Marigold Kitchen - Philadelphia

I guess the biggest disappointment was that the actual entree was a tiny medallion of venison. I don’t eat deer meat, and although the waiter did ask if we had any food allergies, it would not of occurred to me to ask what meat would be served. I went home and had some cheese and crackers since I was still pretty hungry.

Went for my bday and it was wonderful! Please don’t close!!!

I've had plenty of tasting menus so I'm familiar with a long dinner especially when there are 12 courses, but we got there at 7:50 for an 8pm reservation and we didn't pay the bill until 12:15. That's just too long. The portions are very small. I'm never one to complain about portions at a tasting menu, butmy wife and I were legitimately hungry at the end of the meal. When we arrived, we were placed in a small room upstairs that had 2 tables in it. We thought we might alone in the room, but were joined by a couple about 40 mins later. They were lovely people and I was happy to share the room with them. I was, however not happy that the restaurant decided to slow our coursing down until we were getting the same courses as the couple next to us that showed up 40 mins after we did. There was way too much time in between courses. The food was good, some dishes were very interesting, but some dishes I found more interesting than appetizing. The Danish bread is interesting but it's more grain and seed than actual bread and it was very very tough. The cured duck breast was served way to thick and made for way too salty of an experience. The pine fudge ball, with apple cider dust was very.,. pungent. Interesting but not very appetizing. The Alaskan king crab dish was served with very little other flavors and a high level of spice. I love spicy things so if I can tell you that something is spicy it is most likely very spicy for the average spice eater. Pheasant breast was good and the dry aged beef was delicious, but I think we were only served about an ounce of it. I didn't have a bad meal, but I wasn't impressed or in love with almost any of the dishes. Food was good but unlikely worth visiting again. Service was good except for their decision, intentional or not, to slow down our meal, turning a good 2.5 to 3 hour meal into a 4+ hr meal. Most likely won't go back, can't really recommend it with places like Bibou, Helm, Laurel, and Vetri scattered around Philadelphia.

In each of the last four or five years I have visited Philadelphia around the turning of the New Year. On each of these occasions I have been a member of a family party which has had a meal at the Marigold Kitchen. The meals have always been exceptional. But this year the current resident Chef offered the best meal to date. (The success was in part enabled by the outstanding waiting staff. The tasting menu, which had a very clear Nordic theme, was exquisite. The diversity of flavors, odors, and textures were immensely affective. Thank you to the Executive Chef, Eric Leveille, for such imaginative preparations and to Ben our waiter for helping us to understand each work of art. It was an amazing experience. yours, Seamus Ross

Marigold Kitchen was one of those legendary restaurants to me. I couldn't wait to try it. It had been built up to mythical proportions by the time we went this year for the New Years Eve 14 course tasting menu. I was so disappointed. We were seated right by the front door. I immediately asked if there might be a better seat in the house and was told that it was the best. As the evening went on we found out he was right. Thank goodness we were by the door. Whenever the door opened we were spared our heated box. There was no atmosphere or style to the restaurant which surprised us. I expected a beautiful victorian house it was very plain. Too bad the food service didn't do enough to make up for it. Our Server, Angel was very personable friendly. The service in general thought was awkward and poorly timed throughout the night. Before our reservations we made food issues clear such as 2 people who didn't eat red meat. We also told our servers and things were wrong 3 times. There were too many courses. Dinner was four hours. By the time dessert came, we were full and ready to go home. The last hour was painful for several reason. Drunk very entertaining guests were exiting over the last hour of our stay but overall the atmosphere was lacking. We were there for over an hour before we asked if they could play some music in the room to break up the awkward silence. When they did, it was a little nicer. Luckily we brought enough wine to enjoy our evening. We asked our servers to put it on ice. They never did and by the end we only had warm. I'd never go back. c