Philly Seafood Roundup

Since we've been investigating a lot of seafood restaurants in the city recently, we though we'd share a little side-by-side comparison of each.  Philadelphia has such a great variety of restaurants, and we think these four seafood spots represent this diversity.  Here's what you need to know:Oyster HouseNeighborhood: Center City West, on Sansom Street near many popular night spots and restaurantsAtmosphere: Large central bar (with oysters!),...

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Reads and Eats: Yes, Chef

We recently met with our book club for another fantastic meeting, sponsored by our friend's place of employment: her company regularly sends clients a list of suggested books and even provides copies.  Yes, Chef, a memoir by Marcus Samuelsson, was on the list, and she was able to grab a handful of books for our club. I devoured the book in a weekend, totally enchanted by Chef Samuelsson's path from Ethiopia to Sweden to numerous European nations...

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Nam Phuong

I'm kind of embarrassed to admit I have a hard time stepping outside my comfort zone. While I love eating food of all cultures, it's intimidating to go to a place where you're completely lost in terms of language and ingredients.  Thus, I often rely on friends of different ethnicities to help me through my first time at a new restaurant- once I go, I feel confident enough to return on my own.  However, I sadly don't have any Vietnamese...

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Oyster House

Yep, we're still on that seafood kick.  A parental visit required a nice dinner out to celebrate a number of things (birthdays, manuscript publications, a new condo purchase), and we decided on a late meal at Oyster House.  Unfortunately, our visit got off to a VERY bad start- we came close to canceling our reservation.  Despite said reservation, the front of the restaurant was absolutely packed with people waiting for tables- and...

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Burger Club: Ela

February's Burger Club meeting seemed to come up extra fast due to the short month- something we certainly weren't going to complain about since we were looking forward to our first encounter with Ela.  While we may have semi-stalked Chef Jason Cichonski, resident kitchen hottie at Ela, at last summer's FEASTIVAL event, we hadn't yet had a chance to try his restaurant.  A bit different than our typical Burger Club meeting spots (which tend...

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Doc Magrogan's Oyster House

Yes, we're on a seafood kick.  No, we're not sorry.  All day buck-a-shuck's drew us to Doc Magrogan's Oyster House in University City, a surprisingly sprawling restaurant with cushy dining rooms and bars tucked in and around every corner.  Online reviews lowered my expectations for service, but our super sweet waitress gave us top-notch attention- if only the kitchen hadn't been noticeably slow with our entrees.We started out with...

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