Monk's Cafe, Philly

Monk's Cafe is one of our favorite places to grab a beer in Philly. It has a cool vibe and a great selection of beer. We're there at least once every time we go to Philly. Oddly enough, we've never tried the food until now.

After having a few, I needed to pad my stomach with something solid and ordered their super hot wings and an order of their "award-winning" pommes frites. The bartender warned us about the wings and we assured her that the more heat the better.

They weren't kidding, the wings were hot! It was made with some sort of chipotle-based sauce. Good heat, but it was missing something. I couldn't put my finger on it. Although I guess they were trying to be different with their wings, I would much prefer the traditional buffalo wing cranked up with lotsa heat.


Another thing with the wing is that the drumette and the wing were attached. Just try to picture the mess that was made trying to separate the sauce drenched wings with your hands. It wasn't pretty.

And another reason these wings gets a thumbs down is the mushiness of it. Almost as if the wings were steamed and nothing was done to crisp them up a bit.

On a more positive note, we enjoyed pommes frites. The fries like the wings were mushy, but at least the flavor of the fries and dip were really tasty.

Carmen's Famous Italian Hoagies, Philly

Jason and I walked around the Reading Terminal Market trying to figure out where we wanted to stop for lunch. After a few rounds, we plopped ourselves down at DiNic's. I saw hoagies being passed to customers sitting at the counter and my salivary glands didn't react to any of it. It brought back memories of the last time we had DiNic's. The famed roast pork wasn't anything extraordinary. If I recalled correctly, it was actually a bit dry. Plus, I was in the mood to have a couple of sides with my sandwich and I didn't spot any on their menu. So we apologized to the waitress and walked off.

We finally agreed on Carmen's Famous Italian Hoagies. We claimed our stools and ordered the meatball hoagie and a reuben hoagie with sides of broccoli rabe and coleslaw. When these were placed in front of me, my salivary glands started working overtime. These hoagies were darn good. Some of the best I've had in awhile.

Sunday Brunch at the Fountain Restaurant, Philadelphia

After reading many rave reviews, Jason made reservations for brunch at the Fountain Restaurant inside the Four Seasons Hotel in Philadelphia.

The way it works there is you start off with a buffet of soup, salads and appetizers, then you order your entree from the menu and finish off with a buffet of desserts. The waitress also informed us that we have the option of just doing the buffet if we wanted to. But I figured since we were there, why not go for the whole shabang?

My first course went a little something like this.. A selection of caviar, smoked salmon, a thai crab summer roll, a spicy tuna roll, a tempura roll, and a wild mushroom risotto croquette with a tarragon dip.


I went back for another plate and this time I had some shrimp cocktail, a different smoked salmon, hamachi ceviche, tuna tartar, deviled egg with spicy bacon, marinated calamari with citrus segments, truffled sea scallop and late harvest corn roulade, and penne pasta salad.


The buffet set up wasn't huge, but there was a lot of variety. There was someone there constantly replenishing things if it was running low. I went back for a third plate which I didn't take a picture of. But even after that third plate, there were still things on the buffet I haven't touched.

We were on the brink of being full when we ordered our entrees. We both decided to order things that seemed a little lighter and I decided on the crabcake with tomato ravioli, while Jason ordered the cheese omelet with shrimp and asparagus.

The crabcake was one of the best I've had. It made me think back to Pittsburgh 10 years ago where I had one of the best crabcakes ever. I like mine with a lot of lumpy crabmeat with minimal to no breading. The one at the Fountain Restaurant met that criteria. So fresh and perfectly cooked. The tomato ravioli that topped the crab was a delight as well. The pasta dough was perfectly al dente and the tomato soft and tender as if it could just melt in your mouth. The sweet corn sauce was a tad bit too sweet, but I didn't mind it at all. I was close to being full when the dish arrived but some how managed to finish most of my plate.


Jason wasn't as happy with his omelet. It's probably the biggest omelet we've ever seen. We were trying to guess how many eggs went into making it. He guessed 5. I guessed a whole dozen. It was that big. Unfortunately, all that egg and minimal cheese made the omelet a bit dry. The shrimp and asparagus on the other hand were amazing.


Jason tried to deter me from getting dessert because he knew I was completely stuffed. I assured him that there was no way I was going to make room for dessert, but I just wanted to have a look at what we were missing. But when I came across the berry cobbler, one of my favorite desserts, a plate somehow found it's way in my hands. And since I had a plate already, why not give a few other things a try?

Mia Dona

Jason and I had just come from a talk at the 92nd St. Y where Donatella Arpaia and Lidia Bastianich were the two main speakers. They spoke of their experiences in the restaurant business and how they became what they are known for now. We thought it would be fitting if we went to one of their restaurants after the talk and decided on Mia Dona.

The menu looked impressive. It was hard to narrow down the choices, but in the end, I ordered the Grilled Octopus (with fingerling potatoes, olives, feta, anchovy vinaigrette) to start; a pasta dish, the Lamb Fettucine (with saffron, cauliflower, lima beans); and for my entree, Roasted Skate (with savoy cabbage, pancetta, onion, brussel sprouts.) Jason opted for the Wild Arugula Salad (with shaved pecorino, fennel, lemon) as a starter; the Pappardelle Bolognese (with veal, speck, parmesan) as his pasta dish; and the Grilled Branzino (with artichoke, potato, pan jus) as his main. We also shared a side of Braised Haricot Verts (with garlic, tomato, basil).

The octopus was cooked perfectly. It was incredibly tender. Jason's salad was good, just as you would imagine it would taste. The pappardelle bolognese was the winner of the two pasta dishes. The lamb fettucine was a bit of a disappointment. The lamb was dry and the saffron was a little bit overwhelming in the dish. I was a bit disappointed because this dish was a little bit hyped up for me.

Of the two entrees, I enjoyed mine much more than his. Everything about it was perfect.. from the fish to the brussel sprouts. Jason liked his branzino a lot, but I thought it was a little too charred.

The service was impeccable. From the moment we walked in, I thought it was warm and inviting. We were the last ones to leave and it was apparent that they didn't mind if we lingered around (except for the one server who paced back and forth). They even gave us a complimentary drink as they handed us our check.

I look forward to going back and trying some of their other dishes.

My Meal

Grilled Octopus

Lamb Fettucine

Skate

Jason's Meal
Arugula Salad

Papperdelle Bolognese

Grilled Branzino

Sinigual

Jason and I were on our way home from work, and at the spur of the moment, we decided to stop in Sinigual for dinner.

Right when we walked in, the hostess received a personal call and continued her conversation for about a minute before she said she had to go because she had customers waiting. It's not a long time to wait, but I was irked that her personal phone call took precedence over welcoming us to the restaurant.

When we were seated our server greeted us with a name card he placed on our table. Odd. It's almost something that you'd expect to see at a Cheesecake Factory or a TGI Fridays. But then again, Sinigual is a chain so maybe you do expect something like that. It's dumb.

On to the food..

We started with the Fire-Roasted Tomato Soup (grilled tomatoes, pasilla chiles, roasted corn, onions, chicken chorizo, garlic, spices.) Delicious. It had just enough heat to the soup without it being overpowering and had the right amount of creaminess to it.

I was having a good time until they brought our entrees around. They literally brought the plates out as we were finishing our last spoonful of soup. How about a break in between courses? I wasn't ready for my entree, but I sat there and ate it instead of saying something.


Jason ordered the fish special. I had the Carnitas Yucatan (slow roasted citrus-spiced pork, citrus-habanero, marinated red onions, red and black beans, pasillo-cilantro rice, guacamole.) The best I can say is, "eh". The entrees were very average. The fish was cooked well, but the tamale that came with it was very sweet. The carnitas was dry. Nothing about the entrees stood out as being really good. They were average to mediocre at best.

If you ever pass by this place and wonder if you should walk in and give it a try, keep walking on by.