Dinner at Ansill in Philadelphia Report
OK so we just ate at Ansill in Philadelphia...
All three of us LOVED IT!
Visiting the area for the first time in many years and really on the fly so I did not have enough time to research a place. My friend who just moved her suggested I look at this menu just as I found it on a search for Charcuterie in Philly on CH.
I liked that the space did not look over complicated on the website pics and that the menu items seemed straight forward, not fussy and over complicated.
The chef story was nice too, seemed like he was from the area and obviously passionate about food.
We showed up at 7:30ish on a Tuesday (Stormy) night. The place was empty except for a few tables, which usually freaks me out, but we stayed. The room looked just like the web pics, very clean and simple, nicely done.
The waiter approached and I cringed as he said "hello, my name is .... and I will be your waiter". Call me a snob, I was a waiter forever in the bay area, I just don't like it when they do that.. It gives yay-whos the opportunity to say things like, "uhmm Billy is this your real job, what else do you do?" But I digress... I will say the waiter knew his stuff inside and out on the menu, offered suggestions when asked and really seemed passionate about the food. Everything he offered was just as he said too....
OK, they have a house wine at a bargain price on the menu each night (pitcher style). I love this, I tried the wine, it was OK, but we went with a bottle off the list, a bit pricey of a list, but not too and the list is good. For the life of me I cannot remember the name right now (1am) but it was a nice Montepulciano for about $40 and it was good.
We ordered the wine and the anti pasta which was merged with the Charcuterie plate that night ($18) Saucisson Sec, a nice hard chorizo and a lomo along with house cured olives, out of this world tuna conserva (capers, lemon, etc,,,), this eggplant that was out of this world, the plate was huge, lots more to mention, small portions of each, great share plate.
We noticed a guy sitting at the bar that looked like the chef from the website, he kept staring and then finally came over and chatted when he saw us asking the waiter a million questions about the menu. He was in fact the chef. Great guy, very down to earth, gave us his history and philosophy. Really connected with our table. We asked for his favorites and he was just about in line with the waiter. He did ask us what we like and we seemed to be on page with what he does... Ok so here is the food for the night run down..
Three starters after the Charcuterie / Anti Pasta plate..
btw: plates are meant to be shared (smaller, lower priced - but 2-3 could feed 1 person)
1) Steak tartare $12
2) Grilled romaine with pickled red onions $8
3) Trotters (done confit in little crab cake pucks) $8
OK, all three great, the Trotters won the night... they tasted perfectly confited, lightly breaded, just amazing cannot say enough here.
The romaine was very nice, earthy grilled, slightly charred, dressing was very nice (a bit garlicky YUM), the onions were perfect.
The steak tartare was nice, loved the presentation, I like mine a bit more spiced up, but as with the rest of his menu I think he was trying to let the meat stand out and it did, nice clean taste..
OK the chef sent us out a middle course (btw: give me free food and I will follow you anywhere)
Escargot, didn't see it on the menu, one of my least favorite French dishes...
Can I tell you.... even one of my less adventurous friends could not get enough....
It was sitting on a whole head of roasted garlic, micro green and in what to me looked like a play on a sauce gribiche (egg yolk, parsley, capers, tarragon, etc) the little guys were perfectly cooked, super tender but not translucent.... They were amazing!
OK on to mains....
1) Branzini $15? (sorry cannot recall exact prices but this is close)
2) Scallops $17?
3) Sweetbreads $15
Ok the fish was nice, crispy skin, clean straight forward, I never tasted a "sauce" but instead a very very nice olive oil drizzle, very very Italian
I will skip to the sweetbreads next, most of them were perfect, but the larger ones were a bit gamey.
OK ok, the scallops, perfectly and I mean perfectly cooked... Caramelized and totally M/R inside. These could not have been done any better, all 3 of us were trying to lick the plate. They were on a brown butter (very light on the amount again) parsnip puree just YUM!
Desserts
1) Poached Pear with house made ice cream
2) Chocolate Hazelnut cake (floorless)
The desserts were in the $7 range. I had a bite of each, I am not a dessert guy, my friends loved them. I did not really pay attention so I may be off on the cake.. sorry
I finished with a Fernet Branca (hence awake at 1:30am writting this)
The whole check was about $60 each tax and generous tip for food and bev.
As we sat a few tables came in, I chalked it up to weather, economy, Tuesday night... there is no reason this place should not be packed every night.
As we left the chef came over and chated us up again...
Just cannot say enough, we will be back...
For more info on Ansill: www.ansillfoodandwine.com
PS: I have a blog on my recent 3 month stay in France if you want to check it out:
http://cenzosf-mytimeinfrance.blogspo...
By FoieFun
on Dec 16, 2008 10:32 PM
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FoieFun- you wrote
The waiter approached and I cringed as he said "hello, my name is .... and I will be your waiter". Call me a snob, I was a waiter forever in the bay area, I just don't like it when they do that.. It gives yay-whos the opportunity to say things like, "uhmm Billy is this your real job, what else do you do?"
Just curious how do you prefer that a waiter greet you? What was offensive about what the waiter said?
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Hi, not offensive at all, just a bit low brow. Thanks for asking. I would prefer a greeting and then some awesome waiting. Offering your name is kind of corporate TGIFs, I do not need to know your name as I would not respond, "Hi my name is Jack and I will be your customer tonight". It is demeaning to have to offer your name and not get a respose. In the 80s and 90s I was a waiter and a manager of some of the top places in SF. It is a common practice to leave the "Hello my name is" approach to the corporate places and not real restaurants. There was nothing worse then getting that customer who would say, well what is your name? Then all night long, "Jack can I get a new napkin, Jack the food is sure great, thanks Jack here is a dollar tip for you".
When I am at a restaurant I make eye contact with my waiter and then say, "excuse me, could I have another cocktail", or if he/she are not around I make eye contact with another waiter and say "hi, can you call our waiter over please". Calling out a name in a restaurant other than TGIFs / Olive Garden is rude, it is something you might do at home around the dinner table.
I do not need an intimate relationship for the night with my waiter, just good service.
I hope that helps with my review, how did you like the rest of it?
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Your review was great...I've never been to Ansill because (and maybe its low brow of me?) I am put off by the idea of eating trotters, sweatbreads, etc.
Regarding the waiter issue, its very interesting to hear your perspective. I never would have dreamed it was demeaning to a waiter to call them by their first name. As a customer, I always appreciate knowing the server's name because it makes the dining experience seem more personal. I guess I always have thought if I used the server's name when making a request or saying thank you that it was complimentary to them ...I will think twice about that now.
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great review!
i never gave the name thing much thought, but if i did i agree it might be a little out of place at a more expensive restaurant, however i would hate to discourage any attempts at friendliness, ever! on the flipside, i have one friend who asks our server's name at every single place we go. i notice we do tend to get better service when i go out with her.
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It's not lowbrow, but your impression of Ansill is wrong. Lots of people share it, I don't know why. It's true you can get trotters and tongue and sweetbreads and things there, but that kind of thing isn't even a majority of their menu. The trotters are just pig meat pulled from the foot, shredded. It's not like they serve you a whole pig's foot.
Most of my favorite things there are perfectly normal: the lamb osso bucco, the baked eggs, the fingerling potatoes, the shrimp and avocado salad. The brussels sprouts there were a revelation to me, I always thought I hated brussels sprouts, but as it turns out I'd just never had them done the right way. The best dish I ever had there was vegetarian. It's one of the best restaurants in the city, you're missing out if you're not going because you think you'll have to eat pig's feet and glands.
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the escargots is one of the chefs specialties and he used to serve them at his old restaurant pif. you can still order them on sunday nights when he features the old pif menu.
your review made me want to hustle back to ansill stat (especially to try the trotters. mmmm). i haven't been in over a year and it is not the economy, proximity 6 blocks from my house), or anything else other than the fact that philly has many good eating options and i am too busy trying the new to revisit old favorites all the time. and i cook. and that is my loss for sure! ansill is still one of my favorite places to recommend.
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I agree 100% as we're in the same boat. So many great options that it's hard to get back to your favorites as often as you'd like.
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I could have written your post (except we are not so near and have babysitting issues added on). This review definitely makes me want to get back to Ansill. I love detailed reviews like this, and the trotters are now high on my list of things to get there.
So many restaurants, so little time. . .
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well i won't be able to top the OP's wonderful descriptions but i did have a fine meal at ansill last night. very comfortable and homey space. and fairly inexpensive - we got there for happy hour and had the house wines which was largely responsible for the under $100 bill for 2. the mussels were GREAT - best part of the meal IMO. the sauce tasted like christmas (really!) - with rosemary and oranges. also had the tomato bread, which was tasty but probably a little pricy for its simplicity (essentially 3 slices of yummy toast with a couple cherry tomatoes and garlic atop - $5). had a crabcake which was good but the other flavors of the dish (red onion mostly) overtook the crab. same went for the salt cod special appetizer - i forget what the accompaniments were (cucumber??) but they largely overtook the cod - though it was tasty. we got the happy hour dollar oysters, and had a fairly plain beet salad to round off dinner. for dessert we had the same poached pear as the OP - good ice cream, and also a plate of chocolate goodies - a cocoa cake-like thing and a chocolate mousse. i'm also not much of a desserts person but i had no complaints!
so to rate my recent birthday-related dining indulgences, i'd put my meals in this order from favorite to least (i've posted about the others except for konak in other threads somewhere recently):
- melograno by far
- zahav
- ansill and kanella are probably tied
- konak
now i'm resigned to dinners at home for awhile since i've depleted the bank account fairly nicely this past week!! oh - except for copper - i almost forgot - i'm visiting them on saturday and THEN i'll be self-grounded!! ;)
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I hate to be cheap but the tomato bread is SUCH a ripoff! i liked ansill, but didn't love it. because of price i haven't rushed back.
i need to try melograno. how busy is it?
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*DELETE*
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melograno - we got totally lucky. we'd just gotten out of a show, and were walking aimlessly through rittenhouse sq when we thought of melograno and rang them. they said they had one table, so we told them we'd be there in five minutes, and there we were! this was 7ish on a sunday. every other table was full. they say they take their last table on sun at 8:45, but by that time rolled around there was a lot more availability. 8pm on a sun might be the sweet spot.
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So, i went to Ansill tonight for the first time and I LOOOVED the food. I went in with high expectations and was not disappointed! I was with a fairly larger sized group and everyone found something on the menu that they really liked. Other than some minor problems with the noise level (but that's to be expected on a Saturday night) and some service issues (our first waiter dumped us on another guy-which i thought was weird) it was a really good night. I can't wait to go back again, but I def. recommend not going on a weekend night...
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