Problems At MidAtlantic

Adam Erace loves the fun vibe of MidAtlantic but can’t say the same about the food.

That salad arrived alongside the dry MidAtlantic burger, which came topped with horseradish cheddar, a senseless split link of beef sausage and pickles, which I’d requested on the side. The compact donut roll bookending the burger was playful in theory but sobering in execution, devoid of the airiness you’d expect from a donut.

Coming from Stern, a serious technician whose food normally never looks less than exquisite, this was a curveball. But then again, Stern, presumably occupied with the fast-approaching R2L opening, wasn’t even at MidAtlantic the weekend night I dined. Chef de cuisine Steve Lamborn (the original sous at Gayle) runs the show here, and there are glimmers of Gayle in his cooking: a textbook-perfect fry on the buttery panko and Ritz cracker-crusted Long Island oysters and salsify batons; the cleverness of pan-seared crab “scrapple” cake composed of crabmeat and barley, far better than any traditional crab cake I’ve had in recent memory.

Pass the Dutch [Philadelphia Weekly]
MidAtlantic [Official Site]