I was there yesterday. I am not understanding these glowing reviews. Well I understand them – it is Adsum II. The restaurant is underwhelming in nearly every aspect. The clientele, reeking of old money and no taste, would be equally well served going across the street for ameritalian. To begin, the service is useless. When asked for recommendations we received the standard “everything is so good, I can’t decide.” Although they purportedly had 4 or 5 interesting taps, the tap system was broken. The drinks were watery and amateurishly prepared. For this town at $12 a pop, you better get yourself a real bartender. The negroni I had was so watery there was barely even a red tint (read: there was no amaro). My wife’s ginger drink was all lime, no ginger and no booze. Basically an incredibly one dimensional Caipirinha. Now the food, the dreaded “small” plates, fared little better. The portions were tiny, which could be overlooked if they were Barbuzzo delicious, they were not. The grouper was overcooked to a flavorless gray; the pork belly was oddly gelatinous with no sear. I honestly can’t recall having worse prepared pork belly. The chorizo balls were basically two small balls covered in tomato paste. I didn’t know you could make chorizo without any spice – that was impressive. The standouts were a decent gnocchi, an OK frisee salad, a nice seared octopus with two of Noble’s chick pea fries and a nice slow cooked veal ragout. Speaking of Noble, this place didn’t hold a candle to Noble or Matyson when it comes to new American. Sadly, it is just a “see and be seen” place with a local celebrity chef for our pathetically fawning “reviewers” to coo over its “simplicity,” AKA lack of flavor (pun intended).

foooooooooood fighttttttttt

Yea, I have never worked in the “industry.” I had a girlfriend who was a waitress and was related some of the stories Staphmeal has presented (mostly there’s a butt load of coke everywhere, the waitresses are sexually harassed in exchange for food, drinks, getting out of certain “side-jobs” & coke. Overall it seems to be a very incestuous group of generally immature and unworldly people who can parse winter purslane from regular purslane, but could not find Iraq on a map). Incidentally, what is the deal with all the made-up jargon associated with restaurant work? “Industry” generally implies manufacturing or production – don’t get how it really applies to slinging food and drinks. Is seems to be similar to the cashier or customer service “industry.” I do enjoy a good meal and good drink however (way more than I probably should). Bottom line: I gave my fair assessment of a.kitchen so deal with it. Admittedly I was a bit trite, but mostly that is geared at these reviewers. The dude devotes about three sentences to the food in his entire review after saying the restaurant is all about the food (it appears he tried about three dishes?). The rest of the review is simply an ironic masturbation of Sikora’s ego as the “unpretentious” celebrity chef (Did you hear his name isn’t even on the menu!!!). The reviewer doesn’t seem to be aware of even a hint of irony as he exults that the restaurant isn’t your traditional Rittenhouse dog and pony show while simultaneously titillating his audience by name dropping local celebrities (Did you hear that Charles Barkley & Cliff Lee ate there!) and the open kitchen (We can actually watch our chef celeb the “invisible man” cut the purslane!). The forum for this, a magazine aimed at mainline mommies and trustafarians, makes it all the more laughable.

I had dinner there a few nights ago. It was Ok at best. The dishes sound good on the menu and then fall short when they arrive. Maybe you have to be a celebrity or a food critic to get “the good food” there. Anyway I won’t be back.

Don’t believe the hype