TOWNSEND EPX — Restaurant in Philadelphia

Restaurant? Lol you got to be kidding me. This place has nothing to do with the restaurant business and here is my opinion. When you come to a restaurant, there is a hostess, smiling and greeting you as you walk in, correct? Not here. In a restaurant, when the phone is ringing, somebody should pick it up and not let it ring continuously loud throughout the night, correct? Not here. Hello, a potential customer is looking for you In a restaurant you have some Servers, correct? Not here. The server is the cook, Coming out of the kitchen with your dish, could be a gimmick, but felt ridiculous, due to the fact that there were no servers. So who’s taking the orders? Keep reading it gets sadder. In a restaurant, you have a bartender that manning the bar throughout the night taking care of the customers sitting on the bar, correct? Not here. In a restaurant, the menu on the website should be up-to-date, correct? Not here. No risotto, no gnocchi, no duck, no lamb, no tuna no seas-bass and so on and on and on.

What do they have? They have one person running all over the place trying to catch his tail and be all-in-1 the luck of staff multitasking. He was the hostess, the server, the bartender, the cleaning guy and probably the only authority on site. unfortunately he didn’t have time to pick up the numerous loud phone calls.

Disrespectful and humiliating, that’s how we felt as your guests. Not by the Superman guy, but by whoever took this poor decision of cutting low manpower.

Food: Nothing wrong with the food, looks clean, good and sexy. 2 winner dishes were the beef tartar and the wild mushroom tortellini. Cauliflower bisque, foie gras, roasted chicken and the venison were ok-good. There was no dessert printed on the menu, and the superman guy didn’t offer it, I guess he has other tables and bar customers to take care of, so no time for “selling”. We had 4 different cocktails that were between good and ok, depending your favorite flavors. We had 2 beers, both drought, one was cold as ice and the other one was lukewarm. Either the glass came right out of the dishwasher, either it was poured out of a warm bottle to a pre-chilled glass.

There are no photos of ambient on their website, I guess it’s because the poor inside room decoration. 1 pale painting on a white wall, and if nobody seats next to the fire place, you can actually see it. The bar looks normal, nothing “sexy”. Dinning area chairs are old and ragged, Not comfortable for a long sitting. Some of the tables inside weren’t set for service, made me think they knew it’s going to be a slow night (Sunday night before president day), so why bother look like a restaurant, let’s look like a corner store.

Button line - thumbs up for the Superman guy- he deserves every $$ I hope he didn’t stay to wash all the dishes.

Owners/ managers- hopefully in the future you’ll look and run the business like a professional French/...

Restaurant 4/5 Service 3/5 Food 2/5

Went here with my girlfriend prior to the pandemic for Valentines day Special, with Prefix 4 course tasting menu.

First of all. For the price: Over $125 per person. (Drinks not included) We definitely expected better.

-Restaurant- ambiance, cleanliness, overall appearance. Overall the restaurant looks "good" and clean, setup was not overly crowded, 2nd floor was a nice touch, with a bar right below it.

-Service- Hostesses were very welcoming and friendly. Waitresses and waiters were pretty attentive, but just doesn't seem to enjoy their job. The mood was very "just eat a get out-ish" Takes your order, bring you the food, explain it quickly and walks away" No follow ups.

-Food- This is where it fell short for us. The very first bite ( I won't even call it a course, since it is such a tiny bite, it is almost size of our pinky) I get it was supposed to be amuse-bouche, but I didn't think I was going to be sharing one single amuse-bouche that looked like it had been cut in half and share with my girlfriend. It would not be so bad, if it had tasted good, it didn't. It had no flavor, other than an overwhelming amount of saltiness. amuse-bouche is supposed to be a small bite pack with a large punch of flavor.

Our 2nd course was "OK" at best. It was supposed to be a soup, but it mirrors of what could be a single scoop of cream of broccoli from Wawa top with a tiny piece of Ravioli.

Our main entree was supposed to be stuffed veal. "Pretty good" But it tasted like someone had simply stuffed a steak inside fish cake, and cut it into slices and call it fine dining.

Dessert (Chocolate layer cake) - More like "Dessaster" It tasted frozen and not homemade, like someone had gone to a Supermarket bought a box of cake and cut it into pieces and giving them to customers. The cake itself tasted old and dry. Sadly neither one of us took more than 2 bites.

Conclusion: Would I go there again? Probably not... there's much better options around the area for the same if not...

Seems like east passyunk is the spot to eat! We had a dinner date tonight and Townsend did not disappoint. Staff - nice as could be and so knowledgeable about the cuisine. There was one mumbler and had a good laugh with the table next to us because we couldn't hear what he was trying to describe. The took our coats, made sure we were comfy and ready to eat. My husband and I love trying a variety so we comfortably were able to share 1 first course, 2 second course and 2 entrees Below is everything we had - Hamachi tartare - it was very good with a variety of flavors and texture. There was a mixture of finely diced apples that gave it a nice crunch Potato gnocchi - I could have just eat this alone. Possible my favorite dish. There was so much going on, it was in a sauce mixed with bacon bits, sun dried tomatoes, mushrooms - just get it Escargot - I'm used to escargot being in a butter sauce but this was pleasantly in a creme friache sauce with bacon and carmelized onions. I loved it. Lamb - it is cooked two ways, a shoulder braised with grapes and pear, and then a loin that is seared just right. I The lamb was cooked perfectly with a medium center. The fruit flavors gave the shoulder a great hint of sweetness and the meat was so tender Venison - my least favorite dish. I was underwhelmed and almost disappointed with this dish. There was so much flavor missing from this dish. It was wrapped with some sort of green mixture and topped with shaved truffle. There wasn't any flavor to the truffle.. it didn't have that earthy flavor or smell to the dish. It was just kind of there for me to push off and eat. I would not get this again if I went. Sadly, we did not leave room for dessert. Plenty of space at the tables, there is even an upstairs! They had an adequate wine selection to go with dinner. Overall a solid dinner, we really...