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. 

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.

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.