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The decor could have said it all: brick walls, crushed red velvet seats, vaguely medieval and Elizabethan portraits along the walls. What exactly were they going for? Antique shop chic? One has to wonder. L2 Restaurant, which rests quietly on the sleepy corner of 22nd and South Street, has a menu much like its dining room: a little old–fashioned, a little random, a little lacking in sensibility.
As soon as the appetizers arrive, one starts to get the idea that a chef is dancing away in the kitchen, haphazardly throwing together whatever is lying around and calling it a dish. All in good spirits. Shrimp stuffed with horseradish, wrapped in bacon and topped with remoulade ($9) sounded promising, but the bacon lacked the necessary crispiness, and the remoulade tasted a bit too much like Russian dressing. The shrimp are, however, well–cooked.
Chicken shumai dumplings ($7.75) with Asian dipping sauce are a tasty sure bet, but seem misplaced next to American/Italian counterparts, and they could just as easily have come from a takeout joint.
Most peculiar, though not terrible, is a cheesesteak–spring roll of sorts: beef, cheese and onion wrapped in a spring roll garnished with a sophisticated dash of ketchup spread across the plate. Plain and simple, it tastes like a fried hamburger. Were such an offering available at the pizza place that stays open ‘til the wee hours, the late night munchies crowd would no doubt find them transcendental.
L2’s main courses lack the whimsicalness of the appetizers, and rather than random, they just felt a bit middle of the road. The salmon ($17) is, like mostly all the dishes, nicely cooked, though coated far too generously in layers of a creamy tarragon and dijon sauce. An eggplant parmesan ($15.50) feels like it’s going through the motions, with all the correct ingredients, but is unremarkable in its gloppy gooeyness.
Nothing is inedible, or even particularly offensive, except for the pasta that comes with the eggplant parm. With nary even a dash of butter, the plain penne was painfully overcooked and bathed in a blizzard of stale Kraft–like parmesan and… oregano. One is quickly convinced that the unholy union of oregano and pasta should be immediately annulled.
In my experience at L2, service was peculiar. Before delivering the main course, our waiter approached us with what he called a “dilemma.” How dramatic! Instead of making our eggplant, the kitchen had “accidentally” made us a pasta with vegetables. Both were cited as “vegetarian options,” so the mistake was forgivable enough, but peculiar and unprofessional.
The food — though certainly not the quirky environment — is how I picture the dinnertime cuisine in my Mother’s suburban house as she grew up in the '60s and '70s. Not bad, per se, but blissfully ignorant of today’s sophisticated foodie–ism, and a bit heavy handed with the saturated fats. The old–fashioned butter and oil and gooeyness, though, finds its peaceful resting place in desserts. The warm almond extract bread pudding, with homemade whipped cream, was great.
L2 2201 South St. (215) 732–7878 Don't Miss: Almond pudding Skip: Eggplant parmesan $$$
