La Croix Restaurant - Philadelphia

I was fortunate enough to eat dinner 2 nights ago at La Croix in Philadelphia. The restaurant is on the second floor of the Rittenhouse Hotel in a beautiful room overlooking Rittenhouse Square.

I opted to do a 4 course tasting menu and cheese.

First Course
Bluefin Tuna served with preserved egg. A bit oversalted for my taste, but basically sashimi grade tuna quickly seared and crusted with a touch of panko served with a cured egg yolk. Good, but not the highlight of the evening.

Second Course
Cold Water Lobster with chai tea reduction. This is the first course where I said, "a ha!". This tastes like a butter poached lobster, but all the flavors are segregated into elements that when separated make for unique individual flavors but combine to make a very traditional main lobster with drawn butter flavor.

Third Course
Foie Gras Bacon. Cured, salted and smoked foie gras served with homemade ranch dressing and a raisin reduction. Simply incredible. All I can say is this was worth the cost and pain in the ass of getting to philadelphia.

Fourth Course
Veal Sweetbreads with asian pear. Simple, succulent sweetbreads. Not as good as Blackbird, but that's not fair- I can't think of anyone's as good as Blackbird's.

Cheese course- variety of goat cheeses that I loved from a cheese cart. I love the cheese cart concept when with others, but when dining alone I'd really just prefer a menu In any event, a truly wonderful meal worth of its pricetag (with gratuity, a half bottle of 99 Chateau Lagrange Grand Cru, cheese addition and foie upcharge, just shy of $250.00)