Restaurant Review: Moshulu. I've had more satisfying meals at Quedoba.

I have never done restaurants reviews on this blog because my readers are from all over the world, but I think by reviewing this restaurant I can do a service to any future Philadelphia visitors.

THE LOCATION:
Amazingly restored Merchant Ship from the early 1900, it sits on the dock at Penn's Landing, right on the Delaware river. You can eat while overlooking the water moving beside you and it's quite the experience. 5/5

THE SERVICE:
Very kind, friendly, multi cultural and multi lingual staff. I feel like our waiter though thought we weren't good enough for that restaurant: he didn't follow us as much as other tables he was serving, leaving us without wine for too long (how dare he leave an Italian without wine...) and leaving our poisonous food (I'll get to that in a second) sitting in front of us for way too long.  3/5

THE MENU:
I guess they would call it Fusion. I would call it Con-fusion.

A clash of classic american dishes like Lobster Bisque, Mac and Cheese, mixed with some italian Salumi, french Foi Gras, japanese Sushi and other things not even worth mentioning. Didn't even look at the desserts, which is my favorite part of the meal. 1/5

WHAT DID WE EAT...?
What I ate: Crispy fried Shellfish, Crispy skin Salmon with Brussels Sprouts, Apples and Beet purea.

What Lewin (my better half) ate: Lobster Bisque, Crab and Shrimp stuffed Flounder, a side of sautéed wild Mushrooms. Yuck. 

The theme of all the dishes was too much salt, too much butter, too much spices, too many ingredients. 

They presentation of the Fried Fish was disgusting, although the fish was really good quality and nicely fried. They made a mayonnaise with Squid Ink (black mayo...), they put it on the bottom of the dish. They put salad on top of that. They put the hot fried fish on top of the salad. What do you think the salad did when it touched the hot fish? Yup, it wilted into the black mess underneath and after three bites I didn't know what I was eating anymore. Plus nowhere on the menu it said Squid ink Mayonnaise. Gross looking and way to fatty tasting. $17

The Lobster bisque was ok, not worth $12

Here comes my Crispy Salmon, with way too much salt and pepper, fried in too much butter (salmon is a fat fish, no need to add more). Very nicely presented but the flavors didn't go together well. The beets tasted like nothing, the best thing on the plate were the apples. $29

I didn't try Lewin's Flounder but he complained about it being too salty and way too much cayenne pepper, when nowhere on the menu it said "spicy". $31

Here's the worst part of the order: the Wild Mushroom. Oh. My. God.
Yesterday's boiled mushrooms, cooked with tomatoes and some not better identified herb that for some obscure reason didn't transfer any flavor to the mushrooms. Sautéed means IN A PAN. I want to see the pan marks on the vegetables, I want to taste the oil, the herbs. But mostly I don't want to get sick from it. $12

This is when the experience took a turn for the worst. I only had one and I had a hard time chewing through it, Lewin ate a few and started having stomach cramps.  

The Manager comes over to see how we were doing and we tell him THE TRUTH. He falls from the clouds, mumbles something in a language we don't know and leaves.

The Waiter comes back (with calm) and asks the same question. Not good man, this shit it making me sick. Ah ok, let me call the manager. He was just here...!

The Manager comes back and offers us dessert. God no, unless it comes from a different kitchen. Oh, ok, how can I fix the problem then? I don't know, how about take out of the order those awful mushrooms and drinks?

Well, we don't know what he took out cause we still ended up paying a lot of money, for a meal that made us sick to our stomach.

But it's not about the money, it's the disappointment.
Honestly, I would rather light money on fire then eat that badly with it.
 

I'll give it 2/5, cause the place is beautiful and the wine was good. 

I'll leave you with something my grandfather used to say:
"A me i funghi mi piacciono riscaldati" meaning "I like my mushrooms warmed up" meaning "I'll eat them the day after, so if anybody got sick from it I will know not to eat it". Wisdom.


Valentina
RealItalianKitchen