Month: July 2008

An adventure in center city led to a lovely lunch. Let me tell you about it!

Kanella! It’s a Greek Cypriot kitchen.

And there was cuttlefish on the menu! Prepared some way other than “in its own ink.”

Sadly, I was in a rush, so I did not order the cuttlefish, but the (very cute) server told me that it is often an appetizer, so when I make reservations I should ask to make sure they would have it.

Instead, I had the Spanikopita. There was more feta than spinach and it had a lemony tang… and while neither of those are my first choice in how to prepare the dish, I was still delighted by the flavors and textures. If I say it was creamy goodness (with a little bit of tart) exploding in my mouth – you guys will take that as a good thing, right? I think even the phyllo dough had flavor! Slightly nuttier than the average phyllo.

It came with a delicious salad, which would have made me quite happy on its own, and a mound of greek yogurt – sexy, tasty, creamy greek yogurt.

Because I was eating at 2pm, there were only 4 other tables filled, so I got to talk a little with the server and owners/chefs. They have only been open three months. The owners/chefs are from West Philadelphia. And they already fill up with reservations most nights for dinner.

In addition to loving the fresh foods, I also loved how it was decorated – it’s a bit like Lourdas, in Bryn Mawr, with the white washed walls and blue trim (possibly required for 78% of Greek restaurants in a geographical area), but it goes even further with rough-hewn wood tables and benches. Over the doorway is a massive bundle of the eponymous cinnamon, and the windows are lined with potted plants – some floral and some herbal (and looking like they might actually be used in the cooking). There’s even a lemon tree. It was strange to have the restaurant be air conditioned because it felt as though it was an open air taverna… a fairly fancy one.

So I’d love to go back there. I’d love to share this restaurant with you guys. I’ll warn you now that the dinner entrees went up to $26 & market price, but there weren’t any appetizers over $10 so I’d propose a dinner of appetizers and salads (at least for my part). And I can’t tell you what they’ll have because the menu seems to change daily – they had just printed up today’s dinner menu and brought it out when I got to see it.

After an hectic and itchy week, I called a few friends to see if they wanted to have a fancy brunch. One of them, not only said yes, but then said, “And I’m still at work right near you, so we could meet up for dinner.”

Restaurant review: Nan is a pricey restaurant that claims to have, “the finest Thai-French cuisine,” but looks like a hole in the wall and is right near a delightful Indian restaurant, a delicious Thai place, a pretty decent Thai place, and several other restaurants as well – all much more reasonably priced. I have never found the place even remotely tempting. But it was pushing 10pm, and everywhere else we tried was closed, and Nan still had its Open sign out.

And I was wrong. Totally and completely wrong. Not only was the food excellent, but the server and the chef were both incredibly kind and generous with their time and made us very comfortable even as they were closing up the restaurant and cleaning the kitchen. They even made sure our rolls were piping hot (including the second round, when I asked for more because they were very tasty dinner rolls). The squid salad was tender, lightly grilled, and tangy (and we sopped up the last of the dressing with the rolls, we were that happy.

He had the Pad Thai (his standard yardstick for the quality of Thai places) and was delighted. Each flavor was distinct and almost subtle, so it ended up being a lighter and more exciting dish than it is at most places. I ordered the salmon crusted in red curry – and it was perfect. Rich and perfectly cooked – the first bite was too hot, but it melted like butter. The whole way through, I was deeply apologetic (in my head) for all of the previous aspersions I had cast on the place. And we finished up with ginger ice cream which was just crammed full of candied ginger in chunks. All creamy and settling and a perfect way to end the meal.