# 50: Square 1682

Overview:
An acknowledged "Hotel Restaurant" (housed in the Hotel Palomar, just northeast of Rittenhouse), Philly Mag praises chef Guillermo Tellez despite admittedly "awkward service" and "senseless square-strewn decor."

Philly Mag's Recommendation: Roast Chicken over Pink Fettuccine

http://www.square1682.com/

David's Thoughts: 
So... this sucked. I admit, we made a mistake by starting this endeavor on Valentine's weekend, and had to deal with a prix-fix menu. Still, our waitress was clueless and the decor was obnoxious. My overpriced drink tasted like you could swab a wound with it. We split a single-order from the Valentine's menu, and still wound up with a $100 tab. Its never a good sign when you leave a restaurant and head to ANOTHER restaurant... The bright side of this evening: I look forward to re-visiting Pub and Kitchen when we hit #27 on the list!

Beth's Thoughts: 
David, I couldn’t agree more.  This blog should have been started in January.  But oh well, what can you do.  We are only people, you know.

I also wish it had begun on a more positive note.  Not with 1682 Rittenhouse. 

Blah!

Now, to be fair, we did unknowingly go the day before Valentine’s Day.  Ok, not so unknowingly.  David, if I do recall, you even called the place in advance to make sure we could order off the regular menu rather than strictly the prix fixe tasting.

Tasting.  What a joke.  I don’t think I tasted much.

We stared with drinks.  I think you, the reader, will see this as a pretty consistent theme throughout this blog.  In my opinion drinks are almost if not as important as the food itself.  It seemed to be off to a good start – drinks arrived in a sufficient amount of time and seemed to have the prescribed amount of alcohol in them that I find acceptable. 

Unfortunately, that was the last positive experience I had at 1682 Rittenhouse. 

First, we asked for the chicken over fettuccini recommended in the Philly Mag review.  The waitress had never heard of it.  And she wasn’t sure if the regular menu offerings were available, so off to the kitchen she went to ask.  After being told that no, we could not order off the standard dinner menu, we decided to stay nonetheless, but to order one five course meal and split it.  I know, a waitress’s dream. 

We decided on  the Smoked Salmon and Belon Oysters, the Porcini Mushroom Risotto, the New York Strip Steak and, for dessert, the Valhrona Chocolate Crunch Bar was our only option. 

Our meal began with our Amuse Bouche, a potato soup.

I couldn’t taste it.  At all.

We moved on to the Smoked Salmon.  I enjoyed this.  It was a good appetizer and made me look forward to our next course.  Oh, salmon, how you tease!

This was followed by our Porcini Mushroom Risotto, which I also could not taste.  The only lingering impression this course left was that the rice was certainly to the tooth - a bit too al dente, if you ask me. 

The biggest disappointment was yet to come.  I didn’t even bother to take a picture of the “steak” because it was more like a hockey puck than a piece of meat.  And we ordered it rare.  David must have eaten the half with the meat because all I ate was grizzle and fat.  Boo.

We couldn’t let that food be the last taste to hit our palates that evening, so we left the restaurant and went to another. 

1682 Rittenhouse.  For drinks, yes.  For food, never again.