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A magical location for a special occasion date, I had a wonderful evening even if I would probably make different food choices on a return trip. The atmosphere is unmatched in any restaurant I've been to in Philly but not every dish measures up to its high price tag in my opinion.
Alpen Rose's hype factor will always mention the stunning interior and intimate luxurious setting, but somehow the high level of hype really doesn't even do it justice! No matter how beautiful the pictures you see are, they can't fully convey the mood and especially the SMELL. The gentle wood fire permeates the restaurant in an amazing way I haven't experienced before.
Service was good throughout the night. While the experience is certainly "fancy" for Philadelphia, it's still very approachable without being stuffy - the server uniforms have button up tops with vests, but also denim jeans to keep things from becoming pretentious. The whole "knock on the door" gimmick out front is kind of silly, but cute enough.
For food we started with a pretty standard chopped salad and their famous bone marrow toast. The toast was very good, and when you get the perfect bite it is outstanding and worth the hype. However, most of the bites were hard to put together as the marrow struggled to come cleanly off the bone. My wife ordered the beef wellington (a first for both of us) and it was dramatic and impressive! The meet was perfectly cooked and flavorful. However, we both noted that it really wasn't more than the sum of its parts- some good steak wrapped in puff pastry with some mushroom and prosciutto. Some of the pastry was also a bit raw. It was a tasty dish certainly, but I wouldn't get it again certainly not at the $90+ it costs.
My dry-aged ribeye was good as well, and I especially appreciated the small touches on the plate that elevated it. The pickled onion and roasted garlic were great palate cleansers and brought intrigue to the dish which is of course a giant piece of meat. The in-house steak sauces were also very good. The ribeye itself was good but not remarkable. In fact, a significant portion of it was quite gristly and difficult to chew. Some of that comes down to the cut itself, that's just how ribeye is, but it still wasn't a top-end steak. Also, both my cutlery and my wife's cutlery were so dull that I actually could not cut through the steak without significant effort. I probably should have asked for a replacement so maybe that's on me, but my point is that it was a challenge.
The sides (potato puree) and dessert (chocolate cake) were good and solid, and rounded out a pleasant evening. While we enjoyed our time, I think it's clear that if we were to return we'd order some of the more modest items off the menu. The non-steak options we saw on other tables did look delicious and were priced much more in line with standard restaurant prices, which would be great given how pleasant the atmosphere is.
