The lamb tacos and consommé are every bit as worth waiting in line for as they were back when Martínez’s empire was still just an itty-bitty South Philly food cart. Cristina Martínez is making the same dishes, using the same Lancaster-grown corn (originally sourced from Chiapas, Mexico) for fresh-pressed tortillas and the same labor-intensive techniques for pit-roasting the meat. There are no daily specials or flashy Instagram gimmicks. Since it opened in 2014, South Philly Barbacoa hasn’t changed its menu. More about Kalaya Thai Kitchen | Return to neighborhood list South Philly Barbacoa And then she kept going, with a specialty market and grab-and-go pandemic takeout operation a couple blocks away - and a new Fishtown location in the works. Chutatip “Nok” Suntaranon did something remarkable when she opened her first small, casual, welcoming neighborhood restaurant: She changed the way we all thought about Thai cuisine, mixing the modern and the traditional, the learned and the experimental, crisscrossing borders and combining flavors. But Kalaya has absolutelyearned its spot - both because it’s been operating since day one like a restaurant with 20 years of service in the rearview, and because we’ve already given it every other award we reasonably can. Is it weird to have a restaurant that opened in 2019 on our Hall of Fame list? Maybe. More about Fiorella Pasta | Return to neighborhood list Kalaya Thai Kitchen
You don’t have to admit it to your nonna, but you should definitely bring her to dinner here. The proof: ricotta gnocchi that are at once densely satisfying and light as a cloud, deceptively simple cacio e pepe, perfectly al dente rigatoni with robust house-made sausage ragu. With Fiorella, Marc Vetri proves, once again, that he does pasta better than literally anyone else. More about Biederman’s | Return to neighborhood list Fiorella Pasta Or pre-order, and let the pros arrange mind-bendingly delicious brunch boards for you and your clan. Biederman’s filled it with everything you need to make the perfect appetizing spread: whitefish salad, tins of osetra caviar, house-whipped cream cheese, and hand-sliced smoked salmon in varieties like vodka dill and pastrami-spiced. Photograph by Ted Nghiem Biederman’sįor a city with so much culinary cred, we’ve long had a smoked-fish-shaped hole in our scene. Gene Mopsik slices lox to order at Biederman’s in Bella Vista. We’re not back to normal yet, but we’re getting there - and every one of the region’s most vibrant restaurants is firing on all cylinders in this strange new world. They’re paving a new path forward to the future and continuing to make Philly one of the most delicious places on the planet. Philly’s chefs and bakers and operators are changing the way we think about food and drink.
Not only that, but it’s on absolute fire. Now we’re here, coming up on the two-year anniversary of the day the Earth stood still, and some way, somehow, our restaurant scene, miraculously, remains standing. So we went with a non-traditional list that included new restaurants, yes, but pop-ups and food start-ups, too - the entrepreneurs making something out of a restaurant landscape ravaged by a pandemic. Anyone who survived those lean times deserved accolades, and none of those working in the industry were able to perform full-force. When it came time to publish our list in January 2021, it felt wrong - if not downright impossible - to come up with a ranking. Two months later, COVID came along and shut down our city, our communities, our restaurants. Two years ago this month, we launched our annual 50 Best Restaurants list. Pizza and wine at Sally in Fitler Square.