Elwood — Restaurant in Philadelphia

Elwood is a wonderful, little BYOB gem that is too easy to miss if you don't know to look for it.

The small quarters end up feeling cozy rather than cramped due to a pleasant atmosphere and smart booking management. The staff works well to help foster that environment. They do a great job with explaining the menu and delving into detail behind each piece.

It is a small menu, but does offer enough variety to give you a choice. The kitchen is "farm to table and "nose to tail," so you are presented with local choices.

The meal started a complimentary amuse-bouche of venison scrapple topped with a pepper jelly. The venison scrapple was good, but not clearly recognizable as venison versus beef and did have that distinctive scrapple texture, which if you don't like to begin with will be unpleasant for you. We tried multiple appetizers from the snapper soup to the charcuterie to the rolls. The snapper soup was good and nice to try. If you like fish soups the turtle soup will also be a winner for you, but like a good fish soup most of the flavours are subtle and not "in your face." The charcuterie offered a rabbit liver mousse, chicken rillette, a smoked sausage, and variety of add-ons. It was all incredibly rich and delicious, but the add-ons definitely helped too.

Entrees are definitely strong points for the meal. The guinea hen was served with a spelt porridge and roasted brussel sprouts. Each component worked on its own or as a complete bite. The guinea hen was cooked perfectly resulting in a delicious and moist meal. The beef cut for the night was flank and served med-rare (although you could presumably change the temperature if you so desired). Just like the poultry dish, the kitchen did the beef justice. It was accompanied with hen-of-the-wood mushrooms and root vegetables, both of which were well executed and added to the dish.

Dessert was a funnel cake and warm cider. The warm cider was very nice, but the funnel cake was unquestionably the low point of the meal. It didn't hurt the meal on a whole, but it didn't properly round it off or enhance it and could have been skipped. The check came with a molasses cookie which was delicious and definitely finished the meal on a higher note than...

Elwood is a delicious restaurant and a wonderful dining experience. I went there in 2022 to celebrate with my fiance when we first got engaged. It’s intimate and unpretentious and clearly a lot of thought and care has gone into the menu and the recipes and the experience. My family is from Pennsylvania Dutch country and I was so excited to discover Elwood.

However, here’s why I’m giving it 3 stars. I was looking for a last minute reservation for 5 people for my birthday. My mom is pescatarian and cannot eat meat. On their FAQs it says that most of the food is cooked with animal fat instead of oil. I was excited at the idea of taking my mom to a restaurant that has so much of the food she grew up eating. So I called to ask if all of the food had animal fat in it or if there was anything a vegetarian could eat at all. The person who answered the phone was so mean. They kept saying they didn’t understand what I was asking and asked if I thought mashed potatoes and salad had animal fat in it. The websites says “We do our best to use the entirety of the animal and animal fats are used in most dishes in lieu of oil.”

It’s hard to convey how bizarre and belittling the person was being. By the end of the call I was in tears.

In conclusion, do go to Elwood. It’s a great restaurant and a great experience. Just don’t call them on the phone, especially it seems when whoever it is that answers is...

Such a lovely place with great food. The restaurant has a handful of tables and it seems that they turned a row home into a restaurant. It almost feels like you’re invited to the owner’s house.

We had pierogi, bison steak, and funnel cake. Pierogi was one of the best I’ve had. It was so soft inside but still has a great texture outside. Braised meat served with the pierogi was also really good. Bison steak was cooked perfect and the side dishes made it fun. The chili sauce and red sauce were really good! The portion is generous and it was a lot for two although we finished cause it was so good. We ended with a funnel cake which was so good and the strawberry jelly was so fresh and delicious.

This place has a really good vibe. We saw a couple sharing their wine to other table from another country because they didn’t know it was BYOB. Everyone was so nice to each other and the owner and staff were very kind and professional too.

It is definitely one the most unique restaurant in Philadelphia and the price is very reasonable considering the portion and the quality. Also it’s BYOB so that’s also...