a challenge. Basically, it's very hard to eat these using good table manners.

If you want to fill up for a bargain, though, order a salad. They're huge.

I was a little disappointed that the roof deck view out to the city was obscured by walls and plants, and that only half of the roof deck was was truly open air, but I guess when the weather is inclement you'd be glad that half of the roof deck is under a roof. The best of both, I guess.

You can file Continental under another Stephen Starr establishment that serves perfectly fine food, but really doesn't do anything for me. I think Starr is really good at creating restaurants with themes that excite, but food that only just pleases. And there's nothing wrong with that.

Continental Midtown
1801 Chestnut St., Philadelphia, PA, 19103
215-567-1800