Midtown Lunch

As is customary at Philly Lunch, every Tuesday we turn over the site to a different lunch’er for his or her recommendations for the best lunch in Philadelphia. This week it’s Scott, a bearded systems admin who is yet another adventurous- palate –Philly -luncher -cilantro-hater, what is up with that?

Name: Scott

Age: 34

Occupation: Systems Administrator 

Where in Philly do you Work?: 9th and Sansom

Favorite Kind of Food: Anything with curry. I am a sucker for the warmth and comfort that the smell of a nice toasted curry produces. Besides my own curried chicken, Palace at the Ben (9th and Chestnut), and Minar Palace (1304 Walnut St.) are good local options. There’s a new place set to open up in place of what was formerly Shinju Sushi (930 Locust St.)

Least Favorite Kind of Food: Cilantro. No, I don’t think it tastes like soap, I just don’t like it very much at all. Oh…and overcooked meat.

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch in Philly: Tampopo 2 (see “goto” lunch place) for the chicken yakisoba with extra chicken, meatball hoagie at the Ben Towne Deli (9th between Chestnut and Sansom), Moriarty’s (Walnut between 11th and 12th) for their outdoor seating and their assortment of burgers. I don’t get to do it often enough, but a good wandering about in Reading Terminal Market usually turns something up.

Read more »

Gusto is a small, 8 year old BYO located on a pretty block west of Rittenhouse Sq. It is a few notches above a regular pizzeria. They have one little outdoor table and a handful inside. Though I hear they do a nice job with pizza, they don’t do slices, making them not eligible for Pizza Thursday. I was in the mood for parm anyway, so I tried out both the chicken and the eggplant version, and while both make for a great, cheap/fast lunch, the eggplant parmigiana was my favorite.

Read more »

Photo Courtesy of Mac & Cheese

• Subtle truffle use works in Varga Bar’s Mac n Cheese [Mac&Cheese]
• A look at La Viet, a snazzy newborn Vietnamese restaurant [Meal Ticket]
• An interview with Bobby Flay along with a slide show of his new burger joint [Grubstreet]
• Cubanos at a Puerto Rican Cafe [Philly.com via Foobooz]
• Short videos of famous chefs preparing the basics [Lifehacker]

This week I asked the forums about the best pizza places in Philly but didn’t get much of a response… so I had to take matters into my own hands. For the next few weeks, Thursday will be Pizza Thursday-  a different pizza joint every week until I feel satisfied we have uncovered the most delicious pizza options.  I intend to try a regular slice at each place, plus one other that strikes my fancy.

For consistency, the pizza will be assessed on the following categories:

• Temperature
• Cheese
• Sauce
• Crust

For week 1 I went to NYPD pizza, a place I have often walked by but never went in, mostly because I didn’t love the idea of  a Philly pizza place pretending to be all New Yorkish. But all of the Best of Philly awards hanging on the wall had to be justified, right?

Read more »

For the end of Passover, I had noodles on the brain. It seemed about time to finally check out Nan Zhou- Chinatown’s destination for hand-pulled noodle soup (recommended by Profiled Lunchers Earl and Ashley). Besides a few appetizers (think pig ears and tendon) the menu is all soup. So you better believe they know what they are doing. The soups are as follows: broth with wonton or beef/fish/meat balls, shaved noodles, or hand drawn noodles. Heat wave be damned, I decided on the beef rib soup with the hand drawn noodles, listed as “Braise Ox Spare Ribs Noodle Soup.” This set me back $5.75 plus I threw in a fried egg for an extra dollar.

Read more »

As is customary at Philly Lunch, every Tuesday we turn over the site to a different lunch’er for his or her recommendations for the best lunch in Philadelphia. This week it’s Peter, a Kabletown product manager who seems to love just about every food except cilantro.

Name: Peter

Age: 30

Occupation: Product Manger for Kabletown

Where in Philly do you Work?: 17th & JFK

Favorite Kind of Food: I pay homage to my Cantonese upbringing and adhere to the rule that “any animal whose back faces the sun can be eaten” but practically speaking I tend to find myself gravitating to the “tan” food group; mac & cheese, sausages, prime rib, pineapples, burritos, doughnuts, lamb on rice, fried chicken, curry, dumplings, hash-browns, cookies, ramen, bananas, waffles, tastykakes, beer, whiskey, etc. I also have an unholy love of cold beverages with thick/bizarre textures like slurpees, water ice, shakes (shamrock shakes rule!), bubble tea, smoothies… But my desert island foods would be Wawa green tea iced-tea and wonton noodles with roast duck from Ting Wong

Least Favorite Kind of Food: My arch nemesis is cilantro – but I love Pho… I live a conflicted life like that…

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch in Philly: I’m a big fan of lunch trucks (I’m a firm believer of building your immune system by subjecting it to as much abuse as possible and yes I acknowledge lunch trucks do not have running water to wash those hands.) The halal cart between JFK and Market on 16th fulfills my street-meat need. You can’t go wrong with falafel from Christo’s at 20th and Market or King of Falalfel at 16th and JFK. Gyros from the carts on 15th between Market and Chestnut will hit the spot in a pinch. Chinatown is a quick walk when its sunny and I can make a lunch out of some Chinese pastries from Bread Top House or KC Pastry’s. When I can take a long lunch I have been known to make the trek down to south street to indulge in a Philly Taco or on days when I have no shame hit up Philly Flavors for a water ice lunch. I’m known for being a late luncher at work so I will actually hit up happy hours for lunch and my favorite is going to Devon Seafood Grill for their 50 cent oysters. But as someone who just got married I have to admit the lunches my wife packs for me are now my favorite (Hi Hon!)

Read more »

Ron’s Ribs is a little smoke filled spot that also happens to be Al Roker’s favorite in Philly. It is a no-frills- small menu kind of place that knows how to barbecue.  A few small tables are inside, but if the weather permits, you and your lungs are much better off sitting at the outdoor table in the fresh air. I was a little sad when I found out he was all out of pulled pork for the day, but all was forgiven when I sampled the other barbecued specialties.

Read more »