Why I Love Philly {Restaurant Week Edition}

There are so many reasons to love Philly. The art, the culture, the fact that I live two steps away from a bar. That's all great and lovely, but I'm here to bless your eyeballs with some food porn that Patrick and I experienced during Restaurant Week last weekend. We chose Common Wealth Old City, but I'm convinced there is not a single bad restaurant on the list.

If you don't know what Restaurant Week is, here it is in a nutshell. Dozens of incredible restaurants offer a prix fixe menu for lunch or dinner at an amazingly affordable price so you can try an otherwise expensive three-course meal. You get to choose from a handful of options for each course, so there's seriously something for everyone to enjoy, blah blah blah...get ready for the food!

I appreciate a good whimsical tin cup filled with adult beverages.

Round One: Hushpuppies with crawfish and a spicy smooth delicious dipping sauce that I want to lather all over my body okaybye. OH and scallops served with collard greens that used a savory pancake as their serving vessel. Here for it yass. My GOSH those scallops were seared perfectly.

Round Two: I picked the roasted carrot and beet salad over cottage cheese with pistachios. It was perfectly light for a second dish. But the real show-stopper was the crab soup that Patrick got. We agreed that we wanted a gallon of it. If you go to Common Wealth for just this soup, you wouldn't regret it.

Round Three: Okay you can't tell how amazing these mushroom and oyster ravioli are from the picture. Also who knew that was the ravioli combination that we all needed?! Seriously I would swan dive into that bowl right now, mouth wide open. Can you tell that was my favorite dish?? The fresh peas were such a welcome textural addition to this as well (yes I watch too much Chopped and think I sound like Alex Guarnaschelli. Girl, you want a personal assistant to taste test recipes? I'm here for you!) Patrick got the braised short ribs over cheesy polenta and yes, it was delicious! But I'm little busy fan-girling over the ravioli okay? Let me live my life.

Finale: These ballssss. They were a mouthful of airy, slightly sweet dough perfectly mixed with ricotta and topped with a raspberry glaze that oozed over them oh so sensually. A very welcome surprise dessert of the day.

We finished the night at Blue Cross River Rink where we realized that 1) ice skating is easier said than done while tipsy and 2) we're pretty awful at ice skating. Seriously, we grabbed one of those plastic walker things that children use...I think it made things worse. But...I have never smiled so hard in one night. I think we should sit fireside sipping hot spiked cider more often :)

Thank you, Philly. I really do love you.

xoxo,

Kiera