Allora (Mother's Day Celebration!)

Since we normally don't celebrate Mother's Day with dinner on the day, 7 of us visited Allora by da Soli,  892 Route 73 North, Marlton, NJ 08053 (856-596-6882), on Saturday, May 20, 2017. Glad we made reservations, because the place was packed! This is one of our favorite restaurants, and everything was outstanding!

We requested Mark as our server, and he was amazing, as usual!

Since it was a large table, Jay missed taking pictures of some items.

Love the wonderfully crunchy bread, which is tender inside.

Appetizers:

Pork Belly with fries (honey mustard sauce) - SPECIAL

Crispy Brussels, thinly sliced, with pecorino cheese and bread crumbs

Caesar Salad with house made dressing - very refreshing

Entrees:

Shrimp & Crab Meat Fra Diablo

Jay's mom tried the hot pepper!

Tuscan Braised Beef

Seafood Cioppino - SPECIAL
How did Jay forget to take pictures of her own dish! It was awesome!


Desserts:

The dessert tray contained wonderful choices...

Chocolate cake

Strawberry cheesecake - light and flavorful

Lemon mousse cake

Bread pudding

Chef Mark outdid himself once again!

Some wines enjoyed (they like sweet wine):

Isot Mediterranean Cuisine (Turkish) - Philly!

We enjoyed another 4 hour lunch with friends Karin and George at Isot Mediterranean Cuisine, 622 South 6th Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19147, on Friday, May 19, 2017. Refer to this posting, because we pretty much duplicated everything (even our seating!):

http://byobnj.blogspot.com/2015/08/iso-mediterranean-cuisine-turkish-not-nj.html

We were again seated by the window, and selected from the Dinner menu (see below). Since the lunch option was recently re-instituted, we were thrilled to enjoy the delicious offerings again. Our server was wonderful, even though he had many tables to cover.

We were given Turkish tea - very refreshing on this hot day!

Once again, we shared everything. So good!

Since Ken and Jay arrived a bit late, George and Karin had already started on the Hummus - still delicious and warm!

The chef treated us to Mixed Meze - combination of Abugannush, Acili Ezme, Haydari, Saksuka, and Hummus.

Appetizers:

Shrimp Umberger

Fried Calamari

Entrees:

Seafood Casserole

Manti

Mixed Plate

which came with salad

Ken enjoyed the Turkish coffee

We took home the Baklava

Wines enjoyed:

We'll be back. Wonderful food, good friends, and fantastic service!

Here's the current menu:

Tarantella Ristorante

Six of us met for dinner at Tarantella Ristorante, 128 Route 70, Medford, NJ (609-714-9050). We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We had a 6:30pm reservation, which was a good thing, because the place was packed. Even though only 4 of us arrived at 6:30, we were promptly seated.

Bread and bruschetta were immediately brought to the table. Wine bottles were opened and we ready to go! The regular menu is HUGE. Even the specials menu was quite extensive.

Appetizers shared:

Calamari Fritti - perfectly cooked

Sausage and Broccoli Rabe, sautéed in garlic and oil. (Special - this needs to stay on the menu!)

Funghi Ripieni - Mushrooms stuffed with crab meat (Ken took this picture)

Salad also comes with your meal (choice of homemade Blue Cheese, Italian, or Roasted Garlic dressings)

Entrees:

Jay and Kim selected the Short Rib Mascarpone Risotto Special, which came with 2 large pieces of deliciously cooked meat, along with vegetables, crispy onions and drizzled with white truffle oil. Jay took half home for next evening's dinner.

Ken was hoping for, and selected, the Lobster Ravioli Special, in a creamy alfredo sauce, with sun dried tomato, baby shrimp, and spinach.

Charlie and Zack selected the Scallops Imperial Special, topped with crab imperial, asparagus, and sun dried tomatoes. Served in a lemon cream sauce with seafood ravioli. (No picture, but they enjoyed it - the scallops were substantial.)

Diane enjoyed the veal saltimbocca, which Ken normally gets, and is very tender and flavorful.

We asked for limoncello and a few selected the Cappuccino as well.

Diane enjoyed the lemon cake for dessert.

Definitely come hungry - you won't be disappointed!

Some of the wines that we enjoyed: