Fond Review

Two former Le Bec-Fin chefs turn out beautiful cuisine in this tiny, living-room-sized East Passyunk BYOB.

When two former chefs from one of Philadelphia's top restaurants (Lee Styer and Jessie Prawlucki from Le Bec-Fin) open up a new spot with a front-of-house manager from another one of the city's top restaurants (Tory Keomanivong from Lacroix), it gets a lot of buzz. A lot. And with good reason: on the whole, Fond's contemporary American cuisine delivers.

The restaurant is small -– a cute row-home living room, really, with muted colors on the walls. My friend and I slid in to our table, and our meal began with a nice amuse-bouche of chilled asparagus soup, followed by our first course. We both ordered butternut squash dishes for our appetizers –- for me, the soup, and for him, the ravioli. My soup was poured around a tiny nest of sprouts, and the ravioli, served with sage and brown butter, looked perfectly coiffed, like it had spent an hour preening before a hot date. Both tasted wonderful as well, but the soup won out for me -– thin, but not lacking in flavor, it was a great precursor for the rest of the meal.

My second course, the seared sea scallops, was definitely the highlight of my meal. The scallops were tender, giant things served with golden raisins, celery, and truffled celery root. My friend ordered the beef strip loin served with asparagus, which was well-prepared, but didn't reach the same level as the scallops. It was at this point, after comparing the scallops and the beef strip loin, that I became aware of a trend in our meal: everything I ordered was just a little better than everything my friend ordered (shhh, don't tell him).

This trend became especially apparent when my friend decided to opt out of dessert and just get coffee. Ordering dessert is definitely better than not ordering dessert, so I went for the brownie. It was wonderful –- nicely portioned and combining a variety of tastes and textures, including pecans and cinnamon. The coffee, however, was weak, watery and the most disappointing thing we consumed during the entire meal. I watched the waiter push the plunger on the French press, so I'm guessing they simply didn't let the coffee steep long enough. I did find that a little easier to forgive, though, when we were presented with a couple of bite-sized meringues to close out the meal.

Other than the coffee, the only other major frustration I have with Fond is with the space. Diners should know that if their table isn't ready when they arrive, there's almost no room to wait inside. Once you're in, the interior is certainly cute and intimate, that also translates to loud and a little jumbled. I was lucky enough to sit against the wall, but my dining companion was bumped into several times by the waitstaff throughout the meal. And while while the waitstaff are highly polished, they almost almost felt too much so for the intimacy of the space.

Overall, Fond's missteps don't come close to overpowering its successes. And oh, there are many successes.