• Brian Freedman says University City’s Saigon Cuisine serves “more hits than misses.” The pho, he writes, is “excellent, built on a base of broth whose clarity and purity of flavor sets it apart.” But the beef balls in it, which are not made in house, are “spongy and tough” and “not terribly flavorful.” There’s “enough misses to frustrate,” but with a little “fine-tuning” it has the promise to become “a pleasant addition to the University City dining scene.” [PW]
• Does having too many critics spoil the broth? Not when it’s the Penn Appetit crew rolling up en masse at Koo Zee Doo. “The sauce was the star” in the Massa com Tamboril, monkfish bathed in a lobster, and served with pasta filled with peas, peppers, and onions. Another student chimes in that the family style dishes were “plentiful and delicious,” especially the duck rice and mushroom, whose “small pieces of duck added texture and rich flavor throughout the rice.” Though service was “slow as molasses,” another member of the club said the “seafood was certainly worth the trek from campus.” [Penn Appetit]
