St. Stephens Green

St. Stephens Green’s chef, Ben McNamara certainly has a fan in Craig LaBan. LaBan gushes about McNamara who he calls, “one of the most consistent cooks I’ve covered over the last decade.”

Longtime McNamara-lytes will recognize all of the chef’s old favorites, reflecting a blend of his classic European style with some of his bar-food updates.

There are his delicate risotto crabcakes, with sweet lumps of crustacean molded into pillows of rice, set over basil butter sauce. Toothsome homemade gnocchi come in porcini cream. And then, there is the chicken cheesesteak, an open-faced baguette toasted with brie, then piled high with tenderly braised poultry, oyster mushrooms and shallots.

2 Bells – Very Good

St. Stephens Green [Philadelphia Inquirer]