Places I Want to Eat in Philly When I Finally Get a Chance

I have been to Philadelphia three times, two of those times have been in the past year. I have NEVER had a philly cheesesteak and I am starting to give up hope! I have also been told about numerous other places to eat and, as all my loyal readers know. I LOVE to eat!! So I thought I would make a list of places I want to eat.

Now there's debate about Pat's vs. Genos but my two friends who took me to philly at Thanksgiving think that Jims is the best. Someone I was talking to likes the Steaks at Genos but the fries from Pats and I can't remember what I was told by other Philly natives. Suffice it to say there are at least three sandwiches I desperately need to try!!!!

I also heard pleasant things about a place called Ritas that serves custards and water ice. Apparently it's not as good as the mom and pop places it shut down, but since it's almost the only game in town now, sure, go for it :).

I have also been told that Philly is the mecca for diners. The one I remember being highly recommended was Morning Glory Diner for breakfast. My friend says you have to get the glory cakes and scrapple (a PA "treat")

My boy and I went to Cereality which is kind of a cute place (and dead if you get there at 8am on a Sunday) in the Penn area they have four really cool pre-made ideas for mixing cereal and topping (it includes malted milk balls in your cereal for heaven's sake) and then there's the sky's the limit choices if you yourself are creative. They also sell the lucky charms marshmallows separately in little sealed bags if you don't want to take the time to pick them out yourself (it was one of those cash register buys like gum I thought it was really fun :). Oh, and they have a cute specialty spoon that's also a straw, it comes in four colors. It's kind of pricey for the cereal concoctions (costs as much as a high priced box of cereal) but it is a fun treat. This time we bought cereal to go, we brought it home for my roomie. Next time we're hoping to enjoy some ourselves.

Also in the Penn area is a restaurant called White Dog Cafe. It tries to purchase food from local farmers and when we were there the food was great (the service was pretty bad, but in an amusingly bad way as in the waiter poured water down himself and a person's menu).

Speaking of terrible service. . . . Everyone says Morimoto's is a must. My boy stops there every time he goes to philly (makes a point of stopping in philly every time he goes home) and Christina and Robert went both times they were in philly and Laurie LOVES it too. I am more excited about the sushi places I talk about later though. Anyway, I had three really good dishes and a great dessert, but I didn't like the service (as in they didn't pass the "diet coke test" I couldn't hear all of the servers, the manager had to come over twice to straighten out difficulties etc.) and the dishes weren't so good that I was willing to spend that much money. Everyone assures me that usually the service is incredible though. So perhaps it deserves another chance.

Miix is a sushi place that has a weekday special of all you can eat (but you get to order it). Such a novel idea (to me anyway, Christina assures me it's rare, but there are better places in NY -- of course she'd say that though ;)).

While I was searching for that place, I found KISSO mentioned as really good several times. I especially liked this article about the place.

Also, rumor has it that sometimes the Sofitel also has fruit sushi for breakfast (it's seasonal). I have heard it's incredible though and based upon the fruit sushi we helped make (as in my friend Christina did all the work and the rest of us took the credit for it) it has to be delicious!

My Philly friend's favorite place (and another place that Christina and Robert returned to -- as in they've visited it twice -- on their second trip to Philly even though they are not beer drinkers) is Monks It also happened to be half a block away from the place where my boy and I were staying, still we managed to miss it.

To follow the Belgian theme, there's also a Belgian sugar waffle place nearby called Bonte My friends Christina and Robert are still talking about it (it kind of makes me hate them). Apparently these waffles are not like normal waffles they're made from a yeast dough and you can get items mixed into the dough (instead of topping it) and then the dough is pressed into a waffle. People are really wowed by this treat!! Plus it's designed to be portable so you can eat it as you walk to the next place I want to go.

We actually managed to make it to DiBruno Brothers (one of the few places). They have a place in the Italian market apparently but my boy and I went to the one in the city center or whatever. It's a huge specialty market with soo much good food and the people are really knowledgeable, friendly, and excited about their product whether it be cheese, or bread or whatever. They remind me of my candy store people here. There are lots of samples and really good sandwiches and pizza, and cheese and bread, and they have giant pickles that have pickle flavor all the way through, and cool specialty products like blood orange vinegar and giant ($98) bottles of nutella. I really could keep going on, I loved it here.

So that's my list. Feel free to leave me comments with more recommendations.

Oh, and in gastronomical sadness, apparently the place I mentioned when I was home in AK (Mumbo Gumbo) that has the best biscuits ever is closing :(. That was a total tangent, but that's not unusual.