R2L

For a recent date night, my husband and I decided to visit R2L in Philadelphia. We parked a short walk away and made our way to the restaurant’s first-floor entrance, where we checked our coats and took an elevator to the 37^th floor.

We were a little bit ahead of our reservation, so the hostess asked us to wait in the bar area. There isn’t a real separation of bar and dining areas, and the bar was quite crowded, with people milling on the sidelines for a lack of somewhere to sit.

The views of the city through the wall-to-wall windows were nice, but, from what I could tell, it would be difficult to get a window seat unless you were with a group, as all of the window seating seemed to fit at least four or five people. It may be easier to do so during the week, as Saturday nights seemed to be pretty busy for them.

We were seated within half an hour and our server came by with drink and dinner menus. I ordered an Old Cuban, a mixture of rum, Champagne, mint, lime and vanilla, and my husband ordered a classic Manhattan. I sampled his as well and decided I preferred my own, but both were examples of a great cocktail.

We skipped appetizers and ordered dinner right away. I chose the veal tortellini and tenderloin from the winter menu, served on braised greens and ricotta. The veal was perfectly cooked and I was all too sad to finish, especially since the dish isn’t part of the regular menu. For dessert, we shared the warm vanilla cake with caramel, but I honestly could have happily devoured it all by myself, it was that good.

While R2L’s atmosphere was so-so and the bar and dining areas both relatively crowded, the food was more than enough to make me return.

R2L

50 S. 16^th St.

Philadelphia, Pa. 19102

215 564 5337