With high ceilings, a dark industrial modern décor and picturesque views of the towering Ben Franklin Bridge, the restaurant and sometimes-Fringe theater/cabaret venue La Peg offers a welcome alternative to the casinos and live-music juggernauts that have set up shop up the street.
The menu is casual American bar food and comfort dishes aimed at easing customers into an evening of wine- and cocktail-enhanced fun. La Peg’s chefs aren’t interested in throwing you any wild culinary curves as much as they are in hitting the bull’s eye on your hunger’s expectations.
Snack dishes like the cheese fries ($8), topped with bacon, scallions, sour cream and goat cheese, hit the mark perfectly. The buffalo wings ($10) do the same in fine fashion. The fried cheese curds ($7) really want to be the best mozzarella sticks ever, but are woefully under-seasoned once you get through the nice crusty exterior. Luckily the marinara sauce was there to save the dish, but order extra sauce. You will need it.
The grown-up kid in you will immensely enjoy other dishes like the spaghetti and meatballs ($18), with excellent beef and pork meatballs, and the macaroni and cheese ($14), which is perfectly creamy and cheesy. But the dish that scratches that throwback appetite itch the best is the fast-food burger ($7), which is the perfect approximation of the kind of drive-thru burger everybody is familiar with.
La Peg also has some upscale tricks up its sleeve. The escargot special on the menu the night we visited was decadently buttery, silky and aromatic. The restaurant’s seafood game, for the most part, is on point too. The crab cakes ($14) had pleasantly clean, uncomplicated flavor. The New England clam chowder ($9) was robust with strong flavors, without being super thick and heavy. The oysters Rockefeller ($17) deliver the classic goods.
On the night we visited, the restaurant hosted John Jarboe’s Get Pegged Cabaret Show, which added another layer of excitement to the evening. If you’re looking for a nice place to kick back with a nice view of the action on the Delaware River, see if La Peg is a good fit for you.