The Cove is a little, quiet nook in the corner of the casino floor of Harrah’s Philadelphia in Chester, PA. Apart from the noisy bells and whistles of slot machines, The Cove is a restaurant overlooking the Delaware River, and its not your typical bar and grill. College students are pretty use to a particular kind of restaurant: cheap but delicious eats, sports and music memorabilia all over the walls, TVs with the Phillies game and Action News being drowned out by the roar of a late-night Friday crowd. The Cove is very different. Upon arriving, one first glances at a beautiful displayed baby grand piano and the classically designed bar. The ambience involves soft classical jazz, dimmed lights, perfectly set tables, and veldt-lined booths. More importantly, which makes the food taste even better, is the service, which was prompt and as clean as the tables and dish presentations. The quiet and order of this restaurant is a welcomed change from what I’m used to: the rollicking sports grill.
The Cove’s specialty is in turf and surf, with emphasis on the surf. The Cove is traditional steakhouse, serving simple plates such as the filet mignon and the hand-cut, sixteen ounce New York strip. With the seafood is where the chef’s at The Cove reveal the quality of their seafood catches and the flavors they apply to the meal. The appetizers range from clams casino to Maryland crab cakes, but one should try the simplest of The Cove’s seafood appetizers. The clams and mussels in white wine sauce has a briny broth packed with herbs, and the shellfish is perfectly cooked, not over-boiled which makes the meat chewy like rubber.
From the grill the center cut, eight ounce filet mignon is so tender that the homemade steak sauce seems like an afterthought. The steak is presented on a hot board, served over a bed lightly garlic-flavored mashed potatoes, with a side of green and white asparagus. While The Cove does their two steak dishes well, the showstoppers are from under the sea. The Cape May Broil is a steaming, hot skillet of buttery and tender broiled lobster tail, scallops, bacon-stuffed clams casino, and crab stuffed shrimp.
But there’s no such thing as a perfect review, and The Cove’s price tag will turn most of us broke college students away. With the meals ranging from thirty to sixty dollars on average, The Cove is not your neighborhood bar and grill; I recommend paying the one hundred dollar plus check for a special occasion. So, if you have a recent engagement or a recent grad, the hefty price tag is worth the meal.