June 2024
Dining Review: My Loup – Philadelphia, PA
When we learned that one of our favorite restaurants (Her Place Supper Club) was opening a sister location, our excitement was through the roof at the opportunity to enjoy more brilliant dishes from the creative mind of Amanda Shulman. My Loup has a different concept from Her Place – for one, it is larger so the odds of booking are higher, as well as it functioning more like a traditional restaurant than a supper club. Like Her Place, My Loup is a Monday through Friday joint and has a welcoming, casual vibe.
The restaurant self identifies as modern French cuisine but the menu certainly does not box itself in and takes liberties that expand into other styles as well. With a menu that changes frequently and sometimes daily, it is a constant flow of creativity.There is a menu that you can select a la carte or allow the chef, Alex Kemp, to course a meal for you. The menu is set up to encourage sharing among your group in a style that reminds me of going to a tapas restaurant. There are three sections to the menu – the first featuring raw dishes, primarily seafood, followed by a list of small plates that are in shareable portions. Then finally, the section for entrees which are on the larger side to, once again, encourage sharing. Your server can help guide you on what is too much food or too little food.
We visited My Loup in May 2023 shortly after their grand opening and had a fantastic time and returned just over a year later. I was able to grab a reservation off the wait-list notifications and looked forward to seeing the progression of this restaurant.
The interior is beautifully appointed with dark tones that remind me of a lavish study or exclusive cigar bar. Speak of bars, upon entering My Loup you are greeted with a large and well stocked bar that will satisfy any thirst with their hand crafted beverage menu. Seated at our table, we ordered cocktails and wine while we studied the menu.
Plateau Fruits de Mer
Though we did not get this on this most recent visit, I have to include in the dining review as it is one of their premier menu items that we ordered on our first visit. It is indeed a show stopper when it arrives at the table! The arrangement will depend on what is fresh on hand as I have seen multiple various versions of this display. This is certainly a treat as it is one of the most expensive dishes on the menu but the splurge is worth it if you are a seafood connoisseur.
Pickled Shrimp, Basil, Aioli & Saltines
This was a favorite during our first visit and this once again did not disappoint. It is a simple dish that packs a lot of flavor. The key here is to make a sandwich with the saltine crackers with a shrimp, aioli, and pickled juice before taking a bite. This appears to be a staple with permanent residence on the menu so definitely order!
Squash Stuffed Zucchini Blossoms
One of my absolute favorites and it is typically difficult for me to find state side, stuffed fried zucchini blossoms are truly delightful. These were perfectly executed with good size flowers (sometimes they can be too small), stuffed with an herbed ricotta mixture, and lightly tempura battered.
Green Garlic Escar-roll
My Loup has featured this dish on Instagram many times and while I was hopeful we would get lucky, I figured enough time passed where this was no longer on the menu. And what a surprise to see it still there! This takes escargot to the next level as those little snails are baked into the roll that has ribbons of green garlic sauce throughout. It is truly exceptional and may be my personal favorite from the meal and would have easily ordered another.
Haricots, Stracciatella, Almonds
Green beans matched with the sweetness of stracciatella was a great combination of flavors and textures with the addition of the crunchy almonds. This was another hit for the table and was definitely one of the lighter dishes which is a good change of pace, particularly to have some veggies in there as well.
Veal Sweetbreads, Sauce Nantua, Bacon
If there are sweetbreads on the menu, it is a guarantee we will be ordering it. While most restaurants deep fry the sweetbreads for the menu, My Loup served this in an etouffee style sauce that was thick, delicious, and plate licking good – we were even offered bread to sop every last drop. This was such a fun way to showcase sweetbreads and the sauce just had such depth of flavor, what a knock out dish.
Softshell Crab BLT
My love affair with softshell crab continues and this time in the form of a BLT. This featured roasted tomatoes, on the bottom, shredded lettuce next, then the softshell crab drizzled with aioli and topped with bacon bits. A match made in heaven and as I expected, this was excellent and a fun way to enjoy softshell crab. I have to note that the tomatoes were also super tasty – the benefits of tomato season! I loved this dish so much.
Shrimp Frites, Sauce Diable
The first of our two entree sized dishes. I was not sure how the shrimp would be presented based on the description but was surprised when filleted shrimp and a pile of French fries appeared at the table. But then I remembered that anytime the term frites is on a French menu, this is the dish. The shrimp were then topped table side with the sauce that I expected to be spicy but it actually wasn’t at all and the perfect way to use the French fries. There were six shrimp halves of a large size and the meat was succulent – My Loup really knows how to do seafood.
Grilled Quail, Marinated Cucumber
The second of our two entree sized dishes. At first I was worried there was not enough to share here but after uncovering the quail in the pile of roasted vegetables, I noticed there were actually two quails which was perfect, so everyone in our group got half a quail. The quail was well prepared and the vegetables were plentiful which we all really enjoyed.
Pistachio Creme Caramel
Kevin never passed up the opportunity for a pistachio dessert. This looked like a flan but was much creamier. The pistachio cream was topped with a caramel sauce and a granola like topping. And while I expected this to be a more subtle dessert, it was actually really delicious – the entire table enjoyed it.
Strawberry Vanilla Napoleon
This sat on the plate so beautifully I almost did not want to disturb it! This delicately stacked dessert of light pastry layers, reduced strawberries, and vanilla cream packed an insane flavor. The intensity of the strawberry balanced with the sweetness of the vanilla cream and it just worked together so well. And somehow, it maintained a lightness that made us all question how they did it. While all the desserts were great, this was definitely the winner of the evening.
Chocolate Cake
This classic dessert is far from a classic presentation. Somehow My Loup created a chocolate cake that is light and not super rich. The icing is a thick, glossy chocolate and then there are two layers that make the cake – one of chocolate mousse and the other of chocolate cake. For a chocoholic like me, I actually want it to have a more chocolate, rich flavor but the current version is definitely more of a crowd pleaser.
As a group of four, we ordered six small plates, two entrees, and three desserts which ended up working perfectly for us. If we return just Kevin and I, I think we would focus our stomach space on the first two sections of the menu and dessert – while the entrees were still great, overall they were not necessarily the top dishes we had on either visit. I do not think we could have asked for a more perfect menu – so many of some of my absolute favorite things to eat were featured so while that may bias me slightly, the execution of the entire meal was fantastic and everyone in our party agreed. I know we will be back to My Loup again – if we lived in Philly, we would have to have a budget set aside just for Amanda and Alex’s multiple restaurants!