My dining impulses don’t always start with a dish. Sometimes I crave the thrill of an experience: the sense of adventure from eating something unfamiliar and a little edgy, or just giving myself over to the unknown of an ever-changing tasting menu guided by a creative chef’s skill and a season’s whims. Control freaks and timid diners need not apply. But some of the region’s very best meals begin with embracing the surprise of the unknown.
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Top 25 Pick
Laurel
Top 25 Pick
Bibou
Talula’s Table
Top 25 Pick
Friday Saturday Sunday
Top 25 Pick
Elwood
More Dining Experiences
Try the hands-on Filipino Kamayan feast Wednesdays and Sundays at Perla (1535 S. 11th St.; two bells); the daily “wild food” menus built on chef-foraged ingredients at Park Place Cafe & Restaurant (7 E. Park Ave., Merchantville; three bells); or the beauty-and-brutality aesthetic of off-cuts (beef heart tartare) and hyper-seasonal local ingredients (pickled knotweed) at Musi BYOB (100 Morris St.; two bells).
Country pate at Musi. (STEVEN M. FALK / Staff Photographer)
Other Notable Tasting Menus
The four-course, $68 tasting (with “banchan” bonus bites) at Cadence (161 W. Girard Ave.; three bells); three-course tasting upgraded to “Chinatown-style” Hungarian duck feast at Abe Fisher (1623 Sansom St.; three bells); four-course midweek tastings for $49 at Blackfish BYOB (119 Fayette St, Conshohocken, three bells); Sunday five-course seafood tasting for $48 at Little Fish BYOB (746 S. 6th St.; three bells); inventive nine-course modern Italian tastings for $92 at Ambra (705 S. 4th St., three bells); the “abbondanza” four-course family feast for $65 at A Mano (2244 Fairmount Ave., three bells); the 10-plate Tapas Sunday tastings for $40 at Jamonera (105 S. 13th St.).
Chocolate crostata at Ambra. (STEVEN M. FALK / Staff Photographer)
The Reviews
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Superior
Rare, sets regional dining standards.
Excellent
Special, excels in most every category of the dining experience.
Very Good
Interesting, with above-average food.
Hit-or-miss
Too inconsistent for a strong recommendation.
Green zucchini sauce is onto a plate, with cod under a disk of shaved gold bar zucchini at Laurel. (JOSE F. MORENO / Staff Photographer)
LaurelTop 25 Pick
The notion of a $125 tasting menu being “fun and accessible” sounds improbable until you take your seat at Laurel, Nicholas Elmi’s contemporary atelier on East Passyunk Avenue. There’s classic rock in the air, a team of somms pouring obscure wines, cocktails with crazy names like “Robot Space Bear,” and a caviar course inspired by French fries dunked in a milkshake. And you know what? When my spoon slid into the cut crystal bowl layered with briny bowfin roe, cold sweet beads of nitro-frozen cream and crispy potato crumbs, that is exactly what it tasted like — upgraded with the kind of playful luxury wink that Elmi routinely gets away with.
The former Top Chef champ and Le Bec-Fin alum is entering year six at Laurel with a new cookbook, a more modest ($85) menu option, and a cool gray interior makeover this fall. And he hasn’t lost a step as one of our most inventive talents in showcasing the seasons through a modern American gaze.
A perfect duck breast gains savory momentum with unexpected echoes: a house-fermented duck garum glossed over grilled cucumbers and a crispy cube of duck scrapple. Smoked cod, hidden beneath yellow squash, comes with crispy white puffs dusted with nori and vinegar powders that add yet another mysterious layer of depth to fish. They’re made from cod bladders, which take two days to prepare and two minutes to devour. Fun, accessible, cravable cod bladder chips?! Elmi’s gastro-idol status is certified.
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The canape plate of creative opening nibbles is shown at Bibou. (JOSE F. MORENO / Staff Photographer)
BibouTop 25 Pick
There are two things you can be sure to eat at Bibou. One is an exceptional riff on foie gras, crisply seared alongside grilled apricots and cassis at my summer visit. The other is a seasonal hot soufflé, rising like the July beauty that perfumed our table with blueberries as goat’s-milk crème anglaise was poured into its quivering center. The rest of the eight-course, $115 tasting menu at this intimate BYOB in South Philly changes weekly. And that’s what I crave most from Bibou: the spontaneous artistry of one of Philly’s most talented chefs. Pierre Calmels, the former Le Bec-Fin star from Lyon, channels French gastronomy with a rare ease that always feels current.
The opening canapes alone are always a whimsical treat, from spoonfuls of melon bavarois dabbed with tomatillo jam and spiced pumpkin seeds to warm chorizo chips with juniper cream. Meaty lobster mushrooms call out to the real lobster mousse inside a silken pasta cannelloni. Don’t miss the game birds in the colder months when Calmels gets his hands on a grouse or pheasant. And when truffles are in season, Bibou is the place to let them fly, shaved generously across your Wagyu steak or stuffed quail by the white-gloved hand of one of its gracious longtime servers. It’s all part of the experience of an evening at posh Bibou, where the ability to make classic French elegance taste fresh and new on a weekly basis is the surest bet of all.
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A selection of hors d'oeuvres. From left, petite twice-baked potatoes, fig and goat cheese pastry cups, and bacon-wrapped apples at Talula's Table. (TIM TAI / Staff Photographer)
Talula’s Table
The chef names continue to change, but after a dozen years, an evening feast at the big country table of this Kennett Square market and cafe remains one of the most magical BYOB dining experiences available. The consistent thread of excellence is owner Aimee Olexy, who orchestrates several 10-course menus with her chefs throughout the year that never repeat. At my most recent meal this summer, then-chef Dylan Sweeney served up a vivacious green tomato ceviche; house-smoked pastrami with horseradish-beet bavarois and pickled mustard seeds in a cabbage leaf wrap; a stunning snail dish with garlic panisse; meltingly rich salmon; an inventive duck duo with ramps and strawberries; Olexy’s legendary cheese course (Boursin made from Lancaster goat cheese our night!); and the barrage of irresistible breads baked by partner Claire Twesten.
By fall a new chef, Kyle Beebe, was turning out gorgeous tuna au poivre, romesco pork, and Dijon gnocchi with multicolored cauliflower. I’ll have to return for one of Beebe’s menus — and will wait until then before reaffirming the Table’s steady four-bell status. But there’s a reason these two tables (including a smaller new table in the front window nook) continue to book a year in advance. Olexy’s big-city collaborations with Stephen Starr (Talula’s Garden, The Love) have worthy mass appeal. But the intimate dinner parties at her own little Table in Chester County bear Olexy’s unmistakably personal stamp.
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The sweetbread katsu at Friday Saturday Sunday. (TIM TAI / Staff Photographer)
Friday Saturday SundayTop 25 Pick
Chad and Hanna Williams’ sophisticated remake of Friday Saturday Sunday is by all measures one of Philly’s most polished destinations for contemporary fine dining. The bi-level corner rowhouse is a picture of intimate charm, with a cozy bar on the ground floor where people graze on icy raw bar plateaus and sip inventive cocktails like the smoked eggplant spritz — so good! The upstairs dining room exudes special-occasion romance. And if you want a low-drama steak, roast chicken, or whole duck for two, FSS delivers some of the city’s best.
But Chad is one of Philly’s most ascendant culinary talents right now because, three years in, his menu has captured a distinctively daring groove. His hyper-diverse kitchen team (African American, Dominican, Japanese, and “some guys from Indiana,” he jokes) channels their cultures and personal memories as a jumping-off point and then cooks with a cheffy zest for adventurous off-cuts and intense flavors paired with an elegant polish few can match.
Tender sweetbreads are fried into dainty katsu tea sandwiches moistened with bone marrow tartar and served on a marble pedestal. Mexican menudo lends a back beat to Rancho Gordo beans beneath a meaty arm of crisp octopus. Philly-style spaghetti and crabs finds another level of tidal punch with the unexpected twang of smoked herring. Black crumbles of house-made morcilla blood sausage and crunchy pork cracklins elevate frilly edged creste di gallo pasta tubes with rich sofrito sauce to something truly memorable.
Sadly, there were no takers for the whole pig face our charming server did his best to sell. But our appetite for adventure had been more than sated. We were ready for the comfort of dessert, and pastry chef Tish Smith’s gorgeous upside-down cake with apricots and coriander ice cream delivered.
Also featured in: Something to Drink
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Frog legs at Elwood. (CHARLES FOX / Staff Photographer)
ElwoodTop 25 Pick
Most everything you need to know about Elwood is clear the moment the meal begins, when a rack of antlers comes to your table, its prongs bearing crispy brown cubes of venison scrapple dabbed with spruce jam. It doesn’t get more comfortable for the squeamish at this iconoclastic new BYOB once the frog legs dusted in cattail pollen show up over a pretty mini-pond of green garlic jus, alongside tureens of fresh snapping turtle soup, whole rabbits, and heritage-pig parts that roll by on silver platters, with minty scoops of sassafras sorbet to cleanse the palate.
But Elwood is not really about the shock value. For chef Adam Diltz, who converted this Fishtown rowhouse with his wife and partner, architect Jenny Ko, this project is also about paying homage to his rustic family roots in Northeast Pennsylvania and kindling a new passion for our disappearing foodways, an angle far too few local chefs are exploring at this level.
From a modern riff on historic catfish and waffles to plum-stuffed spelt dumplings, pot pies with house-smoked ham and country noodles, and whole roasted poultry from some of the region’s best farmers served in family-stye sharing feasts, dinner here is as meaningful as it is delicious.
Also featured in: Salad & Veggies
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WRITER:CRAIG LABANEDITOR:EVAN S. BENNPHOTOGRAPHERS:TIM TAI (LEAD), JOSE F. MORENO, JESSICA GRIFFIN, MICHAEL BRYANT, CHARLES FOX, HEATHER KHALIFA, DAVID SWANSON, STEVEN M. FALK, ELIZABETH ROBERTSON, YONG KIM, MICHAEL S. WIRTZ AND TOM GRALISHPHOTO EDITORS:DANESE KENON AND FRANK WIESEDIGITAL PRODUCTION & DESIGN:GARLAND POTTS AND MEGAN GRIFFITH-GREENECOPY EDITOR:BRIAN LEIGHTONPRINT DESIGN:AMY JUNODAUDIENCE:ROSS MAGHIELSE AND RAY BOYDINTERNS:SERAPHINA DiSALVO AND STEFANIE PERNA