Smile Cafe @ 105 S 22nd St

It's been a while since I posted something to my blog. I have been trying several new restaurants, but just did not have time to post them here. I am finally getting to one of the best restaurants I have been to since my last post.

Smile Cafe located at 105 S 22nd St, Philadelphia is a Thai Restaurant near Rittenhouse square region of Center City. True to it's name my last visit with few of my colleagues brought smiles to all of us. Since it's been more than a month, I will skip many details that I normally post in my blogs like the details of the food I had etc. Please find some pictures of the food we had below. I think I had Orange Chicken which is the first of the pictures below.

The best part is the price. The restaurant offers a daily lunch special 'Choice of Two: Soup of The Day, Spring Roll, Salad (White Creamy Dressing), Steamed Dumplings' with an entree included and all this for $7.95. Needless to say all of us chose the lunch specials and none of us regretted the decision.

The menu offers several options but not so big as to overwhelm you. You can find the menu here. The service was excellent. Though this was my first time, I am positive that this will not be my last time. I recommend this recommend this restaurant very highly to one and all.

Thai Chef and Noodles @ 2028 Chestnut St

It's been a while since my first visit and hopefully not the last visit to Thai Chef and Noodles located at 2028 Chestnut St, Philadelphia, PA 19103. My memory is a little rusty as I have been there about a month and half ago. I discovered the place on my daily strolls around the city. The selling point was the promotion on their doors about the free appetizer and soup with an entree for lunch only.

Here are some pictures from the food my friends and I had.





I wasn't very much satisfied with what I had. But the thing about going with a group and close friends is that you could share the food. So I tasted some of the appetizers and they were good. I should have gone more conservative and ordered something like a pad thai as it was my first time. Instead I ordered something that I did not know and was let down. The service was great, the lunch promotion was great selling point and I am definitely going back to try their regular fare with their tasty appetizers.

I will be making updates to this post soon with the detials of the soups, appetizers and entrees my friends and I had on our visit later. I wanted to do a quick post so I dont lose track of it.

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

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.

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.

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.

A Mandarin - Chinese @ 2102 Chestnut St

The event was to congratulate our colleague who accepted a full time position with the team she was working as a consultant. There was a Bistro place right across the street from our work place but we decided not to go there as it was not to the liking of some. Then we thought Mediterranean, but some friends found the Mediterranean food bland on their previous visit. So we chose a Chinese as it would satisfy the appetites of most.

The closest was 'A Mandarin' at 21 St. and Chestnut St. It is a relatively new restaurant in the center city. I have been there once before which probably was the first week of the restaurant. I could have mistaken it for another restaurant. But I am sticking to my story.

We reached there around 11:55 AM and were the second group there. We were a team of 8 and the staff had to bring a 2 seater table to join with the 6 seater table. The place was full in about 10 minutes from the time we got seated. The interior was neat without any extravagance or gaudiness to the decor. It so happens that today was the Chinese new year of the Rat and hence they had some red lamps hanging outside and inside close to the glass windows.

After we got seated, the waitress got us a pitcher of water. A little later she got us Tea in these nice green tea cups. The tea cups were impressive that were unlike the typical small white cups that all Chinese restaurants have. These light green cups were more like tumblers and we were pleasantly surprised to see them. The tea was hot and good which was what I needed after a 10 minute walk in the extreme cold outside.

The menu has a variety of options including lunch combos and lunch specials. The lunch combo comes with steamed/brown rice and egg roll. The lunch special just comes with steamed/brown rice. I ordered The Fisherman's Delight which was a mix of sea food (shrimp, squid, crab) with onions and white lettuce in a very mildly spicy sauce. The onions were not to my taste. They were lightly sautéed that left it a little crispness but it not raw either. I like onions either raw or fully cooked to a colorless soft texture. I put aside the onions and enjoyed the rest of the meal with the sea food and sauce.

My other team members had Kung Pao Chicken, Eggplant with Chicken, and Chicken with Broccoli etc. I did take a bite of Kung Pao chicken and Chicken Eggplant. I liked the Chicken Eggplant. The eggplant was well cooked, soft, sweet and tasty. The Kung Pao was good as well. They all liked their meal and commended me on my choosing the restaurant, though it was a actually recommended to me by a colleague who lives in the city and has been to the restaurant several times.

The service was very nice, the waitress seemed to understand what we were asking, she was checking on us several times and the tea was refilled again at the end of the meal. The interior was very clean and had sufficient light. The tables were wide enough to not step on others toes and eat our food comfortably. The average cost of the lunch combinations were $7-8. I highly recommend this place and did I say the tea was great. Oh! Also did I mention that the tea tumblers were unique and nice as well?