Midtown Lunch

You know its restaurant week again, right? This week and next week, excluding weekends, the 3 or 4 course $20 lunch and $35 dinner is back. There is a twist this year though, a twist I am all about. Philly Homegrown (part of Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation) has worked with Center City District and participating restaurants to get at least one option on each RW menu to include locally sourced ingredients. Philly Homegrown is all about promoting both tourists and locals alike to appreciate our locally sourced food, and why shouldn’t we? We grow nice stuff around here. At Garces Trading Company, many of the lunch options have that red tractor next to them- meaning, this dish uses some local goodness. Lucky for me, I got to try those tractor approved dishes.

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Starr’s Continental Midtown isn’t generally my type of lunch scene. Most of the “tapas” style menu that would fall in the ML sub $10 price range are not quite big enough or fun enough. But…there was a certain something that I had to try there.

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A week ago Opa started serving their new lunch menu and even offered a free lunch to show off the goods. I had only been to Opa for drinks and light snacks and was glad that the lunch menu would allow me to try their food in an affordable way.

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La Creperie Cafe is a classy Rittenhouse spot with an eclectic menu. Besides crepes, here you will find soups, salads, quiches, and oddly- paella.

On average the savory crepes run $12, which was a red flag for me. Crepes don’t need to cost that much, lets be real. But I was willing to give it the old college try and see if it could work out for me.

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I picked Nodding Head for a lunch with several co-workers because there are enough things on the menu that everyone could pick something they wanted. But since I hadn’t actually tried their food, I couldn’t vouch for their quality.  I am impressed by the fact that they brew their own beer, but do they put as much effort into the food?

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While I typically devour my tacos at Mexican run establishment and steer clear of the fancy “haute Mexican” genre, the $10 dollar  “comida corrida” at Starr’s El Rey is affordable enough to accept it’s tight pant staffed table service. Plus if I can do fancy banh mi at Chifa, I can handle an extra garnish on my taco. The express lunch comes with chips and salsa, an appetizer, and an entree.

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A friendly lunch at English pub Elephant and Castle turned into a test of manhood. Who would be tempted by their new salad menu? Who would stay strong and stick to the meat and potatoes? Who would leave full? Who would leave whiny and hungry?

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