BEST DISHES

What would be your Philly dream menu from 2023? A blowout carnivore’s feast or next-level plant-based cooking kissed by fire and fermentation? How about some sizzling momos? Or a hoagie built on scratch ingredients from the fresh-baked roll on up? My favorite dishes this year reflect the diversity that continues to inspire our dining scene, from sandwiches to sundaes and some major splurges. But these 15 places share at least one common theme: they pushed boundaries with chefs who dug deeper (sometimes quite literally) into the land, their ambitions and proud culinary traditions they made their own.

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• Goat barbacoa

  Cantina La Martina

  2800 D St

  

  On a trip to Mexico this year, James Beard Award finalist Dionicio Jiménez visited a Oaxacan barbacoa pit in Tlacolula de Matamoros that sparked his imagination. So he dug two of them in the back patio garden of his Kensington cantina, lining the six-foot-deep holes with bricks that radiate 800-degree heat before maguey leaf bundles of seasoned beef and goat are lowered inside to roast up to 20 hours for weekend specials. Go for the goat, whose meltingly tender flesh is seasoned with a cuminy Poblano-style red adobo fragrant with canela, cloves, and Jiménez’s touch of star anise. Served by the pound for $45 alongside an intense consommé from the drippings and all the fixings (nopales salad, cilantro-onions, and fresh tortillas), this is an event plate worth sharing.

• Delta Dynasty seafood and grits

  FoodChasers’ Kitchen

  7852 Montgomery Ave., Elkins Park

  

  Eagles QB Jalen Hurts made their mayo-laced cheesesteak famous. But when I come to this joyful bruncherie owned by identical twins Maya and Kala Johnstone, the former principals who became Instagram famous as the FoodChasers (115k-plus followers), I head for their royal take on the classic Philly breakfast tradition of fish and grits. The Delta Dynasty is an all-out seafood homage to their family’s Gullah Geechee roots (plus a nod to Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.). Not only does this generous bowl feature a corn-crusted filet of perfectly fried catfish hovering over cheesy grits and garlic butter sauce, it’s lavished with tender grilled shrimp that smell like a Carolina seafood boil, and noticeably big, sweet lumps of jumbo lump crab.

  • Websitefoodchaserskitchen.com
  • Phone215-758-2078
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• The ‘superior’ combo platter

  SALT Korean BBQ

  1222 Welsh Rd., North Wales

  

  A caddie of fancy garnishing salts sets the bougie tone for this stylish Korean grill house upgrade in North Wales. But chef Alex Kim’s kitchen also delivers quality and nuanced cooking. Groups should opt for one of the combos, like the “superior” platter for $350 (serves four) that brings richly marbled, ready-to-cook meats and seafood in hunger-stoking waves. Servers do all the grilling tableside on gas-assisted coconut charcoal braziers, scissoring finished meats into medium-rare morsels to be wrapped in lettuce leaf bundles with scallions and Kim’s special ssamjang. This enormous board includes multiple pounds of marinated galbi short rib (the highlight!), Wagyu rib-eye, lobster tails, pork belly, scallops, shrimp, and chili-marinated octopus. Artfully arranged amid mini-topiaries and greenery, it looks like the still life of a royal banquet.

  • Websitesaltkoreanbbq.com
  • Phone215-412-4200

• ‘Dolla’ hoagies

  Honeysuckle Provisions

  310 S. 48th St.

  

  There are so many good things to eat at this Afrocentric market-cafe from chefs Omar Tate and wife Cybille St. Aude-Tate in West Philadelphia, from pantry stars like miso made from black-eyed peas grown on their urban farm beneath the Market-Frankford El, to my current favorite hot sauce, and BLACKenglish muffins breakfast sandwiches with black-eyed pea scrapple. I’m especially fond of the “Dolla” hoagies on fresh-baked Sonora wheat rolls with vegan mayo made from benne seeds. The smoked and pickled turnip filling makes for one of the most inventive vegetarian sandwiches around. But I’m obsessed with Honeysuckle’s turkey, whose moist, fresh breast meat is cooked sous vide with citrus, herbs, and koji, then sweetened with an Ethiopian honey glaze.

  • Websitehoneysuckleprovisions.com
  • Phone215-307-3316
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• Beef Wellington for two

  Jansen

  7402 Germantown Ave.

  

  The gold-plated culinary legacy of the old Four Seasons lives on at this historic Mount Airy cottage (circa 1700), where longtime Fountain chef David Jansen’s eponymous restaurant has thrived in white tablecloth bliss since 2016. So it’s no surprise you’ll find a classic like beef Wellington for two resurrected here to perfection. Call 24 hours in advance for this $150 special, which turns heads in the dining room as the puff pastry-wrapped Chateaubriand trundles by trolley to your table. General manager Zachary Bourne slices it open for the dramatic reveal, its rosy-pink tenderloin generously portioned and cushioned with flavorful mushroom duxelles beneath the flaky crust. Destined for a plate of silky mashed potatoes and rich red wine demi, Bourne then showers it all with fresh-shaved truffles. ”Just say when ...” he says. How about forever?

  • Website​​jansenmtairy.com
  • Phone267-335-5041

• Sizzling chicken momo

  Mount Masala

  300 White Horse Rd E, Voorhees Township, NJ

  

  I’ll trek far and wide for a great momo. Thankfully we only had to journey to a South Jersey strip mall to experience the boldly spiced warm flavors of this family-run Nepalese BYOB. The Himalayan goat curry and chicken gravy lollipops were among the most intensely savory things I devoured this year. But Mount Masala’s array of hearty Nepalese momo dumplings — with a stronger Indian influence than the Chinese-inflected Tibetan momos at Roxborough’s White Yak — stole the show. None are more dramatic than the sizzling chicken momos that arrive to your table smoking as their tangy gravy hisses and bubbles atop a steel tray, billowing plumes of fragrant spice.

  • Websitemountmasala.com
  • Phone856-281-9711

• Mofongo

  El Cantinflas Bar & Restaurant

  110 W. Dauphin St.

  

  Puerto Rican-style tacos — flour tortillas rolled around sofrito-spiced proteins and mashed potatoes — put the Morales family’s lively corner restaurant-bar on the map two decades ago in the shadow of Kensington’s York-Dauphin Street El station. But chef-owner Migdalia “Daly” Morales has also proven to be one of Philly’s best plantain cooks. Her stellar mofongo bursts with flavor because the mashed plantains are peeled, fried, and crushed to order with chicharrónes and her buttery secret sauce. Pair it with a bowl of garlicky shrimp or a metal crock of tender carne frita. And there’s more platano magic, too. Try the cup-shaped stuffed plantains mounded high with shrimp in Creole red sauce or the crispy cakes of shredded plantain laced with adobo called aranitas. I covet the zestily fried pork chops here, too. But it’s no wonder El Cantinflas’ tiny kitchen peels 350 pounds of plantains each week.

  • Website​​elcantinflas.com
  • Phone215-739-2570

• Caraflex cabbage

  Pietramala

  614 N. 2nd St.

  

  There’s a cabbage on fire at Pietramala, and it’s glowing like a leafy lantern beacon over the oak wood grill at Ian Graye’s vegan hot spot in Northern Liberties. This conical head of heirloom Caraflex is brined overnight, poached with kombu and herbs, then, after a charring turn over the flames, is destined for a silky white celery root sauce dappled with spicy green wasabina mustard oil and a nose-tingling whiff of grated horseradish. It’s been a stellar year for new vegan concepts, but Graye, who also worked at Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s abcV and Marco Canora’s Hearth, has brought a fresh voice to Philly’s plant-based scene with a unique focus on live fire, fermentation, and tight relationships with local farms. As a result, cabbage has rarely been so magnetic.

  • Websitepietramalaphl.com
  • Phone215-970-9541
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• Lamb stuffed pappardelle

  Fiorella

  817 Christian St.

  

  I can never resist the standbys at Marc Vetri’s Italian Market pasta bar — the ultimate cacio e pepe, the soulful sausage rigatoni, the meltaway ricotta gnocchi. But a steady stream of intriguing new dishes from this talented kitchen led by chef Matt Rodrigue keeps Fiorella fresh. A stuffed pappardelle collaboration with sous chefs Max Kaklins and Liz Grohe is particularly memorable. Wide ribbon noodles get stuffed with braised lamb, then wrapped into a thick coil that’s blanched then baked to a crisp. Served over a spicy orange romesco of peppers and almonds, topped with an herbaceous green drizzle of chermoula — a nod to the influences of Spain and North Africa on Italy — it looks a crown or Mediterranean pasta castle just begging to be devoured.

  • Website​​fiorellaphilly.com
  • Phone215-305-9222

• Trio of traditional Venezuelan bites

  Autana

  4 Station Rd., Ardmore

  

  There’s a wise saying in Venezuela that “there’s no party without tequeños.” No chance of such disappointment at Autana across from the Ardmore train station, where these yeasted pastries stuffed with molten white Venezuelan Paisa cheese come hot and crispy from the fryer. They’re available à la carte, but they’re best as part of a trio of traditional bites that launch the restaurant’s $60 four-course prix-fixe menu. With half-moon empanaditas stuffed with a variety of fillings (try the “domino” combo of black beans and cheese) and irresistibly sweet-and-savory mandoca fritters of plantain, corn, and queso, this platter assures the Main Line’s Venezuelan party is only getting started.

  • Websiteautanapa.com
  • Phone484-416-5843

• Whole orata weekend special

  Zeppoli

  618 Collings Ave., Collingswood, NJ

  

  Whole fish is the best fish. And if you don’t believe me, consider the herb-stuffed wild orata (sea bream) that Zeppoli serves every Friday night. It is among the greatest whole fish dishes you can find locally. Run your spoon along the seam that lines the middle of the fish’s flank, give a gentle tug, and slide a section of flesh right off the comb-shaped skeleton. That firm morsel of pale fish is so thoroughly infused with lemon, wine, Calabrese peppers, caper berries, and herb butter, it’s like someone turned on an ocean faucet to baste it: “Oh my God, yeah, the juice comes out with a whole fish,” says Zeppoli’s chef-owner Joey Baldino, who seconds my motto: “Don’t be afraid of the bones.”

  • Website​​zeppolirestaurant.com
  • Phone856-854-2670

• Five Spice Chicken with crispy rice

  Càphê Roasters

  3400 J St.

  

  Jacob Trinh cooks to his cravings as a first-generation Vietnamese American, both at Càphê Roasters by day and by night at Nuróng PHL, the wood-fired Vietnamese concept he recently opened in the Lucky Well’s new restaurant incubator on Spring Garden Street. He taps two of his biggest cravings hard at Càphê Roasters, where crispy jasmine rice is fried into a cake topped with tender chicken in braised five-spice salsa roja. This long-standing menu special is also a delicious homage to the multicultural community anchor Càphê has become for Kensington, melding strands of this neighborhood’s Vietnamese and Latinx communities into one very tasty dish. It now happens to answer my cravings, too.

  • Website​​capheroasters.com
  • Phone215-690-1268

• Chirashi

  Kaiseki

  990 Spring Garden St.

  

  Andy Bernard and business partner Crystal Gurin built Kaiseki as a ghost kitchen sushi delivery service before landing a brick-and-mortar location in 2020. It’s hidden from street view inside the lobby of a mixed-use building on Spring Garden and still does primarily takeout. But if you snag one of the four seats at the counter, Bernard, who studied at sushi school in Los Angeles before working at Hiroki, will lavish you with some of the best Japanese-imported fish in town — and at prices befitting a solo operation with low overhead. The chirashi, in particular, was a stunner of pristinely fresh kanpachi, madai, aji, uni, and two coveted cuts of bluefin tuna (among other delights) arranged in a gorgeously colorful bouquet of well-sliced fish over seasoned rice. At $41 for a dish that would cost far more elsewhere, it’s among the finest quality sushi bargains around.

  • Website​​kaisekiphilly.com
  • Phone215-740-9475

• 24-hour plov

  Plov House

  9969 Bustleton Ave.

  

  I’ll eagerly eat a great plov any time of day. Few things are more satisfying than a platter of cumin-scented Uzbek pilaf piled high with tender chunks of lamb or beef, its rendered fat glazing each grain of rice beneath sweet carrot laces and plump raisins. But the ability to order such a wonder at 3 a.m.? That makes Plov House special: It’s open 24 hours a day in Northeast Philadelphia. In a city where late-night options have dwindled, it’s reassuring to know one of the few remaining options is so soulfully delicious. Also worth ordering from owner Umed Minhurov’s menu: lagman soup with chewy hand-rolled noodles, juicy kebabs, flaky samsa, meaty manti dumplings and honim, a steamed crepe rolled like a savory strudel around minced beef, dill, and onions.

  • Website​​plovhousephiladelphia.com
  • Phone267-571-1111

• Ube Sundae

  Tabachoy

  932 S. 10th St

  

  Filipino flavors are surging, from Kathy Mirano’s Tambayan diner counter in the Reading Terminal to the forthcoming Baby’s Cucina in Brewerytown. But nowhere has captured the contemporary energy as much as Tabachoy, Chance Anies’ food truck-turned-storefront BYOB in South Philly, where sizzling pork belly sisig, crisp lumpia, soy-lacquered fried chicken, and bagoong-powered Caesar salads have rightfully drawn crowds to Tabachoy’s glowing neon pig. Anies brings all that savory goodness home with one of the most festive sweets of the year: an ube sundae topped with coconut caramel, puffed rice, and a banana spring roll sprouting from its side like a candle just in case you didn’t notice: This Pinoy party is lit.

  • Websitetabachoyphilly.com