Earlier in the year, Yelp issued a challenge to write 100 reviews in the year 2013.  While it's quite uncertain if I'll be able to hit that mark before leaving Philly, I think I've made a big dent so far.  This is review number 73 72 (because apparently updates don't count)!  See the full list here.

Matyson
37 S 19th St
Philadelphia, PA 19103
Neighborhoods: Rittenhouse Square, Penn Center

It was another beautiful day in Philly on Sunday...or so I was misled to believe by the morning sun.  The rays of the sun woke me up a bit earlier than I would had liked for a Sunday morning, but the day was too beautiful to sleep through.  After skipping down (of course not, I took the trolley) to a Starbucks in Center City to wrap up a couple work related items and plan the last portion of my trip (which I failed to do), I stopped by Rittenhouse Square to people watch and to make use of my Kindle that had been collecting dust.  I haven't read anything in a while, and figured it's never too late to become more literate, learned, educated, whatever.  It was then that I discovered, while I was wrapping up work at the Starbucks, the weather had taken a turn for the downer.  The clouds had overtaken the city, hovering over us like dark ominous overlords.  I sat there for a while, but eventually it got a bit chilly so I took cover inside the nearby B&N.  Nothing like using B&N to subsidize my Kindle reading.  Go Nook.

Rittenhouse is conveniently located within a few minutes walk to Matyson, which recently installed a $35 prix fixe  menu for Sunday nights.  For this week, the theme was sea bass.  I'm more of a salmon kind of guy, but what the heck, why not?

We started off with two triangle shaped pieces of crispy polenta with mancheo and tomato fondue.  I thought this was alright.  The real highlight came second, with a bowl of steamed mussels bathed in an aromatic broth infused with coconut curry and sprinkled with cashew, sweet potato, and basil.  I took a deep breath to inhale the beautiful aroma that this concoction brought out.  My olfactory senses were happy...and so were my taste buds.

Then came the striped bass, which was served with black rice, asparagus, and saffron aioli (a fancy name for mayo).  As I said, I'm a salmon guy, and found eating the striped bass equivalent to eating solid water.  The skin was crispy and crunchy, but the fish itself was no salmon.  However, the accompanying black rice and asparagus were great supporting acts and saved the dish.

We wrapped it up with a chocolate kahlua mousse cake with hazelnuts and créme anglaise (a fancy French name for English cream).  Unlike the striped bass, the cake left no doubt that it was chocolate.  Rich and flavorful it was - luckily, the portion size was small so there was no risk of overindulging.

Rouge
205 S 18th St
Philadelphia, PA 19103
Neighborhood: Rittenhouse Square

On a cold windy night, we found our way in Rouge on Rittenhouse Square.  Having walked by this place many times, I was never really impressed with their front, but inside, the atmosphere is warm and cozy.

The first dish that was served up was the French onion soup with gruyere and provolone.  I didn't have this, but word is it was good.  I had the King Salmon - a nicely cooked filet of salmon laid on top of a mixture of kale and red quinoa.  The salmon was delicious, but the kale and quinoa were mediocre at best with little to no flavor.  I asked for the dish without the honey-mustard sauce since I'm not a fan of mustard, so that may had altered the intended flavor profile.  I did ask if they could substitue the mustard sauce with something else, but was basically told there wasn't a substitute.  I had a bite of the Seafood Risotto, which tasted fresh and flavorful, unlike my kale.  We also shared the truffle parmesan pommes frites - come on, you know nothing with truffle oil can go wrong.

My delicious salmon paired with some bland kale and quinoa

Seafood risotto that needed a little mixin' to get the heat going

And the fries!

For dessert, we had the olive oil lemon cake served with vanilla gelato and cherry (?) spread.  We didn't taste much of the vanilla in the vanilla gelato, but this only made the flavor of the olive oil lemon cake stand out even more.  We also had the ice cream sliders - two of which were light and delightful, the third one (peanut butter) was the unwanted third wheel with no contrast in flavor and heavy to the palate.

Olive oil lemon cake with vanilla gelato

The sliders

Overall, the food was great; however, there were a couple misses.  First, we each had a small plate and a butter knife, but no one brought out any bread.  After the French onion soup was served, we had to flag down one of the waiters to bring over the bread.  Second, the outer layer of the risotto came out cold, and needed to be mixed up to distribute the inner heat out.  Third, it would had been great if the kitchen tossed the fries and truffle parmesan first, rather than just sprinkling the parmesan on top (which means by the time you get to the fries at the bottom, they're just plain old fries).  So, no big mistakes that can't easily be fixed.  In the words of a terminator, I'll be back.

Melograno
2010 Sansom St
Philadelphia, PA 19103
Neighborhoods: Rittenhouse Square, Penn Center

+Amy Fan and I came here on a Friday during early evening.  I got there first, so I walked in and stood behind a couple who had just arrived and were in the middle of being seated.  I waited patiently while the hostess sat the couple.  In the meantime, another couple came in behind me.  Immediately, someone came up and asked if he could help seat them.  Then, the hostess came back and asked them if she could help them.  At that point, I was starting to get peeved.  The hostess saw me walk in, saw me waited, and totally ignored me.  Absolutely an abysmal way to treat guests. I interjected and asked for a table. Her immediate response was whether I was expecting the entire party soon - I lied and said yes so she would seat me.  I lied because there was no reason she shouldn't seat me given that there were many tables open and no one else in queue, and also because I was already annoyed with her customer service. Just one last mention of service quality here - we were interrupted several times by the waiter in mid-conversation.  My experiences at other restaurants have been that waiters/waitresses arrive at the table, wait a second or two for the table to turn its attention to him/her, and then begin.  Here, the guy arrived and just started talking.

So, to the food.  We split the Polpette - for ten bucks we got two meatballs made with pork, veal, and beef topped wtih tomato sauce and pecorino cheese.  A bit pricey at $5 per meatball, but...actually, no buts.  We also shared a plate of fried fish.  I can't remember the name of the dish, but it wasn't that memorable anyway.

For my main dish, I had the Cotoletta alla Senese - a fried chicken breast topped with several slices of prosciutto, arugula, tomatoes, and mozzarella.  The chicken was good, but then again, it's hard to mess up fried chicken.  However, it wasn't anything to write home about either.

Finally, for dessert, we had the Panna Cotta topped with berries.  The panna cotta is about 2.5 inches in diameter, but came out on a 12 inch diameter plate.  That was a bit absurd.  All it did was drew my attention to how little food we got.  At least it tasted good!

So, bad service, OK food.  You decide.