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13 Awesome Prix Fixe Lunches
Sick of brown bagging it? Here's a look at some great prix fixe lunch options around town.
13 Awesome Prix Fixe Lunches
A prix fixe lunch offers the chance to explore what a restaurant has to offer without shelling out a ton of cash and there are plenty of spots around town to get down with a set menu. Here is a round up of deals and prix fixes for all your lunching needs. Chestnut Street is particularly prix fixe friendly and there are plenty of deals to be had from restaurant emperors Starr and Garces.
Distrito (3945 Chestnut St.) Blue Demon Express ($15) Choose a first course starter like the camarones ceviche with shrimp, spicy tomato, avocado and plantain chip, and a second course entrée from the mahi mahi tacos to the queso fundido with duck barbacoa and poblano rajas for $15.
Amada (217-219 Chestnut St.) Catalan Express ($14.50) Although the choices are still Spanish, Garces is bringing it back home with the classic soup with a salad or sandwich deal. Choose from either gazpacho or caldo gallego soup and a salad or a sandwich for $14.50. The bocadillo de lechón sandwich with braised pork, broccolini, pickled guindillas and fig mustard sounds particularly tasty.
El Vez (121 S. 13th St.) Poquito Dinero Lunch ($14.99) Another pick two: starter and entrée. First course offerings include tortilla soup and a Mexican chopped salad, and the second course lists 4 Mexican classics, from pibil pork tacos to the torta de pollo with roasted hot peppers, spinach, lemon aioli and oaxaca cheese. Bonus: soft drink is included.
Buddakan (325 Chestnut St.) Bento Boxes ($15-20) With $15 and $20 lunch options, Buddakan's lunch menu includes barbecue ribs, edamame dumplings and wasabi tuna tataki. Go with a group and you'll end up with the smorgasbord.
Morimoto (723 Chestnut St.) Lunch Sets ($16-26) Along with an extensive à la carte menu, Morimoto offers lunch sets that come with miso soup and a house salad. Prices vary from a $16 chicken katsu (panko crusted chicken, egg, caramelized onions, dashi soy broth, steamed rice) to a $26 you-pick sushi and sashimi combination.
Raw Boyds Café (1818 Chestnut St.) Lunchboxes ($11-16) For a slightly more generous and afforable sushi lunch option, the Raw Boyds Café serves sushi, sashimi or teriyaki in their lunchboxes, all of which come with 2 pieces of California roll, 2 vegetable dumplings, pickled daikon, 2 pieces of beef negimaki and spicy tuna tartare. Roll options include tuna, salmon, yellowtail, unagi, vegetarian, and wasabi lobster.
Le Bec Fin (1523 Walnut St.) Prix fixe ($55) Ok, so $55 isn't exactly an affordable lunchtime meal, but compared to the $150 you could spend on a prix fixe dinner there, we'll take it. Save this indulgent 5-course lunch for that really special lunch date coming up. A sample menu from a couple weeks back went something like this:
Vichyssoise, caviar and cucumber sorbet
Saffron pappardelle, sweet corn, bronze fennel and parmesan broth
Atlantic halibut, English pea fondue and summer truffles
42-day dry aged beef, chanterelle mushroom purée, spring onions, baby gems and natural jus
Mousse au chocolat de Michel Cluizel, poached cherries and macadamia nut ice cream
Caribou Café (1126 Walnut St.) Express Lunch ($16) and Prix fixe ($28) You have two options at this Parisian bistro: a less expensive two-course lunch featuring soup du jour or a petite salade with the plat du jour; or a pricier 3-course prix fixe that runs all day with choices from 6 starters (onion soup, endive salad and the like), 7 entrées (grilled sausages, moules frites, any crêpe from the à la carte menu) and pot de crème for dessert.
Reading Terminal Market (12th and Arch) $7 Meal Deal
The already affordable food stalls at the RTM are making themselves even more appealing with the $7 Meal Deal program. The participating stalls offer all different kinds of deals from chips and a sandwich to pancakes,eggs and bacon. Ask about the deal at the following places:
Basic 4 Vegetarian Snack Bar
Beck's Cajun Café
By George Pizza, Pasta & Cheesesteaks
Dienner's Bar-B-Q Chicken
Down Home Diner
Dutch Eating Place
Golden Bowl
Hershel's East Side Deli
Jonothan's Best
Kamal's Middle Eastern Specialties
Mezze Mediterranean Foods
Nanee's Kitchen
Salumeria
Spataro's Cheesesteaks
The Original Turkey
Tokyo Sushi
Tootsie's Salad Express
Bliss (220 S. Broad St.) Prix fixe ($23) Grab lunch before your matinée at the theater with 3 courses for $23. First course is the soup du jour or a salad, second course is a choice between stuffed chicken breast, salmon, or crab cake, and dessert is a cold gelato or sorbet.
Derek's (4411 Main St., Manayunk) Prix fixe ($22) This Manayunk restaurant may be a little out of the way for some, but it offers an unusually wide selection for a 3-course prix fixe: 7 appetizers, 10 entrées and 4 desserts. Here's what a meal there might look like: sweet potato dumplings with five-spice sour cream and caramelized onions, barbecued Duroc baby back ribs with tamarind-black bean barbeque sauce and shoestring fries, and the Manayunk chipwich with homemade nitro gelato, chocolate chip cookies and caramel sauce.
Estia Restaurant (1405-1407 Locust St.) Express Lunch ($17) and Business Lunch ($30) You can opt for a 2-course or 3-course lunch here, with cheaper options on the Express Lunch menu (spanakopita and moussaka, for example). The 3-course Business Lunch option includes pricier bets like the grilled and marinated octopus served over red and sweet onions dressed with grilled peppers, capers and red wine vinaigrette, and the lamb shank braised and served over cracked wheat pasta with tomato kampama, pine nuts, currants and shaved feta. Finish off with baklava or fresh fruit.
Nectar (1091 Lancaster Ave, Berwyn) Express Lunch ($12.95) Sure, it's out of the way... but it was also just named Best Restaurant on the Main Line, which certainly makes it worth the trip. You get two courses, with 4 soup or salad choices to start with (expect Kennett Square mushroom soup with crispy goat cheese and crispy potato dumplings scallion and seaweed salad), and 12 entrées, all with an Asian fusion twist. Some of the fancier entrées like the Vietnamese beef tenderloin petite sandwiches with rosemary potato bread and the lobster fried rice require $4-6 supplements. To forgo the supplement, try saffron-infused basmati fried rice with light curried chicken, or Nectar lo mein with smoked wild boar, Chinese sausage and baby greens.
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