Lyle's Guide to Philadelphia Restaurants
This lists my favorite restaurants in Philadelphia. It's
shamelessly biased toward center city and the area around Penn, and
towards good food. All restaurants listed here are quite reliable,
unless otherwise noted. The absence
of a restaurant from the list might just mean I haven't made it there
yet, especially if it is on the Eastern side of Broad
-- but it often means something else. Many popular or well-known
restaurants are not listed here; See references at the bottom of the
page for more "commercial" guides and contact information for places
like the Chart House or cheesesteak or
steak places.
* denotes a place recommended to take business guests/seminar speakers
Q is a quieter restaurant
L is a louder one
O indicates outside dining availble
All phone numbers are area code 215.
Lyle Ungar
P.S. Feel free to send suggestions or feedback to me at ungar@cis.upenn.edu.
Last modified February, 2008
Current favorites
- Mama's Vegetarian (18 S 20th St, 751-0477)
Great falafel. Best Israeli food in the city, and best cheap vegetarian restuarant.
- Ansill (not Ansell) (627-2485, 627 S. 3rd St)
Fun. small plates (isn't everything these days?) You *must* try the shirred eggs. Well, only if you like truffles.
On my list to try
Medium Expensive, Center City (reservations recommended)
Recommended for a great meal. These are where we take seminar
speakers; See below for neighborhood restaurants. Listed roughly in
order of my current enthusiasm for the restaurant (price adjusted).
- Alma de Cuba (988-1799, 1623 Walnut)*Q
Excellent Cuban-inspired food.
Certainly better than anything I could find to eat in Cuba. My current favorite restaurant in Philadelphia.
(Why do we do we have four Cuban restaurants in Philadelphia?)
- RaeCira center (30th St. station)
Extremely good "contemporary food" from the Gayle guys; get a private dining room if you
want your group to talk. Try the rabbit nachos.
- Tangerine
(627-5116, 232 Market St.)*Q
Great decor, excellent food. Nouvelle Moroccan. fun. try it.
- Susanna Foo (545-2666, 1512 Walnut St.)*Q
Up-scale Chinese. Fairly reliably excellent again after a period
of unreliable meals. Much nicer downstairs than up.
- Striped Bass (732-4444, 1500 Walnut St)
Specializes in sea food. (what did you expect) Still one of the best restaurants in Philadelphia,
still expensive. Great decor. I love it, but only go if someone else is buying.
- Amada
high end tapas
- Matyson (564-2925, 37
S. 19th)* BYOB
Unreliable. Sometimes truely great. often not, but never bad.
- Buddakan
(574-9440, 325 Chestnut St.)*
Reliably good, if not stellar food, fun decor. Novelle pan asian.
- La Familia (922-2803, 8 S. Front St)*
Upscale Italian. Recommendable food. It was off my list for a
long time after the waiters insisted they knew what wine I wanted
better than I did, but on my last visit the service was
excellent. Consider Valentino's instead or, if you're willing to spend
more, Vetri.
- Gioia Mia (231-9895 , 2025 Sansom St. )
I have had a couple of very nice meals at this restaurant (in the
former Cibucan's space) Recommended.
More Expensive, Center City
- Vetri restaurant
(732-3478, 1312 spruce)*
The best Italian restaurant in Philadelphia (some say in the best
in the U.S.)
- Lacroix at The Rittenhouse (546-9000, 210 West Rittenhouse) Q
Fancy, sometimes excellent food, I've had great dinners (some of the best I've
had in Philadelphia), and some surprizingly mediocre lunches there.
- Morimoto 723 Chestnut St
Cool decor, great sake. Not much changed under the new regime; Great fancy
sushi and sashimi, but pretty much an expense account place.
- Deux Cheminees
(790-0200, 1221 Locust) Q
French. Good place to go if you'd like
an elegant meal in front of a fireplace and classic (conservative/boring) French food. Pricy, but great service.
- The Fountain (at the Four Seasons Hotel)
(963-1500, 1 Logan Square) Q
I haven't tried it since the chef (La Croix) left to start his own
restaurant many years ago , but historically, it has been remarkably good.
- le Bec Fin
(567-1000, 1523 Walnut) Q
Still a great restaurant, but no longer in a class of its own. Expensive Lunch
is the "deal" (fixed price lunch circa $40 vs. over $100 for dinner).
Or try the much cheaper Bar Lyonnais downstairs. Food is very traditional;
I find places like Alma de Cuba more fun.
Around Penn
- White Dog Cafe (386-9224, 3420 Sansom) *
Comfortable atmosphere, reliable; my standard on campus.
(Actually, I often eat at Picnic, or at the food trucks, but for fancier
fare, go to the dog.)
- Pod
The only restaurant in Philadelphia to make Wired magazine. Cool
lighting and cool pan-asian food. Good place for someone else to pay.
- La Terrasse
(386-5000, 3432 Sansom St.)
Upscale French. More expensive than the White Dog and almost as good, if less reliable.
Service can be French style.
- Penne
(823-6222, 3611 Walnut)
Finally (after a miserable couple of tries) the Inn at Penn has
reasonably good food! Not really good, but reasonably good is an
improvement. Convenient place for lunch if you're tired of the 'Dog.
- Zocalo
(895-0139, 3600 Lancaster)
Excellent yuppie Mexican/Southwestern.
- Thai Singha
(382-8001, 3939 Chestnut)
Good Thai food, sometimes uneven (everyone has their
favorite Thai, and many people prefer Lemon Grass). Try the deserts (western, not Thai)
- Nan
(382-0818, 4000 Chestnut)
Not your standard Thai; there is a good mix of upscale Europe
here, and to excellent effect. Yum. BYOB.
- Lemon Grass
(222-8042, 3626 Lancaster Avenue)
A little farther from Penn, but perhaps worth the walk.
- Han-Wool
(382-6221, 3608 Chestnut St)
Korean Japanese Restaurant, quiet and affordable lunches.
- The restaurant school
Occasionally unreliable, as one might expect, but always a pleasure, and the price is right.
(222-4200, 4207 Walnut Street)
- Rx (222-9590, 4443 Spruce St)
Relaxed, yet very nice atmosphere. Excellent food.
BYOB.
- Marigold Kitchens (222-3699, 501 S. 45th St.)
Was argueably the best restaurant in University City (Pod and White Dog are
also contenders). I have not yet tried the new cook and new menu.
- Steve writes (I haven't made it there yet, but hope to):
If you haven't tried the three restaurants surrounding the free city parking
lot at 47th and Warrington (right off of Baltimore), then you must - they are
Dahlak (Ethiopian), Abbraccio's (Italian) and Vientiane Cafe (Loatian). All
three have wonderful food and are incredible values. The location is right in
Penn's area of expansion.
Center City - West (Rittenhouse/Fitler Square)
See also the many restaurants on Restaurant Row in the "expensive" section above.
- Pumpkin Restaurant 545-4448 1713 South St
I've had truely great meals at Pumpkin, and have been very happy with the
service (in spite of what others have said). BYOB, cash only
- Melograno (875-8116, 2201 Spruce) L, O
Excellent neighborhood joint. Most people put it as the top Italian food
in Ritt/Fit. Highly recommended. BYOB (not "Melongrano")
- Porcini
(751-1175, 2048 Sansom) L
Nice neighborhood place - Italian, reasonably priced. Try the carpaccio. Owner is very friendly, but always
underestimates the wait. Cozy (read "crowded") Still it is well worth going! BYOB.
- Valantino (545-0441,
267 S. 19th St)
Great Italian food; I hear that the other
locations (1328 Pine) are equally good, and (unlike this location) are BYOB.
- Le Castagne (1920 chestnut) 751-9913 *
Quite nice. Same price point as Caffe Costa Diva, more elegant
(great lighting design, but that swirly wall art does not help the
ambiance). Owned by the same people who brought you la Familia and
Panorama. Worth trying. They have a liquor license, but a good
Italian wine selection. Good place for talking - not too loud.
- Gengi
(564-1720, 1720 Sansom) Q
Best Japanese food in town. (Unless you're willing to drive to Sagami in NJ.)
- Friday Saturday Sunday
(546-4232, 261 S 21)
Neighborhood institution; pleasant informal atmosphere. Good wine prices. Still good after all these years.
- Rouge (732-6622, 205 S. 18th) LL
Trendy place on Rittenhouse square. Excellent food and good wine
but the music is generally too loud indoors. The outdoor tables
are great when the weather is nice.
- Mama Palma's (735-7357 2229 Spruce Street)
Fun collection of unusual pizzas. Although the waitresses are
nice, the man in charge can be a little nasty. sells beer, but not wine.
- Caffe Costa Diva (20th St)
Uneven. The best dishes are fantastic (great Veal Chop!),
others are a little dull for the price.
- The Bards
(569-9585; 2013 Walnut)
Good (amazingly!) Irish food.
- Audrey Claire
(731-1222; 20th and Spruce)
Pleasant neighborhood place, but slightly dull food. I always
have the Zuppa de Pesce, which I love. and the chocolate pot de creme.
BYOB, no credit cards.
- Dimitri's (24th and Pine) LOUD!!!
Not nearly as good as the S. 3rd street location, which has the best calamari
grilled octopus in Philadelphia, but much more convenient and shorter lines. Too noisy for me.
- Seafood Unlimited (732-3663, 270 S. 20th St)
Reasonably priced and casual. Not worth crossing town
for, but nice to have in the neighborhood. (I never eat there,
but buy lots of fish from them.)
- Dock Street
(496-0413, 2 Logan Square)
Micro-brewery with surprisingly decent food.
Center City - Central (moderate priced)
- Passage To India (732-7300, 1320 Walnut Street)
Authentic Indian food (i.e. not fancy); good buffet.
- Valanni - 12 /& Spruce.
Convenient for pre-theater; I hear it is getting to be reasonably good again.
- Sansom Street Oyster House
(567-7683, 1516 Sansom St)
Fresh seafood. Best to go in early evening. They have a `catch
of the day' menu that provides a list of the fish caught that
day.
- Tequila's (a.k.a. Los Catrines)
(546-0181, 1602 Locust)
I no longer go here after having found Taqueria le Veracruzana, which
is my concept of a Mexican restaurant: all food and no elegance, but
Tequila's is still a classic and a fun place to go. Don't miss the
menu description of the "nachos obligatarios."
Try also the many places in the Reading terminal market(922-2317) and in
Chinatown (see below). Also note that the expensive restaurants
listed above mostly in this area.
Chinatown
Chinatown is full of reasonable restaurants; just wander
north of Market between 9th and 11th.
- Vietnam
(592-1163, 221 N. 11th St)
great appetizers. my favorite place in china town. certainly the best Vietnamese food.
- Lee How Phuk
21X 11th St. - next to Vietnam)
famous for their hot and sour soup.
- Penang
(413-2531, 117 N. 10th St.)
Reasonable prices, fun. Malaysian (loosely defined). Same quality as the NYC original. No reservations. Cash only.
- Chungking Garden (905 Arch St.)
The new place to go for banquets. (Imperial Palace remains reliable as well.)
- Thai garden
(629-9939, 101 N 11th)
good thai food.
- Sang Kee Duck House
(925-7532, 238 N. 9th)
Good authentic Chinese duck and noodle dishes. Cheap.
- Rangoon
(829-8939, 112 N. 9th St)
Burmese. good soup.
Northern Liberties
There are a host of fun places in Northern Liberties; I wish I made it
there more often. This section is not really up to date.
- Sovalo (413-7770, 702 N. 2nd St)
surprizingly nice Italian. reliably excellent.
- the Standard Tap
(238-0630, 901 N. 2nd St.)
High end beers and good beer food
- Il Cantuccio (627-6573, 701 N 3rd St
Italian, I'm told it is not as good as it was BYOB.
- Ortliebs Jazz House 847 N 3rd St
Good straight-ahead jazz, and the food southern/cajun is actually
worth eating.
Center City - East
This section is a rather less complete and less reliable than the others; I'm too
lazy to walk to that side of town. There are a huge number of
cool restaurants opening on Market Street east (near Fork and
Tangerine).
- Cafe Spice
(627-6273, 35 S 2nd)
yuppie Indian food. cool decor, decent food (probably best
Indian food in Philly, if not the most authentic.)
- Cuba Libre (10 S. 2nd St.)
Fun Cuban. O.K., its not really Cuban, but none of our main Cuban
restaurants are.
- Fork(625-9425, 306 Market)*
South Street
- Gayle 617 S 3rd St
Good innovative food, good service. The full 5 course meal is $65.
- La Grolla
(627-7701, 782 South 2nd)
A few blocks south of South Street. Italian, with wild mushrooms as a
specialty.
- Cedar's
(925-4950, 616 S. 2nd)
Lebanese; good and cheap. BYOB
- Mustard Greens
(627-0833, 622 S. 2nd)
Chinese. Reasonably priced, good.
-
Horizons(923-6117, 611 S. 7th St.
Vegan, none-the-less really excellent, although the only desert that
is edible is the "cheesecake". Not for those who want traditional meat fare!
South Philly
- Dimitris
(BYOB)
(625-0556, 795 S 3rd St)
Tiny place, always a line. The best calamari in Philadelphia,
and some of the best fish. No reservations. BYOB
- Little Fish
(BYOB)
(413-3464, 600 Catherine St)
tiny, fun, almost as good as Dimitris.
- Pif 8th and Washington (BYOB)
Excellent food; truely a pleasure! Highly recomended.
- Ralph's
(627-9011, 760 S. 9th St.)
Real traditional south Philly cooking.
Manayunk
I don't make it out to Manayunk often, since there are so many
great places in center city, so this section under-represents
the area. My favorite there is:
- Jakes
(483-0444, 4365 Main Street, Manayunk)
Excellent food, very nice decor.
Fun
- Taqueria le Veracruzana (465-1440, 908 Washington)
Sabroso, rico, autentico. La mejor comdida mexicana de Philadelphia.
Some English spoken. BYOB
- Pico de Gallo (772-3003, 1501 South Street)
Correctly billing themselves as "Pennsylavnias' Pennultimate Mexicon Food".
- Marrakesh (925-5929, 517 S Leithgow).
- Snackbar (253 S. 20th - at Rittenhouse, 545-5655)
The food is fun, the wine is good, and the service is stellar. Go eat there! But you might want to plan
on having some dinner afterwords; it turns out that fun snacks still leave me
wanting "real" food.
- Naked chocolate cafe (1317 Walnut St, 735-7310)
dessert only. my favorite is the chocolate walnut kudo. (a pyramidal brownie)
Arguably even better than Capogiro Gelateria
(119 S 13th St, and on Sansom and 20th st) which has an amazing dark chocolate
gelato, along with some fun ones like lime/cilantro.
- Victor Cafe
(468-3040, 1303 Dickenson, South Philly)
How can you not love a restaurant where the waiters stop every
now and then and sing an aria from their favorite opera? Even
if the food is terrible (to be very generous).
Philadelphia Magazine's top ten
A bit idiosyncratic, but all worth trying. Generally not cheap, although I find
some (e.g. Lacroix and Striped Bass) well worth the money and some
(e.g. Morimoto) shall we say "less worth the money". And i haven't tried the
ones out of the city. Most are reviewed above.
Of course, one should cook most nights. Here are a few
Other
I often get asked where to take groups of people for work, parties, etc.
This is a bit out of my expertise, as I'm more of a small group person. Still,
I'll try to help. I tend to take people to Chinese banguets such as
- ChungKing garde (915 Arch St)
A relative newcomer, but very good.
- Water Works Restaurant (1 Boathouse Row--at the Art Museum, 236-9000)
I had terrible service. Really bad. and dull food. But some people seem to like it.
On my list to try
I have not yet reviewed these, but I hear good things about them
- Chloe (629-2337, 32 Arch St)
Nouvelle American, BYOB.
- La Boheme
(351-9901, 246 S. 11th St) *
Moroccan/Mediterranean. BYOB
- SOLD !!! Django (922-7151, 526 S 4th St)
Used to be my favorite restaurant in Philadelphia. I'm told
the quality went down. I'm so loyal to the previous owners that I
haven't managed to go back -- but I will.
- Minar Palace (564-9443, 1605 Pine St.)
Indian, authentic (and *not* elegant), BYOB.
- Lolita(546-7100, 106 S. 13th St.)
neuveaux mexican. BYOTequilla
- La Lupe ( 551-9920, 1201 S. 9h St.)
traditional mexican
- Meze (922-1997 767 S. Ninth St.)
Greek, BYOB
- Le Jardin (251 South 18th St.)
The latest of many restaurants in the Art Alliance.
Cheesesteaks
I'm not an expert on cheesesteaks, but since I get so many questions,
I asked Craig
Laban, and he said that Gino's is better than Pat's, but that much better than either is
John's Roast Pork at Front and Snyder. By-the-way, Craig's reviews are quite
good, but he is bit less picky than I am.
The Graveyard
- CLOSED !!! Felicia's (1148 S. 11th St)
- CLOSED!!! Pasion! (211 S. 15th St)*
- CLOSED !!! Adriatica,(217 Chestnut)
Now Amada.
- CLOSED !! Angelinas (706 Chestnut St)*
- CLOSED !!! Out of the Blue
not Salt. Not even close
- CLOSED !!! Girasole
- CLOSED !!!! Cibucan
- Pelican
on second visit, not that good. too bad!
- CLOSED !!! Lombardi's
- CLOSED !!! Opus 251
- CLOSED !!! Noodle Heaven
- DOWNHILL!!! Brasserie Perrier
(568-3000, 1619 Walnut St.)
A more affordable restaurant by the chef/owner of le bec fin.
Classic French. Sadly, going downhill at bit. Do *not* order the cheese plate!
- DOWNHILL!! Twenty Manning
(731-0900, 261 S.20th)
Second restaurant (partly) by Audrey Claire; food has been poor recently
- CLOSED!!! Salt (545-1990, 20th and Rittenhouse)
Too bad!!
- CLOSED!! Blue Angel
- CLOSED!!!The Fish Market
Excellent fish; would have succeeded at a different location
- CLOSED !!! Le Colonial
very sad. Extremely good upscale Vietnamese food.
(1623 Walnut) Now alma de cuba, which is excellent.
- CLOSED !!! The Garden
They shouldn't have made me wear a jacket and tie.
- CLOSED !!! Ciboulette
- CLOSED !!! Vega Grill
- CLOSED !!! Circa
Breakfast in Philadelphia
I don't eat breakfast out, since I like my own breakfasts better than those in
restaurants. Or I just grab a pastry and coffee near Penn e.g. at Picnic (warning: no espresso) or Buck's County
Coffee (34xx Sansom). The White Dog serves brunch; I don't know if they do breakfast on weekdays. If
you want to travel, Morning Glory 735 S 10th St 413-3999 is a highly recommended breakfast place (with lines on weekends).
Other Restaurant listings for Philadelphia
- HollyEats extensive listing of cheap eats
-
EMTM's listing long list of West Philly restaurants; has no commentary
- phillyfoods very complete listing; no commentary (but is the music necessary!?)
- Stephen Starr's group alma de
cuba,
buddakan, continental, el vez, jones, morimoto, pod, tangerine, striped bass,
and washington square, and outposts in NYC and Atlantic City
Why must every site have a poinless flash intro?
For convention center visitors
email:ungar@cis.upenn.edu