Over the past few weeks, my husband and I tried a couple new and new-to-us restaurants in Philadelphia and South Jersey.

Up first, June BYOB. The French restaurant was formerly located in Philadelphia before recently moving across the river to New Jersey. The menu boasts modern French cuisine. My group and I decided to share appetizers and select our own entrées. We shared crab cavatelli, head cheese, escargot and sweetbreads. I was slightly nervous to try the latter three and was pleasantly surprised by the head cheese and sweetbreads. Both dishes were rich, flavorful and had enjoyable textures. As my main course, I opted for a trout special, with cream and lardons. It was delicious but quite rich, and I wasn’t able to finish. We brought wine, which paired nicely with our meals. Overall, we were impressed with the newly opened restaurant and have reservations to return in a few weeks.

We dined at Irwin’s on a beautiful Friday night. The Sicilian restaurant is located on the roof of the multipurpose Bok Building in South Philadelphia. The city skyline views at Irwin’s are hard to beat, and we were happy to dine outside to take in the view. Our group of four decided to participate in the chef’s tasting, which included a sampling of dishes from the small menu. To start we had eggplant caponata, olives and fritto misto. Up next was a pasta course where we tried each of the five pastas on the menu. My husband and friends didn’t care for the pasta. While I enjoyed the sauces, the pasta itself was much more al dente than I prefer. There are two entrées on the menu, and we tried both. The bone-in chicken had a sweet and sour agrodolce sauce, and the fish of the day (mahi mahi) was grilled whole with citrus and salsa verde. We had fennel salad and broccoli rabe on the side. I was less disappointed with the meal than my husband and friends. Next time I would come in for wine, appetizers and view.

— Katie Skrzek, vice president/digital director