PRICE:
Frommer's Exceptional

For those who love jewel-box surroundings and multicourse, formal meals, Le Bec-Fin is a destination dining spot that has been ruled for almost 4 decades by owner/chef Georges Perrier. The chef, who is a celebrity in Philadelphia, hails from Lyon, France's gastronomic capital, and is a favorite of critics such as Esquire's John Mariani. Perrier is frequently seen in the dining room, on which he spent a fortune in 2002, transforming it into an elegant turn-of-the-20th-century Parisian salon setting. All dishes are exquisite and change seasonally, with recent offerings including a first course of cassolette d'escargots, with champagne-hazelnut-garlic sauce; the signature galette de crabe; and rabbit saddle with spinach and mushrooms. The dessert cart is a grand vehicle for more than a dozen beautiful options, including opera cake topped with 24-karat gold leaf. The three-course $45 lunch is a wonderful way to experience the restaurant (and dessert cart), or you can visit the tiny, lower-level Le Bar Lyonnais, with more affordable but very rich dishes from the same kitchen. Expect to spend about $18 a nibble and $11 for a glass of house wine. The later it gets, the more likely dishes from upstairs are to arrive -- and M. Perrier himself, for that matter.

Copyright: Excerpted from Frommer's Philadelphia and the Amish Country, 15th Edition, (c) 2008, Wiley Publishing, Inc.

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