Fork (Philadelphia)
Fork
306 Market St.
Philadelphia, PA
215.625.9425
Hours: Monday-Thursday 11:30am-10:30pm, Friday 10:30am-11:30pm, Saturday 5:00pm-11:30pm, Sunday 11:30am-2:30pm, 5:30-10:30pm
Appetizers $7-$18
Entrees $19-$33
Desserts $6-$8
Upscale casual
Reservations recommended
Walk through the heavy drapes at the door of Fork, a New American spot in Philadelphia’s Old City, and you’ll find yourself in low-lit serenity, with plenty of snacking options.
Fork, which serves up seasonal New American cuisine that incorporates Asian, French, and Spanish influences, prints its menus daily to reflect the availability of certain ingredients.
Your best bet is to choose from the daily chef’s selection of tapas, or small plates, which are recited by the restaurant’s servers, rather than printed on the menu. Our four picks — meatballs with smoky ancho chiles; an edamame and tomato salad with parsley, onion, and avocado; spicy chicken satay; and a nice combination of olives, capers, and cornichon (little pickles) — were delightfully flavorful, as were the oatmeal-wheat rolls we received with our wine.
Entrées were less exciting, however. Pan-seared salmon benefited from a coating of fiery green chile paste and crunchy, skinny snow peas, but the accompanying coconut-lemongrass broth and shiitake mushrooms failed to ignite tastebuds. An herb-roasted chicken leg was moist but pretty pedestrian. My companion warmed up to the chicken’s sauce chasseur, which we later learned is a French brown sauce made of mushrooms, white wine, and shallots. The dish’s undisputed highlight was chunks of honey-roasted butternut squash, stellar and sweet.
Unless you forgo an entrée in favor of small-plate snacking, you’ll want to share the Hungry Man-sized desserts. Raspberry sorbet with a sugar cookie is a refreshing end to the meal, but it’s served in a bowl the size of a dinner plate, the better to accommodate three large scoops of the deep pink sorbet. A mammoth slice of coconut challah bread pudding was eggy and delicious at first, but soggy and even a bit burnt toward the bottom. The Tahitian vanilla gelato paired with the pudding was sublime.
Fork offers about a dozen wines by the glass. We tried a 2006 Pierre Frite Chenin Blanc ($9), which was lip-smackingly good. The mostly French and Italian wine list includes about 20 bottles under $40.
Comments
By Alison L. McConnell
Alison L. McConnell is a Washington, D.C.-based journalist and writer. A native of New Jersey and upstate New York, she attended Bowdoin College in Maine and the London School of Economics before settling in Washington, where she works as a financial reporter, food freelancer, and studies at L’Academie de Cuisine. Some of her favorite things to make are risottos, roast chickens, and cakes. She abides by a long-standing family motto: McConnells always finish their desserts.
About The Humble Gourmand
The Humble Gourmand is published the first Friday of each month, edited by Alison L. McConnell, a Washington, D.C.-based journalist and writer. It is designed to offer straightforward lessons and advice to aspiring cooks, oenophiles, and all other eaters and drinkers.
The Humble Gourmand encourages users to comment on any and all of its features, but reserves the right to remove any material deemed inappropriate.
No one has posted any comments yet. Perhaps you'd like to be the first?
Post yours
You're not logged in. Would you like to register or log in?.