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.

You already know I love McNally’s. I mean, I raved it about my last and first time there, and this time isn’t gonna be any different. We got there pretty early, it was about half full, and got a table right near the door to the basement. That door leads to the bathroom. A little scary going down into the scary silence of the lambs basement to hit the can. But not a big deal. Our waitress was amazingly nice and about the sweetest thing ever. She quickly took our drink orders and brought us out a couple of nice, cold pints.
E got a cup of the soup of the day, chicken corn chowder. A pretty hefty looking cup of soup if you ask me.

I don’t have time to mess around with soups at McNally’s, it’s all about the sandwiches and you know it. E got the Schmitter. This time, I got the Tobias. The Tobias is basically a Schmitter, only with added fried pepperoni slices. What’s better than a Schmitter? Oh, you know, the Tobias. It was perfection really.

What was even more perfect was that we were just hanging out, eating slowly, drinking some beers, and talking, and people were coming in and out. All of a sudden, we’re the last people there, but they didn’t kick us out. They just let us hang out. I was wondering when they closed, but I didn’t ask. I just figured they’d kick us out. But no. Eventually, we decided to bolt, and we asked them when they closed. They said on Sundays they close at 8. It was 9! Who could not be totally in love with a place that just lets you hang? Yet another reason my love for McNally’s burns strong!

M and I visited a friend last week who’s been recovering from a freak accident. She’s at Einstein rehab, and since this is near the hood of Ktown, we stopped by Kim’s Restaurant for some korean bbq. M had never had korean food before, which surprised me. She’s pretty adventurous when it comes to ethnic cuisine, so I only assumed that she was well versed.

It was fairly late when we got there (nearly 9) so the place was fairly empty. We decided to just get the spicy bulgogi (which is not really all that spicy). It came out quick, and the handy thing was that we didn’t even have to cook it ourselves. Our waitress pretty much did all the work for us. So all we had to do was stuff food in our mouths. The plethora of banchan were ok. The radish kimchi was a bit too fermented, but the regular kimchi was pretty good. I really liked the seaweed dish.

And the meat? As usually, it was really good. And as usual, I stuffed myself into a meat coma. And when we left, we had korean bbq smell ingrained into every pore of our beings. Mmmm… This really is one of my favorite places in Philly for korean bbq. When my family gets a hankering and we are willing to drive a little, this is where we go.