Restaurant Review: Quotations

Restaurant:

Address: 37 E. State St., Media, PA 19063
Rating: (out of 5 stars): ★★★1/2
Style: Neighborhood bar and restaurant
Food: Surprisingly good bar food
Atmosphere: Lively and convivial
Parking: Metered street parking
Service: Casual and friendly
Price Range: Inexpensive
Unique Feature: Impressive beer list that changes regularly including seasonal and hard to find brews.

I went into after a particularly grueling week and set out to order a veritable pub grub feast for a group of us. I perused the menu and decided on a medium rare burger with Swiss and fries, a chicken parmesan sandwich with onion rings, a beef filet sandwich with provolone and roasted peppers, hot wings and stuffed potato skins. Add in a four pack of the three pumpkin beers and Octoberfest and we were set for an autumnal feast.

What I found quite impressive was that seeing that I had many bags, one member of the staff literally ran out to hold the door open for me.

My friends and I were impressed with the sheer volume of food and drink before us and we dug in with relish. The stuffed potato skins had plenty of cheese, bacon and were enjoyable alone or with a healthy dollop of sour cream. Depending on your own preference the thin layer of potato flesh can be good or bad.

The fried chicken wings came naked—the hot sauce and blue cheese dressing were on the side. The crisp and succulent wings and hot and tangy sauce paired quite well. I didn’t even bother with the blue cheese dressing opting to just dip my wing in the hot sauce and proceed from there. These would be perfect on game day with a cold beer.

The beef patty in my burger was gargantuan and looked even bigger because there was nothing besides meat and cheese between the bun. The burger was a huge chunk of beef, a thick melted slice of cheese and hearty huge bun. While it was tasty I couldn’t stomach so much meat all at once. We all took bites from the burger and still didn’t finish it. The crisp fries were excellent and good even when cold.

The chicken parmesan sandwich with onion rings was OK. The enormous breaded chicken cutlet was about an inch thick and the size of Texas. There was a faint burnt taste to it which led me to believe it was in the fryer way too long. The cheese and tomato sauce were good. The onion rings were heavy on the batter and skimpy on the onion but still delicious.

The star of the show was the beef filet sandwich. I had been expecting thicker slices of beef but what appeared was more akin to a fancy cheesesteak. I say this with the utmost respect—this sandwich was unbelievable. Tender and well-seasoned chopped beef with gloriously melted cheese and roasted peppers in a pillowy soft roll never tasted so good. All three of us were raving about this sandwich (even more compelling is that one of us isn’t really a fan of beef) and would jump at the chance to eat it again.

The fall selection of beers was excellent and each pumpkin beer had its own flavor and personality. My personal favorite was the Ichabod pumpkin beer, try it, you won’t be disappointed. Also noteworthy was the availability of Pumking on draft. A personal favorite of one of my beer snob friends, it’s not easily found.

The service was friendly and casual but still top notch. It was nice to just sit at the bar and watch the Phillies win another one while waiting for my order. In a time of budget cuts, lousy weather and uncertainity, it’s nice to have a local watering hole with a crazy, good selection of beer and actual good food.