___________________________________________________________________________________
Marigold came highly recommended on Yelp as one of the top restaurants in Philly. From the reviews, the food and concept looked rather interesting. DippinDots as an amuse bouche? We had to try it! The restaurant was on the outskirts of downtown Philly but it was an easy fifteen minute tram ride away from the hotel.
The restaurant offers a three, four or five course tasting menu. No ala carte options. We both went with the five course menu since we wanted to try more items and wasn't interested in the cheese course. We both ordered different items so we could try most of the items on the menu.
I'm not sure if it was some Philly thing, but the restaurant is BYOB, i.e. bring your own booze. We ended up bringing the bottle of sparkling wine that the Palomar had given to us.
Even before we got to our first course, we were served selection of amuse bouche. The DippinDots were unique and a nice blend of favors. My favorites were the foie gras cookie and the cauliflower foam soup. Both were so rich, decadent and yummy.
 |
| DippinDots of Brocoli, Cauliflower & Bacon |
 |
| Beef with pomegranate and chilli foam |
 |
| Foie Gras Cookie |
 |
| Cauliflower soup with bacon foam |
 |
| Ravioli with peas |
 |
| Cheese Pillow |
The first two courses was the appetizers and you could do both cold or hot appetizers or one each. The hamarchi was okay but the herb broth prepared table side and mushrooms were superb. The foie gras prepared 3 ways was definitely the highlight - creme brulee foie gras? Enough said.
 |
| Head Cheese Terrine |
 |
| Octopus |
 |
| Hamarchi |
 |
| Foie Gras 3 ways |
Prior to the main course, we were served a raspberry palate cleanser.
The third course was fish. The monkfish was just okay since didn't really enjoy the black olives. The one huge grilled scallop was delicious, cooked perfectly and paired well with the rich pea and bacon sauce.
 |
| Monkfish |
 |
| Scallops in Parmesan broth |
By now, we were getting pretty full. This probably contributed to the meats just being okay - nothing too memorable.
 |
| Lamb |
 |
| Veal |
If that wasn't enough food, there was even a pre-dessert course!
 |
| Strawberry with meringue |
 |
| Poppy seed doughnut |
The dessert course started with a bang with some liquid nitro that was used to freeze all the components in the strawberry dessert! It was a good show but I actually preferred the pistachio to the strawberry dessert but I might be bias since I'm not much of a strawberry fan to begin with.
 |
| Pistachio creme |
 |
| Strawberries with white chocolate powder |
We were one of the last diners left in the restaurant when we were done. The executive chef personally came around the tables to say thank you and made sure everything was good which I thought was a nice gesture.
Overall, we thoroughly enjoyed the dinner. It took us about four hours to go through all that food but it was one fun evening with all the fun and unique amuse bouche and pre desserts. We would definitely make it a point to return if we're ever back in Philly.
No comments:
Post a Comment