Champagne Taste on a Beer Budget: 10 Fine Dining Deals Around Philly
From swanky happy hours to a top-tier French tasting menu, here’s how to put less money where your mouth is.
Fine dining deals: The beet-pickled deviled eggs at Forsythia will run you $7 at happy hour. / Photograph by Gab Bonghi
From swanky happy hours to a top-tier French tasting menu, here’s how to put less money where your mouth is.
Power lunch at SkyHigh.
From 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. daily, the swanky Four Seasons Hotel’s 60th-floor lounge offers a choice of two courses for $45 or three for $58, with seasonal items like burrata with a fig compote or beets with goat cheese. You’ll dine at new heights, without giving your wallet a fear of them. Center City.
Sip high tea at Elwood.
The tea service here is supreme. Expect petite bites of corn datch (a Pennsylvania Dutch quickbread) and biscuits, venison scrapple, smoked trout (with caviar!), macarons, cheesecake, and other Pennsylvania-focused nibbles paired with premium imported blends or herbal brews from a Montco farm. And the whole thing is just $35. Fishtown.
Get your Double Knot fix at DK Sushi.
Order the same rolls you love from Double Knot at DK, its more casual sister, where your $14 spicy scallop will be $9. University City.
Indulge in a French tasting menu at June BYOB …
Four courses for 55 bucks per person is a steal, considering that the standard menu’s duck breast entree alone is $57. The seasonal lineup might even include the fantastic smoked A5 wagyu tartare — made even tastier by the fact that you’re saving on wine by bringing a bottle from your personal cellar. Collingswood.
… And French bar fare at Forsythia.
The only thing over $10 on the happy-hour bar menu at this lovely French bistro from lauded chef Christopher Kearse is the burger. Skip that (see our Fountain Porter rec), and order the beet-pickled deviled eggs with salmon ($7), the duck and chicken rillette with a foie gras crostini ($10), and the beignets ($6). Old City.
Sidle up to the bar at Friday Saturday Sunday.
There’s a separate à la carte lineup, so you’ll be treated to all the wonders of the James Beard Award-winning kitchen at bar-fare prices. (Recent dishes have included octopus, potato gnocchi, and even a New York strip steak.) Plus, the bar recently got a sophisticated reno, making it an even finer place to dine. Rittenhouse.
Eat more slices at Pizzeria Vetri …
Dig in to a $10 happy-hour pie (Margherita, please!) at the Rittenhouse spot or a $15 half-pizza and half-salad lunch at the King of Prussia and Devon locations. Rittenhouse, King of Prussia, and Devon.
… And burgers.
Fountain Porter’s cult favorite — with a potato roll, a medium-rare beef burger, melty American cheese, lettuce, and tomato — is about as classic as the $6 price tag. Then there’s the $10 beer-and-burger happy-hour pairing at Bud & Marilyn’s. East Passyunk and Midtown Village.
A healthy pour at Superfolie / Photograph by Michael Persico
Don’t drink plonk.
Harper’s Garden has $5 happy-hour wine, while Superfolie’s Wednesday cellar raids ensure you’ll sip something special at cost (if a bottle runs them $25, a glass will only run you $5). Uncork certain half-off bottles on Sundays at Vintage Wine Bar. And have a plate of pasta (spaghetti amatriciana, linguine and clams) and a glass for $20 on Wednesdays and Thursdays at Bistro Romano. (Offered at the bar.) Various locations.
But do drink bubbles.
“Splurge” with free-flowing brunch mimosas or bellinis teamed with four courses at the Ritz-Carlton’s Aqimero for $75 per person, or all-you-can-eat fries and a bottle of French champagne for $99 during Mish Mish’s Sunshine Hour (Thursday to Monday). Center City and East Passyunk.
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Published as “Fine Dining on the Cheap” in the October 2024 issue of Philadelphia magazine.
