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: “Come on guys, finish this off.” The employee behind the counter didn’t have to ask me twice to clean the plate of honey smoked turkey he was offering as a free sample. And before I even got my order, it was no mystery to me why Koch’s Deli in West Philadelphia is almost a landmark around here. This place has got charm. With a little sleight of hand (read: free food), Koch’s turned a ridiculously long, crowded wait for a sandwich into a memorable experience. During my wait, I sampled two kinds of turkey, some Swiss cheese, and a few pickle spears. Koch’s is not only known for its free samples, but also its creative specialty hoagies and sandwiches and its generous portions of meat. If you like pastrami, the Reuben here is a can’t miss. My mouth watered as I watched my chopped pastrami crisped in the toaster oven, and then was topped with Swiss cheese and cooked again until it bubbled. With the meat piled high and topped with sauerkraut and thousand island dressing an...

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: I had read enough about the countless honors that John’s Roast Pork has won for its cheesesteaks. Local radio station WIP gave it top honors in its recent “ Ultimate Cheesesteak Challenge .” Esquire named it one of the Best Sandwiches in America . The James Beard Foundation gave it an “ America ’s Classic ” distinction. It was time to see what all the fuss was about. To clear up any confusion, John’s doesn’t deal exclusively in pork products. The “cheesesteak” is made with beef, and the “pork sandwich,” made with Italian roasted pork, is served up either on a Kaiser roll (small) or a hoagie roll (large). Both are excellent, but the pork sandwich is a true masterpiece. The Cheesesteak: The thinly sliced steak at John’s is of excellent quality. It’s cooked in small batches, which speaks volumes about the quality control at John’s. Most other busy shops cook their steak in huge batches, which often makes it tougher and drier, since it sits on the grill for longer per...

Jeff's Take: I’ve heard of Kansas City-style barbecue. Ditto with Texas-style and Memphis-style barbecue. But I’ve never heard of Philly-style barbecue. And I don’t think I’m alone. But Tommy Gunns, a tiny joint in Manayunk, claims that it has The City of Brotherly Love’s unique variant of the American classic. Well, at least for spare ribs. What makes “Philly-style” spare ribs unique, according to the website, is that while other styles trim more meat off the bone in order to achieve a uniform rib size, Tommy Gunns eschews size uniformity, and therefore leaves more meat on the bone. In addition, while most places serve their ribs right out of the smoker, Tommy Gunns throws them on the grill quickly before they’re plated. In the flavor department, the spare ribs here are excellent. The meat has a nice smoky flavor that’s complemented well with the dry rub Tommy Gunns uses. The accompanying barbecue sauce is also solid—tangy with just the right amount of heat. The texture of the mea...

Sonny’s, a small shop in Old City Philadelphia, isn’t one of the better-known cheesesteak places. The wall isn’t lined with press photos of celebrities who have eaten there. But they do serve excellent steaks. Unlike most of other steak shops in the area, which purchase their steak pre-sliced, Sonny’s uses freshly sliced ribeye for their cheesesteaks (check it out, the slicer is right on the counter). Sonny’s also slices their steak a little thicker than other places, and serves their steaks on a soft, chewy roll. Jeff’s Take: There are several reasons why Sonny’s is my current pick for best cheesesteak in the Delaware Valley . First off, their quality is more consistent than most other places. With a lot of the better-known cheesesteak places, it’s either hit or miss, and this gets frustrating. Second, I like that Sonny’s has thicker sliced meat—a lot of other places finely chop their meat, which occasionally results in a dry steak. Also, I prefer cheese whiz on my steak, and Sonny’s...

Jeff's Take: At Lennies, the Italian hoagie is king. We’re not just talking the standard pepper ham, Genoa salami, capicola, and provolone that make up the traditional Italian hoagie. This small takeout shop on Ridge Avenue in Roxborough , PA offers a mix-and-match menu of several other Italian meats and cheeses. In addition to the usual trio, there’s prosciutto, mortadella, soppressata, and cotechino, all offered in various combinations. But it’s not variety alone that makes Lennies Hoagies stand out. What really makes this place special is that it uses all of its ingredients to the fullest, and everything tastes fresh. First off, the meat. Where else would I start? The quality of the meat at Lennies is better than most hoagie shops, with more spice and flavor than you’ll usually find. It’s also clear that the meats here are freshly sliced, which makes a world of difference. Next is something that is usually an afterthought in the hoagie world—the vegetables. Most hoagie places...

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...

Jeff's Take: When ordering a gyro, it’s always a good sign if there’s seasoned lamb roasting on the counter. There’s a clear difference between lamb cooked on a gyro roaster and frozen lamb strips that have been warmed up on a griddle. The former wins by a mile in the taste and texture categories—with a crispy crust and a tender interior. The latter is what you’ll get at most places that offer gyros on their menus, and it just can’t compare. Greek Lady is known for its gyros and souvlaki, and it’s a place where you can always expect to see gyro roasters in constant use. This popular eatery started out in one of the many food carts around University City , and became so successful that it moved into a much more spacious storefront on 40 th Street , between Walnut and Locust. At this point, the eatery could even expand next door—it’s usually buzzing during lunch and dinner, and it’s a madhouse late on weekend nights, when it’s open until 2 a.m. An interesting twist that Greek Lady a...

While we’ve been told that Fogo de Chao means “Fire of the Ground” or “Campfire,” we’re convinced that the direct translation is actually “Food Country.” Fogo de Chao is a churrascaria , a Brazilian-style barbecue where the meats are roasted over an open fire. It has almost a dozen locations across the U.S. , and five locations in Brazil . Its Philadelphia location, at 13 th and Chestnut, is a beautiful space, with high ceilings, huge chandeliers, and walls lined with wine bottles behind glass cases. A meal at Fogo de Chao is like a Choose Your Own Adventure book, except the pages are made of delicious, fire-roasted meat. Each person is given a two-sided disk at his or her place setting. Turn it over so the green side is facing up, and the gauchos (on double duty as both chefs and servers) circulating throughout the restaurant will bring fresh, sizzling cuts of skewered meat to carve directly onto your plate. Turn the disk back over to red, and you’ll get some time to clear your pla...