Although Penn students may have only heard the name Top Dog associated with the recent noise of a strike by former Shula's Steak 2 employees, Top Dog wants students to make the sports bar, grill and dance club their campus hangout.
Looking to establish itself as the late-night alternative to Smokey Joe's, Top Dog now seeks to meet the needs of Penn students through promotions such as Thursday "Hang Night" with live, unplugged cover bands and weekend dance parties complete with local DJs.
Having just started business three weeks ago, most students have yet to take a trip to Top Dog's convenient 36th and Chestnut location, on the bottom floor of the University City Sheraton.
Hotel patrons and Philadelphians crowded around the bar and at booths and tables scattered throughout the rest of the restaurant, the walls filled with over 65 large television sets that are sure to fulfill any football fan's fantasy on Sunday afternoons.
Our waitress was friendly and enthusiastic, noting that Top Dog aspires to create a menu with diverse offerings extending past mozzarella sticks and hamburgers.
The menu had a wide array of choices, with a large selection of salads, steaks, chicken, pizza, deli sandwiches, pasta and seafood.
All of the entrees were under $17, and although some of the appetizers were priced a bit on the expensive side, most of the sandwiches were under $10.
My dining companion and I began the meal with an order of shrimp dim sum, a take on the chinese pot sticker.
Top Dog's version was unexpectedly good for an American-style restaurant, the pot stickers tasting light and crispy with a sweet sauce.
For entrees, I chose the New York strip steak and crab cake combo, and my friend decided on the chicken fajita salad.
The strip steak was an excellent cut, cooked to be crisp on the outside yet still tender and red inside. The crab cake was small, but filling, with large pieces of lump crabmeat cooked perfectly.
The chicken fajita salad was an enormous array of sauteed vegetables, lettuce and pieces of chicken tumbling out of a huge tortilla shell.
Considering the prices, the portion sizes exceeded our expectations, and the service was very prompt. Although we were full, we sampled the desserts as well.
The dark chocolate kahlua cake was a thick, fudgey brownie drizzled with chocolate sauce, but we found the cold apple pie served with ice cream a bit disappointing.
With such a tremendous lack of variety in restaurants close to campus, Top Dog succeeds in providing quality food at moderate prices. After hiring a young, Penn-savvy marketing manager, don't doubt that Top Dog will soon becoming your nightly bar and club hot spot as well.
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