And Angus Was All Like / iAngus: High Street on Market Restaurant Week 2014-01-30

High Street on Market
308 Market Street
Philadelphia, PA
Phone: 215-625-0988
Web: http://highstreetonmarket.com/

High Street on Market is a newish foray into high end cafe restaurant that focuses on produce and vegetables with bold flavors. The restaurant is an expansion next to the Fork and maintains the quality and pedigree of Fork. (Disclaimer: I have heard many good things about Fork but have yet to actually dine there.)

My take on Restaurant Week is to try to eat at the newer venues. I have found Restaurant Week to be disappointing at the more established old guard restaurants. The dishes that a place is known for is usually not on the restaurant week menu.   This was not the case at High Street. For the first course, two items could be selected. This was followed by the second course and a dessert.

For the first courses we selected kale chips, squash hummus, the mushrooms with veggies and farm egg, and rabbit and chestnuts. I found the kale chips a bit over-seasoned and too salty. They were my least favorite of a very delicious and enjoyable meal. The spiciness of the squash hummus made the dish very delectable. I'm a sucker for a farm egg and paired with a plethora of perfectly cooked mushrooms and fresh vegetables, this dish was a big success. Lastly I found the rabbit to be properly cooked with the mixture of fruit and roasted veggies balancing everything appropriately.

For our entrees, we tried the Agnolotti which incorporated pasta with jerk spices, caramelized goat yogurt and eggplant. The flavors were bold and definitely consisted of bold carribean flavors. Everything definitely popped in your mouth and was a delightful surprise.   The second dish was
Green Tea Garganelli with Smoked Duck Ragu. This dish was very balanced with fresh pasta. The flavors were balanced and the use of duck in a ragu was interesting and enjoyable.

For the meal we ordered the wine pairing and one of each desserts. The triffle was on the sweet side and fulfilled the dessert role as an adult pudding. I personally found the crumb cake to be the more interesting dessert but both were delicious.

High Street definitely hit the mark and welcomes new diners by showing their normal menu during restaurant week. They get bonus points for that. I would recommend this restaurant to anyone who is looking for a quality and interesting meal.