3 Restaurants in Philadelphia
 

My husband and I will be traveling to Philly next week for three nights. We'll be staying in central city and we'd like to try a different restaurant each night and are interested in the following:

A nice seafood place to celebrate our birthdays - about $100 including a bottle of wine. How is Devon Seafood Grill, Philadelphia Fish & Co, Gloria's Gourmet Seafood, or Dinardis Famous Crabs? Any other suggestions?

A casual Italian place - about $60 total if we each have a couple of beers. How about Spasso, Villa di Roma, or Italian Bistro?

A very unique place - probably also about $60 total, but we are also open to very cheap and casual. How about Loie, Susanna Foo or White Dog Cafe by Univ of Pennsylvania? One thing to consider here is that we don't eat red meat. I checked out the web sites for Budakan and Tangerine on the advice of previous threads - those seem to fit the unique part, but they are a little expensive and trendy for us.

So many choices! Thanks in advance for the advice!

Dinardis crabs can be very good. Call and ask if they have jumbos and at what price. Their other seafood dishes are ok. It is a very casual place, stick with beer as you will not find the wine to be good.

Spasso can be good but it can be noisy. Have you looked at the Positano Coast. I ate there last week and it was very good. Susanna Foo will not be cheap. Try Django, a very good BYOB. L'Angolo Ristorante Italiano in South Philly is another very good BYOB

Zanzibar Blue is a dressy live music nightclub, it does not specialize in seafood, but I love the Salmon there. Broad Street.

Cafe Warsaw seats about 20, charming Eastern European. Near RittenHouse Square.

Pizzacato in Old City, new creative Italian. I love there small thin pizzas.

I love Loie for lunch and brunch, you can sit outside weather permitting. At night it gets more like a loud nightclub, hard to chat over your meal.

If you go out for breakfast try a place called Mixto, great cuban breakfast.

Nice seafood place - I'd say Philadelphia Fish & Co is the best among your list. Devon can be very noisy, esp weekends. It's more like a yuppie scene to be seen.
Other seafood place I'd suggest is Dmitri's, or Estia (new since last year, listed as one of top 10 in 2005, but I've never eaten there), or Striped Bass (might be more than $100), or Sansom Street Oyster House.

Casual Italian - Roma is pretty good. I also like La Locanda, Tre Scalini, Porcini.

Unique - Both Susanna Foo & White Dog will be way above $60 total. I don't know what your definition of "unique" is, but you can consider any of the Stephen Starr restaurants. To fit your bill of $60, Continental will do. Loie is ok - I wasn't wowed by the food.

The restaurants that I really enjoyed in Philly are:
D'jango (make sure you reserve)
Deux Cheminees (a bit pricey)
Twenty Manning
Morimoto
Astral Plane
Matyson

Go with Devon for seafood. It is my favorite. Also, Dmitri's is good for seafood too they are a mediterranean restaurant. Lots of fish dishes. There are two locations. One of them you can wait in a pub down the street and they come and get you when your table is ready. For italian I like Ernestos 1534 or some # like that after it. Its on Spruce. And so is Valanni. Very yummy food at Valanni really great food.
For a great smoke free pub/belgian style great restaurant you cant miss with Bridgits on 26th I believe. In the Fairmount section of town. Their entrees are about $9-$18 at the most and are all inclusive meaning they give you a salad and a side on the same dish. if they have the filet de roguefort (sp?) get it if you like filet my mom,dad and husband cant stop talking about how great it is...also being belgian they have numerous and i mean numerous choices for beer. which can be pricey but you can get out of there for $60 bucks inc. tip. Another great restaurant that has all of their wines priced at only $10.00 over retail cost is FRIDAY SATURDAY SUNDAY.
Get reservations. Ok, i just reread your post and red meat is out at bridgits but they have great fish dishes too and duck if you like that.
hmmm Luminaire on Fairmont Ave is good too for italian. Really nice atmosphere. Outside brick and paver patio with heat lamps etc if its nice out. Following dinner you can go around the corner to Bridgets for a pop. But Devon is very good and for brunch its great too. Have a blast!

Thanks for the great suggestions, everybody! I had not previously considered Django or Dmitri's, but looks like they both got a couple of votes here. I will check those out, along with all the other great suggestions here.

Criniti's is very good for basic Italian food.
Also, there are a lot of excellent Chinese restaurants (Ting Wong; Joy Tsin Lau).
Don't miss Reading Terminal Market for lunch!!!

I really like Phila. Fish Co.
Astral Plane could fill your "unique" requirement. Spasso and Villa di Roma are both good for Italian food. Phila. has SO many great restaurants.

I second DiNardo's, Mixto and Ernesto's (I think it's 1521). If the weather's warm, the front of Mixto will be open and a table there will be quite entertaining. Also, wanted to pass on a link to a recent review of Villa di Roma:
http://ae.philly.com/entertainment/u...;reviewId=null

If you like beer, I would recommend Nodding Head (just ate there last week -- very good and has some vegetarian and other non-red meat options) or Monk's Cafe (Belgian/bistro fare) for your casual meal.

Am I too late in responding?

We've been to several of these places over the years. Although none too recently.

We like the Striped Bass. It's in a converted bank and is a happening place. A hip scene. Very good food. May be a bit pricey.

Dmitri's had excellent, simple seafood. Very small and crowded. While excellent food, not as stylish a place as Striped Bass. More like a bustling neighborhood place that happens to serve excellent seafood (Mediterranean style).

Deux Chamonix was extremely elegant. Very fancy and expensive. Definitely a romantic night out for 2 kinda place.

Susanna Foo's was good, but I don't see why people rave about the place. Maybe it was just that particular night or what I ordered.

I love the White Dog Cafe for Sunday brunch. We've gone there so many times. This is where we always try to go when in Philly for the weekend (alas, not for the last couple of years).

Will you let us know the places you tried and how you liked them?

All of the above mentioned are really good. Our new favorite restaurant in the city is Estia. It's Greek and the fish is to die for. The menu is eclectic and fun - as you pick from a huge array of whole fish (some of which you may have not eaten before) that are prepared to your liking. Just be very careful with the prices since it is pretty much a la carte. We did break a "record" there and didn't mean to! The wait staff is very helpful, the restaurant has much ambience, and it's just FUN. Great place for seafood lovers.

not crazy about white dog cafe, not much to choose from. wines are good,though. try melograno for italian. near rittenhouse sguare. very hip. food fabulous, and we are fusspots about restaurants it is a byob