Midtown Lunch

• Put your stomach to the test with this eating challenges around the city [Thrillist]
• The “original” Dim Sum Garden is expanding and will be called Tom’s Dim Sum [The Insider]
• A Jewish bakery is opening on East Passyunk [Passyunk Post]

*new weekly feature for 2016: brief photo recaps + not always lunch

This week started off with a super random and fun evening- making dumplings with Han of Han Dynasty. I finally learned how to pleat!

I also tried happy hour at Alma de Cuba for the first time. It’s super dark in there, so no pictures. But I liked the classic mojito, the strange cuban sandwich on a stick, spinach empanadas, and alfajores- all reasonably priced.

I had a grilled cheese craving and grabbed a sandwich from Milkhouse on 19th Street. Totally fine but not at all worth the price. I should have gone to Meltcraft around the corner, right?

Milkhouse, 37 S 19th St, 267 639-4286

Thanks to Double Knot for inviting me to try the new lunch menu! 

I am normally exponentially more excited to try the food of a new restaurant than I am to see the designed space. But for Double Knot, Michael Schulson’s latest addition to 13th Street (with a passageway in to Sampan), I was really excited about both. Teaser pictures and the multi uses of the bi level space, complete with subterranean sushi bar and robatayaki grill, had me needing to see it for myself.  (Sidenote: how did I not know this spot was formerly a gay “movie” house?)

Here is the deal, in the morning, as early as 7am, you can enjoy coffee and pastries at the bar or 2 tops, along side the carefully curated shelves of knick knacks and wooden accents. Happy Hour begins at that same space at 4pm with just a sample of the food offered downstairs. After 5pm, you can head down the stairs for a loooong menu of skewers and sushi. But for lunch (and that’s 10pm-3pm), the menu is pleasantly streamlined: pick a protein (steak, shrimp, pork, chicken, tofu, meatball) and what form you would like it in (salad, banh mi, rice, noodles) in exchange for $7.

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• Snap Custom Pizza opened this week on Sansom St [Foobooz]
• Not to be confused with healthy to go spot Snap, that also just opened its Ritttenhouse location [Foobooz]
• I don’t completely understand, but an Eagles player is opening a Korean restaurant right on Broad St where Bliss just closed. Also it is called “bop” though we have a Korean spot already called “bap” on South St [The Insider]

*new weekly feature for 2016: brief photo recaps + not always lunch

This week, I ate spicy thai salad pocky and uncooked ramen “snack” and made a gorgeous ceviche with mango, green apple, red onion, cilantro, and avocado and scallops from Ippolitto’s.

I also had the pleasure of dining at Zahav for their February “Lamb Shack” multi course prix fixe- you have a few days left to get some for yourself! (Though you can still enjoy it for $10 more any other month) Lighting was low, hence the picture of the lamb from my Zahav cookbook. Besides the lamb, highlights for me were the eggplant, beet salad, brussel sprout tabbouleh, steak skewers, and sweetbreads.

Zahav,  237 St James Pl, 215 625-8800

I was happy to hear that the Nolibs funky American restaurant Suppa had opened a sandwich place a bit closer to where I live. Samwich occupies the small space at 6th and Catherine, which had formerly been the site of Blue Belly BBQ. There is a counter to eat at and a list of sandwiches that are mostly rifts on comfort food.

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• A cheesesteak shop is opening in Rittenhouse, but I am more interested in the boozy milkshakes [The Insider]
• Cheu noodle bar is opening in Fishtown [Foobooz]
• Sky Cafe has reopened post fire inside the plaza at 11th and Washington! [Rotisseur’s IG Account]