Bardea Food and Drink was opened over 5 years ago by Scott Stein and Chef Antimo DiMeo in the historic section of downtown. It has an Italian base but the menu is all over the place. The large place was not to be confused with the Bardea Steak next door or the new concept across the street, but they all are under the same ownership. Chef DiMeo was a semifinalist for the Best Chef Mid-Atlantic James Beard Award in 2019 and featured on the Today Show and Vogue magazine. The large place was hopping on Friday night but died out by 8:30. You enter into a large bar area where people were also eating. The main dining room next to it had tightly packed tables, so tight that we had to wait for another table as the first one had chairs that couldn’t move away from the table to allow seating due to crowded conditions. The 2-tops seemed to ring around the edge of the room with 4-tops in the middle. Music was in the background but the crowd already provided plenty of background noise. An open kitchen was opposite the wall of windows looking out onto the street. Fun art was on the walls and there was some wonderful little tilework on the floors. Service was friendly but very slow with long periods of absence – possibly too many people and too few workers – that made it less than a wonderful evening. Some of the food was good while others plates stayed in the average range. The timing was so slow that we were happy to skip dessert just to get out of the place. It was popular but I would avoid it on a weekend night.
Set-Up
Food
The lamb bao bun also contained strawberry, mint chimichurri and yogurt. They came 2 to an order and were ‘taco-shaped’ with the tasty filling in the puffy soft bun. The lamb meat seemed stewed and it combined nicely with the other ingredients for several tasty bites.
The burrata pop tart was alongside a fennel sweet onion jam. It came as one thick puff pastry rectangle topped with seeds and filled with a cheese that was more the texture of ricotta than burrata. The onion jam was key to the success of this one. Lots of textures but the onions tied the flavors together. Certainly not like any other pop tart I’ve had.
The risotto was seasoned with French onion and St. Malachi (an Alpine hard cheese also produced in PA). The center was a creamy risotto topped with sweet onions and around it was a thick cheese sauce topped with green powder. Again the onion really helped the flavor profile and while the overall effect was good, this one wasn’t as special as it should have been.
The Heritage chicken was seasoned with Szechuan, lavender, and honey soy au jus. It came in a half or whole size – we got half. It took a long time to get to our table so I admit I was less than receptive. Parts of it were over-cooked and the exterior rub was way too salty for me. It was acceptable but fell way short of expectations.
Broccoli di ciccio contained curry, garlic confit and pine nut pesto. This was some well-cooked broccoli with a very tasty sauce. It should have been served with a spoon so you could enjoy the two together but it was not and a server was nowhere to be had. It was tasty though.
