#59 Serpico - The other Sandy's synopsis

As a founding member of the official “Foodie” club at work – we are not really very official – I got
coerced into writing the guest blog for our dinner at Serpico. There was definitely some arm twisting
involved. I have wanted to go to Serpico for some time now, since I had heard many great things and I just hadn’t gotten a chance to make it over there. Let the excitement begin!

The space is really well put together in typical modern interior décor of a high-end restaurant. Since the space is pretty small, it isn’t good for large groups, and so we had to split our group into 3 separate reservations. Since I had the first one, I asked them to see if they could at least seat us all next to each other in the booths, which they kindly accommodated (a good start to the night).

The bar top, which looked like a single large, rustic natural wood piece, seated only 6 people. It was a really nice touch however, and very inviting for a small bar. I actually spent a lot more time at this bar, but will get to that later on in the post! The walls were painted all throughout like a chalkboard and every spot seemed to be filled with menu items, written very painstakingly. Looking at the handwriting throughout, it was clear that it was written by 1 person. That had to have taken half a day to complete and just imagine when changes are needed!! The best part about the space however, is the large open kitchen with counter seating all along it. That is the place to sit if you haven’t done so here and I will definitely be doing that on my next visit here.

I was joined by Vera and Nicole for the 6:30pm reservation. So onto the food and drinks! The 6 cocktails on the menu are all named after the main ingredient, like Gin for their gin based cocktail, etc. Very original, right!?! Either way, I got the Rye cocktail for their Rittenhouse Rye Whiskey based drink. It was delicious!! As a nice touch, they use a large block of ice in each glass, so it doesn’t melt quickly and dilute the drink. A sign of a real good cocktail bar!!

Rye Whiskey Cocktail

The menu is divided into small, medium and large plates; all served family style to share. We ordered 2 small plates and 3 medium plates to start us off and figured we would go from there if we feel we needed more food.

As the 3 of us enjoyed our cocktails and got to know each other a little better, Chef Peter Serpico who was on site, was working on the magic in the open kitchen. The first two dishes on the small plates that we got were the Hamachi & Cobia Tartar and the Raw Fluke.

Raw Fluke

This was a 50/50 start with the Tartar just average (lacking some flavor or punch). The fluke on the other hand was excellent. Very similar to a Hamachi with Yuzu at a Japanese restaurant, the fluke was fresh, and worked very well with the celery for crunch and charred jalapeno for heat.

Next on the menu was their version of the Peking sandwich… the Deep Fried Duck Leg sliders.

Deep fired duck leg sliders

Another really good dish accompanied by some awesome pickles. The duck was extremely flavorful and just enough hoisin to round out the taste buds.

Next up the Korean Fried Chicken Wings! Fried twice for good measure and crunch, with hot & sweet sauce smothered all over it.

Korean fried chicken wings

The wings itself were good but didn’t necessarily stand out from any other good Korean chicken wings, but when you include the kimchi, that is what sets it apart.

The last dish out of the medium plates we ordered was by far the best… the Long Hot Ramen!!!

Ramen covered with nori powder

This is not your traditional ramen. It included pickled peppers and huge soft boiled egg and completely covered in nori powder. It may not look the most appetizing when it comes out with copious amounts of nori to the point that you cannot even tell if there is anything else in the bowl. But breaking up the egg and seeing the soft yellow center ooze out in contrast to the green nori powder - you start to get the idea. Mixing it all up, dividing it among the 3 of us we dove right in not sure exactly how this would taste. It was definitely the best dish so far. I could have eaten an entire bowl of this stuff. The ramen was perfectly cooked and the nori was in fact not overpowering as I was expecting, making this an excellent bowl of ramen.

Having just enjoyed our 5 dishes, we all felt content. But, maybe we could eat just a bit more? As we
decided on what that may be another round of drinks was also on the cards. Nicole and Vera figured out what they wanted, but I couldn’t make up my mind. Mostly due to the fact that I really wanted to keep drinking more whiskey cocktails and they only had the 1 on the menu. Chatting up our server, I learnt that she is also one of the head bartenders at the restaurant and in fact the Rye drink I had just had was her concoction. It took some convincing but I was able to get her to agree to make me another whiskey based drink of her own. I half expected a Manhattan or a twist on it, all the while thinking what a pain the ass I really was! ;) But to my surprise, she actually did come up with a completely new cocktail that was excellent and took the time to let me know what it included. Unfortunately I do not remember the ingredients now but that whole experience on the second cocktail definitely left a good impression.

Although on the downside Nicole had to wait a long time for her drink and when our server realized she hadn’t yet gotten it, she took it upon herself to go to the bar and make it herself. Another good impression to make up for the delay!

Back to the food and we decided to go all out… this is the 2Girls1Street visit to Serpico after all!
We ordered the special menu item of the huge serving of dry aged Sirloin that came with brussels sprouts.

Dry aged Sirloin

The accompaniment as per the other dishes was really good, the Sirloin itself however, very
disappointing. For $75 that was not worth it at all. If that is on the menu avoid it at all costs. We couldn’t finish it as we got full in the end, but it didn’t help that we were all not overly enthralled by the meat.

After finishing our meal, we lingered around enjoying our cocktails while we also waited for the other 2 parties to finish. It was 9:15pm at this time. For a 6:30pm seating we were now holding up the next reservation. The manager came over and requested if we would take a seat at the bar instead. He then asked the bar tender to “take care of us”, who poured 3 shots of craft liquors that they use in their cocktails. I don’t remember but as Vera and Nicole left, I finished all of them!! Of course I did!

3 shots at the bar

While I then waited for the last group to finish up, the couple next to me at the bar then had an extra 10-Year Tawny Port that they then offered me since they were going to get seated for dinner and why would you drink Port before dinner?!? And yes, I finished that as well!!!  That is how I spent a lot of time at the cool bar top!!

All-in-all a very good experience and will definitely go again, sit at the kitchen counter, definitely not order any special sirloin and enjoy some awesome ramen!

Cheers!