Best of Philly

Best Restaurant

2024 Best Possible Version of Your Culinary Childhood

Gass & Main

Chef Dane DeMarco works from a very particular palette when crafting menus, drawing on a thousand memories of street parties, suburban dinner tables and backyard barbecues. At Gass & Main, the mac and cheese is made with truffled gnocchi in a silky mornay, the green tomato hush puppies are crowned with chow chow and bathed in comeback sauce, the hot dogs are Snake River wagyu with homemade hot mustard, and there’s caviar topping the French onion dip. Because at Gass & Main, childhood is redefined, comfort comes with an upgrade, and even the simplest, most cherished food memories can be made new again. Read More »

7 Kings Court, Haddonfield, NJ Website

2020 Best Big-Risk Restaurant

Elwood

Every decade or so, a chef tries to showcase our historic Pennsylvania culinary traditions in a modern light. And almost every single time, those chefs fail. This time around, though, chef Adam Diltz took a big swing — presenting his vision of Pennsylvania Dutch cookery, locally sourced and scratch-made — and hit the long ball. His homemade scrapple, served spiked on a deer antler, was perfect for the Instagram age. The whole ducks and rabbits presented tableside were shocking in just the right way. Granted, dining at Elwood could sometimes feel like an edible history lesson in a museum reconstruction of Great-Grandma’s kitchen. But there were honestly revelatory moments to be had, which made Diltz’s walk back through time a lesson worth paying attention to. Read More »

1007 Frankford Avenue, Philadelphia, PA | 215-279-7427 | Website

2020 Best Restaurant We Didn’t Know We Needed

White Yak

If you’ve never had Tibetan food, you don’t realize how much you need Tibetan food. Thankfully, White Yak was there for Philly with its comforting wood-paneled dining room, bowls of soft momo swimming in beef broth, tsamthuk roasted barley soup, bacon stir-fried with green garlic, and shoko khatsa — which is basically just potatoes stir-fried with chili powder, for a perfect kick of starch and spice. Read More »

6118 Ridge Avenue, Philadelphia, PA | 215-483-0764 | Website

2019 Best Secret Restaurant

Vernick Coffee Bar

It presents like a coffee shop, but don’t be fooled: This second-floor oasis — hidden behind a grove of trees — in the new Comcast Technology Center serves an excellent wild mushroom grain bowl, a fancy porchetta sandwich, and an elegant chicken ballotine. Read More »

1800 Arch Street, 2nd Floor, Philadelphia, PA | 215-419-5052 | Website

2018 Best Trinidadian Restaurant

Flambo

You have to know where to look to find real-deal Trinidadian food in this town. Two ways to go about it: Search city storefronts for a “DOUBLES” sign in the window (it’s a popular street food in Trinidad), or head straight to Flambo, an unassuming spot on North Broad where the curries are deep and bold, the roti is flaky, and the curried chickpea doubles (served on weekends) are as soft and chewy as they ought to be. Read More »

820 N Broad St, Philadelphia, PA | 267-639-5179 | Website

2018 Best New American Restaurant

Serpico

Every time we go, we rediscover what made Peter Serpico’s South Street namesake so special in the first place. We’re reminded of how seriously he takes his craft, how smart he is about mixing and matching familiar and unfamiliar flavors (like the duck mole), how playful he can be with textures (surely you’ve had his steamed egg custard?). Now in its fifth year, Peter’s South Street kitchen has every bit of his quiet genius on full display, and we can’t wait to see what else he has up his sleeve. Read More »

604 South St., Philadelphia, PA | 215-925-3001 | Website

2018 Best Hole in the Wall Restaurant

Hibernian Coffee Shop

It’s owned by a Mexican family, it serves Scrapple, a full Irish breakfast, burritos and chicken curry – and there’s always a line out the door. God bless America. Read More »

3711 Garrett Road, Drexel Hill, PA | 610-626-7370 | Website

2017 Best Under-the-Radar Restaurant

Ambra

When it comes to making an Italian meal feel extra-special, Chris D’Ambro and Marina de Oliveira’s 16-seat dining room is the only restaurant in Philly giving Vetri Ristorante a run for its money. Read More »

705 South 4th Street, Philadelphia, PA | 267-858-9232 | Website

2015 Best Restaurant

Laurel

From his delicate gnocchi to pork shoulder "sausages" wrapped in caul fat, Laurel's Nick Elmi exceeds expectations on every front -- not least by resisting (so far) the temptation to forsake his kitchen in favor of an empire. Actually, scratch that. This place smells like a gerbil cage, and Elmi just insulted your mother. Stay away. (It's the only way we'll ever get a table.) Read More »

1617 East Passyunk Avenue, Philadelphia, PA | 215-271-8299 | Website

2015 Best Philly Stalwart

Dmitri’s

This BYOB may have two locations, but the 25-year-old Queen Village original has inspired a generation of chefs to open their own restaurants, thereby making Philadelphia the BYO capital of the country. And it still turns out the same great Greek dishes it always has, including the best grilled octopus in the city. Read More »

795 South 3rd Street, Philadelphia, PA | 215-625-0556 | Website