Yes, you can do an all-night food crawl in Philly — and Ramadan is the best time to do it
With few establishments open past midnight, we were on mission to eat our way through the city from sunset to sunrise, a personal Ramadan tradition.
Just before sunset on a Wednesday night, I set out for Taste of Dacca, a new Bangladeshi restaurant in Spring Garden, to meet my colleague and friend Esra Erol. We had a mission: to eat our way through Philadelphia from sunset to sunrise. Taste of Dacca was the first stop on our ultimate all-night food crawl.
We documented the journey — capturing the flavors, energy, and late-night crowds — to see what Philly’s dining scene looks like during Ramadan. What we found was a city alive with hungry diners from West to Northeast Philly.
An annual iftar crawl has been a highlight of my Ramadan calendar for three years now. Each year, my friends and I have traveled to New York City for one night during the holiday month, exploring the city’s late-night food scene from iftar (the sunset meal to break the fast) to suhoor (the pre-dawn meal before fasting resumes). This year, Erol and I wanted to experience what Philly had to offer.
Philadelphia isn’t typically known as a late-night dining destination, with few establishments open past midnight and only a handful of 24-hour diners left. But as we found out, Ramadan brings a different kind of energy to the night.
Across the city, restaurants were buzzing with diners well into the early morning hours. In West Philly, families lingered past 9 p.m. for qatayif and tea at Manakeesh, while Gen Zers played card games over steaming cups of chai and gulab jamun at Karak Cha House as late as midnight.
At Laguna Lounge inside Don Panchito Mexican Grill in Northeast Philadelphia, crowds stayed until 2 a.m., munching on barbacoa nachos, sipping mango mocktails, and smoking hookah imported from Dubai. Further north on Bustleton Avenue, tables filled up around 3 a.m. at the 24-hour Uzbek restaurant Plov House, where diners shared hot teas alongside plates of manti and shurpa.
Just five miles away, a handful of people trickled in and out of Liberty Bell Diner for pancakes, omelets, and hash browns. We ended our crawl in a corner booth there, sipping hot coffees until about 5 a.m.
After nine hours of eating, two things were clear: Philly’s late-night dining scene is a reflection of the city’s incredible culinary diversity, and there’s no better time to explore it than during Ramadan — you just have to commit to staying up until the sunrise.
Watch our journey in the video above as we explore Philly’s best late-night spots during Ramadan.