For this week’s Craig LaBan adventure, the critic journeyed out to Elkins Park to try new high-end Kosher restaurant Max & David’s. Working within the strictures of Kosher dietary laws, it looks like the restaurant created something that is pretty damn good… and that the observant Jews of the northern suburbs will be more than pleased with the food (as will the rest of us):
My sister-in-law, Patty, glanced up from the menu at Max & David’s with a rebellious look and laid down this commandment with unexpected umph.
“I am not going to get the fish!”
The pronouncement took me by surprise, at first. Over the dozen or so review meals we’ve shared over the years, she had dutifully tiptoed across menus strewn with land mines for a kosher eater. With all pork, shellfish, and dishes mixing dairy with meat (let alone any nonkosher meat) crossed off her list, she inevitably settled on fish or veggies. It seemed a reasonably flexible approach, given that even stricter kosher Jews probably wouldn’t have come out to eat with me at all. But for some reason, I’d come to believe she actually just liked fish.
That was until I saw her eyes widen at the sight of Max & David’s rib eye. And, lo, this wasn’t just any rabbinically approved steak. This was a Let-There-Be-Meat! slice of flesh, a grilled bone-in slab of such biblical proportions that this Turkish-spiced chop perfumed the entire table with its savor when it landed.”
Mmm… steak.
Max & David’s [Inquirer]
Max & David’s [MenuPages]
Max & David’s [Official Site]
