Sushi + Southern Comfort

The Fat Ham

Spent a quiet weekend in Philly, but was able to visit Kevin Sbraga's newest establishment in University City, The Fat Ham. It blends the idea of Southern comfort food with the tapas-style shared plates that Philly is so well known for, resulting in a marriage of nouveau cuisine and old traditions. Roommate from Nashville's verdict: pretty good but not very authentic. 

Fried oyster sliders, shrimp and grits, root vegetables with thick-cut bacon

Potato chip crusted mac & cheese, pork belly with beans, hot fried chicken

Dinner started off strong with amazing oyster sliders - perfectly crispy with refreshing coleslaw and soft buns. I especially enjoyed the root vegetables as well, though was not a huge fan of the bacon, which was thick-cut and chewier (I prefer the thin, crunchy slices straight off the frying pan). The star of the night was definitely the pork belly; braised to the point where it literally melted in our mouths but despite the extreme fattiness, I did not feel disgusting after eating half of the dish. Having tried pork belly a number of different times, I would have to say that this ranked among the top of my experiences. The fried chicken, however, did not completely live up to the hype. The breading was a little too hard and the buttermilk ranch-drenched white bread did little to cut through the spiciness and saltiness of the chicken.

The service definitely made up for the slight misses on the menu though. Having agreed halfway through our dinner to move over one table to help accommodate a party of four, the manager first offered us all three desserts on the house, and when we insisted that we were way too stuffed to fit any more food in, he proceeded to take two of the items we ordered off of our bill. Not at all necessary, but a very generous gesture nonetheless. Thus, the total bill came out to be around $50 total before tip, an amazing deal considering how full we were by the end.

Vic Sushi Bar

Haven't visited here in awhile (I have been craving nigiri and sashimi over sushi rolls lately after watching Jiro Dreams of Sushi this past summer) but decided last minute on Saturday to grab a quick dinner here. The seating is very limited, but service is quick and we were able to grab two seats at the bar after a brief 5-minute wait (we got there right before 7 PM).

Top: Tuna dumplings - flattened tuna sashimi wrapped around a mushed avocado-panko mixture
Bottom: Tiger Roll, Lover Roll, Sansom Roll

After discovering the taste of heaven that is the tuna dumpling early last year, I made sure we began with an order of it, which was the perfect appetizer since it usually comes in two pieces. We also ordered three of our favorite rolls from the menu: the Tiger Roll, which is mainly just different types of sashimi wrapped in white seaweed, the Lover Roll, which is topped with salmon and eel, and my personal favorite, the Sansom Roll, which includes shrimp tempura and salmon, topped with masago and spicy mayo. The rolls can be pretty heavy/filling, so our tuna dumplings and three rolls were more than enough for dinner.

Note: Vic's is also a BYO, though "service" is not exactly included - they'll hand you a corkscrew for you to open the bottle yourself and they don't have any ice buckets for your white wines and/or champagne like other places might. I've never brought anything myself, mainly because I prefer hot green tea with my sushi as opposed to wine, but that's just me.