Postcards From Philadelphia: High Street On Market

When Bon Appetit Magazine picks a restaurant in your hometown area as one of the best new restaurants of the year, you make sure you get a reservation when you go home for the holidays!

High Street on Market, which opened in Philadelphia’s Old City about a year ago, was named number 2 in Bon Appetit’s best new restaurants of 2014. I visited High Street on Market for dinner as part of a party of 6 on a Saturday night in December after Christmas. The decor was rustic, simplistic, but also with a slight industrial look. We had a great table that overlooked the open kitchen area.

After recommendation from our waiter, our group decided to order from the tasting menu. The waiter promised us this would give us 8 courses of the chef’s choosing and allow us to taste a little bit of everything on the menu. When we thought back on what we ate after, we were all fairly certain it ended up being more than 8 dishes, but no complaints on our end for that! The wait staff was great about explaining each course as it arrived. Also, one of our friends in the group is gluten free and they were so happy to accommodate her within the tasting menu, making sure she had gluten free options to eat without changing anyone else’s experience.

Now for the food… like I said we tried a lot of dishes on the menu, and with the exception of one dish, it was all fabulous! My favorites were the Brussel Sprouts, Sunflower Seed Risotto and the Angry Crab Spaghetti (picture directly above). I thought the goat’s yogurt paired with what may seem like a traditional roast brussel sprouts made the dish unique and add a certain tang to it. The risotto was delicious, and different than others I have had in the past which haven’t been overly exciting. The Angry Crab Spaghetti, which is made up of pasta with crab seasoned with Old Bay- so many good things coming together in one dish, how could it not be good? And of course the much hyped bread was amazing as well (#allthecarbsplease!).

The one dish that I just did not like was the Carraway Rye Rigatoni. When our server brought it to the table, he described it as a pastrami sandwich on pasta. I’m not a big pastrami sandwich person, so maybe if I was I would have liked this dish, but it was just too much for me. With Gulden’s mustard sauce, the flavors of this dish were not a favorite at our table. In fact it was the only dish that was left at our table with any food on the plate! However, in reading reviews of High Street on Market before dining, many of the magazines called the menu esoteric and inventive. I think the Carraway Rye Rigatoni would be an example of this and while I didn’t like it, I absolutely respect the chef for trying something new and fresh.

So all in all, would I be back to High Street On Market? Absolutely- next time maybe for breakfast or lunch to try one of the bagels or sandwiches that are also so highly reviewed. Hopefully catch you on my next trip to Philly, High Street!

xoxo, Jenna