Ube is popping up all over Philly’s dining scene. Here’s where to find it.

At South Street’s Banh Mi & Bottles, owner Tuan Phang shakes up multiple rounds of ube martinis each night.

Phang said diners love the purple-colored twist on the trendy espresso martini, which the Vietnamese restaurant added to the menu in February. “It is a good sign when the same person or other people at the table say, ‘This is so good, I’m gonna get it for the next round,’” he said.

Phang isn’t the only chef incorporating ube into his menu. From slushies to maritozzi, the sweet purple yam is having a moment in Philly’s dining scene, driven by the boom of Filipino cuisine in the city.

Ube is a purple yam native to the Philippines. Not to be mistaken for purple sweet potatoes, the vegetable has bark-like skin and a nutty vanilla flavor, according to Food & Wine.

Ube’s distinct taste and vibrant color are what draws diners, Phang said. To make Banh Mi & Bottles’ foamy purple martini, ube condensed milk is shaken with egg white, brewed coffee from Caphe Roasters, and tequila. Phang garnishes it with three coffee beans.

With ube’s popularity in his home country of Vietnam, Phang wasn’t surprised that the cocktail quickly became a best seller. “I’m so used to it. We eat it, we drink it, and we use it in desserts,” he said. “But it is something new to the industry here in Philly.”

Seth Kligerman, cofounder of Forin Cafe with Will Landicho, attributes the growing ube love to local Filipino chefs.

Since Forin’s inception in 2021, ube has had a comfortable seat on the menu at the cafe’s two locations, where it is offered in both matcha drinks ($6) and lattes ($5.50). Forin uses an ube extract syrup made from a recipe by Chance Anies of Tabachoy.

Kligerman said this wave of all things ube stems from the “explosion” of Filipino cuisine in Philly, with restaurants like Baby’s in Brewerytown, Tabachoy in Bella Vista, and Perla in East Passyunk putting Filipino flavors on the local culinary map and inspiring other chefs to add it to their menus.

Anies, however, was hesitant to put ube on the menu at his Filipino restaurant at first. “I started seeing it everywhere, and I didn’t want to just use low-hanging fruit,” he said. But ultimately, he decided as one of the voices of Filipino food and culture in Philly, he could share the importance of the vegetable, which goes beyond its trendiness.

“I feel very defensive of Filipino food, and I do think that when ube is utilized I want people to know that it’s from the Philippines,” Anies said. “It is so iconically purple, and people are like, ‘What makes it purple?’ so it’s been a cool way to be able to educate our guests about something that is inherently Filipino.”

At Tabachoy, folks can find a swirl of ube soft serve topped with coconut caramel and puffed rice in a tin cup, accompanied by a crunchy turon or banana spring roll. Anies is also working on an ube calamansi (Filipino lime) tart that he hopes to add to the menu soon.

“It’s the two pieces of produce that are most highlighted, most well-known within Filipino produce that I wanted to marry within a tart [featuring] beautiful yellow-orange hues and swirls of purple,” he said.

For Kathy Mirano, seeing diners embrace ube has been a “dream come true.”

The owner of Tambayan decided to launch an ube “soft serve” for the Reading Terminal Ice Cream Festival with regulars demanding an ice cream with the Filipino purple yam flavor she’s captured in her macarons. The soft serve is more of a sorbet, she said, with a homemade ube gelato mix that’s whipped by hand with water and churned in an ice cream machine. It’s offered as is or as a twist with a mango flavor, in a cup or waffle cone, topped with sprinkles or a macaron ($8-$13).

“I’m happy to share ube with my fellow Filipino diners, but it’s nice to see American diners enjoying ube and getting to know the taste of it,” she said.

And the creations don’t stop there.

At Yowie Hotel’s Wim Cafe, the menu, provided by Forin Cafe, includes an ube maritozzi, a puffy brioche bun filled with a generous heaping of ube whipped cream that plays off the bright yellow specks of lemon zest sprinkled atop ($5). On hot days, folks can score a non-boozy ube piña colada slushie, made of piña colada mix and ube syrup, with the option to add a shot of espresso or matcha ($8).

Over in Chinatown, Matcha Panda Cafe diverges from green tea with freshly baked cream puffs filled with taro and ube cream ($5.25 a piece). ReAnimator, the multilocation coffee shop, announced in June that the seasonal ube latte had a permanent spot on the menu.

Director of coffee Matt Scottoline said people just couldn’t get enough of the latte sweetened with a homemade ube and vanilla extract syrup.

“People [in Philly] really love ube,” he said.

📍712-14 South St., Philadelphia, Pa., 19147, 📞 215-800-1533, 🌐 banhmiandbottles.com

📍932 S. 10th St. Philadelphia, Pa., 19147, 📞 215-315-8720, 🌐 tabachoyphilly.com

📍226 South St., Philadelphia, Pa., 19147, 📞 215-398-5965, 🌐 wimcafe.com

📍2525 Frankford Ave., Philadelphia, Pa., 19125, 🌐 forincafe.com

📍2041 Coral St., Suite 2, Philadelphia, Pa., 19125, 🌐 forincafe.com

📍202 N. Ninth St., Philadelphia, Pa., 19107, 📞 267-710-1166, 🌐 matchapanda.com/menu

📍45 N. 12th St., Philadelphia, Pa., 19107, 📞 215-800-8844 🌐 tambayanphilly.com

📍1523 E. Susquehanna Ave., Philadelphia, Pa., 19125, 📞 215-425-5805, 🌐 reanimatorcoffee.com

📍 3118 Richmond St., Philadelphia, Pa., 19134, 📞 215-595-2574, 🌐 reanimatorcoffee.com

📍 310 Master St., Philadelphia, Pa., 19122, 📞 267-758-6264, 🌐 reanimatorcoffee.com