As you read about last week, I recently had a layover at the Philadelphia Airport, my first time there.
The timing of my flights was awkward, and I was flying economy, so I didn't have any meals provided. Thus I needed to eat meals at strange times, spread out between the airports plus snacks on my flights.
I landed in Philadelphia in the far out terminal F, which requires a shuttle over to the other terminals, where of course I was departing. Being diligent, I knew that the other terminals had Pinkberry, which
I've reviewed many times before, but F had Red Mango. I hadn't been to a Red Mango in years, so I was eager to check it out, and even though it made no sense to have froyo the moment I landed, well, that is what I did. While it was
different from what I remembered, it still made me very happy.
After my arrival froyo, I headed to the B/C Connector terminal, to grab food to consume on my flight for dinner a few hours later. Standard food court choices of Subway, Au Bon Pain, etc were what most people would go for, I'm sure. But there was also a formal sit down Legal Seafood. Now, I've never loved Legal, even though
I've tried it several times, but I assumed it would be better than random fast food airport food. Of course, most of what is appealing on Legal's menu is hot food, but it didn't make sense to get crab cakes, grilled scallops, or fish and chips to eat later. So, I went simple: salad and dessert.
Even though located in an airport, the restaurant is mainly for dine-in. I guess most people don't have the thoughts I do. They didn't even have an area to order takeout, nor a takeout menu posted, but I knew I could do it, and ordered from the hostess. Since my selections didn't require much prep, they were ready within just a few minutes, and handed over nicely packaged up, with dressing and sauces on the side. Even if not advertised, they obviously know how to do takeout.
The food was ... fine. About what I expected. No more, no less. If you need something in the airport, it isn't the worse option, but it certainly isn't worth going out of your way for. Next time, I'd just eat MORE Red Mango!
Salad
 |
| Classic Caesar Salad. $7.95 + Maine Crabmeat $10. |
"Romaine hearts, garlic croutons, shaved romano, creamy dressing."
Since I needed something to eat for a later meal, my options for cold food were fairly limited, and I settled on just a salad. Greek, Wedge, House, or Caesar were the options. Of those, Caesar sounded by far the best.
To any salad you can add grilled chicken, shrimp, or salmon, or ... crab! Being a
crab lover, I opted for that without hesitation. I figured I needed some protein. This wasn't the smartest idea in retrospect ... I wasn't planning to eat for a few hours ... crab sitting out for a few hours ... whoops!
The salad was ... fine.
Standard romaine lettuce chunks, fresh enough. The lettuce wasn't brown, it wasn't soggy, it wasn't wilted. So, fine.
The croutons were huge, and super buttery, which was kinda nice. I didn't actually taste garlic, thus, I wouldn't call them "garlic croutons" as advertised.
The dressing was standard creamy Caesar. It didn't probably have any anchovy in it, but it did have plenty of cheese.
As for the "shaved romano"? Besides the cheese in the dressing, there was no other cheese in the salad. No shaved, not shredded, not grated.
Overall, a pretty standard Caesar salad. Nothing notable, nothing awful. Probably better than the fast food, and a decent size for $7.95.
The add-on crab was scooped into the middle. It was also decent. A huge portion, which seemed generous at first, until I considered the fact that it was $10, more than the salad itself. It was however all shredded crab, no lump meat. It wasn't fishy or off-putting, and it was slightly sweet. It was well seasoned with salt and pepper, and I kinda think it had a little mayo mixed in. Again, good enough.
Ojan and I enjoyed the salad, particularly compared to our other options, but it was certainly not an earth shattering salad.
Dessert
 |
| Boston Cream Pie. $7.95. |
"Chocolate sauce, rum caramel sauce, toffee almond crunch."
Of course, you know me, I needed
dessert. There were three choices, starting with Key Lime Pie, which I'm never a fan of. Next was cheesecake, which I had been craving like crazy, but had the
night before at the Aloft hotel bar, and a few days prior at the
Romano's Macaroni Grill in the O'Hare Airport. Finally, their classic dessert, since they are a New England based chain: Boston Cream Pie. Plus, Ojan was with me. I didn't exactly have any choice besides the Boston Cream!
I'm not sure I've ever actually had the Boston Cream pie from Legal Seafood. I don't think I've had ... any dessert there actually. The Boston Cream is a signature dish however, and they even sell it on the website for home delivery.
For the unfamiliar, Boston Cream Pie is not, actually, a pie. Or what you likely think of as a pie. Closer to cake than pie. They always take a slightly different form, but are all composed of the traditional elements of custard, vanilla cake, and chocolate.
The Legal Seafood version is an individual round portion. Starting at the bottom is basic yellow sponge cake, a thin slice. On top of that an equally thin layer of the custard. Then another same size layer of sponge cake. Eventually, a thicker layer of custard. All topped off with a chocolate fudge layer, again, about the same size as the earlier custard and cakes.
It was good. Again, like the salad, not earth shattering, but not bad.
First, the cake layers. Now, I don't really like cake, and would rather not even include it in Boston Cream Pie. Everyone knows the pie is all about the creamy custard, right? It was ... cake. Plain cake. Meh.
Next, the most important part: the custard. It was sweet, creamy, vanilla bean flavored. Basically just a thicker pudding. Certainly good enough.
The chocolate on top surprised me. A thick fudge-like layer. Really nice milk chocolate flavor. Far, far better than I expected, and much better than the standard chocolate sauce many places use.
Speaking of chocolate sauce. It also came with two sauces, each packaged up in their own little containers. The chocolate sauce was super thick, darker than the one on top of the pie. I didn't actually like it very much. Not that anything was wrong with it, but it was far too thick to drizzle over and the flavor was unremarkable.
As for the second sauce ... I wasn't sure what it was. I tasted it, and it seemed like a basic vanilla creme anglaise, although a bit boozy. But then I looked up the menu online after and saw that it said it was a "rum caramel sauce"? Then again, the menu also said that it came with a "toffee almond crunch", which most certainly was not present here.
The second sauce was sweet, but it certainly wasn't anything I'd call a caramel. Unlike the chocolate, it was thin, and easy to pour, although I ended up just using my spoon and eating it that way, separate from my pie. I did taste some slight booze, so perhaps it was rum. But definitely not caramel.
When I look at images online, I see that it is normally served with the chocolate sauce drizzled over the top, on top of a pool of the other sauce, with an almond crunch over the top. They clearly just left that final component out of my togo order.
Overall, it was fine, and I enjoyed it with a coffee on my flight. Not the best I've had, not the worst. Price of $7.95 was fine for a full size restaurant dessert.
