If there's one thing you should know about ya girl it's that ya girl
loves to eat. Visiting new places and trying new foods is always so fun to me and it's always a great bonding time with friends and family. If you have watched my
Instagram stories you may have seen that a couple weeks ago I had made a trip up to Philadelphia to visit family and spend Thanksgiving up north! It was so good to spend some much-needed quality time and of course, overindulge in a bunch of yummy food.
If you all had followed my trip via Insta stories you may have seen that all I pretty much did during my trip was eat my way through Philadelphia.... which I didn't mind one bit! Today I'm sharing some of my favorite places we ate in Philadelphia and what I recommend ordering at each place!
Many of you may not know this, but I was actually born in Philly and have grown up visiting the city every summer when I was little. This past trip I was able to explore more of the city and wanted to share some of the places we ate at to hopefully help any of you that plan to make a visit in the future. I will have to warn you that the majority of these places are Asian restaurants (my family
is Asian after all...) so take this as an Asian American girl's guide through Philly, if you will.
READING TERMINAL MARKET
My dad grew up in Philadelphia and was like my own personal tour guide during my trip. One of the first places we stopped at was Reading Terminal Market which for my Charlotte pals is similar to 7th Street Market but
wayyy bigger. Reading Terminal Market is one of America's largest and oldest public markets and there were so many different little shops and restaurants that I wished we had more time to explore.
Beiler's Doughnuts
One of the places we were able to stop at in the market was one of my dad's favorite doughnut shops, Beiler's Doughnuts! We visited on a Tuesday afternoon so the line wasn't too long, but dad said if you stop by on a Saturday the line is wrapped around the building! We ended up getting sharing a coconut custard, Boston creme and a pumpkin cake donut which were all delicious!
Miller's Twist
The only other place we visited in the market was Miller's Twist which my dad said was a must. It's not a secret that Philadelphia is known for their Philly Cheesesteaks, but Miller's Twist had put a "twist" on this classic by wrapping it in a delicious soft pretzel. I typically avoid eating red meat, but for this occasion, I decided to give it a try. I mean, did you
really visit Philly if you didn't have a Philly Cheesesteak? I do have to say, even for a person who doesn't eat red meat, this was delicious and I 10/10 would recommend.
CHINA TOWN
It's not a trip to Philly unless you visit China Town... at least for my family. We don't have that big of an Asian community where I live so it's always a treat getting to indulge in all the amazing Asian food when we visit Philly... bring on all the dim sum and boba tea!
Vivi Bubble Tea
I'm not sure what about this trip made me turn into a boba tea drinker because in the past I was never really a fan, but I pretty much had boba tea every day during this trip! Vivi Bubble Tea was the first place we stopped at in China Town and it's the cutest little Bubble Tea shop! The place was very pink and girly and we ended up coming to this shop three times out of our five day trip in Philly!
I had tried the Japanese Matcha boba tea and the Red Bean Matcha which is the same as the Japanese match but with red bean! Both were super good and you'll soon notice a matcha trend during this trip... Vivi also served popcorn chicken which we had tried the curry, basil, pepper salt, and plum flavored ones. By far the plum one was my favorite, which sounds really odd for a flavor for fried chicken, but it was the perfect mix between sweet and salty!
Imperial Inn
Across from Vivi is Imperial Inn, a dim sum restaurant I always seem to end up eating at every time I visit Philly. If you all are no familiar with dim sum, it's a type of Chinese style cuisine where basically the buffet comes to you. The restaurant is set up where servers pushcarts of bite-sized food typically served on a small plate or steamer basket and you pick which items you want and they place it on your table. You pay by the plate and it's a great way to try many different types of food!
A La Mousse
I think by far one of my favorite places we ate at during our trip was A La Mousse. This Asian inspired dessert shop is a matcha lover's dream! Every one of their desserts is not only super Instagram worthy but delicious as well! I had actually eaten here twice with two different groups of family members and I think I've tried almost everything on the menu by now. My personal favorites were the Green Tea-ra-misu and the Almond Milk Latte!
Bambu
Bambu is a Vietnamese dessert cafe that serves are a variety of dessert beverages like boba milk teas, Chè, and Vietnamese espressos and also provides you an option to customize your own drink as well! To be honest, the menu is pretty overwhelming, but my cousin and I had ordered two of their most popular drinks and shared them with each other.
We had ordered the Fruit Addict (pictured) which consists of Lychee, longan, red tapioca, jackfruit, palm seed, jello, pandan jelly, and coconut milk and we had also ordered the Bambu Favorite which consists of red tapioca, grass jelly, pandan jelly, and coconut milk. Both are really good, but I have to say the Bambu Favorite was my favorite!
Pho Ha
Ok, if there's one thing you all need to know about me it's that I LOVE pho. Actually, I just love Vietnamese food in general, but especially Pho. If you aren't familiar with what pho is, it's a Vietnamese dish that consists of broth, rice noodles, herbs and typically has either beef or chicken. I personally think pho is great anytime, but it's especially good in the wintertime because it's the perfect dish to warm you up!
On our last day in Philly, we had lunch at Pho Ha and it is probably ranked up there as one of my favorite pho places, which says a lot because ya girl has eaten a lot of pho in her 23 years of living on this Earth. The restaurant was a lot more modern than the typical pho restaurants we eat at, but it was just as good and the service was amazing! Definitely, recommend.
Okieeee and there we have it, friends! Those are some of the highlights of the places we ate at during my visit. Please let me know down below if you have visited Philly and where your go-to places to eat are down below! I may do a second blog post with my dad to give you all a more insight of the hidden gems in Philly through his perspective so let me know if you'd be interested in that as well!
This post was so fun to put together and I hope you all found it a little helpful. I hope you all have a wonderful day and as always, thank you for reading!
xoxo,
Amy
