Spence Cafe
| Address: | 29-31 East Gay Street West Chester PA 19380 |
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| Phone: | (610) 738-8844 |
| Website: | http://www.spencecaferestaurant.com |
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Tasty seafood dishes, terrific cocktails and toe-tappin’ live music. What else could you want in the heart of West Chester?
Spence Cafe is “Old, Tried and ALL Right”. Featuring Executive Chef Dave Watti, Spence Cafe offers gourmet cuisines and impeccable service.
Special events include: Chef Tasting: five coursed, $70.00 per person (Tuesday-Thursday Only). $1.00 Plate charge on split appetizers, $2.00 on split entrees. All major credit cards accepted.
36 Comments So Far
Their tagline speaks for itself. Spence has been a WC staple for years, but hasn't faltered in the slightest. Every bite of food was a mini-fireworks display in my mouth. They pride themselves on quality seafood, but everything on their menu is perfectly balanced and will not disappoint.
The seafood was cooked to perfection. The dressing on my scallop salad was a plethora of complimentary flavors. The service was good. The decor is elegant/hip but not uptight. They've got it all down at this restaurant.
[...] celebrate Father’s Day early by taking them to Spence Café (29-31 E. Gay Street, 610 738 8844, More Information on Spence Cafe) for wine tasting on Thursday night, 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. Trust me, this is way cooler than all those [...]
[...] Spence’s Café features a World Café Live sell out band, Funky Butter whose style is a blend of musical genres from jazz to rock 10pm – 2am (http://www.funkybutter.com/) [...]
[...] Spence’s Café features a World Café Live sell out band, Funky Butter whose style is a blend of musical genres from jazz to rock 10pm – 2am (http://www.funkybutter.com/) [...]
[...] you really want to schmooze somebody, take them to Spence Café (29-31 E. Gay St., 610.738.8844). I originally thought Spence was just a hippie hangout with reggae [...]
The Saffron rice with ginger that was paired with the butterfish were both divine. My wife had the steak and ti was superior to many steak houses. Spence Cafe is great. Alongside Gilmore's, these are the two finest regional dining destinations outside Philadelphia in my opinion.
Spence Cafe is one of my favorite restaurants. The butterfish with jasmine rice is fantastic. My husband had softshell crabs and also thought it was great. It has a really nice bar. If you want great food in West Chester, Spence is highly recommended.
Best food in West Chester hands down. They seem be able to blend the young with the …not so young and get away with it. The food is always excellent. Good looking servers who know what they're doing. This place is well run.
We have had yet another fabulous dinner at Spence!
The ostrich tenderloin (special) was perfectly cooked, tender and delicious, served with a velvety cabernet sauce and a generous portion of chanterelles. The roasted baby red onions were sweet bites of rich onion flavor, with a slight crunch in the center–superb. My husband had the hanger steak with a red currant jus and roasted shallots. I was grateful that he did give me a taste!
Sorry we were too full for dessert–Spence's desserts are always terrific.
Just the best food in West Chester! (And they have a charcuterie platter–that alone is worth a visit!)
My wife and I are regulars. Spence went thru an off period a few years ago, but has come roaring back and better than ever.
Oysters– they don't necessarily offer a wide variety of species as much as they do give you the most creative recipes.
I think Spence has the most original menu in West Chester. Anything you order will be delicious and have a different twist that expands your palate without making you feel like your dinner was an experiment.
Great service and atmosphere as well. They really take care of you and treat you like you're their only customer.
I likey!
I've never eaten here, but I love the bar, and I think the music and atmosphere is one of the best in the city. My friends and I are a little above the age of the average college crowd, so being packed like sardines down the road at Kildare's or Baxters doesn't really appeal to us too much. Seems the slightly more mature atmosphere at Spence scares off a bit of the college crowd, which is fine by us.
The barstaff and servers are friendly and attentive, the music is always wonderful, and I especially love seeing the Jefre Washington Band there.
This place is great and I sincerely hope it stays that way. Kudos.
Excellent place for lunch. The food is always terrific, particularly the turkey sandwich. Recently had the Ahi Tuna, which was delectable.
The restaurant is also nicely laid out. You can have a conversation with your partner without feeling like everything is being overheard. I've been there in large groups as well and you don't feel as though it gets too noisy or cramped.
I adore the crabcake sandwich, it has so much actual crab meat in it and really no filler! This is my mom and I's special treat to celebrate for lunch since it can be a little pricey. I haven't endulged in the desserts but they look heavenly! Also the service has always been great!
The Spence Cafe is the best restaurant in West Chester by far! The chef, who I'm told has free creative range with the menu, creates a delicious variety of choices that is difficult for the average diner to choose from. No worries, everything I'm told by dining companions is so fabulous. You are safe in making your choice. For the vegetarians…the chef is happy to accommodate you and accommodate well! You will be pleased with an alternative to pasta. The food is excellent, the service great, and the music is top notch as well as the alcohol choices. You can drink from many countries in humble WC.
I must say with great delight that Dave is the most talented chef by far in west chester, Davids food is both inovative and spot on with great techinque. My hats off to you Dave to bad the other so called restaurants in West chester havent thought about keeping the good chefs around.
I believe this was one of the first places I ever ate at in West Chester. I was blown away by the creativity, originality, and wonderful flavors that Chef David had coming out of that kitchen. Every time I go in there, there is something that makes me stop and pause when I look at the specials. This guy lives for flavor. I just wish I had more free time to get in and partake!
Best restaurant in Dub-C hands down! Chef Dave is probably the most committed and creative chef in town! He cares so much about the food and your experience. He makes a point of visiting the tables to see how you meal is going. I love the smoked fish and chilled oysters. The bar is fun too. Lots of great beers and fun music and not stuck up at all. Very welcoming crowd. Good times.
I've been to Spencebefore and had good meals, but my last visit might have been my last. We waited 1 hour for our table and once we sat down we waited so long that thehostess asked us if we had seen our waitress. They wereo out of EVERY beef entree and so I ordered the tuna rare specifically on thewaitress' suggestion. We waited 40 more minutes only to have a dry overcooked piece of tuna. The only bright spot was my salad that had squash, chestnuts and pearl onions. Tasty but not worth the wait, poor service and mediorce food.
When I first spotted this charming restaurant in the heart of West Chester a year ago, I decided to give it a try right away. It quickly became one of my favorite spots. The location is fabulous, but what really brought me back again and again was the food. I love seafood, and having relocated to the area from a Florida coastal home, my seafood expectations are fairly high. Each and every seafood dish I tried, as well as some delectable appetizers and crab cakes, was a delight. Sadly, on my most recent visits, things had changed. My entrees have been dry and tasteless, and the service some of the worst I have experienced. I did ask to speak to a manager, but was told that she was gone for the day. (At the height of the evening turnout, this seemed strange) I next asked, if the chef was also gone for the day. He was not, but further questioning revealed that the chef whose food I have so enjoyed (Dave Walti) is no longer there, having left November 5. Sadly, this seems to be an insurmountable loss. Not sure if the current situation is interim, but I doubt I will be back to find out.
Spence Cafe has been my favorite restaurant in town since I moved to West Chester in 1999! I have been recently going to their wine dinners on the 2nd Thursday of the month and have had the best time ever! You get a taste of 5 wines accompanied with 5 different appetizers. The food is excellent, the service has been great and attentive, and the atmosphere is happy and fun. I would recommend this night to anyone. Make sure to make a reservation it gets filled up fast!
This is by far, my favorite restaurant in town. I love the dollar oysters on Monday – Wednesdays and all the fish entrees are outstanding.
They also do these great wine tastings the 2nd Thursday of every month, and you get to taste all these different wines paired with different appetizers – for only $25. It's a steal!
I recommend this restaurant to all my family and friends. You also can't beat the awesome bands that play here on the weekends.
I have been a huge Spence fan or over a decade. I was not aware that Dave had left. That is until I had dinner there on Saturday night. I ordered their rack of lamb (2) of them actually. I had one and so did my college age nephew. We ordered them medium rare. They were so tiny they looked like lollipop lamb chopes that you would order elsewhere. ONLY SMALLER. $34.00 each and we both left hungry. They were so small that they would have been impossible to serve rare unless the ran them under a 60 watt bulb for 30 secnds. I'm really bummed because the Spence has been a favorite of my wife and I for a very long time. Does anyone know where Dave is cooking now? Thanks
From a Philly.com blog:02/23/2010 4:38 PM"Floret, the successor to Pond/Passerelle at 175 King of Prussia Rd. in Radnor, soft-opens tonight. The Euro-style restaurant was supposed to open in December but ran into some management issues. The chef who had been affiliated with the project — chef Dan Kremin (ex-Barclay Prime, Buddakan) — bowed out. Scott Morrison (Tango) is running it now with Bill Shapiro (BLT's Cobblefish); chef is Dave Walti (ex-Spence Cafe). Entrees are $15 to $19, and for now, it'll be open every night except Sundays."
enjoyed a fabulous meal on thursday. spence was packed and definitely back to what it used to be. the strawberry rhubarb pie was to die for!
I hear Dave Walti is the chef at the new Harvest Restaurant in Glen Mills
Sorry to say that the new menu is just awful. Just seems like global gone terribly wrong, over spiced (but some items are strangely bland, or just odd, like arugula dressed with what seemed like melted berry sorbet on tasteless polenta and mozzarella) and a weird combination of Latin, Japanese with some Moroccan thrown in. Heavy concentration on salsas, searingly hot peppers/horseradish, and cilentro in just about everything–don't bother with their good wine list, you won't be able to taste anything after the palate numbing spices. Horseradish in Caesar salad? No thanks. Almond butter and goat cheese on scallops? Ditto.
If you watch the show Chopped, picture what comes out of those mystery baskets, and you pretty much get the idea. Creative maybe, but would you really want to eat that stuff? Not me anyway. We've been twice since the change, one time with friends who always want to eat there, and the consensus was the same. A couple of items were good, but not enough to make us return again. Too many choices in WC for that. It'sa shame, too–this was always a go-to spot, but not anymore. What a loss!
I strongly disagree with your thoughts about the new menu change. I have been following Chef Roldan ever since he had been at Spence's many years ago and his dishes blow my mind away everytime I go. He has a different and artistic spin on his cuisine. Something that West Chester really needed along time ago. The selection of ethnic foods is a hit and Im glad that the change has come to this town. I would much rather try these new flavors and dishes than eat the same old dishes at all the other places in town any day of the week!
It look like " ILOVETOEAT" likes to criticize more than anything. I wonder if you could've whipped up a better meal. "Everybody can tell you how to do it when they never did it." Thanks for that one Jay-Z. Instead taking the time to talk a place down how about giving them a few suggestions that'll make it better. Anywho the restaurant has taken on a global menu which reflects the emerging diversity in the community. They also have managed to do what NO OTHER establishment can and will do which is look past the blantant racial divides in the so-called "perfect town" and promote food, music, and fun in a GLOBAL AND DIVERSE enviroment.
I applaud their efforts and when you look up and find that they are doing extremely well in a recession, it's because they have caught up with the times and aren't afraid of change. Scared money makes no money. Plus the establishment itself is the longest running restaurant to date in West Chester. The management team is on point and committed to their staff. I could tell because all of them were jovial and pleasant the entire time we dined there. The paint job looks great too. THE FOOD IS LOVELY.
Ok….Spence was good. However, I went to the new Spence Remedy yesterday and it was just plain awful. The overpriced crab nachos looked like something that you would get a cheap theme park. Seriously, there was really no crab on the dish, the avocado was terrible and the lettuce was old! Then there was the Japanese pizza. The dough was so thick that it made me sick. I mean this dough taste like corn bread. Pizza and corn bread do not work. Overall..the service was OK. It took the waitress about 10 minutes to bring a new drink to our table. I will go back to hear music at night, but I will not eat there again until I hear that changes were made. I am not the only one who is complaining. I heard some other horror stories about the food and the crazy prices. I mean $13 dollars for what is in fact a personal pizza..not to mention an awful personal pizza.
I agree with DJH. My meal was awful. I already miss the old Spence. What have you done?
Spence Cafe is gone, it's been replaced by Spence Remedy, and the two are nothing alike. Any review on here that's more than a couple weeks old is out-dated. The old Spence Cafe had a solid 'dinner out' or 'date night' kind of atmosphere and the food was well above average and reasonably priced by West Chester standards (at least until the chef left). The new Spence Remedy is basically a dive bar.
The menu at Spence Remedy is about what you'd expect from a dive bar — burgers, sandwiches and some fried stuff. Unfortunately, the food at Spence Remedy is well below average for West Chester. You can get a much better sandwich or burger just about anywhere else in town. And, in contrast to the dive bar theme, the prices aren't low — a sandwich without any sides will run you $10-15. If you're going to pay that much, you might as well go somewhere with better food. Since I'm not going to eat at Spence Remedy again, I hope they do away with food entirely and let you smoke in there.
Rumor has it….that the new chef has departed the new Spence. True? False? Anybody have the "dish"? Seems a little abrupt, after so much hype and radical changes to the space, menu, and "spirit/vision" of the establishment.
What have they done! I cannot imagine this was a good business move – taking one of the best dining spots in WC and turning it into a dumpy place with mediocre menu. We stopped by on a whim concerned that we did not have reservations – and were shocked to find a place deserted at 7 pm on a Friday night (with long waits an neighboring restaurants). Ugh-oh. Too late to turn around. Menu looked dumbed down, but OK. We had a bigger problem with a "wine list" – a flimsy printout of wine names (next to a column with beet selections) – with no prices or anything. Our server was not able to tell us what the prices were for a bottle (I guess not much is ordered by the bottle in the new Spence) so we made a blind pick. Food came, and salads were OK – beet one very good actually, watermelon pretty good, but feta a little dry. Sandwiches were nothing special, my "California BLT" had a subpar avocado in it – brownish but not ripe and hard at the same time. Overall – underwhelming experience, doubt we will be coming back. Good luck with the college crowd, guys – it is obviously what you are going for.