Midtown Lunch

Luncher John is at the Bellevue Food Court this week for sandwiches

While not widely known even among Center City workers and residents, The Bellevue, located at Broad Street and Walnut Street, sports a quality food court known as the Eatery. With only three chains among its eleven establishments, the Bellevue Eatery features plenty of local flavors and eateries. One long-standing spot is Ellen’s Bagels, Hoagies & More, which has had a presence at the Bellevue for almost ten years. And just as the name implies, Ellen’s serves up breakfast, sandwiches, and a lot more.

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• College kids love Nan Zhou noodle soup, of course they do! [Penn Appetit]
• Maglio’s is opening a market in South Philly with prepared Italian food [Foobooz]
• Philly Lunch Hour tries sator beans and spicy curries at Circles [Philly Lunch Hour]
• West Philly is getting a beer and pizza spot- Clarkville [Eater]

Back in February, I spent time filling my stomach with street skewers from different parts of China.  Its an experience that we haven’t really replicated here in Philly. City government wouldn’t exactly allow nightly open markets of food prepared on outdoor equipment with questionable sanitation levels. Newcomer, TT Skewers, is trying to bring at least a snippet of that to Philly.

Located on 9th Street in a teeny tiny space with only counters for sitting, TT Skewers is run by a very friendly couple from Northern China, the Liaoning province to be precise.

The menu has skewers and hotpot. Use a pen to check off what you want your meal to look like.

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As we try to do at Philly Lunch, some Tuesdays 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 Sriti who is looking for your favorite Thai (hard question) and Korean (less hard) in the city

Name: Sristi

Age: 27

Occupation: Engineer (Electrical/RF)

Where in Philly do you Work?: Work in Center City and Horsham, PA

Favorite Kind of Food: Thai

Least Favorite Kind of Food: Dessert (unless it is very dark chocolate)

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch in Philly: Dim Sum Garden, Sampan, Zama, Village Whiskey, Nom Nom, Reading Terminal .. too many!

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While doing some Korean grocery shopping, I stumbled into Upper Darby’s latest restaurant- a Colombian spot called La Casa de las Empanadas. I love myself some empanadas, so that seemed like an appropriate casa for me to walk in to.

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Photo Courtesy of Zagat

•  I need a turducken this season, asap! [Zagat]
• New to Upper Darby, the Upper Darby Coffee Shop, secretly has Dominican food [Foobooz]
• Chattime in UCity has some good looking noodle soups [Philly Lunch Hour]
• Wahoo’s Tacos opened in University City by Shake Shack [Foobooz]

When Foobooz recently reported that  a Singaporean restaurant was opening, I was exited to try a cuisine that was new to me- Singapore noodles definitely don’t count. When I stopped by and checked out the menu, I found the food would be more familiar than I realized. The menu was very similar to the menus at nearby Banana Leaf and Penang. Which makes sense since they share an international maritime border.

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