Best of Philly

Omar Tate and Cybille St.Aude-Tate

If the best menus exist as stories being told by the chef to the diner, then chefs Omar and Cybille from Honeysuckle are the storytellers Philadelphia needs most right now. Their multicourse prix fixe is a narrative about diaspora and home, about nourishment, the Black American experience, and the things that sustain us. It is rooted in the personal but speaks to the universal. It is funny, literate (a bread course based around Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower), snarky, emotional (be sure to ask for the backstory of the “McDonald’s Money” burger), and smart. And on top of all that, it is absolutely stunning — a triumph of storytelling executed by a kitchen working at the top of its game. Read More »

631 North Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA | 215-307-3316 | Website

Jacob Trinh of Little Fish

Crafting a menu can be an act of hospitality too. “When we create our food, it’s almost always about how the guests are enjoying it and how the food flows,” says Jacob Trinh of Little Fish in Bella Vista. It’s the philosophy behind the restaurant’s prix fixe menu, which features playful dishes that bring personality to seafood, such as the red crab chawanmushi, Trinh’s interpretation of crab fries, made with a dashi and egg custard base, Indonesian crab, and a Cooper Sharp and Old Bay espuma. Read More »

746 South 6th Street, Philadelphia, PA | 267-455-0172 | Website

Frankie Ramirez

Amá is a master class on the geographical diversity of Mexican cuisine, and chef Frankie Ramirez is constantly researching ways to transport diners to different corners of his home country. He’s gone to great lengths to execute everything at his new restaurant perfectly, from flying his mother and mother-in-law in from Mexico to teach him how to nixtamalize corn to sourcing chapulines for the signature sotol cocktail. As soon as you start your meal with the chips and salsas, featuring six regional variations, you’ll see that his academic approach is a mouthwatering testament to how much he’s grown as a chef. Read More »

101 West Oxford Street, Philadelphia, PA Website

Chance Anies

A good chef has to know how to cook well, plate beautifully and run a kitchen efficiently. A great chef has to be able to do all that and work the dining room with grace and humor. Chance Anies of Tabachoy does all that in a small, bright, crowded BYO in Bella Vista and still makes a meal of vinegar-sharp adobo, coconut milk-braised broccoli rabe and garlicky little-neck clams one of the most comforting and memorable dinners in the city. Read More »

932 South 10th Street, Philadelphia, PA Website

Eli Collins, A.Kitchen

In a restaurant world roaring with egos (excuse us, personalities), Collins quietly lets his food speak for itself. Since 2017, A.Kitchen’s executive chef has been flexing his talent and imagination sub rosa, evolving new recipes and techniques for his ever-changing menu at this Rittenhouse cafe. You can see it in the smallest details: the dab of made-from-scratch date mustard that comes with the chicken liver terrine, the delicate tortellini hand-filled with chevre from a local farm, the mussels with broth built from ramps and pickled long hots. What’s missing from the menu is any shred of ego. Instead, every dish gets to be the star. Read More »

135 South 18th Street, Philadelphia, PA Website

Randy Rucker

There’s an ease about Rucker’s cooking, and a generosity, as if there’s nobody else eating at River Twice except you. His commitment to locality, to foraging, to pickling and fermenting everything so as not to waste anything — it all adds up to a singular experience. Every element of every dish, down to the house-made coffee vinegar in the beef tartare or the à la minute ricotta on the toast, is deeply considered, smartly placed, and creatively conceived, but in a way that still feels like food, not art. Read More »

1601 East Passyunk Avenue, Philadelphia, PA Website

Omar Tate

Sometimes, a new chef will arrive in Philly and bring an unmistakable energy — a sort of hyper-focused intentionality, a sense of I’ve got big plans for this city. Omar Tate was born and raised in Philly, and he worked in some of the city’s most ambitious kitchens before leaving for NYC to hone his culinary career. As he wove his way through kitchens, following the well-trodden career path of the modern professional chef, he began to explore and amplify Black American foodways — their tragic history, their uncertain future, their cultural complexities, and their constant erasure from the culinary pantheon. Honeysuckle — his NYC pop-up restaurant-turned-takeout operation — was the physical manifestation of his particular brand of culinary activism. Meals began with a glass of “Honeysuckle Red Drink” (his take on Kool-Aid, a staple of his childhood), and the to-go bags included samples of his own poetry. The coronavirus crisis brought him (and Honeysuckle) back to Philly, and he has big plans for this city — particularly in West Philly, where he’s envisioning a community center for which food will, of course, be the anchor. Follow @honeysuckle_projects on Instagram for information on future dinners and pop-ups. Read More »

Website

Nok Suntaranon

She’s the chef Philly needed before we even knew we needed someone like her. In the Before Times, she opened Kalaya, a heartfelt Thai BYOB where the kitchen scratch-made everything on an unapologetically authentic menu. In the dining room, she was an undeniable presence, seeming to know everyone who’d ever eaten a meal there and exactly what they needed most. And then, when the plague came, rather than retreating or folding, she kept Kalaya open to serve local industry workers for free. In a moment that sometimes seems woefully short on heroes, she is ours. Read More »

Ari Miller

Musi, Miller’s neighborhood BYO, has all the expected trappings: It’s charming and delicious, and it offers a menu that changes often and relies heavily on what his purveyors have available. But the food is never too serious, and neither is Miller. And that’s what sets it — and him — apart. Read More »

100 Morris Street, Philadelphia, PA | 215-377-9466 | Website

Melissa Weller

This James Beard-nominated pastry chef came from New York’s famed Per Se to help open Walnut Street Café. Memories of her apple slab pie will stay with you long after you’ve licked the plate clean. Read More »

Walnut Street Café: 2929 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA Website