Philadelphia Restaurants

This is a list of the bars, cafes and restaurants I’ve particularly enjoyed during my stay in Philly, inspired by PLClub alumnus Joe Cutler. If a restaurant is missing from this list, it might just be because I haven’t eaten there yet. My full list of restaurant visits is tracked on my Beli; I won’t rate restaurants that quantitatively here.

West Philly and University City

• Abyssinia ($) - Ethiopian. Best enjoyed with a large party.
• Amma’s ($$) - South Indian. A favorite for PLClub lunch orders for a reason (back when these were a thing).
• DK Sushi ($$) - Casual outpost of Double Knot, and a much better deal than its parent restaurant. Provides 80% of the fish quality for 50% of the price.
• Pitruco ($) - Astonishingly good pizza, considering it’s located in basically a college dining hall.

Rittenhouse

• 1-900-ICE-CREAM ($) - Ice cream with a rotating selection of flavors. The soft serve is especially good.
• Elixr Coffee Roasters ($$) - Philly’s best coffee chain. The strawberry matcha may be Instagrammable, but don’t let that distract you from the excellent espresso drinks.
• Friday Saturday Sunday ($$$$) - “New American”, whatever that means, and Philadelphia’s best restaurant, by my estimation. Hard to say exactly what you’ll eat when you visit, given the changing menu, but it will certainly be eye-opening and mouth-watering.
• Malai ($$) - Kulfi (Indian Ice Cream). It’s not always available, because the selection rotates, but the Pistachio Saffron ice cream absolutely rips.
• Monk’s Cafe ($$) - Belgian. Extensive selection of beers. Ideal environment in which to tell your advisor about your favorite Twitch streamers.
• Parc ($$$) - French. Go be a suburban wine mom for an evening. The escargot has more butter than you could ever possibly want or need. Notably also the home of the best free restaurant bread in America.

Chinatown

• Chuan Kee Skewer ($$) - Chinese barbecue. Heavily spiced meat and veggies on sticks; pretty self-explanatory.
• Emei ($$) - Szechuan. Very spicy, very tasty.
• Heung Fa Chun Sweet House ($) - Cantonese Bakery. The Pork Buns are so soft and fluffy.
• Sang Kee Peking Duck House ($$) - Peking Duck, and the smokiest Beef Chow Fun I’ve ever had the pleasure of eating.
• Tai Lake ($$) - Cantonese. Go with a big group, get a table with a Lazy Susan, and go to town.

Misc Center City

• Dizengoff ($$$) - The more laid-back younger sibling of famed Israeli restaurant Zahav. The Turkish Hummus is pure magic.
• Octopus Falafel Truck ($$) - Defies labels. A random assortment of items that don’t seem like they go together but somehow do, all stuffed in a clamshell. Waiting in line while being yelled at by the owner is an experience in and of itself.
• Sampan ($$$) - Asian fusion small plates. Shares a space with the more famous Double Knot next door, but I think this is a much better deal, especially if you’re looking for something unusual.
• Seaforest Bakeshop ($$) - Your typical bakery items (cookies, brownies, pastries, etc) with a Korean flavor profile. The Kinako Sesame cookie and the Kimchi Ricotta puff pastry are particular standouts.
• Shay’s Steaks ($$) - Cheesesteaks. This is where I take visitors looking to experience Philly’s iconic sandwich without waiting an hour in line. Half a cheesesteak feels like a punch to the stomach, which is exactly how it should be.
• Sidecar ($$) - Bar food. The menu rotates, but if you get lucky and they have a pasta dish, order it. The weekly quizzo here is also quite fun.
• Vernick ($$$$) - A la carte fine dining. Like any good fine dining establishment, the menu rotates seasonally, but some staples make repeat appearances. I recommend the Blue Crab and Foie Gras Toasts.

Italian Market and South Philly

• Blue Corn ($$) - Mexican. They do indeed have Blue Corn Tacos but that is hardly the whole menu.
• Dante and Luigi’s ($$$) - White tablecloth Italian-American. The kind of place where the pasta comes with “gravy” and the waitstaff drops the i’s from the ends of the names of the dishes.
• Hardena ($$) - Laid-back Indonesian neighborhood joint. Everything I’ve tried from the steam cart has been excellent, but the Sambal and Chicken Satay are the real showstoppers here. If you’re there on a weekend the Jackfruit Stew is also particularly good.
• Fiorella ($$$) - Pasta. Their tasting menu upstairs is a bit overpriced, but the a la carte options are great.
• Isgro ($$) - Italian bakery. The Rainbow Cookies are unbelievably addictive.
• John’s Water Ice ($) - Italian ice, sort of, but the description doesn’t really do it justice. The water ice here has a much thicker and creamier texture, despite containing no dairy.
• Little Fish ($$$$) - Seafood. Genuinely a crime this got overlooked by the Michelin guide; it’s at least as good as any of their recommended restaurants.
• Mawn ($$$) - Cambodian. This restaurant was the subject of a ridiculous amount of hype during my first year at Penn, mostly deservedly. The Crab Fried Rice is even better than Kalaya’s.
• Milk Jawn ($$) - Ice Cream. You won’t find any especially unusual flavors here, but the standard ones are all executed extremely well.
• Pho 75 ($) - Vietnamese noodles. Does exactly one thing and does it well.
• Sunny Scoop ($$) - The best Black Sesame ice cream I’ve found in Philly. $5.50 for a scoop + topping + sauce is also a great deal.
• Tabachoy ($$) - Filipino BYOB, served tapas-style. I’ve heard good things about the tasting menu, but I’ve personally never ordered it because I can’t bring myself to skip the Bicol Express.

North Philly

• DuBu ($$) - Philly’s best Korean food. Their Kimchi is especially excellent, you can order it in bulk to go, and it’s cheaper than places like HMart will usually sell it for too.
• China Gourmet ($$) - Location is not exactly convenient, but it’s worth making the trip at least once if you can for Philly’s best Dim Sum.
• Kalaya ($$$$) - Thai small plates in a beautiful space. The Crab Fried Rice is a classic for a reason, but make sure to save room for the Durian Sticky Rice afterwards.
• Kim’s BBQ ($$$) - Korean Barbecue on a wood-fired grill.
• Suraya ($$$) - Middle Eastern. I don’t think it’s quite deserving of all the hype it gets, but the Pita is quite delicious.

Manhattan

Okay, this isn’t a neighborhood of Philly. It is, however, only 90 minutes away by Amtrak, and you can find round-trip tickets for as low as $20 if you book far enough in advance. Writing a list like this for all of Manhattan would be impossible, so I’ve limited myself to restaurants that a) are easily accessible from Penn Station, and b) satisfy a need that is otherwise lacking in Philadelphia itself.

• Cho Dang Gol ($$$) - DuBu is good, but CDG is on another level entirely. The tofu is made in-house, and has a texture unlike anything you’ll find from the mass-produced stuff.
• Urban Hawker ($$) - Singaporean. This is a cuisine entirely unrepresented in Philly, and that’s really sad, because it’s extremely cool.
• La Nacional ($$$) - The most authentic Spanish I’ve eaten this side of the Atlantic, probably due to their practice of bringing over and training chefs from Spain.
• SHINN ($$$) - Budget Omakase. For $70 get a dozen courses of high quality fish in just under an hour. Better cost-to-performance ratio than any omakase I’ve had outside of Japan, even if you factor in the cost of the train tickets from Philly.