Fogo De Chao - Brazilian Steakhouse@ 1337 Chestnut St.

Fogo De Chao located at 1337 Chestnut St., Philadelphia, PA 19107 is a Brazilian Steakhouse. In the last week of November I was invited to a Holiday Luncheon at work and I could not go. So when an opportunity opened again the next week in the form of an invitation for another holiday luncheon, I happily said yes and recommended Fogo De Chao. I recommended Fogo De Chao along with Bindi which is an Indian restaurant. I had reviewed Bindi on Nov 27, 2008 here. Well steak was a popular favorite than Indian curry. So we went to Fogo De Chao.

Per their website, the menu contains '15 different delectable cuts of fire-roasted meats, a sumptuous buffet of gourmet salads and fresh-cut vegetables, and a variety of Brazilian side dishes'. The meat cuts include, Beef, Pork, Lamb and Chicken. The salad bar is huge and contains different greens, Olives, Bamboo shoots, Artichokes, three kinds of Cheese and lot more. It is one of the best salad bar I have had food from. The side dishes include warm cheese bread, crispy hot polenta,seasoned mashed potatoes and fried bananas. The sides are replenished throughout the meal.



What makes this restaurant unique is the way the meat is served. The lunch or dinner is buffet style with a unique twist to it. Instead of you going to the food table, the food(meat and side dishes only) is brought to the table and served on to your plate. The 'sizzling fire roasted' meat is served by a Gaucho who brings the meat on a 2 foot long skewers. Some meat like Sirloin, tenderloin beef, Lamb Shank etc are carved on your table on to a small bowl that the Gaucho brings along with the skewer. You can pick the meat out of the bowl, or help the Gaucho with the tongs and place it on to your plate.

While this is unique, it can be overwhelming for a first timer. The Gauchos keep coming one after the other, bringing with them, different skewers. You can pace yourself using a Red and Green colored disk. You can place the disk to the side that is colored red if you do not want any more meat served. As you must have guessed, you can place the disk on the green side to let the Gauchos know that you ready to have more food. You must be wondering what a Gaucho means. According the Wikipedia 'The word gaucho could be described as a loose equivalent to the North American Cowboy' of South America. The restaurant uses the term Gaucho chefs to described the people serving food. I just used the term Gaucho to make it even simple.

Of the 15 types meat, I had only Chicken drumsticks, Lamb Leg and Lamb Rib. I liked the Lamb better than the Chicken. I am a red meat guy. The meat was tender and had a good flavor. The Lamb Rib was not that good. It had more fat than meat. Here I was introduced to a new combination of eating lamb with. by my collegaue. One of my colleague requested mint jelly to one of the Gaucho. He asked if we have ever tried Lamb with a mint jelly. Some said yes and some made an awkward face meaning no. I said no but decided to give it a try. I should say, though the combination was weird to listen, it was actually good. I will definitely try it next time. We were a team of 6 on the table and my colleagues tried the other kinds of meat. They loved it specially the steak.

The sides were tasty as well. The Cheese bread was warm, soft and yummy. The polenta was my favorite. I also tried the fried Banana and the seasoned Mashed potato. They were nice. All in all, I was a happy camper.

As in all my reviews, I include the average price of the items and my recommendation. So here it goes. As I said earlier, the food is offered in a buffet style and hence there is only one price. The Lunch is about $30 and Dinner is even expensive at $50. That is way expensive for my wallet to go back in there again. While I highly recommend the place, I myself would only go there if it was free. You should definitely go there if price is not a concern to you. The experience is unique and the food is great.

Bindi - Indian Cuisine @ 105 S 13th St.

Located on the 13th st between Sansom and Chestnut Street is this Indian BYOB restaurant called Bindi. I have read good reviews about this restaurant on several occasions including, Best of Philly, Zagat and Yelp. I wanted to try it out but on reviewing the website, I was kind of apprehensive of the authenticity of it. The chef was American and I was not sure how authentic the Indian food would be. Ethnic restaurants should be authentic unless they state they are fusion which is fine, as long as I know what I am getting into. I did not want to go this restaurant expecting Indian food and find myself eating chicken tikka masala with no masala in it.

The second factor that weighed in against this restaurant is the cost factor. The menu clearly shows that this restaurant caters to the upscale audience and the high price defeats the purpose of this blog. An occasion like a Birthday, anniversary etc could be used to go this restaurant where price is not a factor. On one such occasion I pulled my experimental side out and set forward to experience a culinary pleasure that was to happen.

We were four and were seated at the corner close to an emergency exit towards the glass wall. The interior was dimly lit as is a norm in restaurants in the evening. The ambiance is well suited for a date where you might want to impress your date with your experimental nature without actually getting burnt eating the spicy Indian food. Or that is what was my first impression on entering the restaurant was and that remained through the end of my dinner. There were about 6-8 tables on the main floor for seating differnt sized parties. It looked like they had an extended section in the basement as they were stairs leading downstairs. I have checked out the basement section and hence cannot confirm it. It might as well lead to a kitchen.

We skipped the appetizers and ordered the main course directly. We ordered, the 4 types of breads(roti) hat the menu contained and 3 entress namely Prawn and Pumpkin curry, Ghost(Lamb) curry and spicy Tomato Cauliflower vegetable curry. The Prawn curry came with Lemon Rice and Lamb curry came with Pulav. Pulav is a boiled rice with vegetables and onions cooked alongside with the rice and sometimes containing raisins and nuts. But it is different from Biryani in the sense that it does not contain any spices and is mostly vegetarian.

The breads were a revelation. They were one of the best Indian breads I have had in any restaurant in Philadelphia. The lentil bread though small was more like an appetizer than a bread. It should have been included in the appetizer section. It was tasty and so were the other breads. The curries were not typical Indian stuff that you expect at Indian restaurants. All the curries we ordered had some kind of yogurt base which is not what a typical Indian curry contains. Having said that, they were prepared with good care and appropriate spices(though very moderate to my taste).

The lamb curry though was a complete detour from what I am used to. The lamb curry had no spices, it had a huge lamb shank boiled really soft in different kinds of beans. It was something that I would have expected in a Mexican or a Middle eastern restaurant and not definitely at an Indian Restaurant. That aside the whole experience was wonderful.

As they say the climax of the movie comes at the end. All the good beginning we had was kind of tamed when the waiter said that they accepted only cash. Put together we had only about $40 cash and was not enough to meet the check payment. In their defense, their website cleared stated that they only accepted cash. There must have been a note at the entrance somewhere but was not prominent in the darkness and we did not look for any such signs. So one of us had to go out, after such a wonderful dinner, in search of an ATM machine(of course pay the 2+2 surcharge by the ATM bank and the Debit Card bank) and get the cash to pay of the dinner.

An average entree on the menu is about $22. The breads were $4 each and the appetizers about $8. All in all we had to dish out $84 for 4 including tips meaning each dinner was about $21. That to me is expensive unless it is hosted by someone else or if it is a special event.

My recommendation is stay away from this, but make sure you try it on some special occasion. Everyone deserves a good spoiling once in a while and the food at Bindi will surely delight your culinary senses.

Sansom Kabob House - Afghan Cuisine @ 1526 Sansom Street St.

Last Month was my first time visit to Sansom Kabob House which is an Afghani Restaurant located on 1526 Sansom St. It is occupied in the lower part of the building between 15th and 16th St. and south side of Sansom St. There is a hugely popular bar and Philadelphia Pretzel place right next door. Basically the block is dim lighted but always busy with people.

I have been to Afghani restaurants before and I like their Kabobs. We were four and were seated at the back end of the restuarant. The front part of the restaurant has the open end kitchen for quick take away with a small walkway in front of the kitchen to the backside of the restaurant.

We ordered Sambosa for appetizers, Chalaw Banjan which is spicy stewed eggplant, Lamb kabob as the main course. The sambosa was ok. If you had Indian Samosas then you might not like these. If you never has Sambosa you might like it. The had a boiled peas and potatoes with spices stuffed in a bread and is deep fried.

Among the entrees the Lamb kabobs were exellent. The Lamb Kabobs are chunks of Lamb meat marinated in spices and were char grilled. They were tasty. I did not need any dipping sauce with it. The Banjan Chalaw was fine. I think Chalaw means rice and Banjan means eggplant. If you are vegetarian, then you do have an option in Chalaw Banjan and other items in the menu that is good on the palate.

Like they say, good things come in the end, Sheeryakh was that good end for us. Sheeryah - Afghani Ice Cream is a vanilla ice cream with some flavorful spices sprinked on it. I normally do not take desserts as I feel they pain my wallet without a reason. But I was insisted by my host to have one and I said ok. I do not feel bad for making that decision. It was a pleasant surprise and I highly recommend it.

As for the prices, they a little on the high end as they are in every ethnic restuarant. The vegetarian entrees are in the range of $9-10 and the meat items range from $14-16. The dessert was $3.50. All in all it is expensive, but the food was wonderful and I would definitely go back. The service was good as well.

Miran - Korean Restaurant @ 2034 Chestnut St

I wanted to visit Miran located on Chestnut St between 20th and 22nd Streets for a long time. I have tried other Asian restaurant around this block and have walked past this restaurant several times. I finally picked a day to have lunch here with my client representative.

The ambiance is warm and cozy. The server got us water and asked us if we wanted anything to drink. I must have got coke or something. For the Main course I had Seafood Hot Pot. My colleague got Salmon Teriyaki Box.

The Seafood Hot Pot was really hot in both ways. It was hot in temperature and in spiciness. Having a liking for hot stuff, I did not mind the spiciness much. The hot pot was more like a soup with liberal sea food like shrimp, crab legs and some kind of fish pieces thrown in for good measure. The rice and the sides were little in comparison to the hot pot content. I guess they are just sides. I had to order extra rice to complete the hot pot as the hot pot by itself got a little hot for me to take it directly after a while.

The Hot Pot was $13.99 and the Salmon Teriyaki was about $10. The check came to about $35, which is $17.5 per head. The cost includes the food, soda, taxes and tip. That's still expensive for my budget. The food is great, service was good. I will definitely visit it for lunch with family, but will think twice before taking my wallet for lunch.

Bloggers Messy and Picky have a thorough review of this restaurant.

Pot Belly @ 17th and JFK Blvd.

History of My Discovery: I received a coupon in my mailbox from this restaurant. The coupon had a free salad or sandwich offer and I decided to give a try. What best to try a restaurant than for free?

Location: It is located on the left side of 17th st when heading south on 18th from JFK Blvd intersection.

Ambiance: Well lit with large section of tables with space for many customers to sit. The place is a self serve fast food chain kind of a place. It had 2 sections, The upper section had the food counter where you can order food and small place with 2 tables. The lower section, had stairs connecting from the upper section, is bigger and had many more tables to sit. The street outside is always busy and you can distinctly feel that noise coming in.

Food I had: I had a Veggie Salad that had artichoke, roasted peppers, chickpeas, cucumbers and tomatoes. Nothing else stuck out of the normal to try from the menu. They are different sandwiches, pan pizza and salads on the menu. They also had smoothies, cookies, coffee and other beverages.

Portion size: Had to compare the size of a salad. To me a salad seems to fill the appetite for only about 30 minutes.

Price: $7-$9.

Rating: 3/5

Pho Xuo Lo - Vietnamese @ 907 Race St.

Location: 907 Race st, close to 8th and Race St intersection in Chinatown.

History of Discovery: My brother goes to temple and has a vietnamese friend. She recommended this place for a cheap authentic vietnamese food. I went there with my wife and brother for dinner on night in mid June. Yelp.com has some nice pictures of the food here at 

Ambience: The place is more like a fast food place than a restaurant. I little cosy and lots of people.

Food I had: Curried Chicken with Poatato, Pho Soup and 

Price: The average food item price is from $7-$9 well within my range.

Portion Size: Generous.

Service: Service is shoddy and the people can hardly understand english. Heavy customer traffic could sometime lead to this but that should be an oppurtunity to improve service and not the other way round. Many ethnic restaurants fail to get this basic act.

Rating: 2/5. 

Aya's Cafe - Mediterranean Cuisine @ 2129 Arch Street, Phila, PA 19103

I have a hate and love relationship with Meditterranean restaurants. The thing I hate is the price and what I like are their falafel sandwichs at some carts in center city. Like any ethnic food Mediterranean restaurants tend to be expensive and food at some places I found them to be average at best. But everytime I have a nice falafel sandwich I get tempted to try a new Mediterranean Restaurant in hope of finding a delicious and cheap place to eat.

Aya's cafe located at 22nd and Arch St intersection almost makes my cut of the above mentioned criteria - delicious and cheap food. I have been to this restuarant before couple more times. But this time, I found it to be darker than usual. I guess the soaring Gas costs and inflation all around have hit them as well.

I walk past this restaurant on my way home and have noticed the sign Lunch specials for $5.99 which was very alluring. I mentioned this to my friends at work and they were willing to join me over lunch. So we decided to walk to the restuarant on wednesday that took us about 5-10 minutes from work on an odd chilly June Noon.

We found the place to be unusually dark as we entered. We were seated at a table at about the center of the restaurant. We took the table adjacent to the wall and I sat on the wall side of the table that had some comfortable diwans(throw pillows) for supporting the back. Having felt comfortable, I asked for water with lemon on the waiter's request.

We ordered Lamb Schwarma, Lamb Schwarma with no tahini sauce, Calamari, Chicken Kabob sandwich and Grilled Slamon Entree. The portions were approprtiate. The only lunch special was Pasta Primavera. I did not want to eat an Italian dish at a Meditteranean restuarant and that in the name of a special. I was disappointed on hearing the special. But I perused the menu several times. I was tempted to take my usual Mediterranean - Falafel Sandwich or Calamari Salad. My colleague had been recommending Schwarma since a long time. So I decided to give it a try this time.

It took about 20 minutes before our food was brought to our table. I liked my Schwarma with Tahini sauce. It had a subtle flavor of tahini with the minced Lamb. My colleagues also liked the food they ordered.

To conclude, I liked the restaurant but the food was a bit expensive. The ambience needed some more light and service could be a little faster. I would go back if I was in mood for a good schwarma for dinner but not when I am looking for an inexpensive lunch.

Vic Sushi Bar @ 2035 Sanson Street

I was not comfortable with sushi bar for a long time. My first exposure to a sushi has been the free samples at the food court in the Liberty Two building at 16th and Chestnut. As I had been exposed to more of these free samples, I acquired a taste for them and began to try them out at other places. Vic is an exclusive sushi bar located at the alley between 20th and 21st St. on Sansom St.

I came to know about Vic from the menu card at West end Coffee Tea N SPA located at 2107 Walnut Street, Philadelphia PA-19103. The menu card of Vic was located at the window inside the cafe and I was reading it while waiting for coffee one afternoon. The lady behind the counter on seeing the menu card in my hand said that she had been to the place and liked it a lot. I asked what in the menu did she like. She replied that she has tried all kinds of sushi on their menu and highlighted couple of them as her favorite.

Sansom street between 20th and 21st st is a very cozy lane and Vic sushi bar imitates the coziness but with better results. As soon as you enter the room, you can see the counter a couple feet from the door and to right hand side of the counter extension is an idol of Buddha. There was kid in is teens behind the counter who took the order and there were two other males to prepare the food in traditional Japanese attire behind the counter.

The wall on the right hand side of the room has some nice Japanese paintings on a yellow background. There is a small walk way in front of these paintings and about 6 closely spaced chairs for customers to sit inside. The setting is like that of a bar where there is a continuous wooden panel about 2 feet in width adjacent to a glass pane through which can be seen the various food that is used in preparation of the sushi. The food is on the other side of the glass and the cooks take the ingredients out to prepare the food. All the ingredients looked fresh and colorful.

The menu has a range of choices including 16 types of sushi rolls. I decided to try the Roll & Hand Roll section of the menu as most of the items were between $3 to $5.5. They also had 2 Roll Specials for $6.95 and 3 Roll Specials for $9.95 in that section. I decided to order 2 roll special. I inquired as to what was Futomaki and found that it was sushi roll made of avocado, fish eggs and crab meat. I took the eel roll as the second sushi roll as part of the 2 roll special.

After I finished ordering, I went towards the chairs and sat on them. As I sat on the chairs I was asked if I wanted to have my food in. My original intention was do a take home but liking the seating and authentic feel I decided to eat there. I said yes. I believe most of the customers do a to go here. But there was already a couple who had just finished their food sitting at the chairs when I arrived. There were also 2 ladies who arrived and ordered some food for to go while I was waiting for my food.

After I said yes to eating in, one of the guys behind the counter put a small china bowl for the Teriyaki dipping sauce with some disposable wood chop sticks. I think the sauce was Teriyaki sauce that was in small teapots like containers.

The food was served in while porcelain plates that had some nice Japanese deisgn on it. There were 6 Futomaki pieces and 8 eel sushi rolls in all. There was also a side of wasabi and pickled ginger slices that were orange in color.

I started eating my food by trying the ginger first. They had an explicit tangy pickle like taste with the strong taste of ginger. I liked it. The Futomaki was nicely made with different colors like green from avocado, orange from fish egg and white from crab meat in the center. I dipped the Futomaki in the teriyaki sauce lightly and tasted it. It was delicious. I tried the eel roll next. But since the eel roll was small, I had dipped it a little bit more in the sauce and it tasted pungent like the sauce. I tried the next one without dipping in the sauce and I liked it. But I liked the Futomaki a lot better than the eel roll.

I really liked my experience here. The positives are the authentic feel, nice food and the price. I can't think of any negatives other than the fact that the portion of one roll(8 pieces) is small. But a 2 Roll Special for $6.95 should not burn the wallet while satisfying the appetite at the same time.

Byblos - Mediterranean @ 114 S 18th St.

History of my Discovery: My colleague took us to a team lunch about 2 years ago in 2006. That was my first experinece of a Greek(Mediterranean) cuisine.

Location: Located on the 18th st and Chestnut St intersection, to restuarant is on 18th St and south of Chestnut St to the right while going south on 18th St.

Ambiance: It resembles a bar lounge that is converted to a restaurant in the day. The tables are comfortable and lighting is good enough. The restaurant is really busy all the time. More busy for dinner sometimes than for lunch. I had to wait 45 minutes to be seated for dinner.

Food I had: I have had lamb kabobs, falafel sandwich at a very low price of $6.5. 

Price: The average lunch menu is priced $6 and the item is priced considerably more for dinner.

Customer Service: The service is excellent. The waiters are very courteous and willing to offer advice when needed. 

Rating 3.5/5.

Wrap Shack - American @ 120 S 18th St.

Wrap Shack on the square is an exclusive wrap restaurant located between Chestnut and Sansom on the 18th St in Center City. Dont let the name dupe you.This place is no shack, but a full blown restaurant that is well maintained.

I decided to try it just to satisfy my craving for a quick bite after my writer's workshop at Rittenhouse sqaure on a cold May Tuesday at 7:45PM. I was walking along the 18th St towards Market and saw the name Wrap Shack on the wall that was next to a cheese steak place. I quickly read the menu from outside. I liked the content and most importantly the price. The description on the menu was also very simple and clear.

I was quickly asked by the cashier with a pleasant smile as to what I wanted. I said give me couple minutes. I read the menu again and was torn between the Thai peanut popper on the Vegetable Wraps section and Shrimp Stir Fry wrap on the Seafood Wraps section of the menu. For a moment I also wanted to be safe and try the Buffalo Chicken Wrap on the Chicken and Steak Wraps section. But my love for seafood took me over and I asked for the Shrimp Stir Fry Wrap.

The cashier was a young lady and there was a gentleman cleaning the tables on the rear end of the restaurant. On hearing me order the Shrimp Stir Fry the gentleman came over and said that they are out of bean sprouts and asked if I want to replace with carrots, zucchini or mushrooms. I thought that was a nice gesture. I would not have known the difference if he did not mention it. I said I will have zucchini. He instructed the cashier not to bill me for zucchini. You have a choice of white, wheat, spinach or tomato for the outer tortilla kind of bread. I asked for the spinach wrap.

The restaurant was well lit and the ambiance had a wooden tone to it. The walls had wooden panels and the floor was also wooden. The wrap was about $8.5 including taxes. While I was waiting for the wrap, I struck a conversation and asked how when the restaurant was opened. She said the restaurant had been at the present location for about a year and it was situated in old city for the about four years prior to that. I asked how the business was and she replied that they were doing well.

The restaurant was quite empty when I entered at 8:05PM but a little later a group of about 8 entered. Some of them looked like repeat customers as they were explaining what was good to the others.

The restaurant had a board displaying the specials for the day. They had Chicken Parm Wrap with French Fries and Soda for about $10. The same display was located at the cashiers counter as well.

I brought the wrap home and wanted to see how it looked. That was a mistake which I found soon. I had wraps several times before but nothing that was stir fried in them. I opened the aluminum foil and cut the wrap into two in the middle. As I did that the juices of the stir fry came out. The wrap had succulent shrimp in broccoli, fried onions and zucchini. The wrap was tasty. But it became tough to manage the wrap with the juices flowing out continuously. The shrimp were fresh and succulent and the vegetables were well cooked in the stir fry sauce that had a subtle deliciousness to it. I would have been fine if the wrap had been in the aluminum foil.

The size of the wrap was big enough to satisfy the appetite. The spinach wrap was also good. It was thin than wraps from other places and hence did not contain the juices well within it. But it did not have the raw taste to it like that of a tortilla.

The menu also contains Breakfast Wraps, Salads, Appetizers and sides like fries and onion rings, Smoothies and Milkshakes. Overall, I liked the enthusiastic people, the ambiance and food was great. I will definitely try the Thai Peanut Popper my next time.

I could not find a website for this restuarant excepting thier page on my space at http://www.myspace.com/wrapshack. You can find their complete menu on this myspace page though. They have another location at 146 N. 2nd Street in Old City which is actually a shack. I have not been to the shack in Old City. I am just reporting what I found on thier myspace page. Correct me if I am wrong and I will do my due diligence in updating the information.

Tampopo - Korean Restaurant @ 104 south 21st street

The blocks between Rittenhouse Square and market Street has some good looking restaurants on the 21st street. I do a lot of walking and strolling in the evening along those blocks and have noticed this Korean restaurant named Tampopo.
Tampopo is a Korean fast food joint located a little south of Chestnut St on the 21st street in Center City.

My colleague Marina got a promotion recently and will be joining her new team next month. My other colleague suggested we should give her a congratulatory Lunch. So I did some search on google to find what kind of reviews this restaurant had. I always wanted to try this place but did not want to subject my colleagues to the cruelty of my curiousness. I was not surprised when I found some really good reviews and decided to take a chance.

We were a group of 6 who walked to this restaurant on a windy Tuesday afternoon. The interior is small, simple and well kept. They had about 8 small tables, each table could seat only 2. We had to join 3 tables together so that we could have our lunch together as a team.

Since this is a fast food kind of a place, they take a note of our name while taking orders and announce our name when the food is ready. The food is to be paid for while placing the orders like any fast food place.

It was first time to all of us excepting one who gave a overview of the menu. Having read some good reviews and deciding to be safe I ordered bi-bim-bob with chicken($7.50). My other colleagues ordered a very similar stuff which was really surprising. One colleague who had been to other Korean Restuarants had bi-bim-bob with beef($7.50). Marina ordered bi-bim-bob with chicken and egg($8.00). One friend requested hot spicy chicken breast bowl($7.25), one ordered chicken breast bowl($6.75) and other had chicken breast bowl($6.50).

All the stuff we ordered fell under [Donburi Rice Bowl] section. According to their menu site Donburi (don) means a bowl of rice served with different toppings. You can choose from white rice or brown rice. The bi-bim-bob with chicken that I ordered had cooked carrots, bean sprouts, zuchini apart from chicken and white rice. The zuchini was cooked in some mild spices that gave it a very good taste. The chicken was grilled and had a flavor like barbeque chicken. The food also came with a sauce that was sweet, sour, spicy all in one. It was great with the rice. It was so good that my colleague who ordered just the chicken breast bowl had some and did not stop raving about it. The bi-bim-bob that I took had a mild pleasant smell and looked colorful and beautiful in the bowl.

At first the serving seemed to be small. The food was served in a maroon colored bowl that looked like procelain at first. But my colleagues who had almost finished my lunch while I was half way through said the quantity was more than enough to satiate the hunger. I found that they were right as I was full on completion on my meal.

The maroon bowls looked really cute and were sturdy. I was almost tempted to take it home with me, but did not do that to avoid people staring at me on the road. The colleagues all liked their food and thoroughly enjoyed their food. I was happy that they liked their food as it was the first time for most. It is difficult to make everyone happy while trying an ethnic food but this place proved to be match for everone on our team.

None of the items on the menu were more than $10. Most items fell with the range of $7-$8. You can also find [Bento Box](comes with white or brown rice, salad w/ginger
dressing,edamame and your choice of broccoli, mushroom, gyoza,or egg cake), Sushi Rolls, Noodles items, Salad Bowls and some side dishes like Kimchi (I will try this the next time I come here). They will find in me a very satisfied and returning customer. By the way if you are not used to eating with chopsticks, you have to specifically ask for a spoon or a fork. The bowl comes with chopsticks only.

Swiss Haus Bakery - Bakery @ 35 S 19th Street

I saw this bakery called Swiss Huas on my way out of a restaurant on a Thursday afternoon. I had been to this bakery a long time ago. I am fond of Tiramisu cake and wanted to see if they had one. The exterior and interior looked great. The floor had yellow tiles with exquisite design. I was floored seeing the paintings and decor of the bakery.

I ordered a Tiramisu cake. It was the smallest for a price of $4.50 that I have ever paid for a Tiramisu cake. The cake was the size of a cup cake about 3 in diameter and about 3 in thick. Very small by all standards.

The base was hard unlike any Tiramisu I had ever tasted. The mascarpone cheese layer on the top had a salty taste as if the baker put excess liquor (I don’t know if they put rum or anything to Tiramisu but I am assuming they do from the taste of this).

There were lot of cookies, cakes and pastries. But the prices were expensive. As they say what you see is what you get. But not exactly. The statement is right for the prices but not truly for the taste here. Nothing was available for a casual morning breakfast or a lunch. They do have coffee and Tazo tea. I don't think I will be going back again.

Ashoka Palace - Indian fast food @ 38 S. 19th St.

I was walking home one day from the Rittenhouse square and saw a sign 'Grand Opening' to this place called Ashoka Palace. From the name of it, I instantly recognized it to be Indian. The same week my wife wanted some Indian biryani and so I decided to get some food to take home from this restaurant.

I went there when it was about 1:00 PM on a sunny Thursday. The bad part was, instead of walking I was driving. It was very difficult to finding a parking on this block. I had to drive around for about 30 minutes before I could find a parking. If only I could see this as an omen for how the food would be.

I went inside and found the restaurant to be quite busy for 1:30PM. I really hoped the food was good. The interior was not well designed. I expected a little more from a newly opened restaurant. From the looks of it, one can clearly make that it is place for quick and cheap Indian food. The color of the walls was pink and ceiling was sky blue - Horrible combination. No wall paintings or any other decorations. The sofa next to the food counter was torn already. There were a lot of tables though. It is a self service kind of place or an Indian fast food joint if you prefer to call it.

I waited in line for about 15 Min's before I could order. As I said before there was quite a number of people inside. I ordered vegetable Biryani, Chicken Curry, one Kulcha and Masala Chai. As I mentioned earlier I had ordered these to take home with me. The people behind the counter were courteous and smiling. There were 2 ladies behind the counter, the older one for taking the order and younger lady was cashier or vice versa. There was a little confusion between them in getting a handle of taking the order, delivering food and taking the money. It looked like a story of Marie and Debra from Everybody Loves Raymond and cook in the kitchen must have been Ray hiding.

I took Masala Chai for my drive home. I was expecting Masala chai to have some spices like cinnamon in it. I guess for a $1.30 I should not complain as much.

Biryani sucked big time as they mostly do with Indian restaurants. The problem with Biryani at Indian restaurants is that they are not biryani but a concoction of vegetable curry and white rice. I think they should take biryani out of their menu and say curried rice as they say in Malaysian and Thai restaurants. But the fact is this tasted just like the $15 biryani that I had from other expensive Indian restaurants. The biryani here was only $7 and the same taste as a $15. Well for some that would be a bargain but that surely does make it only compromise of a Biryani to me.

After that shock called Biryani, I had horror waiting for me by the name of Kulcha. What I found on unwrapping the aluminum foil which was supposed to contain Kulcha was nothing but toasted peta bread. The peta bread called Kulcha was $1. I could buy a whole 5 pack of peta breads from nearby Trader Joes for under $2. After this I said I am not going back to this place again.

Chicken curry was acceptable though. It was not spicy but the chicken was well cooled and the gravy was tasty. The chicken curry was a saving grace to this place that was really cheap at $7 also.

The only positive is that the prices of items are really low. But the taste and ambiance has a lot to improve upon. It truly is caters to the typical American who wants an occasional bite of Indian food and not get burnt by the spices. But to me an ethnic place has to have some authenticity to them in the food and taste and not just in their names.

They had some snacks that looked great while others were ordering like the potato Samosa and Chana chat. To conclude I would not recommended this place at all except for the price for Indian stuff which is about half the regular Indian restaurant costs. You give something and get a lot less for what you give with this restaurant.

Vietnam Palace - Vietnamese Restaurant @ 222 N 11st St.

I had mentioned on previous blog dated April 12, 2008 that I had never been to a true Vietnamese restaurant. I wanted to break this and stumbled upon a review of Vietnam Palace in Zagat. I am normally not a big fan of Zagat ratings as I have been severely burnt by taking their review on face value. I also saw them listed on the free print version of Philadelphia Style Mag that can be found in different places in Center City. It's a guide to Center City tourists. So I decided to try them out.

I dragged along with me my brother and a cousin once removed who also lives in Philadelphia. I have been to Chinatown several times mostly for dining at my favorite place but never to this side on the 11st street. We reached there around 8:30PM. That part of the street is kind of dark at this time of the day and there was construction going on, which blocked the east side walkway and a lane of the road. I felt that I should have come during day time. My fear subsided as I crossed Race St where the restaurant is located to the North of Race Street on West side of 11th street.

The facade was a modern two storied building with two huge polished doors as the entrance. It kind of has a big restaurant feel to it and the inside ambiance was brightly lit and well decored. The chairs were made of cane and the walls had pictures of ladies having a stroll during fall time in Vietnam (or so I assumed from the costumes on the ladies). I was impressed. The waiter handed us the menus and asked for drinks. We all had water and dug ourselves perusing the menu. The menu was huge and it took a while for us to decide as it was our first time. The waiter came back the second time and asked if we needed more time. We said yes and he reminded that the kitchen closes at 9:00 PM and won't take orders after that time.

It was already 8:55PM and so we decided to have an appetizer, 2 entrees to share it among us. We ordered a Chicken on the Skewer as an Appetizer, Fish in Clay Pot and Spicy Shrimp Fried Rice. It was bad idea to settle on 2 instead of 3. Normally restaurants in china town have big servings and we did not want to have left overs for brown bagging. This one was not like the other Chinatown restaurants in that aspect.

The chicken skewer had 3 large chicken breast pieces on a skewer. They were well grilled and had a mildly sweet seasoning applied to them. It was simply delicious. The Fish in Clay Pot was a catfish stewed in a mix of mild spices and scallions. The quantity was a about an inch thick single mid section slice of the catfish that was well cooked and tasty. The sauce that the pot had was eclectic. It was tangy, spicy and sweet at the same time and had the color of a barbeque sauce.

The fried rice was tasty as well but oily despite our requests to have less oil. It has been a long time since I had a really tasty fried rice. One can argue as to who can go bad with a fried rice. True but only a good chef can make a really tasty fried rice and this place passed my palate test in all the food we ordered.

The price was not high either. The entrees be it rice/noodle items or Chicken/Seafood/Beef items ranged from $7 to $9. You can find a few that are as expensive as $14 but the menu is huge so to make your selection without compromising on what you want to eat. The Chicken Skewer was $7, the Catfish Clay Pot was $9 and the shrimp fried rice was $7. I paid about $29 including taxes and tips for three. The food portions of an entree are small and will fill the appetite of a single person at best. So $29 for three should read as $29 for 2 or 2.5 that makes it about $12-$14 per person which is not bad for a dinner. For a cheap lunch the menu is huge with entrees for $7.

All in all I was a highly satisfied customer and will definitely go back.

Palace at the Ben - Indian @ 834 Chestnut Street

Palace at the Ben is a new Indian Restaurant in Center City on Chestnut Street between 8th and 9th st. I came to know of this restaurant from my colleague who in turn learned about it from her husband. I had been looking for an opportunity to try this restaurant ever since she mentioned that to me.

I am highly critical of Indian restaurant as I find them not to be authentic. I have tried several Indian restaurants in and outside Philadelphia and very few have matched my expectations. The problem I have with Indian restaurants is twofold.

First is the lack of authentic taste. The taste is bland with preference for milder spices to cater to larger audience. The problem I have is that it takes away the authentic Indian cuisine dining experience. The food appears to me like fast food; they mostly have a set of sauces and add the requested pre-cooked meat (chicken, lamb or beef) chunks to them based on the order. This causes the meat to be bland and you are left to enjoy the sauce and meat separately. Cooking the meat in the spices is what makes Indian curries and entrees unique. Indian restaurants rarely meet those standards.

Secondly the cost of the items is outrageous. A typical dinner at an Indian restaurant for 2 would easily cost $40 and this not including tips and drinks which is very very high to me. The so called Indian food take out joints are not any inexpensive either. A buffet could be anyway from $8-13 per head, but I hate buffets at Indian restaurants. The quality of food at the buffets is very poor.

Having said that, my experience at the restaurant in discussion was not that disappointing. We had to stay little longer at work last week. Our Team Lead had the company card and left it to us to decide on the food. He mentioned on previous occasions that he had never tried Indian food and would love to. I used this occasion to try this restaurant.

I visited their website and called them to find out if they deliver. To my surprise I found the answer in the negative but the guy on the phone suggested a third party site diningin could be used to make the orders and have it delivered. So I visited the site and found the menu for their restaurant was more elaborate at the diningin site than at their home page and also the cost of the same items was lower at diningin. I am not complaining and nor will I report it to the restaurant to fix this. The site charged about $5.14 as fees for the service (taking the order and delivering food).

We ordered Chicken Haryali, Butter Chicken and Palak Paneer as the entrees for the three of us. We also ordered Onion Kulcha, Aloo Paratha, Garlic Naan and Plain Naan to go along with the curry entrees we ordered. Every curry entree comes with basmati white rice. The paid about $70 for the food and this includes the $5.14 for the delivery service and does not include the tip.

Chicken Haryali was supposed to be a spicy chicken curry in green chilis, coriander. I found it not to be spicy. The curry base was white and appeared to have been made with yogurt. The Butter Chicken is a staple at most Indian restaurants and I found it to be alright. The quality of the chicken could have been better. The Palak Paneer is Indian Milk Cheese cubes cooked in ground Spinach with mild spices in them.

The food was good partly because I was hungry and partly because of the low expectation I had of this restaurant in lieu of my previous disappointments. I liked Palak Paneer the most among the three. The rice that came with entrees was fine. One can hardly go wrong with cooking Basmati rice. The Naan was average at best and nowhere close to the best Naans I had before. I liked the Garlic Naan better than the rest.

Overall I was not disappointed by this experience. Would I go back to it? Yes, I want to try their Biryani. And if I ever go again, I would go for a sit in instead of having the food delivered. Naans are best enjoyed when they are fresh out of the oven, hot and a little crispy. Having them delivered in an aluminum foil makes them moist which in turn makes them soft. This could have clouded my judgment and hence would give them a benefit of doubt by trying them again.

Penang - Malaysian Cuisine @ 117 N 10th St

Penang is a Malaysian restaurant in the heart of China town. Situated between Arch St and Cherry St. on the 10th street is my favorite restaurant in Philadelphia.

Some memories of my early days in Philadelphia are tied to this Restaurant. A close friend of mine, who was in Philadelphia for a long time, introduced me to this restaurant. He helped me with the menu on my first visit to this great restaurant.

I have recently been to this restaurant and they had renovated the interior. They removed the spiral lights on the top that were to my liking. They have new modern furniture now, renovated their restrooms with wooden floors and all.

The menu is vast and varied both in content and price. I always try Roti Canai and Roti Telur on the appetizer list. Roti Canai is like a crepe like pancake but crispy and not sweet. The dipping sauce that comes with it is like a curry sauce and mildly spicy. It contains either a potato or chicken depending on what you ask. The default is chicken. The Roti Telur is like Roti Canai, but is folded and has an egg and onion stuffed. The same sauce is also served with Roti Telur.

The entrees I tried are Mee Siam, Mee Goreng, Nasi Lemak, Pad Thai, and Boneless Curried Chicken with Rice. Nasi Lemak is my favorite followed by Curried Chicken.

Nasi Lemak is a rice dish with several sides like boiled eggs, spicy cooked vegetables, spicy chicken curry, and cold cooked sardines. The curried chicken comes with a white rice and mildly spicy chicken curry. The waiter always asks if you want it boneless. The boneless is about 50cents more than one with boned chicken.

Mee Siam and Indian Mee Goreng are noodle items. Mee Siam is an angel hair pasta like noodles where as Indian Mee Goreng is a spicy thicker noodles. The last time I went, I had Mee Goreng but the cook had over cooked it. It was mildly bitter due to over cooking and was very greasy despite my request for less oil. Pad Thai is a flat noodle which is mildly sweet and spicy. Pad Thai though could be had at any Thai restaurant.
I have also tried their Lychee and Rambutan juice drink. They are unique to this restaurant and taste good. If you like these juices and don’t know where to find them, you can find them in cans in Chinese grocery stores with the same taste.

All in all I will go again and again to this restaurant without burning my wallet. I spent about 15 for two with tax which is not high for such a great food. I make it a point to take my friends and visitors to this restaurant on our day out in Philadelphia. Having lunch and dinner at this restaurant has become a part of my Philadelphia outing experience. My friends who had been to this restaurant recommended me to try their satays which is one my to-try list next time.

Mantra Philly - Vietnamese @ 122 South 18 Street

I have never been to a Vietnamese restaurant before. I always wanted to try them, but did not do. I was browsing the internet other day and found this fusion Vietnamese restaurant on 18th street couple blocks south of Market close to the Rittenhouse square. I perused their website and found their lunch menu interesting.

At first I wanted to go out with my work team but was never able to gather a group lately due to scheduling issues. So one Wednesday, I decided to go there myself but luckily two other colleagues agreed to join me.

The waitress was courteous and seated us on a table. The ambiance was great and has an instant appeal. She asked if we needed anything to drink and I said water should be fine. She asked bottled or 'Philadelphia's finest' to which I replied bottled but I was served regular water. I did not complain as I did not care as I was busy looking at the menu shocked. Shocked at the prices that were way off of what was on their menu online.

The lunch menu online has several sandwiches and wraps at $6.50 and to my surprise there was nothing on the menu of what I had seen online. I asked the waitress and she replied that they had changed the menu recently and did not update the website. I had to apologize to my colleagues as we were not ready for what we saw in the menu. I was ready to leave but stayed back as my colleagues were willing to stay.

After feeling cheated with the whole fiasco, I began to look at the menu. I ordered shrimp salad that was $12. My one colleague requested a burger and the other a salad that were $10 and $12. The menu was filled with other items that were high 10s and 20s. I said to myself that I am not coming back here for lunch unless it is paid by someone else.

Having made up my mind as such, I waited for the food nonchalantly. The salad was actually good surprisingly. The shrimp was cooked and breaded but was not greasy. The lettuce was crisp with cranberries. The combination was perfect. I was eased into regular conversation after a surprisingly good food. My colleagues were also happy with their food and that helped ease my guilt.

The check came to $14 per head after taxes and tip. This was equal to 2 or more regular lunches that I am normally used to. But that was fine once in a while and even better if it was not for the non-pleasant surprise.

In all this is not a place if you are looking for quick inexpensive food. This is good for a nice dinner or an office party. The food was great and the ambiance splendid. The people were courteous too. I am going back only for dinner with my date or if it paid by someone else. Expensive but good food.

Walnut Bridge Cofee House - Cafe @ 2319 Walnut St.

Located at 23rd and Walnut in Center City is a Gem of a Coffee shop. The cafe is situated facing road site of Walnut Street in an old archaic building that could need some cleaning. The sign for the shop is beautiful but is small and is placed quite high up on the building to be noticeable.

Like a lotus in a swamp it is housed in a building that is most likely not noticed unless you are looking for it or told by someone else. The second is what happened to me. I had passed that street several times, by foot and by car, but never ever noticed it. My colleague who visits that shop almost daily recommended it and I set out to test it. It is located a few walks from the Walnut Bridge and hence the name I guess.

I wanted a good coffee at the end of cloudy cold day in early March and I visited the cafe that evening. Unfortunately the cafe closes at 6:30 and I was a few minutes late. Never one to give up, I went there the next morning at 9:00AM and this time with a colleague friend of mine.

It's cozy setting inside with about 4 small tables to the left and the counter on the right. The decor was simple and attractive. They feature a local artist on the left side wall of the cafe. The man behind the counter was courteous and nice to talk to. He mentioned that they close at 6:30PM as they do not have much business after.

I took a regular small sized (8oz I think) coffee with an almond scone. My colleague had a cafe latte. The coffee is Illy coffee. I liked the coffee at $1.30 in their smallest size and the scone was $2.00. The scone was delicious, soft, crumbly and lightly sweet.

They also have sandwiches and wraps for lunch that I intend to try out sometime in the future. I will surely post that experience here. They also have chocolates, pastries, tea etc and they do catering as well.

To conclude, I recommend this place for a quick bite in the morning or lunch time. The location is what makes it odd. It is neither in the busiest corner nor is it at a scenic location. Or maybe that is the plus to it as they is not much noise out here.

Note: The following pictures are taken on my next visit to this place with my wife. My wife took the croissant and she says she liked the croissant at Dunkin Donuts better. The reason could be that she likes her croissant toasted and they did not have a toaster in house to have her croissant toasted to taste like the way she liked it. To me all croissants taste alike. I took a regular coffee. I liked the white porcelain cups but my wife says that the handle were really small. I kind of agree with her on hindsight. She also had Cafe Latte and liked it. I have more or less become a regular customer to them.