Big doings on the dining scene

This was the year of the mega-restaurant, the return of the French bistro, and the go-go days of the gastropub. The bacon was house-cured. The craft-beer lists became big. And women chefs, more than ever, made their mark on the city's kitchens.

Cozy Philadelphia, long one of the country's best small-restaurant towns, found more than a few restaurateurs willing to gamble big on massive, multimillion-dollar projects from Center City to the Main Line.

Georges Perrier and Chris Scarduzio presaged the still-growing luxury steak house boom with Table 31 in the new Comcast Center. Red-hot Jose Garces gave University City a boost with his multilevel Nuevo Mex funhouse, Distrito, the upscale taco and tequila palace that was the year's best overall new restaurant. Stephen Starr made a Parisian-style splash on Rittenhouse Square with Parc, the gargantuan French bistro that has been serving as many as 1,200 meals a day.

That's a lot of frites and fresh baguettes. But Parc was hardly the only Gallic game going. From Queen Village's Cochon and Bistrot La Minette to Eric Ripert's 10 Arts in the Ritz, Dream Cuisine in Cherry Hill, and Brian Held's surprising Rouget in Newtown, chefs turned to French comfort food as a favored theme.

There were plenty of other authentic ethnic highlights amid my dining adventures in this year's reviews: the Shanghai steamed buns (a.k.a. "soup dumplings") at Chinatown's bargain gem, Dim Sum Garden; the fiery grilled Korean meats (and karaoke) at North Philly's Everyday Good House; the soulful lamb plov and kabobs at Uzbekistan in the Russian Northeast.

There were also a number of exciting contemporary updates to traditional ethnic cuisines. Michael Solomonov put an upscale spin on Israeli street food at Zahav. Former Pod and Buddakan NYC chef Michael Schulson opened a high-style Japanese pub, Izakaya, at Atlantic City's Borgata.

And Indian food found its contemporary muse in Marcie Turney at Bindi, where she was among the largest class of women chefs I've ever reviewed in a year. Erin O'Shea's modern Southern cuisine at Marigold Kitchen, Luciana Spurio's authentic Abruzzese fare at Le Virtù, Ane Ormaechea's exquisite tapas at Cafe Apamate, and Jennifer Carroll's debut as Ripert's kitchen proxy at 10 Arts were also all well worth noting.