• A solid beverage program that includes 25 rotating taps means Bainbridge Street Barrel House “should cheer the well-wetted beer crowd of Queen Village and Bella Vista.” But Craig LaBan, with a single ringy-dingy for the still new corner spot, says the cooking “was so inconsistent that even a great beer list could not wash away its flaws.” Housemade hummus was “as stiff as drying wallpaper paste”; duck confit “tender, but strangely dry”; and “a heavy hand on the spice” left his “taste buds started wincing.” Still, sandwiches and burgers show the “best bets… come on a bun.” [Inquirer]
• Adam Erace says the kitchen at Collingswood newcomer Akira is “as confident in the cooked preparations as they are the raw.” Though the eel a la mode came proved not quite “as out-there as [he had] originally expected… Akira’s cooks certainly delivered a tasty dish, as they would repeatedly over the course of [the rest of the] meal.” Piyo piyo sticks “packed a blast of coconut… behind their unimpressive exteriors”; a duck burrito “brought luscious shreds of roasted meat dripping with hoisin and wrapped with crunchy fresh cucumber and frilly lettuce that stuck out the top like a green tutu”; and the sushi “is worthy of attention, too.” [Courier-Post]
