Last year I started two new blogs (Srcasm and this one) and had a great time making many new friends in the Philadelphia area and finding new places to eat.  Some of the restaurant favs of the year were National Mechanics, Zot, Eulogy and Triumph to name a few.  I’m hoping to get some pictures, write some reviews and have some good times at all of these places and more in the coming year.  I’m going to try to find places to eat that I never would have tried before — the hole-in-the-wall places in Chinatown, the tiny cafes and diners all over Philly and some of the more upscale places in the city like Panorama.   There are the restaurants and fooderies that I believe people will find most helpful.

As for dining out, I would like to setup a monthly visit to a new place in Philly.  All of my new and old friends should join me on my expedition to find some of the strangest and coolest spots in Philadelphia.  So if you have any ideas for places to start off seeing and eating, please let me know.  Leave a comment, send a tweet or shoot me an email at yes (at) canyoueat (dot) com.  As always, keep enjoying great eats and great prices in Philly!

Images courtesy of inter.jection’s Flickr stream and Yelp member Wallspro S

The crêpes at this place were nothing out of the ordinary at first glance. They came out piping hot within 15 minutes of ordering and they were laid out on a simple plate with a little bit of the filling in the center of the crêpe. As soon as we cut them open, we found that they were far from ordinary. The filling in each of the tasty dishes that we ordered were full of flavor, character and a slight made-in-mom’s kitchen taste. Alex got the chicken fricassee with poached egg and creme fraiche. He seemed to enjoy it very much as you can see. I’ll have to give that one a shot next time. See more after the jump.

Magda got the ratatouille with roasted eggplant, onion, zucchini, red peppers & tomatoes. Ratatouille comes from the French touiller — to toss food. That’s exactly what Beaumonde had in mind. They had the perfect blend of cooked, tender vegetables and and their own juices reduced and poured back over the vegetables to create a delicious, vegetarian dish. Unfortunately, Magda housed that dish and we didn’t even get a shot of it.

I decided on the coq au vin. This had “chicken stewed with red wine, baby onions, mushrooms, carrots, and pancetta,” according to the menu. I wasn’t sure that I tasted or even noticed the pancetta in this dish but even without it I couldn’t have asked for a better blend of vegetables and meat. The chicken practically fell apart with the touch of a fork. The red wine in the dish was a little strong but the buckwheat crêpe helped to curb some of the strong wine taste. This meal would have to get 3 cheesesteaks in my book.

3 out of 4 Cheesesteaks!

Finally we ended with a shared fresh seasonal berries dish. It was filled with all the berries of the season — or so they said. It did have raspberries, blueberries blackberries & strawberries. The dish was supposed to be topped with Chantilly creme but we opted for the creme on the side due to my lactardedness. After the burning in our mouths subsided we devoured the dish in record time. Each fruit and flavor complemented the next until we finished the plate and then I practically licked the powdered sugar off the dish. Unfortunately for you guys, the dish was so good we didn’t get a picture until we were done. Maybe next time. This dish got 4 cheesesteaks in my book — the highest rating I can give!

4 out of 4 Cheesesteaks!
All-in-all, I would tip this restaurant 20% for brunch. The menu’s prices were decent. Some of the crêpes have a little high additional item charge but the dishes themselves were a great deal.

I’ll make sure to get up a review of the second restaurant, DeLuca’s Villa di Roma as soon as I get some of the pictures in from dinner. I think that thanks to Bart that meal may have been the first of many Can You Eat Monthly Dinner Club dinners… We’ll see what we can do.

Till next time, keep enjoying great eats and great prices!

20% out of 25% of a tip

A tipping scale — How much should one tip if they ate at this restaurant. To be fair I do not tip a waiter or waitress based on the deliciousness or lack-there-of of the food but I will use it for rating restaurants. The ratings will go on a scale from 1 to 4 (errr, 10%, 15%, 20% and 25%). There will be few restaurants that will get a 25% tip but they may be out there. I also hope to find few restaurants that deserve a 10% tip but alas there will be some of those as well. And to prove to you how I feel about the meal I will scan in each and every receipt to go along with the restaurant I visited (sans the CC digits).

Second, I will use cheesesteaks for the quality of food rating. Again, a simple 1-4 cheesesteak scale (and yes for those of you who know, I am lactose intollerant but I love cheesesteaks) will do the trick. Here’s to hoping that there are many restaurants in the Philadelphia area that serve 4-cheesesteak rated food!

So please, keep enjoying great eats and great prices!

The second part of the statement is almost true. Channukah and Christmas have passed and I’ve definitely gained quite a bit of weight over those few weeks and with New Years around the corner I have one more holiday to make it through. I plan on eating and drinking around this final holiday of 2007 and then off to bigger and better things. I’ll try to get the first review of a restaurant online right after the 1st of the new year. Let me know if you have anything you’d like to see reviewed here and I’ll see what I can do.

Image courtesy of GourmetSleuth.com

I would also like to find out what other features you’d like to see on the site. I have a few ideas in mind. I’d like to have a map that shows you the restaurants in the area or the delicious meals that are close by. In addition, there will eventually be two sub-domains to make it easier to find what you need. First, what.canyoueat.com will show you everything categorized by the type or style of the meal. Second, where.canyoueat.com will list the restaurants that are in the area. As always I want to hear what you think of both of these ideas and anything else you have to say. Let me know what you have to say.

Image courtesy of www.veggieboards.com

Lastly, no restaurant is out of the question but I’ll try to make sure that they’re the restaurants that we can all eat at.  There are plenty of excellent reviewers out there that can tell you all about the Four Seasons, Mosholu and the Capital Grill.  I’ll show you places like National Mechanics, Macaroni Grill, Gigi Restaurant and more.  So check back for some upcoming reviews and information on the places that you love.