"Between the Rittenhouse location, its highly acclaimed East Passyunk sister, and the restaurant's $115 grand plateau, Little Water gives the first impression of a place that might work for a pricey birthday or an anniversary dinner. The menu may be armed with uni and caviar, but Little Water's best dishes aren't glitzy at all—and the showiest ones often fall flat. Ignore the glam seafood bait, and treat Little Water like an easy neighborhood restaurant with a good bar and a good salad, and you’ll be in business. photo credit: Ted Nghiem It's easy to slide into $100-per-person territory here without trying too hard, but the dining experience doesn't quite warrant that expensive of a night out. Much of the seafood gets this close to being great. Even our favorites, like a gorgeous, golden hashbrown with peekytoe crab and uni or the crisp swordfish milanese, are missing lemon, vinegar, or salt to bring out the best of what are clearly high-quality products. The raw bar options seem to have the opposite problem: stunning shellfish is drowned out by sauces and toppings that don’t do the fish any favors. Too-intense smoked catsup and horseradish drench shrimp cocktail, and Alabama white sauce distracts from fresh oysters. The most consistently successful dish on the menu is the towering caesar-like salad, which is pungent with anchovy flavor but, remarkably, absent of anchovies. It's great to order at the bar by yourself or with a friend while you catch up. The L-shaped counter in the former Twenty Manning space anchors the room, and is usually slammed with longtime Rittenhouse residents and Philebrities happily drinking benne old-fashioneds, ice-cold LW martinis, or something from the approachable wine list. The dining room gets noisy, too, but it's not as pleasant to yell "What was that?" across a bistro table in between bites of swordfish belly tartare as it is at the bar. photo credit: Ted Nghiem There are plenty of other destination restaurants in Rittenhouse that we’d send you to when you're looking to spend money with reckless abandon. But if you just want to hang out at a bar in the area, drink something great, and order one or two dishes to snack on, Little Water works. A fantastic salad and a martini on a Thursday night come in handy far more often than a seafood platter, anyway. Food Rundown Drinks On all fronts, Little Water nails the drinks, and you should do your best to sit at the bar while you sip them. The benne old-fashioned tastes nutty and slightly sweet, and the LW martini is basically velvet. If you want to go the by-the-glass route, expect a straightforward and affordable wine list (and plenty of bottles, too). Best of all, maybe, the spirit-free options are thoughtful and fun to drink. photo credit: Alison Kessler Grand Plateau The seafood itself is outstanding, but most of it is buried beneath sauce. Shrimp cocktail comes dressed with far-too-smoky housemade catsup and horseradish. Alabama white sauce on top of oysters is thick and unpleasant to slurp. While we've encountered a swordfish belly tartare that was bright with green apple, we’ve also had the platter with bland scallops. There are better ways to spend $115 in this city. photo credit: Alison Kessler Hashbrown With Peekytoe Crab, Celeriac, And Maine Uni She is beauty. She is grace. But she is, occasionally, underseasoned. So many elements here are working—the hot, crispy hashbrown contrasts nicely with the cold, buttery crab and luscious uni. We just wish the potato itself had a little more oomph. photo credit: Ted Nghiem Caesar-Like Salad This salad got its start at River Twice and it's Little Water's best and most consistent dish on the menu. It’s incredibly garlicky and a little funky, but uses no mayo or anchovies—the secret is the liquid aminos that impart that distinct umami flavor most caesars get from fish. It’s topped with crunchy, nutty furikake and benne seeds. Get it. photo credit: Alison Kessler Lancaster County Chicken This bird is well seasoned, but cooked unevenly, and the accompanying sweet potato mash is cloyingly sweet. video credit: Alison Kessler Whole Fried Black Bass Light, flaky, and served with a tangy garlic-vinegar sauce, you’ll want to pop hunks of the bass like popcorn. We don’t love the soupy bed of Sea Island rice peas, but the fish makes up for them." - Alison B. Kessler
