Fork — Restaurant in Philadelphia

Wife and I are foodies. We ordered the house menu ($75/person)...we eat out frequently, and fine dine every two weeks or so. We dined at 9PM. The following are our thoughts of Fork.

BARTENDER: A solid nod to the bartender. Old-era charm of doing it right, and not cutting corners. Wife enjoyed a great fruity cocktail he made with St Germain and Tequila and Grapefruit juice. Perfection!

HOST: Even more pretentious and over the top snob than Louis Vuitton Sales Associates. This took away from the experience.

WAIT STAFF: Knowledgeable, attentive, and somewhat friendly, yet a bit pretentious. They describe the food in a very sterile way. Much the same as you would read out loud the ingredients off the side of a box of Cheerios. First class airline stewards do the same thing as they present you a card with the few choices they have on offer.

ATMOSPHERICS: Philadelphia has some amazing looking restaurants. I would give Fork a B- for their decor. I love that they have an open kitchen. The place looks very crowded, and there is no sense of luxury or a sense that you can "be seen" here. We arrived early for our reservation, and we were in a line for five minutes. The place was packed. We stood at the side of the bar with others who were waiting to be seated. We ordered drinks, while the wait staff bumped in to us asking us to move while they dig through their basket of house wines at the side of the bar. We closed out our tab after our one drink. 20 minutes later, and finally ...the host asked us to "...settle our bar bill, since I will seat you soon." That was off-putting. Many ways that could have been offered in a better way. Obviously, no communication between staff.

FOOD: Fork suffers with an identity disorder. It is the quintessential fat mechanic who paints in watercolors on recycled canvas at night. In other words, there are two distinct wheel houses here.

On one side: amazing steak, lamb and pasta...well-prepared, perfect temperature, excellent taste, and not too "foo-foo"-like.

On the other side: (and where I take issue)...they seem to have a fetish with butter, cucumbers, and bread. We began with a small slice of cantaloupe with something surrounding the middle of it (like a cantaloupe sushi???) (During the course of our dinner, we must have been introduced to nine different kinds of butter, and five different kinds of bread (I may be off by one in my count)...most of them tasting like "so-what?"

Some of the dishes were so "foo-foo"-like, you cant help but ask, "...why is there a flower pedal on my icecream, and why is this half-pickled cucumber mandolin-sliced, and shaped like a flower?"

I have a feeling that the chef/cooks in the kitchen really do know how to cook...but they bother themselves with non-sense on your plate. Imagine bringing your car in to be detailed. You expect the car to be vacuumed, a good shampoo, armor-all, wash, and wax...but then you pick up your car, and the car seat has plastic packing airbags and packing peanuts on the seat before you enter (which you need to remove before you sit), and the steering wheel has a small bow on it, like you would expect on a Christmas Pollyanna gift at the office....(right :) ?)

Overall, we did not leave hungry, and the food was fresh (although my wife had a stomach ache), but that might be from eating sweet corn ice cream, and blackberry syrup, and a half pound of butter, after pasta, beef and lamb.

Oh, and I forgot to add the celery soda, and the yellow watermelon cream soda that were offered to us in small glass candle holder-like glasses to "clear our pallet."

Fork! Get on with it! You know how to make an awesome plate of food. Stop screwing around with the "foo-foo", and stick to one wheel house!

Since this is Philly, there are many other better restaurants...I would not recommend this place. Every seat in the house was taken, and reservations are a must, but...

Dropped by Fork for an early dinner last week. Hadn't been there in a few years but I'd always enjoyed the relaxed, warm atmosphere and pleasant casual service, plus the variety of options and balance portions. Always used Fork's Ahi Tuna dish and roasted brussel sprouts as an example of how divine these dishes could be. The restaurant we stepped into was not the old Fork.

Gone was the warm atmosphere. All the tables are black stone set in an "autumn" atmosphere design with no leaves left on the tree (standing bare in the middle). Gone are the options to choose from a variety of side dishes to go with a wide variety of main courses, all reasonably priced. Instead you get a "tasting meal" for $75 per person - with miniscule portions of everything. I did not think dinner rolls came that small. Or artisan bread came that burnt. We were assured that the butters were special but frankly could not really tell any difference.

From the moment we opened the drink menu as we waited for our table my instinct was to close it and walk out. Prices were more than doubled compared to most comparable restaurants. Wanted just a glass of red wine but at $14 to $17 a glass, the better option was beer.

The food options, while not seeming overpriced turned out to be so when we saw the portion sizes. A salad that involved basically one apple peeled very thin, a few nuts, some freeze-dried greens, and a dressing, while tasting ok was over-priced at $17. The main meal option we selected - a white cheese based lasagne - was $28. While the food was nice - but not something I would rave about like I did food at the old Fork. The service was something else.

There is a difference between attentive and obsessive. We were greeted with legions of black dressed women and black-suited men clusters around, hanging out, waiting for something to happen. When a course ended, one would come over to wipe any crumbs from our table and a second would appear moments later to dry where the other had wiped - least our crumbs somehow spoiled their perfect, sterile atmosphere.

Granted we were on the early side of the dinner hour, but there were so many bodies around in what is not that big a room that it took some effort to get through them to get to the ladies room. Of course while one left the table for that chore, a wait person quickly came over to refold a napkin left unfolded while one was away. Obsessive has meant it's match.

While this should have been an enjoyable atmosphere it was anything but. Cold and sterile are the words that come to mind. Over-priced is another. Pretentious fits as well.

Just one other note - these staff need to be trained to slow down and speak up. Our waitress went through their long list of special so fast, and so quietly, my husband and I both had no idea of what we'd just been offered and what questions to ask. It would have helped to have something...

Fork - A Dichotomy of First Impressions and Culinary Excellence

Upon arrival at Fork, our initial encounter presented a study in contrasts. The welcoming committee commenced with an affable greeter, whose genuine enthusiasm and radiant smile engendered an immediate sense of hospitality. Her efficient collection of our particulars and subsequent direction to a comfortable waiting area instilled an anticipatory air for the forthcoming dining experience.

However, this auspicious commencement was promptly eclipsed by an ensuing interaction of a less felicitous nature. A subsequent member of the establishment's personnel accosted our party with a markedly inhospitable comportment, subjecting us to a barrage of inquiries delivered in a manner that could only be characterized as discourteous and superfluous. Despite our earnest conveyance that the preliminary greeter had duly procured the requisite data, this individual adopted a defensive posture and appeared to engage in a display of dominance vis-à-vis her colleague, thereby engendering an atmosphere of palpable unprofessionalism.

Notwithstanding the inauspicious commencement, the ambiance of Fork proved to be a veritable balm, assuaging the initial disquietude. The judicious deployment of candlelit tables and ambient illumination served to cultivate an atmosphere of both moodiness and romance, thus establishing an ideal backdrop for an evening of epicurean indulgence. Furthermore, the attentiveness exhibited by the service staff, evidenced by their diligent replenishment of our water glasses, merited commendation.

The culinary offerings at Fork constituted the zenith of the evening's sojourn. I elected to partake of the Peconic Escargot, Cressonnette on Brioche, a gastronomic composition of no small repute. The dish, characterized by a harmonious amalgamation of escargot and fungi served atop a buttery brioche, evinced a symphony of flavors that titillated the palate. While the gustatory experience was undeniably sublime, I found the salinity to be marginally excessive for my personal predilections. Moreover, I would have welcomed a more munificent allocation of escargot, as the dish appeared to contain a disproportionate quantity of fungi relative to the titular ingredient. Ergo, I would apportion a...