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Posted by foodzings | 23 Aug 2008 | byob, greek, philadelphia, seafood | 0 Comments

When I asked P a few weeks ago for recommendations on where to eat in the city, he threw out Dmitri’s and Effie’s, two greek restaurants. On the drive over to Franklin Fountain the other night, we passed Dmitri’s, and I said to myself, oh, that’s where Dmitri’s is. The next night when I was forced to pick a place for dinner (oh, the bane of being a food blogger), I thought why not. There are two Dmitri’s, and this one on 3rd is a BYOB.

The place is pretty teeny tiny, and when we got there at about 8:30, it was packed. We had to wait about a half hour, so we walked around a bit. Whenever we got back from the walk, we were seated immediately. Table space is very limited, it’s pretty much packed to the gills. The waitresses are all surly and tattooed and clad in black tank tops. A bit like the cheerleaders from the “Smells Like Teen Spirit” video. Like they would cut you if you wronged them.

One of the specials of the nigiht was the tomato basil and mozzarella salad. I was expecting one giant tomato and a big slice of cheese on top. Instead, we got this sizeable plate packed with some of the tastiest tomatoes ever. Man, was this good. Everything about it was good. Oh, and you get free bread and pita too. Good and good. The pita bread was a little bit charred, but lucky for me, I like burnt stuff.

P said the octopus was good so I had to try it. Again, a sizeable dished packed with grilled octopus. These are pretty no frills, just simply grilled served with some oily dressing on the bottom of the plate. I thought it was good, but I wasn’t crazy about it. J wasn’t crazy about it either, but that didn’t keep him from stuffing himself with it. It was even garnished with some olives and pepperoncinis. J liked the olives (I hate olives) and I liked the pepperoncinis too.

One of the fish specials of the night was the tilapia. That’s a whole lotta fish if you ask me. That plate is not small. Those pieces of fish are not small. This was a hearty portion of fish. It was simply prepared, grilled, and came with some kind of white wine based sauce. Simple, yet good. J was practically drinking this sauce, or at least sopping it up with bread.

I went with the scallop platter. You can get this grilled or fried and I went with the grilled. Again, very simply prepared, just grilled. I thought I would get like 3-4 big scallops. Whoa, was I wrong. There were at least a good dozen scallops there, way too much food for me. These were delicious. Grilled perfectly, so that it wasn’t overly done at all. Both the entrees came with rice and escarole. The rice was just fine, but this escarole crap was really unappetizing. I expected any kind of taste but what I got. Bland and bitter. Blech. I left the giant lump of this escarole pretty much untouched. In fact, when we had the leftovers boxed up, J insisted that I did not want the greens wrapped.

There was tons of food left… tilapia, scallops, and octopus. We should have just gotten a couple more appetizers, nixed the entrees, and called it a day, but we didn’t know we would get so stuffed. Really, I need to stop this gorging. We ended up using the scallops and octopus the next day as ingredients for improvised lobster ravioli from trader joe’s. You know what? It actually tasted even better the next day. Thanks for the recommendation P. I can see why this place is packed.

Dmitri’s
795 S 3rd St
Philadelphia, PA 19147
(215) 625-0556

Posted by foodzings | 31 May 2008 | byob, italian, pasta, philadelphia | 0 Comments

Il Cantuccio is a teensy little BYOB in Northern Liberties on 3rd. I’d passed by it dozens of times before but had never really wanted to go in (sounds like Pepperocini, eh?). I met some friends I hadn’t seen in a long time there last week. Like I said, it’s teeny tiny, so you definitely need reservations. That’s the menu – one simple laminated sheet.

You get complimentary bread. Loved the bread. It comes with two spreads, one was roasted red pepper and the other, a green mystery. We forgot to ask so I don’t know what it was made of, but they were both awesome.

F got a house salad. This was the small, but it was still pretty big. All three of us shared it.

Z got the Sampdoriana, which was fusilli with shrimp and broccoli in a garlic sundried tomato sauce. This had a slightly strange taste. I attribute this to the sundried tomatoes, as I don’t like sundried tomatoes. Z said it had a slight “asian” taste to it. I could see where he was coming from.

Both F and I got the fettucine pasta special. It came with shrimp and crab meat in a pink sauce. Totally great. I cleaned my darn plate. The service here was ok, nothing spectacular. There was one waitress waiting on the entire place. But that’s ok here, like I said, it’s very tiny, maybe 20 seats in the entire place? It’s a nice little BYOB option in NoLibs.Il Cantuccio

701 N 3rd St
Philadelphia, PA
215-627-6573

Posted by foodzings | 04 May 2008 | appetizers, byob, cocktails, festival, philadelphia, seafood | 1 Comment

I don’t normally get drunk in the middle of the day, but Saturday was one of those rare occasions. The Rittenhouse Row Spring Festival was held, and luckily for us, the rain stayed clear and we were able to enjoy a nice day out.

P told A that there would be no funnel cake at the festival. Was he ever wrong! Not only was there funnel cake, but there was also tons of booze, including red and white sangria. Drinking sangria at 3PM on a Saturday is a recipe for shenanigans.

Eventually, we ended up going to Audrey Claire for dinner. It was a nice day for pretty much all of it, but by the time we went to eat, it was a bit too cold for al fresco dining. So we got a nice table by the open window instead.

We just ended up ordering a bunch of stuff and sharing. The grilled octopus salad, always one of my favorites. Pretty much P and I were the only ones digging it. I believed A called them “like tires”. Which is fine because the more for me!

The flatbread with gorgonzola cheese, pears, and sunflower seeds. I didn’t try this that night but I remember it from before. Gorgonzola is a strong cheese, so it’s not for the faint of heart. It was not a very popular dish that night.

T ordered the mediterranean olives. This is like my ultimate nightmare dish. A bunch of olives on a plate (blech), plus, cornichons. I think this is what someone could use to torture me by, force feeding me olives.

T also got the tiger shrimp with sweet potato and watercress. She was digging on this.

D got the penne arrabiata. He said it had a bit of a kick!

A got the mediterranean spread with spicy hummus, roasted red pepper, and roquefort. The hummus – surprisingly spicy! The roquefort, a stinky cheese, so I did not enjoy this at all. The pitas were damn fine though.

I got the mussels and were there ever many many mussels. 2 lbs of big sizeable mussels. Definitely not puny like the ones at Plate earlier in the week. And it didn’t even occur to me that I’d totally just eaten mussels earlier this week. In any case, they were good and very filling. I had to keep force feeding mussels to everyone else as the dinner went on. I also ordered the roasted beet appetizer but I totally forgot to snap a pic. It was simple, with fried shallots and a light dressing.

The service was good, as usual. We were pretty much the first set of diners for the evening, so they helped us quickly, and our food came out super fast, surprisingly fast. They kept our water glasses filled and they helped us with the wines we brought. As you already know, it’s a favorite BYOB of mine, and this visit was no different. And it’s super affordable, as it only ended up being $20 a piece for everyone, including tip.