The Hungry Lady's Travels: Gullifty's Restaurant

Have you ever heard of Rosemont, Pa.?  If you're reading this anywhere other than the Philadelphia area, the answer is probably "no."  And that's just fine.  It's a tiny town, that tends to be lumped together with it's slightly more famous neighbors: Bryn Mawr (where Katharine Hepburn and Betty Draper from Mad Men went to college) and Villanova (which also probably doesn't mean anything to you unless you follow college basketball or you're Catholic).    At any rate, Rosemont is about 15 minutes from my mom's house, so a few months ago when my sister and I were home for Christmas (have I mentioned how far behind I am in blogging?) my mom took us out to dinner at a restaurant that is pretty well known in the area, but not necessarily outside of the Main Line. For those of you not up on your suburban Philadelphia geography, the Main Line is a part of the western suburbs that runs right along Rt. 30, straight into Center City.  They built a train route parallel to this route, and ever since, the towns along this route have been referred to as the Main Line.


But I digress.  On to the food!  We went to Gullifty's, a place that has decent beer, pretty good food, and is relatively casual.  Gullifty's has been around for awhile - I remember going there in second grade, and that was about 20 years ago.  Their menu has a ton of options from apps to salads to burgers to grinders (hot hoagies, again for those of you not from the Philadelphia area) to handspun pizzas to full sized entrees to sandwiches.  There really is something for everyone, at a fairly reasonable price.  Clearly it was the perfect spot for my mom to take her two fabulous daughters whom she rarely sees because they live too far away.  Of course, she does always have the option to visit...

Open That Bottle Night at Terra

Even though I don't eat there very often (between grad school, work, and a limited budget, it's takes all I have to even remember to eat), Terra is one of my favorite spots in Columbia. Terra was the first restaurant in SC that I reviewed for this blog, and it really set the standard for restaurants in town.  Needless to say, when the lovely PR folks at Terra emailed me about an event, I happily agreed to convey the details to y'all.

Mark your calendars for this Saturday (February 25) night and call to make your reservations, because Terra is hosting Open That Bottle Night.  What does this mean?  It means that on Saturday, you can grab some friends or significant other and the bottle(s) of wine you've been saving for a special occasion and head to Terra.  You'll be able to enjoy some spectacular food and not have to pay the corkage fee for your wine.  Sounds good to me.  Terra won't be featuring a special OTBN menu, but you can bet that there will be some pretty spectacular food.  No really.  Check out the menu. Tell me that you don't want to order one of everything.  I would highly recommend the lamb mac & cheese, quack madame, quail, and cannelloni.  And anything off of the dessert menu.  Or really anything on the menu in general.


You can read the full press release for the event after the jump.  If you go, definitely make a reservation.  And, since wine doesn't last long enough in my house for me to have a "special occasion" bottle, if you go and want to review it for me, just shoot me an email.

Restaurant Week SC, part 3: Villa Tronco

Better late than never, right?  The last stop on my Restaurant Week journey was Villa Tronco.  Like so many other places around town, I had often been told that I should go to Villa Tronco, but I had never had the chance, until RW presented itself.  Villa Tronco, of course, had a special RW menu, featuring four courses. I happily ate my way through all four delicious courses, and then promptly fell into a food coma when I got home.  Definitely the sign of a good meal.

Blogger Lunch Date: Momo's Bistro

Last week, I had the chance to take care of two things that have been on my to-do list for much longer than they should have been: check out Momo's Bistro and have lunch with fellow blogger extraordinaire, Elizabeth.  Elizabeth is the mastermind behind Gastronomy (By a Wanna Be Chef), and the two of us have been talking about grabbing lunch since this summer.  Things finally worked out in our favor, and we met at Momo's last week to discuss food, families (on her end), grad school (on my end), and all kinds of other randomness.


Momo's lunch menu isn't terribly extensive, but it still manages to have a great selection of classic sandwiches, salads, and larger entrees.  It took us a little while to order because we were spending more time talking that looking at the menu.  Oops.  Anyway, when we finally did order, E went with the French Dip.  I know what you're thinking: How boring.  Let me tell you, this sandwich was anything but boring (at least that's what I heard).  See, Momo's makes their French dip with pot roast instead of roast beef.  I know, right?  Amazing.  And they top it with Gruyere cheese, instead of the more conventional provolone or Swiss. E was a huge fan, especially after she tried the au jus, which reportedly had a really rich flavor that just made the sandwich.


Please note that I have borrowed the pictures in this post from Elizabeth, as hers turned out infinitely better than mine did.

Look at all that cheese!  And you can just tell that the roll is crunchy.

Since I peeked at the menu before I left work for lunch, I was pretty positive that I was going to get the fish tacos.  These, like the French dip, were not your run-of-the-mill fish tacos.  These were made, not with mahi mahi or tilapia, but with grouper.  I love grouper, so you can just imagine how excited I was about these. The two tacos were served on corn tortillas and stuffed, and I do mean stuffed, with red cabbage, pineapple salsa, guacamole, and of course, grilled grouper.  Each taco was double wrapped - two tortillas per taco - probably since corn tortillas are a little more fragile than flour tortillas.  In this case, they were still delicate, but the extra two tortillas allowed me to split up some of the insides so that I could get the taco down to a more manageable size.  The fish was utterly divine.  It was tender and just perfectly done.  The cabbage added a nice crunch, and between the pineapple salsa and the lime served on the side, there was just the right amount of acidity.  Side note: I love that this was served with a lime instead of a lemon.  The entire plate was just gorgeous, but it tasted even better.  And, it was light and refreshing, which was perfect for the sunny, 75 degree weather that we were having in Columbia (in February.  I love this town).

Isn't that just beautiful?  It was crisp and light too.

I would go back to Momo's for lunch in a heartbeat.  I'd love to try them for dinner too.  Or maybe for brunch. Actually definitely for brunch.  I just looked at that menu, and now I'm starving.  I suppose that's an occupational hazard.  Anyway.  Y'all should head on out to Momo's when you get a chance.  It's definitely worth the trip, at least for lunch, but if dinner and brunch are anywhere near as good as our meal was, you'll be safe no matter what time of day you head out.

Final Rating

You can find Momo's on Facebook, Twitter, or on the web. Also, make sure to check out Elizabeth's post on our lunch date at her blog. 

Restaurant Week SC part 2 - A trip to Rosso

For my first restaurant week adventure about two weeks ago, L and I headed to Rosso.  Both of us had been wanting to try it for quite some time, but somehow and never managed to fit it in to our schedules.  Thankfully, RW provided us with the perfect opportunity.


First, let's talk about the atmosphere.  I pretty much fell in love with Rosso the second we walked in the door.  It's intimate and dark, but not overly so.  The walls are painted a fabulous garnet color (always a plus in Gamecock country), and the decor, at least around our table, appeared to be artwork from local artists.  The restaurant is a very open space.  The way our booth was positioned, we were actually looking out over the rest of the restaurant.  If only we had been gnawing on a giant turkey leg, it would have been very Henry VIII.  There was also a guy playing some rather Rat Pack-esque songs, which is always a plus in my book.  And he was actually good, so that helped.