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Learning Curve: Sate Kampar Reviewed
Photo via Sate Kampar This is what you do. You go to Sate Kampar on a first date. You save it for someone special—for when Tinder, the phone psychic, your matching Deadpool tattoos or shared fear of...
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What Lies Beneath: Double Knot Reviewed
In the basement of Double Knot | Photo via Double Knot Breakfast, 9:30 a.m. // Like Garfield and 10,000 novelty t-shirts, I don’t do mornings. Particularly not ones that haven’t snuck up on me...
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The Revisit: Opa
Fig Dakos at Opa | Photo via Opa When Opa first opened, it was loud, brash, crowded and dull. The kitchen seemed incapable of dependably executing the most basic dishes. The cooks were occasionally...
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The Mathematics of Sandwiches: Stove & Tap Reviewed
Stove & Tap | Photo by Craig Slotkin On a Sunday night, Stove & Tap is busy. Not full, but I’m not really sure there would ever be enough people dining out in Lansdale on any given night to...
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Buying Cool: Wm. Mulherin’s Sons Reviewed
Woodfired oven at Wm. Mulherin’s Sons | Photo by Michael Persico Wm. Mulherin’s Sons is the best-smelling restaurant I’ve been to all year. It’s pretty, sure. Big, new, shiny, polished, fitted out with...
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The Time Machine: Jansen Reviewed
A soaring plate at Jansen in Mount Airy | Photo by Emily Teel My wife, Laura, hated Jansen as soon as she walked through the door. To be fair, she actually hated it before she walked through the door....
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Breakfast of Champions: The Dutch Reviewed
The Dutch | Photo by Emily Teel Breakfast is the last great, untouched frontier. Of all the meals available to us (lunch, dinner, supper, elevenses, fourthmeal, midnight snacks, etc.), breakfast is...
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A Fish Story: Blackfish Revisited
Blackfish Reviewed | Photo by Samuel Markey The dining room at Blackfish in Conshohocken is white, but not cold. Not icy, the way some white, restaurant-shaped boxes can be. The dark wood floors help....
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Endless Summer: Tiki Reviewed
Mural at Tiki | All photos by Chelsea Portner It’s way too early to be writing this review, and I don’t care at all. Best thing about being a critic? That moment when you find something that’s best...
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The Three-Umbrella Problem: Bop Reviewed
Bop’s bar with kitchen in the background | Photo by Laurie Satran I ate the mandoo at Bop and they were fine. Tasted like a thousand other dumplings at a hundred other American-Asian restaurants in a...
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A Whole Lot More Of The Same Old Thing: Aqimero Reviewed
Photo by Emily Teel Look, I’m not pissed off about my meals at Aqimero. To be pissed—for my experiences to rise to the level of actually making me angry beyond a kind of vacant, low-boil...
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The Authenticity Trap: Harp & Crown Reviewed
Photo courtesy Will Figg On a cold night in December, we threaded our way through the crowds on Sansom Street and found the unobtrusive door. We pushed through the heavy curtains hung to keep the...
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Alpha And Omega: Scarpetta Reviewed
Photo courtesy Briana Louise Photography Along the arc of a graph reading “Why Is My Restaurant Not Good?,” two opposite mistakes hold down either end of the bell curve. On one side, you have a good...
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Dinner At The Fish Riot: Royal Sushi And Izakaya Reviewed
There are restaurants you go to because you’re hungry, and restaurants you go to because they’re cool. There are restaurant you go to because they’re close—the old soldiers of your particular block,...
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Aiming For The Middle: Cinder Reviewed
I go to Cinder on a gray afternoon, looking for comfort and distraction, and find it at the bar—two giant TVs showing football on one side, talking heads silently shouting about sports on the other....
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Not Built For Love: 24 Reviewed
Photo courtesy Ted Nghiem On the floor at 24, the servers moved like they were on rails, following paths just a couple months old but already worn into the floor. They worked with pass-coverage...
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Chaos Theory: At The Table Reviewed
Photography by Stuart Goldenberg We forget sometimes that every night at a restaurant is the worst night ever. Not for us, the diners. Not most of the time, anyway. But for the cooks, the chef, the...
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Next Big Thing: Res Ipsa Reviewed
Res Ipsa/Facebook “So, how was dinner?” I get this a lot. Obviously. Life that I live, things that I do, people I know, it’s the most common question I hear. Or second most, maybe, behind You want...
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Do You Believe in Magic? Palizzi Social Club Reviewed
Photo courtesy Jason Varney You know it’s open when the neon is on, glowing gently in the window of a rowhouse on 12th Street just off Passyunk Avenue. You know you’re in the right place when you see...
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On Island Time: Poi Dog Reviewed
Until recently, Philly had only one real option when it came to Hawaiian food: the Poi Dog truck run by partners Kiki Aranita and Chris Vacca. But now there’s also … well, now there’s the Poi Dog...
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