Marigold Kitchen, Chef-Owner Rob Halpern's Modernist BYOB in University City

[DonRocks]

Definitely give Django a go next time-- that place is really something special.

Having urged Bill to try Marigold Kitchen, I guess I should chime in to add that from my one experience, Marigold Kitchen is as fine a dining experience as I've had in months. I had that same lamb dish Bill ordered and thought it was superb. The halibut was 50% cheaper and 100% better than the halibut I had the night before at the ridiculously expensive Striped Bass. The clam-chowder risotto was fabulous, and the amazing grilled-cheese is legitimate charity at $8. Marigold Kitchen is BYOB, so there is zero corkage for bringing your own wine - it would be difficult, if not impossible, to spend $50 a person here. And the service was even better than the food - this place goes atop my list of 2005 restaurants.

Cheers,

Rocks.

[bilrus]

Having urged Bill to try Marigold Kitchen, I guess I should chime in to add that from my one experience, Marigold Kitchen is as fine a dining experience as I've had in months.  I had that same lamb dish Bill ordered and thought it was superb.  The halibut was 50% cheaper and 100% better than the halibut I had the night before at the ridiculously expensive Striped Bass.  The clam-chowder risotto was fabulous, and the amazing grilled-cheese is legitimate charity at $8.  Marigold Kitchen is BYOB, so there is zero corkage for bringing your own wine - it would be difficult, if not impossible, to spend $50 a person here.  And the service was even better than the food - this place goes atop my list of 2005 restaurants.

Cheers,

Rocks.

And I certainly don't hold it against you, DR. The food was very good in a cozy setting.

And our bill was only $60

[cjsadler]

FYI, Django was sold , being bought by the former chef at Rx and Bleu.

I was at Marigold tonight, and it made me seriously regret not getting there earlier this year, when it was getting some very high praise. The chef left a couple months ago and the restaurant was closed for most of Sept while the owner and sous chef regrouped. Should have taken that as more of a warning. And I should have walked straight away when I arrived to find the menu prices about 50% higher, with most entrees now around $30. Long story short, the food seems to be nothing like it was (judging partly from the old pictures on their website). It was average and over-priced... cross this one off your list. I do have to admit that the one redeeming value was the service, which was excellent. They even gave me an extra course of foie gras and apple, gratis. I think this was solely due to the fact that I was a solo diner-- a very thoughtful gesture.

Marigold and Django are some tough losses for the Philly dining scene.

[monavano]

BYOB recommendations include Django and Marigold Kitchen . I will be posting a review of Amada in a few minutes, once I try to download pictures. Although not a byob, this Spanish tapas restaurant in Old City is a DO NOT MISS in Philly. More to come...

eta: reviewed by Tom S. in "Postcards:

[purplesachi]

Marigold was excellent - we had the five course tasting menu, which I thought was a good deal at $50. Highlights included escargot, turbot in saffron sauce, and roast pork wraped in grape leaves. Having heard that Marigold has been inconsistent lately, I am happy to report that our dishes were well-executed. Our service was semi-aloof, but got the job done, wine opened and decanted, etc.

can you (or anyone else) give more insight on the tasting menu? are choices off the full regular menu that is posted on their website? i'm wondering if i should order a la carte or go with the tasting menu when i go in two weeks.

also, marigold's website says the tasting menu is $60. is it $50 or $60?

any thoughts are appreciated.

[Keithstg]

can you (or anyone else) give more insight on the tasting menu? are choices off the full regular menu that is posted on their website? i'm wondering if i should order a la carte or go with the tasting menu when i go in two weeks.

also, marigold's website says the tasting menu is $60. is it $50 or $60?

any thoughts are appreciated.

$60 - sorry about that. Tasting menu consists of choices off the regular menu -chef's surprise, unless you have an allergy, dislike, etc. for one particular ingredient / dish - they are very accomodating.

[mdt]

Marigold's Kitchen - Never been, but it's on my list. Heard lots of good things about their "modern" cooking - doing the whole molecular gastronomy thing.

I have heard good things too, but these pics certainly don't make me want to rush and eat there.

[DonRocks]

[These paragraphs were copied from The Mother Thread as part of larger posts.

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It's old news by now, but erin o'shea is leaving marigold kitchen to open a texas barbecue restaurant on south street in the fall and the restaurant is temporarily closing at the end of this month to give a new chef time to get established. In hindsight, we should have eaten dinner here and brunch at fork. I allowed one hour to walk to this university city destination from around 11th and market, and had underestimated the distance by a good 10 minutes and probably not taken the most direct route since my map ran out only blocks beyond the Schuylkill River so that we were arriving late, breathless and sweaty for our 10:00 reservation (which, as it turns out, we didn't need). By the time we reached the 500 block of south 45th street, we were walking so fast, in such a hurry, that we passed right by the place and stopped two blocks beyond, where my wife insisted we were lost and tried to hail a cab and I decided to ask the first person on the street if she knew the whereabouts of larchwood avenue, the cross street we were looking for. Not only did she know, but she was also heading to the same place, and she turned out to be our server. Along the short distance back from where we had come, to the restaurant, which is hidden away in a house that she said even some of the neighbors don't know about, we got to talking about fork, and she said that she had been there a few times and always ended up feeling disappointed. The small meal that followed was bliss, just the pick-me-up I needed when I was starting to feel I had become entirely jaded and unable to recognize good cooking. I had been blaming myself for the experience the night before. we shouldn't have eaten so close before dinner, which was a wallop of a breakfast at the dutch eating place in the reading terminal market of the eggiest apple and cinnamon French toast imaginable, sopping in butter, sitting by thick slices of turkey bacon. If I had come to fork famished, I would have loved it. I would have licked its plates. (and there is some truth to this: one of the most gratifying meals I have had in my entire life was at a gloppy Eskimo Chinese restaurant beyond Whitehorse after subsisting for a week along the dempster highway on pudding pops, apple sauce and caribou jerky.) it doesn't sound like much, but marigold kitchen's maple glazed hot smoked salmon with poached egg and potato roti was well worth the hike, simply perfect any way you look at it. silken in texture, anointed with egg and rounded out with the potato cake, this was some of the best fish ever, so plain and so easy it seemed, yet quietly exalted, accompanied by a small mound of lightly dressed arugula, beet greens, baby lettuce and lemony purslane. I've been running into a lot of places these days that want to cook this way, but few have the ability to carry it off. Here, at least for several more days, they do it assuredly and with a whisper.

Walking around the city created some room for dinner at Marigold Kitchen. We both opted for "just" 3 courses: butterfish (tasty) and sweatbreads in crispy chicken skins (phenomenal; Landrum should ditch that batter and use this Palena-like skin for his apps) appetizers; lamb three-ways (a lamb stew was everything that Chef Gerard Panguad had hoped to execute at the Le Academie de Cuisine dinner) and salmon poached in olive oil (unbelievably delicate and sophisticated) for entrees; and molten chocolate cake (yes, very boring but good) and a pineapple semolina cake (devoured by my wife). Like Matyson, a totally wonderful experience that shows that it has recovered from any slippage after it sale.

Marigold was excellent - we had the five course tasting menu, which I thought was a good deal at $50. Highlights included escargot, turbot in saffron sauce, and roast pork wraped in grape leaves. Having heard that Marigold has been inconsistent lately, I am happy to report that our dishes were well-executed. Our service was semi-aloof, but got the job done, wine opened and decanted, etc.

My Philadelphia was last weekend (is it a DR.com requirement to hit Philly this summer?). Did Marigold Kitchen, Pasion and of course, Capogiro. Here are my ramblings.

I really wanted to love Marigold. I originally had reservations at Django for my trip last weekend, but on recommendations of several people, I switched to Marigold.

My wife and I had two appetizers and two entrees. Both the Grilled Cheese and the Clam Chowder Risotto blew us away with their creativity and execution, especially the bacon foam with teh grilled cheese and the plump juicy clams in the risotto. jenrus' smoked paprika tagliatelle was excellent.

Only my sous vide braised lamb shoulder was a miss - chewy and fatty but still with a nice lamb flavor that unfortunately was mostly overpowered by a one note middle-eastern spice that I couldn't quite place. Sous vide seems like the wrong way to cook such an initially tough piece of meat. But despite that the food was very good.

So what was wrong, and why didn't we have any desserts? Because it had to have been at least 80 degrees in the restaurant (well, maybe it was 78). Last Friday night was very hot and humid and we had to wait a while on the front porch / foyer area which wasn't air conditioned. We got hot and the inside wasn't much better. Anyone who was at the Pasta and Tomato event last week knows I can sweat up a storm, but it seldom happens in a restaurant.

I don't want this to come off as petty and obviously (I assume) this is an isolated incident. The food was, for the most part, top notch. But a dinner is about the whole experience and I can't say I loved Marigold.

[DonRocks]

Craig LaBan of www.philly.com reviews Marigold Kitchen, the venerable 46-seat BYOB in Spruce Hill, now helmed by Rob Halpern.