Michael Santoro’s cooking at the Mildred might seem like a departure from what he did at Talula’s Garden but rest assured, Trey Popp finds lots of good work in those cast iron pots.

[E]ven if no one’s tweezing microgreens onto sheets of asparagus gelée at the Mildred, there’s more to Santoro’s homey cooking here than meets the eye.

Take, for example, the pickled dates hiding among rustic sunchoke knobs, sweet-potato tortellini and still-crunchy fronds of flowering kale I had one evening by the barroom log fire, the tortellini’s filling balanced by bursts of sugared acidity. Or the brace of quails served over beluga lentils and diced beets. The pair looked so simple until a knife-stroke revealed them to be stuffed with ground veal and pork, dried cherries and sage, all wrapped in a delicate lace of caul fat. Delicious.

Two Stars – Good

Philadelphia Restaurant Review: American Eats at The Mildred [Philadelphia magazine]
The Mildred [Official Site]