"I've never written a negative review before, but given how expensive Vetri is and how uniformly glowing all the reviews of it seem to be, I felt it my public duty to talk about my experience. To my unrefined palate, this was an extremely overpriced dinner. This was far and away the most expensive meal I've ever paid for, and inevitably that means the bar was set high. First, the positives. The service was exemplary; the bread, onion crepe, and molten pistachio cake were all memorably fantastic. (The salumi plate was great too, but it's also very difficult to screw up prosciutto and pretzels. The wine pairing also elevated the experience. However, my pasta dish wasn't just not great, I actually thought it wasn't GOOD. Period. I had the paccheri with clams and sea beans, and the pasta was so al dente it was debatably undercooked, and there were like four tiny clams in the whole tiny dish. They weren't even especially good or flavorful clams! The sauce, meanwhile, was pretty good but genuinely tasted like something I could have easily made at home with some oil and garlic. The veal breast entree was also...fine. It tasted sort of like what I'd imagine food in first class on the Titanic tasted like. It was very rich and almost syrupy, with some very bland blanched vegetables on the side. At least with this dish I could see how someone could love it; it just didn't strike me as that special. All in all, had this meal been a little less expensive or had every course been amazing, I wouldn't be writing this review. But as it is, I came away decidedly underwhelmed and feeling like a bit of a sucker. If I could do it again, I'd spend the money on front row Sixers tickets or a roundtrip flight to Miami."
