My
spouse and I dined at Vetri on New Year’s Eve (December 2011), so my
review is a few months late. We live equidistant between Philadelphia
and New York City, but because it is easier to travel to NYC (less
traffic), we generally choose that NYC over Philly, except on New Year’s
Eve, when traveling to New York becomes nearly impossible. Marc
Vetri’s flagship restaurant (he also owns the more casual Osteria and
has interest in two others) is thought to be the best restaurant in
Philadelphia (we agree!), so it made the top of our list for our special
holiday dinner. We liked that the restaurant offered its regular $135
per person prix-fixe tasting menu (note that the price will be raised to
$155 in September 2012) rather than a special holiday menu. (When a
restaurant offers a special holiday menu, we generally find that the
quality and variety suffer while the prices are raised. This wasn’t the
case with Vetri.) Both a wine pairing and a beer pairing are available
at an additional cost. My spouse liked the beer pairing – something we
haven’t been offered ever before.
The staff worked unbelievably well
together in their smallish space on the first-floor of a townhouse in
Center City.
There is a public parking lot directly next door to the
restaurant. The restaurant has no bar area, so you don’t want to arrive
earlier than your reservation. The mood was really festive, from both
the diners and the staff. The staff was completing their last shift of
work before the restaurant closed for the first week of January; staff
members were traveling abroad to learn more about food and cooking. Who
isn’t in a great mood on the last day of work before vacation?
The food
was fantastic, from the homemade pasta (spinach gnocchi, almond-ricotta
tortellini) to the roasted and crispy capretto (baby goat). I think we
each received 6+ dishes, and we each received a different dish for every
course (so because we shared, we each sampled 12+ different items).
We
would love to be fortunate enough to dine here again! It will be hard to
choose another Philly restaurant over this one.
