Today is the birthday of one of my oldest close friends, Mikayla (oldest as in I have been friends with her since the eighth grade!). In her honor, this post is about the time we hopped in my car this October, and went on a weekend trip to Philadelphia.

We were only there for one night, but we packed a bunch of fun activities, sightseeing and eating into the short time we had.

For dinner, we went to The Continental, since one of Mik’s coworkers told her about it. It was so fun and the food was delicious.

The atmosphere of the multi-floored Continental is what I would describe as modern 60′s retro. The martini bar, which opens out to a heated open-air deck, felt like something out of an old James Bond movie, and the decor was decidedly 60′s inspired (a shag rug hung from the ceiling near another bar).

However, it didn’t feel nostalgic, kitschy or outdated. The lighting and the rest of the decor made for a hip atmosphere and the place was bustling the whole time we were there.

Some of the tables in the restaurant have swinging basket chairs, which we were excited to experience.

They were really fun!

We began with a few of their delicious cocktails. We had their cosmopolitan, which contained just the slightest amount of cranberry juice and was shaken and served in a martini glass, with the extra provided in the small silver shaker. I don’t remember what the other cocktails were but I enjoyed them all; most of them were very light and refreshing.

For dinner, we split and bunch of items, such as the bruschetta made with goat cheese and arugula. I loved this dish, since I have always loved bruschetta; plus, goat cheese and arugula pair well with almost anything in my book, and the bread was extremely soft. We also shared French onion soup dumplings with gruyere cheese. The dish looked like a huge bowl of soup…

but was actually six individual dumplings! The soup was delicious, and putting it into dumplings and smothering it with cheese was genius.

We also shared the Greek-inspired quinoa salad, with red onion, cucumbers, feta cheese, spinach and kalamata olives. Mikayla doesn’t like olives, so she picked them out of her portion and I gladly ate them for her.

Mikayla and I both truly appreciate spinach, so lastly we had the spinach ravioli with toasted pine nuts, classic tomato sauce, ricotta and fresh basil. All around, I had no complaints. The atmosphere was upbeat, the prices fair, the food irresistible and the location convenient. If there are more weekend trips to Philadelphia in my future (I hope there are) I will definitely be back.

Continental Restaurant & Martini Bar

Location: 138 Market Street, Philadelphia PA 19106 Phone: (215) 923-6069