Midtown Lunch

Over the summer I got to see the sights and taste the foods of Israel. When a friend from my trip came to visit, I had to pick a place that would allow us to reminisce about our time there. Philly has a fair amount places to enjoy falafel, but after hearing from so many sources that Mamma’s Vegetarian was the absolute best in town, it was the perfect reason to visit.

It was a good sign when we were greeted just how we would be in an Israeli falafel place, with a sample ball of falafel shoved in our faces.

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I ate an insane amount of meat on Monday. It is important to have balance in life, so  the Basic Vegetarian Snack Bar in Reading Terminal seemed like the appropriate place to detox (at least for one meal). It is a pretty popular stand in RT, and gets pretty busy during lunch time but the staff is efficient.

Since I generally like the concept of burgers or sandwiches topped with random things, I zoomed in on the “burger” topped with “chicken” salad.

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Over a year ago, on a warmer day, I discovered how much I enjoyed the gazpacho and fresh sandwiches at Le Bus.  Now that it’s warming up, (on and off) I had a craving for that gazpacho again. But another soup, the color of pepto bismol, tempted me instead. Ok, I realize that doesn’t sound tempting, but it was delicious, I promise!

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In March I enjoyed the chaat at the Desi Chaat house in the Bellevue food court. Commenter Spikyone reminded me that Minar Palace had chaat on their menu, which I had totally forgotten about. (Chaat = combo of chickpeas, yogurt and tamarind sauce mixed with crunchy dough) I visited Minar last a year ago and was very impressed by their lamb rogan josh so when I had a craving for yogurt and tamarind, I made the return trip.

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Loving Hut opened on South Street this summer. I have to admit, this wasn’t an opening that thrilled me. Its all vegan, I like meat. But I have started to really enjoy meat substitute lunches, like Govinda’s Cheesesteak. So when I was walking by and hungry, the Loving Hut signed beckoned.

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When the gastropub Philadelphia Bar and Restaurant first opened up, my first thoughts were about how incredibly uncreative the name is. It almost turned me off completely, but then I checked out the menu, which was in contrast, pretty creative. I saw that a few sandwiches fell within the ML price range, so I headed to Old City to see if they put more time into  the food than they did in selecting a restaurant name.

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Today Morgan is reporting on the :gasp: vegan pizza at Blackbird.

Blackbird pizza occupies the space that used to be Gianna’s grill. But, unlike Gianna’s, everything on the Blackbird menu is 100% vegan. Gianna’s used to be that perfect middle ground: a place where vegans, vegetarians, and their meat-eating friends could come together and fill up on pizza and sandwiches. However, that era has ended so I grabbed a couple of friends and headed out to see what Blackbird has to offer.

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