Top Lunches of 2013

I am a big pig and have eaten hundreds of exciting lunches this past year. I am both grossed out and proud of myself when looking back at all the damage. I wrangled up my favorites of 2013 to share.

January started the year off strong, with peirogi’s from Donna’s smokey bar, Caribbean platters from Little Delicious, tom yom beef jerky from Ratchada, and the gooey mac and cheese brisket sandwich from MeltKraft.

In February, the Uzbeki meal from Samarkand was pretty legendary.

Taco truck, Taco El Rodeo was a pleasant surprise in April.

Pennsylvania 6 did the fancy business lunch right for me in May. Less fancy, but still satisfying: Poi Dog cart’s fried chicken and Campo’s monster of a meat sandwich called “The Stockyard”. Plus, this month brought the opening of Sizzling Woks (called Xi’an Famous Foods then), which meant slippery, spicy liang pi noodles in my mouth.

In June, I was obsessing over the lamb tacos at Border Springs Farm.

The meatball sandwich at Corner Foodery and the beef sandwich at Pura Vida were stand outs. Slightly more upscale, I loved the grilled pastrami and mac and cheese at Twisted Tail.

The meaty torta from American Sardine Bar and meaty burrito bowl from Animo  provided tasty protein in August.

September is beautiful in Philly. Perfect for a picnic provided by Talula’s Daily. I was also overjoyed to find pupusas at Tamalex. I also ate a large amount of pork from Freddy and Tony’s.

The sandwiches at El Soto and cheesy tacos from Quetzally satiated Mexican cravings for October. I was also in love with the bread from High Street and much of the Cambodian snacks at Kavei Express.

Rounding out the year; in the past 2 months I was impressed by the dim sum at Wokano, the Godfather sandwich from Cosmis, and the soup dumplings from I-Green.

I think its time for a salad. Please keep your fingers crossed that I fit in to my New Year’s Eve dress tonight. So- What were your favorite lunches this year?

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3 Comments

  • User has not uploaded an avatar

    The Liveracce at Paesano’s Italian Market location. I have maybe one a year, but it’s always my favorite lunch of the year!

    DiNic’s meatball sandwich is one I keep wanting to have again, but since I’m only home Friday through Sunday most weeks now until February or March, it’ll be at least another few months until I get back around to that one. Even that awesome sandwich wouldn’t get me to wander into RTM on a weekend.

    Had some great sandwiches at Soup Kitchen Cafe – the one I think about the most is probably the goat cheese and roasted beet, actually.

  • Never thought to have meatballs at DiNics… interesting. And I agree that Soup Kitchen sandwiches impressed; thought about including it on the list!

    • User has not uploaded an avatar

      DiNic’s meatball sandwich (I got it with sharp provolone) was really good, probably my favorite on their menu alongside the Italian pulled pork. I still have to try their brisket, too.

      Word is that Soup Kitchen Cafe has been looking for a bigger, and more prominent, space in the area for a while now. I suspect they’ll eventually move down Frankford more into the Fishtown area as the last abandoned warehouses and such down that way are fixed up and reused, though for purely selfish reasons I would be much more pleased if they were to stay somewhere right around there in East Kensington, or perhaps follow the brand-new Cook & Shaker up and across Frankford into the ORCA area between York & Lehigh. Though not necessarily more ‘prominent,’ there are a ton of underused/unused corner commercial properties in the latter which would benefit from some Memphis Taproom-type love!

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