The Great Traveler

Philadelphia has long been known as one of the great restaurant capitals of the United States. It often boasts of having similar quality chefs to New York City at far more reasonable prices. While I certainly have been to quite a few nice restaurants in Philadelphia, I had yet to be blown away, until this weekend.

After a fairly exhaustive search, I can now declare Tamarind restaurant on South Street as my favorite restaurant in Philadelphia. It is a quaint place of exquisite Thai cuisine, whose authenticity is striking. They have a larger menu of fish based dishes than any other Thai place I’ve seen, which ranged in quality from good to very good. The true dishes that blew me away, however, were the traditional plates, including the Pad Thai, which was outstanding, and the Green Curry, which was, without a doubt, the best Green Curry I’ve had outside of Bangkok. The prices were excellent as well, with most non-fish dishes in the $10-14 range. I also highly recommend the Shrimp Tum Yum soup, a stellar bargain at $3.

While some may argue on my selection, until I am proven otherwise, I stand by my Tamarind as my favorite restaurant in Philadelphia. Yes, the city of brotherly love is home to such notorius places like Amada, a Spanish Tapas place that while pretty good, is extremely expensive, and a fantastic range of authentic places in downtown Chinatown. Even with all that, Tamarind stands out above the crowd. If you haven’t been there yet, I highly suggest you do - and please, leave me a comment on your thoughts - I would love to know your experience.