Food Country Restaurant Reviews serving the Delaware Valley

This authentic French creperie is located just a block from the lively South Street shops and bars in Philadelphia , and offers both elegant indoor and outdoor dining. Beau Monde’s crepe menu is divided into two categories: savory and sweet. For either type, you can either order from a list of house recommendation crepes, or you can get creative and build your own crepe from a bevy of filling options. The savory crepes, which generally run for about $12-14, are served in a thin buckwheat pancake and can include fillings such as cheese or sauce and meats such as ham, chicken breast, andouille sausage, or fish, and vegetables such as tomatoes, mushrooms, or roasted leeks. The sweet crepes, usually from about $8-10, are made with wheat flour and also feature numerous options, such as flavored butter, chocolate, fresh fruit, ice cream, or custard. Jeff’s Take: For my savory crepe, I went with the coq au vin—a classic French dish that’s slow cooked with chicken, red wine, baby onions, mush...

Jeff's Take: One of the great advantages of city living is the concept of the food cart. A good food cart can offer a quick, convenient, cheap, and delicious meal, and the best food carts can even be deserving of a special trip. In Philadelphia , the best place to go searching for good food cart cuisine is West Philly’s University City neighborhood. Dozens of food cart vendors congregate there every day, offering a variety of options to the thousands of students in the area. How successful are the University City food carts? Just look at Greek Lady , which started out as a cart and now has a permanent storefront nearby. Thanks to a recommendation from my brother Erick, who lives in the area, I recently discovered a cart that could end up being just as successful—Tacos Don Memo, located at 38 th and Sansom. A trip to any food cart carries with it a range of possibilities in terms of quality. Some carts clearly haven’t been visited by the health inspector in quite awhile (if ev...

Jeff's Take: With taquerias, quality is a crapshoot—it’s usually either going to be really good or really bad (for the latter, see Mike’s review of Taqueria Moroleon). You’ll very rarely be able to figure out what you’re getting just by looking at the place. Luckily, I tried Taqueria La Veracruzana, located in South Philly near the Italian Market, after a trusted friend recommended it. This place isn’t much for atmosphere—we’re talking Mexican wrestling and soccer playing on television and pretty harsh lighting. The important thing is that the place is clean, because many taquerias aren’t. Standard with each meal is a generous serving of crisp, homemade tortilla chips served with two salsas—one jalapeno-based, and one smoky chipotle-based. Both are about medium-hot, and are very different from what most people are probably used to. If you prefer, you can order fresh pico de gallo or guacamole for a few extra bucks—I like to order some guacamole with the chips and then use some on m...