Midtown Lunch

While deciding where to take my roommate for her final lunch in Philly before moving back to Hawaii, we remembered that Mercato recently started lunch service. The promise of fancy pasta, outdoor seating, and the BYO policy was too good to resist and certainly worth the few dollars more per dish than the typical Midtown Lunch. With 235 reviews on Yelp, Mercato is a popular dinner spot. Reservations are only taken for early bird seating so the wait can sometimes be painful. This makes lunch the perfect time to go.

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This week I was invited back by The Capital Grille to try out their new spring additions to their $18 plates menu.

The 3 course has some spring friendly, lighter options.

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Today,  profiled luncher Stephanie enjoys some Belgian Tavern fare in Old City.

There’s no shortage of bars in our old city, Khyber Pass Pub and Eulogy and Khyber Pass Pub are some of the few remaining old bars in Olde City. One rainy Thursday afternoon (lunch only served Thurs-Sunday, so don’t say I didn’t warn you when you show up on a Monday), a coworker and I decided to cross Chestnut Street and head to Eulogy for a hearty pub lunch.

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This week I was invited by The Capital Grille to try out their new $18 plates menu. Spoiler: the lobster roll was a good enough value that it was worth sharing despite the over $10 price tag.

The new $18 lunch at Capital Grille offers an entree with a side and a soup or salad. You still get the same Capital Grille experience, complete with crumber bearing waiters and portraits of mustachioed gentleman. Each course was brought out quickly; The Grille could easily keep its promise of getting you in and out in under 45 minutes if you ask.

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Jones is Steven Starr’s comfort food haven. Not surprising, it is his prices that are less comforting.   I have to give credit where credit is due, and the classic grilled cheese and tomato soup combo ($10) is what you want when you catch a chill and your mommy isn’t around to heat up your soup and cut your sandwich into triangles.

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Update 10/12/11: Ralph’s has just made some changes to the dinner and lunch menu so some of the things I ate are no longer “Midtown Lunch” budget friendly. They have, however, added sandwiches like chicken parm and homemade roast pork that are under $10.

With new food trucks and restaurants opening constantly, its easy to forget about the staples that have been around forever. At Ralph’s Italian Restaurant, started by Italian immigrants, keeping Philadelphia fed with good Italian cooking has been the goal for 100 years. Now, a long history alone is not going to win me over, i.e. Snocky’s. But the lunchtime crowd gave me a feeling there was more than just a beautiful story of the American Dream at play.

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Whether from a truck, a cart, a hole in the wall, or a sit down restaurant with hipster waiter service, I like tacos. What I don’t like is paying a lot for them. Las Cazuelas, a Mexican restaurant in Olde Kensington, has found a perfect middle ground of authentic food, an unpretentious, homey-cute atmosphere, and low prices. And as it turns out, I ended up eating  a lot more than just their tacos.

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