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.