Thanh and Chris Nguyen of Melody’s Grillhouse in Ambler have opened a downtown satellite on East Passyunk Avenue, where chef Thanh is cooking stunning renditions of contemporary Vietnamese dishes from her native Saigon, including a popular vermicelli platter with blood sausage and fermented dipping shrimp sauce, mini banh xeo crepes, and a fabulous whole branzino grilled in banana leaves.

Blood, smoke, and offal are at the core of this daring South Philly venture from chefs Scott Calhoun, David Feola, and their partner, general manager Gianna Spatoulas. The “root-to-snout” concept goes deep with a sweetbread-skate riff on “surf-n’-turf,” massive, curry-braised beef shins served for sharing, lettuce cups, and chocolate-blood pudding for dessert. The commitment to seasonality even makes its way into the local hay-smoked cocktails, some of the best of which contain no alcohol.

This all-day cafe from chef Nicholas Elmi and partner Fia Berisha has been created from the industrial bones of the old Pencoyd Iron Works into a lush riverside oasis for avocado toast, canned cocktails, and bocce. There’s a small dining room, but the big terrace has become a community hub for those arriving by car or bike to partake in the excellent breakfast sandwiches, stellar burger, fried chicken sandwich, and grain bowl. An upscale counterpart, Lark, is expected to debut atop the neighboring hotel this month.

After six years of renovations plus a pandemic delay, chef Belaynesh “Bella” Wondimagegnehu and her husband, Demelash Demissie, opened their tribute to traditional Ethiopian cuisine. This bi-level cafe has become a lively Cedar Park destination for herb-infused Ethiopian coffee, berbere-spiced kitfo tartare toasts, and broad injera bread platters topped with the wonderful stews, from oniony sweet doro wot to earthy bozena shiro chickpea pureée studded with spiced beef.

Restaurant and media entrepreneur Dan Tsao has brought a taste of Sichuan fire from his EMei in Chinatown to Susanna Foo’s former Suga space in Rittenhouse Square. His kitchen brings plenty of numbing heat to dishes like the standout cumin lamb with hand-ripped noodles, but there’s also a sweet overture to its targeted mainstream audience with a signature General Tsao’s chicken that, with its delicate crunch and saucy balance of sweetness, tang, and spice, should win a following.

This cozy Northern Liberties takeout storefront turns out a limited menu of excellent platters and sandwiches built around deeply savory pernil (pulled pork), rice and gandules beans, pasteles, and roast chicken. Also not to miss: the cream-soaked pastry dream of one of Philly’s best tres leches cakes.

Chef Patricia Massoud’s transformation of Porch & Proper into an exploration of traditional Lebanese home cooking is a tribute to the friends and family she lost in a pair of massive explosions in the port of Beirut in 2020. It’s a lovely, breezy BYOB with an easy Mediterranean vibe, but it is Massoud’s soulful cooking Massoud that is the draw. From kibbeh to the shish taouk she grew up cooking alongside her grandmother, Suraya El Harouny, who also inspired her cousins’ namesake restaurant, Suraya.

Jollof rice and West African flavors are having a moment if this flavorful fast-casual newcomer in Northern Liberties from Nigerian-born Dera Nd-Ezuma, fiancée Sarah Jost, and chef Omega Dabale is any indication. (The Fudena pop-up, aiming for a brick-and-mortar location soon, is another jollof player.) Pick your yazi-spiced grilled protein or veg (chicken, beef, Brussels sprouts), choose your rice (spicy red jollof or white uto with sausage gravy), build a platter with plantains and cornbread, and dream of Lagos.

One of the region’s most regal and elegant dining spaces, the oak-paneled Green Room in the Hotel DuPont has been restored to its 1913 grandeur and revived as an updated French brasserie concept by chef Tyler Akin (of Philly’s Stock and Res Ipsa). We enjoyed a memorable brunch here of a lobster omelette with beurre blanc, a stellar three-cheese French onion soup, shrimp cocktail with berbere-spiced aioli, and a double-stacked smash patty riff on McDo’s — Le Big Cav — that is an instant contender for region’s best burger.

The owners of Cafe Ynéz on Washington Avenue have ventured north to Kensington’s American Street corridor with style, transforming an industrial shed and parking lot into a cozy dining room and expansive patio that feels like an oasis. The menu is rooted in Mexican traditions reinterpreted with modern touches that emphasize local ingredients (heritage pork carnitas) and creative vegetable-forward options, from a cauliflower twist on “alt pastor” to a vegan feast steamed mixiote-style inside a banana leaf.

Kurt Evans’ Strawberry Mansion takeout pizza destination is driven by a social justice mission to employ and boost those who’ve been previously incarcerated. Down North also happens to make some of the best Detroit-style pizzas around, whose crispy-edged square pies are named after Philly rap tunes. Try the classic cheese (“No Betta Love”), the barbecued chicken pie (“Big Head”), the white pie with turkey sausage and “Bodega sauce” made from Goya Malta (“Ima Boss”), or any of the frequent collaboration fundraisers with local celeb chefs.

Dough geeks like me flip out for the tangy crunch of Davide Lubrano and Vincent Gallagher’s powerfully fermented and crispy sourdough crusts. I love the meaty Salsiccia topped with pepperoni, sausage, creamy ricotta, and a spicy-sweet drizzle of hot honey, while the spinach with ricotta is my choice of the white pies.

Sally likens itself to a small plate neighborhood restaurant and natural wine bar/shop that happens to also make pizza. The seasonal small plates are really good (try the grilled broccoli, salads, and chicken meatballs stroganoff). But the puffy, Neapolitan-style sourdough pizzas are still the draw because they offer creative touches that set this pizza program apart, from the housemade sausage pie to clams and leeks, and an updated ripe tomato take on the Philly Pizzazz.

The timing (opened just before the pandemic) couldn’t have been more unfortunate for Joe and Angela Cicala’s throwback fancy Italian dining room in this revived historic building. It’s still a white linen beauty for special occasion dining. But the installation of Joe’s old pizza oven from Brigantessa onto the patio has not just given upscale Cicala an accessible new draw for the pre-theater crowd, but also the best Neapolitan-style pizza program in Philly right now, with stellar toppings (try the Puttanesca or Sorrento lemons with buffalo mozzarella) and crusts that are luxuriously soft, fire-roasted, and flavorful.

I loved the laid-back vibe and heat-blistered rounds of the naturally leavened pies coming out of the oven in this industrial Kensington space shared with ReAnimator Coffee. There were lovely small plates (Italian butter beans!), fresh seasonal salads, smart cocktails, and pours of natural wines to cheer the mood. Only one hesitation — an overly acidic sauce at my visit — is holding me back from considering this potential-filled new neighborhood pizzeria even higher on my list of new favorites.

Yehuda Sichel was determined to strike a casual note when he left his longtime post as chef at upscale Abe Fisher. He wanted a daytime concept to allow for more family time at night, and a wide-ranging menu to explore the multiculti flavors that inspire him. Sichel succeeded on all counts at Huda, the fast-casual takeout corner near Rittenhouse where he bakes sourdough and milk bread buns for knockout brisket and swordfish sandwiches, a fried maitake mushroom riff on a torta that’s a contender for best vegetarian sandwich, and a massive, cheesy smash burger with Animal sauce I still dream about. Don’t miss the cinnamon buns, either. Bonus: Huda steps it up with stellar holiday meal kits, especially for the Jewish holidays.

The Miglino family (of long-gone Felicia’s fame) has resurfaced with a sandwich shop in the heart of Mummers land dedicated to South Philly’s classic Italian sandwiches done as meticulously as possible. Son Peter Miglino (and girlfriend Victoria Rio) run the cold side with stellar hoagies, including the Henry vegetarian and Pooh Bear turkey hoagie ribboned with a fried pickle. Father Nick Miglino, meanwhile, has resurrected the original ‘50s version of a pizza steak (with grilled tomatoes, not sauce) and a thick-cut pork roasted with cherry peppers modeled after what his mother, Dolores, used to make. All are easily among the city’s best.

This tiny Fishtown corner deli isn’t exactly new so much as it was new to me this year, and I’m thrilled to know it, because the Gabagoool, Franklin, and classic Italian are among the most thoughtfully constructed hoagies around, from the way the meats are folded to the deliberate patterns dressings are drizzled across the seeded rolls.

Philly’s most innovative bread bakery made the leap from wholesale to retail with this snug Rittenhouse cafe, where not only does it make outstanding sandwiches — try the fried bologna or the midnight turtle falafel — but also outstanding bagels boiled and baked on-site. Of course, they’re unconventional, tangy with fermented rye notes and almost moist with scalded porridge starters, but the earthy local corn bagel dusted with meal and black pepper is one of the sensational new bread creations this year.

The artisan bagel movement took another step forward at this quirky South Philly corner where early arrivals will likely find a line and a sidewalk welcome sermon from owner and poet Philip Korshak, whose sweeping beard and flour-dusted smock makes him look like a masked-up Bagel Moses. The bagels are worth the hype, with a sourdough starter that lingers, a distinctively crackly, shiny outer crunch, and centers that manage to have both lightness and a spring, full of life, not fluff. Try the Gemini, its topping divided between sesame and poppy, or the Cooper Sharp long hot variety. Don’t forget the house schmear made from goat’s milk and local mozzarella brine that adds yet another layer of poetic intrigue.

If you love smoked fish, it’s hard not to feel the brunch pulse quicken when you walk into Lauren Biederman’s new appetizing store for fancy Jewish delights and watch “loxsmith” Gene Mopsik artfully slicing paper thin orange ribbons off sides of salmon with his slender fish knife. But where to begin? There are more than a dozen varieties by the quarter-pound from Samaki Smoked Fish (I’m partial to the belly lox, pastrami-smoked salmon, king salmon and sturgeon), as well top-notch caviars and the creamiest smoked whitefish salad in Philly. Try one of the popular (pre-ordered) brunch board samplers. And don’t miss the other essentials, from vegetarian matzo ball soup to local artisan cheeses, and artisan halva from New York’s Seed + Mill.

South Philly’s loss became South Jersey’s gain when June BYOB packed-up its duck press and moved from its East Passyunk nook due to the pandemic. Married owners chef Richard “Todd” Cusack and Christina Cusack managed to double their space for a more comfortable white tablecloth experience. And despite just a year in business previously, they’d already won a loyal following of wine collectors and francophiles who’d happily follow them anywhere (with BYO gems from private cellars in tow) to accompany the modern updates to classic French flavors. Ranging from Todd’s duck trio to escargot, trout steamed in fig leaves and a stuffed pig trotter, availability of these delights is all the more valuable since the demise of Bibou, where Cusack trained. For Collingswood, meanwhile, June offers another sophisticated option in a restaurant town successfully diversifying its menu.

No, Stina isn’t new. But chef Bobby Saritsoglou and Christina Kallas Saritsoglou’s Mediterranean BYOB is one of the rare places that somehow managed to glow-up during the pandemic. It plugged into the energy of expanded sidewalk seating in its festively decorated cabana, where cries of “Opa!” echo from the crowd every time a saganaki special erupts in ouzo flames. It cleverly nodded to the takeout crowd by jamming pizza boxes with a pikilia feast of gyros, kebabs and dips (it’s not available for dining-in). And talented chef Bobby has continued to evolve and refine his wide-ranging menu with strong Greek roots that creatively bobs from Turkish pide (get the merguez topping) to pyramid-shaped saffron manti stuffed with lamb, aromatic chicken shawarma on house baked pita, and what remains one of the finest octopi in town. As the West Passyunk Avenue corridor continues to evolve, Stina has become an anchor and grown into one of Philly’s great neighborhood restaurants.