The Best Thing To Do In Philadelphia? Eat.
Once you’ve visited the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, the Rocky Steps, and maybe a few museums, you may be wondering — what else should I do in Philadelphia? The answer: take advantage of your time in a global city and eat to your heart’s content. (And also get some beer— we made sure to visit some of Philadelphia’s best breweries during our short time in the city!) But, you say, you’ve already had your fill of Philly cheese steaks? No worries. Philadelphia’s food scene has so much to offer outside of the cheese steak realm! Philadelphia’s large immigrant populations have contributed to a diverse collection of ethnic foods, including some of the best Vietnamese food we’ve had since moving to the Northeast.
Get ready for the Philadelphia food crawl— here are the spots we visited on our weekend trip!
Famous Philly Ice Creams
The Franklin Fountain
116 Market St, Philadelphia, PA 19106
215-627-1899
The very first place we hit up in Philadelphia was The Franklin Fountain for ice cream! Yes, the temps were in the teens and no, indoor dining was not available. We enjoyed our ice cream in gusty sub-freezing temps clutching the cone with quivering ungloved fingertips. The plus side? The ice cream didn’t melt or drip one bit. I chose a single scoop of pistachio, and the serving size was more than sufficient. I’m talking next-level, “ice cream all the way down to the literal tip of the cone” level. And it wasn’t any of that lime green questionable “artificial pistachio flavored product” stuff. This ice cream was a musty yellow-green color, you know— the color of…actual pistachios. And it was so, so nutty! Each lick was savory and umami and everything pistachio ice cream is probably supposed to taste like. I say “probably” because I’ve not had any pistachio ice cream like this previously, and now I don’t think I can ever go back.
I’m a sucker for old-school soda fountain shops and The Franklin Fountain delivered on the classic decor. I will definitely be back here on our next trip to Philly so I can eat indoors and soak it all in.
Bassetts Ice Cream
45 N 12th St, Philadelphia, PA 19107
215-925-4315
My excitement to try Bassetts Ice Cream stems from the mention of this old-school creamery in the Philadelphia episode of a travel guide podcast we listened to on our drive down to Philly. Bassetts is America’s oldest ice cream brand, dating back to 1861 when mule-power (yes, mules) churned the first batches of ice cream in Salem, NJ. Conveniently, Bassetts Ice Cream is also located inside the hot-spot Reading Terminal Market, one of the country’s oldest and largest public markets open since 1893. Everyone who visits Philly goes to Reading Terminal Market, so you’ll find yourself walking by that historic Bassetts marble countertop without having to plan anything extra in your itinerary.
Disappointingly, my experience with Bassetts Ice Cream was decidedly…meh. I tried a scoop of pistachio here (partly to compare to the aforementioned Franklin Fountain’s pistachio flavor, but more so because the first three flavors I requested were out of stock). Bassetts’ pistachio was more artificially green in color and the texture just wasn’t as dense and creamy as Franklin Fountain’s. It was a bit stretchy and goopy, the mark of too much stabilizer used in the ice cream mix. I realize it’s unfair to judge a restaurant after one taste, so I’m still open to trying out more of their flavors next time I’m in Philly.
Snack Spots in Philadelphia Chinatown
My love for New York City’s Chinatown is no secret. I love food-crawling my way through the streets of Chinatown, filled with restaurants serving up everything from Chinese breakfast to rice noodle rolls. In comparison, Philadelphia’s Chinatown is much smaller in area and we didn’t devote too much time to it, but we did stumble upon some gems!
Heung Fa Chun Sweet House
112 N 10th St, Philadelphia, PA 19107
215-238-8968
This place is a hidden gem of Philadelphia’s Chinatown. The storefront is unassuming and tiny, quite easy to miss. Inside you’ll find a cramped space full of lovely, tasty, and authentic traditional Chinese eats. Try the dou fu hua (tofu pudding) either sweet (with ginger simple syrup and your choice of add-ons including boiled peanuts, red/green bean, or tapioca) or savory (with fried onions, tiny dried shrimp, scallions, and chili sauce) and let your taste buds be wowed. The texture of dou fu hua is the mark of good chefmanship: it needs to be smooth and glassy, not gritty.
Heung Fa Chun also serves up a variety of Chinese steamed buns filled with everything from roasted pork to Chinese sausage to veggie to plain ol’ plain.
Come in the morning for some Chinese breakfast goodies, most notably their you tiao (fried cruellers) which are wonderful by themselves or dipped in soy milk. Whatever you do, eat your crueller immediately after it comes out of the fryer for best results. My favorite breakfast option was the freshly made fan tuan (Taiwanese oblong sticky rice roll filled with a fried crueller, pickled mustard greens, and pork floss). These little guys are surprisingly difficult to find even in NYC Chinatown!
Mong Kok Station Bakery
153 N 10th St #2414, Philadelphia, PA 19107
215-928-9228
Mong Kok Station bakery in Philly’s Chinatown is named after the Mong Kok MTR Station in Hong Kong. This appropriately named Hong Kong-style bakery is home to the Absolute. Best. Egg. Tarts. I’ve tried to date in the Northeast United States. Yes, there’s a spot in Houston that beats this place out, and probably anywhere in Hong Kong proper would win hands-down, but that’s all for a different blog post. Here in the Northeast, Mong Kok Station Bakery is the place to go! The Mong Kok egg tarts are the Goldilocks of egg tarts. While some bakeries focus on the flavor of the custard, others prioritize the flakiness of the crust. Mong Kok has it all. The custard is perfectly and sufficiently eggy, not too sweet, with a smooth and almost glassy texture…the crust is flaky but holds its form well, almost like a hybrid between a shortbread cookie and croissant. The 2021 price of these round golden wonders is a whopping $0.90.
Mong Kok Station Bakery’s other offerings are similarly priced like a bakery stuck in the 1990’s, and I love it. A milk tea is $0.80, Taiwan style pineapple bun is $0.90, and a golden lava salted egg custard bun is $0.90.
Please, please come give this bakery some love and your tummy will thank you!
S. Mart Snack Store
224 N 10th St, Philadelphia, PA 19107
215-627-9777
This snack mart/grocery store in Philadelphia’s Chinatown is the spot to see for their astounding variety of trendy Chinese, Japanese, and Korean snacks. Chips, ramens, gummies, chocolates, teas, juices, frozen goodies…you won’t even know what you need or want when you step inside but they have it here. Unique snacks and drinks are some of the things I get most excited about when traveling to East Asia and I am so glad to have found this little gem of a store in Philly!
Philly Vietnamese Food
If you can believe it, sampling Philadelphia’s local Vietnamese fare was honestly higher on our priority list than eating Chinese food during this short weekend visit, given the relative paucity of good Vietnamese restaurants in Manhattan. My stomach was ready.
Cafe Diem
1031 S 8th St, Philadelphia, PA 19147
215-923-8347
We were directed by a local to go to Cafe Diem for bun bo hue— the spicy beef noodle soup of Hue. Hue and Hoi An in Central Vietnam gave me my favorite foodie memories during our 2-week Vietnam trip, and the taste of bun bo hue in Hue has seared itself into my memory forever (in a good way, obviously). Nowhere else have I tasted bun bo hue that can compare to the lemongrass aroma, shrimp paste twang, chili bite, and lime tang of that wondrous broth I devoured in a grungy climate-uncontrolled open-air food market in Hue.
The bun bo hue at Cafe Diem is more authentic than those served in NYC and even the ones I’ve tried in Houston and Dallas, but the broth is still not as sharp as the real deal in Hue, Vietnam. Cafe Diem’s broth is sweeter than expected, but they do get the heat and lemongrass notes right. Cafe Diem is more than generous with their servings of beef shank, pork hock, and tendon. All this combines to form a more gelatinous and meaty broth, contrasted with the clean clear broth I remember from Hue. All in all, I’d still return and would recommend to anyone!
Cafe Mi Quang
3324 Kensington Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19134
215-459-5062
Cafe Mi Quang in northeast Philadelphia is known for its central Vietnamese fare. After realizing my love for the herb-heavy, sharp flavors of central Vietnamese cuisine during our travels to Hue and Hoi An, I was so excited to try this place out! We ordered the mi quang with shrimp and pork as well as a bun bo hue. The mi quang – their namesake dish – was very well done with perfectly springy wide rice noodles and a roasted nutty, porky broth. But now, let’s give some mic time to the BBH. The bun bo hue was SO GOOD. The light clear broth (not opaque and red) was heavy on the lemongrass, tangy and citrusy. It was nothing like the Dallas bun bo hues and I mean that in nothing but the best of ways. This bowl could have been a bit spicier to match what we tasted in Vietnam, but you can add more heat by yourself with the provided chili paste. The broth was just so clear and clean, yet unbelievably umami. I couldn’t get over it. After tasting the soup, I took one nibble of the included leafy herb plate and flashbulb memories of Hoi An came flooding back to me. This is why I love food.
Cafe Mi Quang now resides at the top of my list of restaurants (in the United States) serving up bun bo hue.
Pho 75
1122 Washington Ave F, Philadelphia, PA 19147
215-271-5866
Yelp will show you that Philadelphia is home to a lot of very legit-sounding pho restaurants, and we honestly picked one that fit most easily into our itinerary given our limited time to see (and eat) as much as we could in the city. Pho 75 is located just west of the 9th Street Italian Market, another attraction most tourists visit their first time in Philadelphia.
Pho 75’s pho broth is pleasantly not as sweet as the broths in Manhattan tend to be. This Philly pho spot offers a much milder broth and very distinctive clean beef flavor without any gamey aftertaste. Good, simple, well-done pho. And at $8.75 for the large bowl, the price per ounce is nearly half of that in Manhattan…
Reading Terminal Market & Amish Food Finds Philadelphia
A quick 90-minute drive away from Philadelphia, the town of Lancaster is a popular day-trip from Philly to learn about and experience Amish culture. A trip to Lancaster is a surefire way to taste Amish cuisine, but you don’t have to go all the way to Lancaster for it! Head over to Reading Terminal Market to find a whole host of Pennsylvania Dutch restaurants, delis, and farm-to-market venues.
Dutch Eating Place
51 N 12th St, Philadelphia, PA 19107
215-922-0425
The Dutch Eating Place is nestled inside Reading Terminal Market and is one of their most iconic establishments, serving up Pennsylvania Dutch cuisine since 1991. We tried the Scrapple and a hot apple dumpling. What is Scrapple, you ask? Scrapple is traditionally a loaf of ground pork scraps, cornmeal, and flour. Scrapple is commonly considered an traditional food of the Amish and Mennonites, and the history behind the dish embodies their frugal and efficient lifestyle. Making scrapple is a way to use scraps of meat left over after butchering, and ensures these pieces don’t go to waste. Slices of scrapple are pan-fried to order, imparting a crispy exterior texture. The inside is quite gamey but also superbly and uniquely umami. I imagine scrapple is a bit of an acquired taste, but you owe it to yourself to try it out if you want to try Pennsylvania Dutch food! This was my husband’s favorite find of this trip.
The apple dumpling is a decidedly more “vanilla” dish but yummy nonetheless. Dutch Eating Place’s apple dumpling is like a big softball-sized apple pie— a whole cored apple wrapped in pastry, baked to apple-cinnamon-ey perfection, nestled in a bowl, and topped off with whipped cream (you can also choose to have cool heavy cream drizzled on top instead).
Miller’s Twist
51 N 12th St, Philadelphia, PA 19107
215-923-1723
Pretzels are famous in Philadelphia, and it was the Pennsylvania Dutch who brought their pretzel traditions over from Europe. I was excited to try my first pretzel at Miller’s Twist inside Reading Terminal Market. Miller’s Twist sells Amish-style pretzels as an ode to the owner Roger Miller’s hometown of Lancaster, PA. They are super buttery and the exterior feels nearly deep-fried. The interior of the pretzel was soft and springy, but could have been more flavorful and bready, rather than just dough-ey. I would keep Miller’s Twist on your Philly food checklist especially since it’s right inside Reading Terminal Market, but don’t be heartbroken if you can’t make it there.
Favorites and Can’t-Misses of Philly’s Food Scene
As per the title of this post, this short-list is exclusive of Philly cheesesteaks, which deserve a competition of their own. Here are my personal top picks for food finds unique to Philly!
- Dutch Eating Place’s scrapple
- The Franklin Fountain’s ice cream
- Mong Kok Station Bakery’s egg tart
- Heung Fa Chun’s tofu pudding
I hope this makes you hungry for Philly! There are so many other places to taste on my next foray.
Enjoy!
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