Bellini Grill, a foray into restaurant week

          This past week was the first half of Center City Restaurant week, the confusingly named two week long event that happens across nicer restaurants in Center city about twice a year.  As many of you know, the great draw of restaurant week are the $20 three-course lunches, and the $35 three-course dinners. Theoretically, this benefits everyone.  College students, and other frugally minded people get access to restaurants normally beyond our price range, and the restaurants get fully booked for the two week period, and patronized by people who normally not consider visiting.  To guarantee that you get a good deal, I would check the normal prices at these restaurants to make sure $35 is actually a discount.  I would also avoid buying drinks during restaurant week.  I suspect anything not in the prix fixe menu gets a price bump to compensate for the reduced food prices.

          For the past year or so, I have navigated restaurant week by scouring all of the restaurant week menus with vegetarian options, and picking the option most appealing to me, and my vegetarian dining mate.  This year we opted for Bellini Grill, an Italian restaurant wedged between Walnut and Locust on 16th Street.

          We arrived to find the walls and ceiling covered in paintings.  Depending on your taste this can come off as anywhere from warm and inviting, to tacky and overdone.  The restaurant was totally full for the entirety of our 6:30 pm Thursday reservation.  In spite of this, Bellini Grill never felt crowded, or too loud.

I could not decide if I enjoyed the decor, or if they were trying
too hard.  Perhaps it was both.

          Bellini offered us four courses instead of three, which made the $35 deal even more alluring.  The first course comprised entirely of salad options.  At any other restaurant week event a salad appetizer would have been a disappointment, but the four courses offered compensated for the salad only options.  I ordered the Insalata Giardino, a garden in a balsamic dressing, and my dining companion ordered the Insalata di Rucola con Noci Arrostiti, an arugula salad with goat cheese, candied walnuts, pomegranate seeds, and a pomegranate reduction.  Both salads were comprised of fresh, high quality ingredients.  This came through in the taste.  I also found my balsamic dressing to be decidedly enjoyable.

These dishes were fresh and enjoyable...despite being mere salads.

          

            For the second course, I ordered the Escargot which came with sun dried tomatoes, spinach, garlic, and butter in a cognac reduction.  My dining buddy ordered the Bruschetta Siciliana, which was composed of chopped heirloom tomatoes, basil, red onions, extra virgin olive oil, and dry ricotta cheese.  The Escargot was excellent.  I have never tried snails before, but I am now a devout believer in their snaily deliciousness.  The cognac reduction gave the entire dish an intriguing and delectable flavor.  The snails were mildly chewy in just the right way.  My dining buddy was pleased, but less enthused with his bruschetta.  As with the salad, the ingredients were clearly fresh and high quality.  The red onions introduced a nice crunch and tanginess to the bruschetta.  However the ricotta could easily have been omitted, and the portion was a bit small.  

Do not be fooled by their modest exterior, these snails were all-powerful

You can tell the Ricotta is embarrassed to be here

          Moving on to the third course.  I ordered the Ravioli di Granchio, ravioli stuffed with jumbo lump crab meat in a brandy blush sauce with Majoram.  My dining partner ordered the Gnocchi, semolina potato and fresh goat cheese dumplings in a marinara sauce.  Lobster ravioli in blush sauce is one of my favorite things to order in Italian restaurants, so I had high hopes for this dish.  The blush sauce was mild, but still tasted rather good after some peppering.  The raviolis were very large and filled to the brim with crab meat.  I was happy to receive so much food, but disappointed to find crab ravioli tastes very odd and out of place when you are imagining lobster ravioli.  The gnocchi was an even greater disappointment to my dining companion.  He was excited for goat cheese gnocchi, but never tasted the goat cheese.  He deemed the gnocchi bland, so bland that Houston Hall produces more desirable pasta dishes on its good days.  The main course was a low point in the meal for both of us.  It was such a low point that both of our phone cameras panicked and refused to take any further photos.

          Finally dessert arrived.  After a disappointing entree my dining companion was desperate for a sugary redemption from the final course.  And redemption came.  It came in the form of crème brûlée for him  and a profiterole for me.  The crème brûlée left my dining companion wide eyed with joy. My profiterole, a cream puff filled with Chantilly cream, and covered in Swiss chocolate with raspberry sauce on the side was very decadent.   It may have been too much decadence for one person, but it certainly tasted good.

          My meal would have cost $50 on an ordinary night, and my dining buddy's meal would have run for $42.  So we did get a good deal on our food.  Bellini Grill remains a mixed bag of food quality.  The base ingredients were certainly good, but at times paired strangely or blandly, and at other times paired exquisitely.  I suspect one can get a  very good dinner here if they pick the correct items.  The escargot is certainly one such item.

          Most of my future posts will center around restaurants in West Philadelphia, and my hunt for the best of different kinds of food in this area.  I am currently searching for the best pizza, smoothies, and hot cocoa.  If you are curious about the best of some dish in West Philly, or know a restaurant I should review, let me know in the comments.