Kensington Quarters- this Fishtown butcher is also serving up delicious fare, which helped make it’s way to the #39 spot on Philly Mag’s top 50 Restaurants. You can really taste how fresh the meat is (I mean, it’s butchered right there), the service is phenomenal, and it’s definitely an all around good time. Don’t be put off by the giant hocks of meat greeting you when you first walk in, they add a special kind of ambiance that you could only get from eating in a butcher shop.

“Our mission is to support local agriculture and sustainable practices by giving small farmers an outlet for the food they grow. Our kitchen uses whole animals, heritage grains, seasonal produce, local dairy, and artisanal products.” – Kensington Quarters

 

First things first, the decor of this restaurant is great. Not to mention the fact that you walk right in to the butcher shop, and see all the different meat you can enjoy, the tables are set on steel beams, so they can slide back and forth, changing from 2-tops to 8-tops all in a matter of seconds. My dad and I sat there sliding the table back and forth for a little bit (it wasn’t crowded when we sat down) and entertained ourselves.

Images via Yelp

The menu is constantly changing, because they work with local farms to get the freshest produce you could possibly imagine. For our starters, we went with the mixed charcuterie board (minus the head cheese), and the Mushroom Toast.

On the charcuterie board, there was pork liver pate, pepperoni, shaved lamb leg, and other various assorted meats. You really could taste how fresh they were- I wish we had more pepperoni because I seriously chowed down on it- I don’t think my dad got any!

The mushroom toast was also delicious. It came with sourdough, garlic confit, meadowset camel’s back cheese, and was the perfect size to cut in two and share. You could really taste how creamy the cheese was on the bottom.

As for our entrees, we had heard that Kensington Quarters is serving up one of the best burger’s in Philadelphia, so of course, we went with that. We also went with the chicken dish, which came over a sausage and shell bean ragout, with glazed root vegetables. The burger definitely, hands down, has etched its way into my top 5 best burgers in Philadelphia. I can’t explain how good it was. It was juicy, it was cooked perfectly, it was absolutely fresh, it really is worth the visit, just to get the burger.

As for the chicken, the skin was crispy, and the sausage and shell bean ragout added an interesting smokey taste to the dish, really bringing out some flavors that I had never really experienced before. The meat itself was a juicy dark meat.

Finally, for dessert we went with a chocolate brownie sundae with coffee ice cream. It was the perfect sweet ending to our delicious meal.

They have a delicious looking brunch menu, so we will definitely be back to try some of the options that are not on their dinner menu (grilled cheese? steak and eggs? yes please). They also have a full bar with interesting twists on drinks, that are worth a look.

Keep in Mind: Since this is a full service butcher, you can buy meat here!

-Arielle