Restaurant Week Round Up: Philadelphia

Restaurant Week is both a beauty and a pain.  It's a great opportunity to try new restaurants and snag deals at old favorites, but this perfect excuse to eat out for both lunch and dinner can leave a hefty dent in your savings. For this summer's Center City Restaurant Week, I decided to exert some self control and only booked two dinners (I actually tried to book a lunch as well, but sshhhh, no one needs to know).  Here is my impression of Supper and Jamonera:

Supper:
As a fervent believer of Yelp reviews, I was a bit skeptical going into Supper because the restaurant only had three and a half stars (I know, I'm a snob) and there were complaints of the food being overly salty.  With my inexcusably limited knowledge of Southern cuisine, I was expecting the meal to be on the heavier side, salty, and with lots of fried components.  The predictions came true, but surprisingly, I ended up loving these aspects of the meal.

For appetizer I ordered the devil eggs.  Even though the dish is an American classic, this was probably only the third time I've ever had deviled eggs. The yellow one was pickled, giving it a refreshing sour taste, and the filling was spiked with horseradish, which gave us quite a punch.  The one on the left was equally delicious with its savory crab filling. We also shared hush puppies that were beautifully crispy on the outside, yet moist and buttery at the center (not pictured).  It came with an addictive pimiento dip.

For the second course, I ordered the BE farms greens and herb salad.  The buttermilk ranch dressing was surprisingly not too heavy and the cornbread pieces were great substitutes for croutons.  Although the pork cracklings gave it the necessary crunch, they didn't provide much flavor. 

My entree was white South Carolina sea bass with horchata crema and grilled Mexican corn. Although not a traditional take on Southern food, the Mexican influence made the dish exciting and innovative.  The horchata crema was the best part, and I wiped every last drop of it with the sweet corn (notice how we had corn in every dish so far, not complaining).  

The meal ended on a sweet note with a peanut butter pie with rocky road ice cream and a banoffee pudding (sadly not pictured).  Stuffed at this point, we weren't able to finish our desserts, but we enjoyed the salty/sweet profile of the pie and the real banana flavor of the pudding. 

Although I agree with fellow yelpers' ratings, Supper, with its modern yet truthful takes on beloved classics, is a great restaurant for first and second timers of Southern cuisine.

Jamonera:

There are few things I love more than Spanish tapas.  An ardent fan of other Philadelphian tapa joints, such as Tinto and Amada, I was dying to try out Jamonera, whose chef de cusine is Lindsey McClain, the winner of a Chopped episode I recently watched. Although not quite at the same caliber as Jose Garces' restaurants, Jamonera did not disappoint. 

We were served three starters: manchego cheese with marcona almonds, papa frita, and an eggplant puree with toast.  The manchego cheese cubes had just a touch of spice and paired nicely with the almonds. Their version of papa frita was unlike any other I've tasted before.  Instead of the usual wedges, these potatoes were sliced into chunks and had thick, crackled skins. The eggplant puree was good, but didn't shine next to the other two dishes. 

Next came the mushroom tostas and the warm bacon-wrapped medjool dates.  Drenched in truffle oil and topped with a variety of sautéed mushrooms, the tostas had a strong umami.  Even though I've had similar versions at other restaurants, the medjool dates were still undoubtedly delicious (how can bacon-wrapped anything not be delicious?) and the celery apple salad garnish gave it a refreshing crunch. 

Before we could even finish round two, up came round three with gambas al ajillo and pork tenderloin with fennel salad.  A staple at every Spanish tapa restaurant, gambas al ajillo basically means shrimp with garlic.  The jamonera version came with white beans and was bathing in the traditional red oil sauce, though it was pleasantly not too spicy.  The pork on the other hand was very tender and the fennel-prociutto side salad was both light and crisp. 

It seems like we have an unfortunate trend of not being able to finish desserts, because once again, we were only able to get through half of each.  It was quite unfortunate because the desserts were very good, especially the white chocolate strawberry crumble.  A spoonful of melted strawberries and cream ice cream on top of gooey, yet crunchy bread pudding was enough to send me to heaven.  The olive oil cake with peach was also tasty, but it lacked moisture and could have used more syrup.

A narrow and dimly-lit little joint, Jamonera provided us with an exciting tapa experience.  Although not the most authentic or traditional, it definitely stands on its own.