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| very romantic |
Pumpkin gets the honor of being the first restaurant on South Street (starting from the western end) that is already well-established as a foodie's heaven. And it definitely deserves to be carved out in that niche, because it was well worth the wait of finally making it out. We tried to get reservations 2-3 weeks ahead for restaurant, but the entire restaurant was already booked for the entire duration. Once we arrived at the restaurant, I understood why - there were maybe 4 or 5 tables in the whole restaurant, and the waitstaff does a great job of making you feel welcome. We had 6 people, and because the restaurant is so small, we were granted the table for the entire evening - or at least, for several hours - so there was no feeling of being rushed in eating, drinking or waiting for guests to arrive. The inside is very rustic looking, with lots of washed out wood paneling. The intimacy of the restaurant made it feel very welcoming, yet you also get a sense of feeling like you're part of some secret club, because you're one of the few people who somehow were able to get a table. But I never got an air of pretension, which I will admit I sort of thought I might experience upon dining there. So that's a good thing.
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| check out that beautiful color |
Pumpkin is BYOB (and cash only, so keep that in mind if you plan to go!), so we had a few bottles of wine and a great sour Belgian beer to last the evening. We cracked open a few bottles while waiting for everyone to arrive, and then our meal began. We went on Sunday, where there is a fixed price menu (or prix fixe for all you fine dining folks out there). The menu included 5 dishes, 3 of which you got choose between 2 options. Amongst the 6 of us, I think we managed to get every possible option on the menu, so I got to sample everything. Warning: several photos of food from an iPhone (although not passed through an Instagram filter).
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| pork terrine |
The first course was a chilled beet soup with Randy Marsh's favorite food item, crème fraiche. I am a new convert to beets as they sort of freak me out because I have weird texture issues with food, but I really enjoy their flavor and of course their gorgeous color. I'm not a big enough foodie to comment on presentation in any more than a simplistic manner, but I always enjoy dishes that have either a variety of colors (it usually means I am eating a wide variety of vegetables, which is a good thing) or really play up the vibrant hues of a particular food item. The soup was a beautiful reddish pink, and the texture was delightfully foamy. The next course was a choice between pork terrine and chowder. I think I've mentioned this before, but I am not a huge seafood fan even though I hail from Cape Cod, so I went with the obvious choice of the pork terrine and did not try the chowder. Check out Sandya's review for an opinion on that. I am also not the biggest fan of pâté (terrine is a slightly coarser version of pâté), because again, the texture issue, but this was wrapped in bacon, so how can you say no to that? It was delicious, but it was a little hard for me to get over the texture issue - but that's a personal quirk, not a fault of the food itself.
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| mmm coddled egg + pork cheek |
The next dish was gruyère cheese served with a carrot salad. Gruyère is among my favorite types of cheese, so I was certainly happy with the flavor, and the carrot salad added a nice crisp freshness to balance out the crumbly and dry texture of the cheese. The main dish then arrived, which was a choice between salmon and pork cheek. I went with pork cheek, because although I do love salmon, any non-breakfast dish that uses some kind of egg in it immediately catches my attention, and this one came with a coddled egg. It was a nice medley of pork, egg and polenta - the pork was very rich, but it was the right portion size and the egg was a perfect choice to go with all that flavor. I tried a piece of the salmon, and while it was cooked very nicely, I didn't find that the flavor was all that impressive, so I was glad I chose the pork.
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| heaven in your mouth |
And finally, my favorite dish, dessert! The choices were butterscotch pudding or almond financier - and let me tell you, they were both amazing. I went with the butterscotch pudding, and it was by far my favorite dish of the meal. The crushed gingersnap, the rum soaked raisins, and the whipped cream (perhaps a little on the clotted cream side) together with the pudding - get it all in one spoonful and it's heaven in your mouth. The flavors and textures worked so well together, it's definitely one of the most memorable desserts I've had in the city.
With so many delightful dishes, it's hard not to comment a lot about Pumpkin. The food was fantastic, the company was wonderful, the waitstaff were friendly and attentive, and the vibe of the restaurant was very welcoming. I might just have to give it the honor of being the best stop on our saunter so far, but I imagine it has some competition coming up when we get to the other famed restaurants on South Street - Supper and Percy Street BBQ.
Pumpkin
1713 South Street
Philadelphia, PA
(215) 545-4448
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