#17 Lazaro's Pizzeria - Sam's synopsis

Giant pizza. I feel like those are the first two words anyone should read about Lazaro's. If you want a 26" pizza, this is your place. When we first came up with the idea for this blog, we were excited about coming here just to get the pizza box that doesn't fit through your front door. We already planned to get as many people as possible to join us so that we could finish the beast, although it turns out you don't need as many people as you might think.

There's that giant pizza box

We decided that a) we didn't want to take up their small dining space with a giant pizza and a group of people and more importantly b) I selfishly wanted to watch the Women's Finals for the US Open because my girl Vika was playing, so we brought the pizza back to my place. From what I saw of the inside, it had some Italian-themed pictures on the wall and a big TV screen playing football - standard pizza shop attire so I don't have much else to comment on that front. I was somehow assigned with carrying the box back to my apartment, which required an awkward extension of the arms but otherwise was not much of a hassle - check out Sandya's post for a visual so you can compare how large the box is compared to a human being. The last time I ordered giant pizza from Lazaro's, I distinctly remember the box not being able to fit through the door. This time, it barely made it through but it did not require being turned slightly sideways to fit so either I have a horrible memory or the pizza/pizza box has gotten smaller. It's probably the former. Anyways, as you can see above, we placed our pizza on the table and awaited the arrival of the pizza-eating club. In the mean time, we watched Serena's skirt get extremely rustled by the wind (seriously, why would you wear that kind of skirt when it's THAT windy?) and Vika finally not completely sucking at her serving in the first set. I'm glad that this match was on, because we were all pretty hungry (having prepared ourselves for mega pizza by not eating much earlier in the day) but still awaiting some of the pizza-eating club. It provided me with a much needed distraction, because all I wanted to do was pounce on our food.

behemoth

Alas, we are not good people and we started anyways, although to be fair we waited an appropriate amount of time before digging in. We went for the half cheese, half white spinach and ricotta pizza, which allowed us to sample both the standard and the classier fare Lazaro's had to offer. I say classy because ricotta cheese seems slightly fancier than your average cheese, and if you've got green leafed vegetables then you really know what's going on. Although maybe you should have your green leafed vegetable be kale or arugula, cause spinach is pretty low brow these days.

I started with a full slice of the spinach and ricotta. I was pretty hungry at this point, so my threshold for tastiness was a little lower, but I would say the pizza was good, even on a regular hunger scale. The ricotta cheese was nice and creamy and the spinach was steamed but not soggy. On a whole the pizza was greasier than I would have liked, but the crust wasn't super flavorful, and that's where greasy pizza comes in handy. Dip the crust into another slice of pizza, and voila - sop up the grease and make the crust taste better! If I had the choice, I would have also had some chunks of tomato on there to balance out the flavor, but all in all it was a good choice. Since it turns out 8 giant slices is not quite enough for 5 people, I had half of a cheese slice to finish up. I thought it was a solid 6 on the 1-10 standard cheese pizza scale, where 1 is stale cafeteria pizza and 10 is an orgasm in your mouth. Not the best quick slice in the city (I might go with Lorenzo's, which we will end up at eventually on our saunter - but you know what, I've only ever had that after a night of drinking so I don't know if it actually tastes great), but definitely above average. And I agree with most people who tasted it that night - the sauce is on the sweeter side, and isn't balanced well by the saltiness of the cheese, so it takes away from the flavor.

we finished it!

In the end, 5 people demolished the pizza pretty quickly, so maybe 26" ain't so big after all, but it'll definitely keep you comfortably full. Sadly, my girl Vika lost the US Open Final to Serena (boo), but not before an amazing comeback in the second set. I wanted to make some kind of cheesy (ha!) analogy of our pizza coming back from being down, but it really had nothing to come back from - it fulfilled all my expectations.

Lazaro's Pizzeria
1743 South Street
Philadelphia, PA
(215) 545-2775

#17 Lazaro's Pizzeria and Grill - Sandy's synopsis

Let me recount to you in some detail the events of Sunday, September 8th 2013. I met up with Sam and we walked down to Lazaro's excited and starving. The prospect of eating a behemoth sized pizza resulted in us "eating light" for the day. The grand plan - get a few friends together, procure a 26" pizza, go to Sam's place and turn the channel to the US Open women's final. Expected results - devour said pizza and Azarenka wins the Open. Well, the evening delivered on one of those things.

It was a very polite building that greeted between 18th & 17th and South. It cautioned us to "watch our step" while at the same time indicating to the world that Italian food was sold here. Genius.

The establishment is rather small, but a standard size for a take-out pizza place. We had called in for our pizza about 30 minutes ahead and it was ready when we got there. We had asked for half our behemoth to be classic cheese and the other half,  white pizza with spinach. To add to all this beauty - it cost us ~$20. 

We walked it home and by we I mean, Sam carried it while I took photos of her.

The pizza did fit through Sam's door but barely. We cleared a lot of space to set it down and waited for our pizza demolition crew. We had assembled a total of 5 people for the job and it was perfect. I think the 26" jumbo pizza is suited for 4 really hungry or 5 moderately hungry people. Lets take a look at her:

The pizza itself was very good. No comments about the white pizza except that I love spinach on pizza and this really hit the spot. The only comment I have about the cheese portion is that the sauce is on the "sweeter" side. Now, this isn't something I noticed until it was pointed out to me. I still loved it, but, i guess it can be an issue to some people. I mean, I can't imagine someone NOT eating pizza cause the sauce was too sweet. I can see someone not wanting to always eat sweet sauce pizza. Especially when you live in the city and there are other options abound.

Anyway, that got devoured very efficiently. Thank you to our crew - Erin, Larissa and Lee for helping us with it and Audra for moral support. And it cost ~$4 per person. So yes, I recommend that if you've got a biggish party that wants pizza - order from Lazaro's - it's great pizza for a great price.

One last time to play me out:

Lazaro's Pizza and Grill

1743 South Street

Philadelphia PA 19146

215-545-2775

#16 OCF Coffee House - Sandy's synopsis

I love their logo. Honestly, it made me want to rent from them or try their coffee house. Trying their coffee house was much more feasible. I was a little skeptical about a realty company running a coffee shop as I assumed the expertise would be different. My doubts were misplaced as OCF is a solid coffee house. It seems to be a new trend (and by new, I guess a mean a few years old) for realty companies to engage the communities they rent apartments in. I know Signature Communities does something similar (free common gym, computer and wifi use etc.), but I also like the route OCF has taken. A coffee shop does seems like a great way for the OCF community to have a common spot. It is also such a good way to get the word out on OCF to the unfamiliar masses. You would have to make sure this venture was good however cause a bad experience here is unfairly and unconsciously also linked to the realty.

Well, I think their coffee house was a success. The inside of OCF has a nice modern decor with flashes of antiquity. 

Flashes of antiquity - old school coffee grinders (I assume)

As soon as you enter, there is a cute little cubby with a wall converted into a large chalkboard. This chalkboard contains a calendar listing OCF events. 

Rows of tables then lead down to a wider couch area at the back. 

They had a great choice of coffee and and variety of pastry type things for breakfast. I don't usually go for latte's but when you see a nutella latte on the menu, you cannot pass that up - am I right? Now - down to the solid part of my breakfast - what to choose? I'm not a fan of bagels, muffins or most other pastries. By far the only breakfast bakery item I enjoy are croissants and OCF has them. In fact, aside from the usual flavours (plain, almond, chocolate), they had a cheese croissant. Oh yes please. Now, I usually would've gone with the chocolate but, I figured I'm maxing my sweet tooth out with the nutella coffee so I went with the savoury croissant. 

The nutella coffee wasn't as sweet as I was expecting it to be. This is actually a good thing. It had a hint of nutella and a very creamy texture which was heavenly. The croissant was great too, cheese was slightly salty which complemented my coffee very well. I am a little lactose intolerant, so the latte definitely bothered my tummy a little but man was it worth it.

All in all, it is a great little coffee shop. I like the ambiance inside. They are pet friendly and pets are allowed in the cafe. Probably why I'm such a fan of the ambiance. They have good pastries and creative coffee, ergo it is a thumbs up for OCF realty.

OCF Coffee House
1745 South Street
Philadelphia PA 19146
215-454-2196

#16 OCF Coffee House - Sam's synopsis

On any given day in my neighborhood, there are roughly 4-7 coffee shops open within a 3 block radius. This makes it hard to branch out to other spots, especially if they are in the opposite direction of where I work. Despite that, I still make the trip to OCF a decent amount, which I think speaks well of its status as a great local establisment in the grad hospital area. 

mmm... foamy milk...

I don't know if I've mentioned it yet, but I don't actually drink coffee, so maybe you shouldn't trust my opinion on what constitutes a good coffee shop. But one thing I like about OCF is that it gives off a vibe of a place that cares about its local community, as I noticed a lot of regulars coming in. I guess that's true for any coffee shop, but if you have a lot of regulars, you must be doing something right. The staff is friendly too - the last time I went there, I ordered a bagel, because bagels are awesome. And OCF, like a few other coffee shops in the area, get their bagels from Four Worlds Bakery which is in West Philly.  Hooray local outsourcing! Anyways, when I ordered my bagel, there was a hair in it. Not on it, because if I find a hair or two in my food, I don't usually care all that much, but this hair was baked into the bagel in such a way that I could dangle the bagel like it was on a piece of string. Except the string was hair. Kinda gross, but again, it's just hair so not a huge deal. I don't usually complain to waitstaff about food either, but I thought this was worth mentioning. The staff was really apologetic and refunded me for my bagel. Hopefully this story doesn't deter people from buying bread from Four Worlds, because their bread is really delicious, I just wanted to point out that the staff at OCF was very nice about my food mishap.

a hairless bagel

We decided to do a breakfast jaunt during the weekday, so there weren't too many people sitting down doing work - mostly people coming for their morning drug on their way to work. But as I mentioned, it seemed like there were a good number of regulars coming in, and I do appreciate places that let you bring your dog inside while you order. Even though I don't have a dog, I can see why it would be preferable to bring your dog inside. I mean, if you can bring babies inside in giant strollers that block the ordering line, why can't your tiny dog come in as well? But I digress. I ordered a chai latte and a sesame bagel, pretty standard fare for yours truly. I really wanted to order the nutella hot chocolate, and I'm not really sure why I decided not to, but Sandya ordered a nutella mocha, so you can read all about that in her review. My chai was good, lots of foamy milk and not too spicy (I like my chai on the sweeter side). My bagel was sadly a little stale, but otherwise it was hair-free and the cream cheese was of solid quality. Actually, if I had to pick any coffee shop in the area to grab a bagel from, it would be OCF because I like theirs the best (to be fair, Gavin's also has bagels from Four Worlds, but alas, it is not on South Street).

 oh hey I finally snapped
a photo of Sandya

I like the decor of OCF too. The whole place has a sort of earthy vibe (I think it's the color scheme), but modern at the same time. I really enjoy the map of center city that is also present at the OCF realtor office right around the corner at 21st and South. Sadly I did not snap a photo of said map, but I guess that just means you need to go check it out yourself, and enjoy some friendly service and a warm beverage while you're at it.

OCF Coffee House
1745 South Street
Philadelphia, PA
(215) 454-2196

#15 Kidari Sushi Yatai - Michael's synopsis

I live in West Philly so I'll often pass Kidari going into the city, but hadn't slowed down enough to notice until recently. My girlfriend and I were walking the block while visiting a patient at the nearby hospital when I noticed a sign for their sushi happy hour and they were BYO! Bring your own beer while being served half-priced sushi sounded like a great idea!

When I found out that Kidari was upcoming on Sam and Sandya's list, I asked to join them for the chance to finally check it out. The important details: BYO, half-price select rolls and snacks from 4:30-6:30pm on week days.

We arrived around 5pm on a warm but clear Thursday to a mostly empty restaurant. The hostess was very polite and brought cold ice water to the table. She offered to bring ice buckets for the beers I brought and provided nice stemmed wine glasses to drink from. The decor of the restaurant was fairly sparse, but clean and tasteful. There were some ethnic trinkets,  random seashell shadow boxes, and probably a folding screen in the corner. A pretty generic "Asian bistro" look for this city. Service was very polite and attentive

We were waiting for some others to arrive, but decided to order some gyoza, steamed edamame, and a handful of rolls for the table. The gyoza arrived quickly, were hot and coated in a layer of hot oil. Not sure if they were house made, but they were cooked well enough.

The edamame were very good but unspectacular, a fault of the ingredient and not the preparation--which was piping hot, covered in just the right amount of coarse salt, and tender with a little bite. The plate of sushi came a little after.

I am not a big fan of sushi rolls. In general, this is a dumping ground for inferior fish and filler ingredients that is then covered in spicy mayo, eel sauce, flying fish roe or other masking agents. To me, it's fast food sushi. That's not to say that I don't enjoy a spicy tuna roll or a Double Whopper, but these foods are enjoyable to me only in the context of their value.  They are good only if they are tasty and cheap. 

At happy hour, there were probably dozen sushi rolls and appetizers that were 50% off. I hope someone has a picture of the menu. The rolls were all 6-8 pieces and between $6-7 normally priced, so $3-3.5 at Happy Hour, so that covers the cheap part of the equation.

Sorry Michael! I only have a picture of the happy hour menu without the original prices...

I don't quite remember what maki we ordered, but it was the usual suspects of spicy tuna, eel & cucumber, salmon & avocado, tempura veggie, etc. The sushi was well constructed, and the rice was a good texture. The ingredients were fresh tasting and the sauces were not abused. In whole, the sushi was unremarkable and not unlike sushi you'd find in a cafeteria. The highlight was definitely the tempura veggie roll (SPT/Sweet Potato Tempura I think) that was presented in a way I had not seen before. The veggies were thinly julienned and fried like shoe-string potatoes before being stuff into the roll. They retained the natural flavor of the sweet potato while still being crunchy.

In all, I thought the food we ordered was good, but generic and unmemorable. Maybe this was a function of the frugal happy hour menu. I like the service, especially the ice buckets for our BYO beverages and the restaurant was clean. Though I don't have Celiac's, I appreciate that they had gluten-free soy sauce. I would not make a special trip to come back again for this happy hour, since I'm not close, but if I lived in the neighborhood, I could totally see this as a fairly regular place to hang out and have a couple cold beers while sharing snacks with friends. 

Kidari Sushi Yatai

1824 South Street

Philadelphia PA 19146

267-273-0426

#15 Kidari Sushi Yatai - Sam's synopsis

Kidari, wow. Your happy hour special is a little too good to be true. But it was true, which is why we specifically chose to go here during happy hour (4:30-6:30 pm on weekdays) because a good chunk of the menu is half off. In addition, Kidari is a BYO, so we had a plentiful supply of beer and sake to accompany us throughout the meal. All of these components, plus a group of friends old and new, made for a really enjoyable experience. 

extensive menu, which can also be
used to roll sushi!

The interior of the restaurant is fairly small, but decorated exactly how I expect a city sushi joint to be decorated - sleek with (obviously) Asian influence. The menus were mounted on sushi rolling mats, which I thought was a cute touch. The waitstaff was very friendly and didn't mind that our group of 6 wasn't all there at the same time, and patient with us when we waited a bit to order. I always feel a little guilty making waitstaff wait or asking for special accommodations, having worked in restaurants for the better part of my high school and early college years and seeing my fair share of asshole customers. Of course, we here at S and S are always courteous and do our best not to annoy the fuck out of the restaurants we visit, but I am always overly conscientious of our behavior. Guess that's a side effect of being in the scientific community.

Sleek asian decor

Little green vehicles for salt

fried gyoza dumplings

As for the food, I was overall pleased. I found most dishes to be flavorful, and I was sufficiently full by the end. Again, because the happy hour special was so wallet friendly, we were able to order a lot of food. We ended up going for a good majority of the sushi rolls offered for happy hour: inari & carrot, veggie tempura with avocado, sweet potato tempura, spicy veggie, cy-tuna, cy-salmon, eel & cucumber, and one named miss crunch, which had crab and shrimp.... in addition, we also ordered: pork gyoza, edamame, fried tofu and the veggie spring rolls. So yeah, we definitely sampled a good portion of the menu.

lots of sushi rolls

I often judge sushi joints based on their edamame and sweet potato tempura rolls. Probably the two most American-style dishes you can get on the menu, but I have been to Japan so I can at least make the case that I've had amazing traditional Japanese food and I do in fact know what I'm missing. For the edamame, I was very happy with the dish. The soy beans tasted fresh and had that nice sort of creamy taste to them, and the pods were well salted, a must in my book because I love salt. The sweet potato tempura sushi I was less enthused about. The tempura-ness of it (i.e. the delicious fried crunchiness) was done well, but the sweet potato itself was only so-so. Kind of bland in my book. So a 1/2 in that category. But I certainly had rolls that I really enjoyed (see: veggie tempura, salmon), and the pork gyoza were fried to perfection. I did not partake in the miss crunch or eel rolls, because I am not a huge fan of seafood save a few types of fish. You may wonder, "Sam, you are from Cape Cod, full of annoying tourists, the location of the Kennedy compound, former residence of Taylor Swift and a plentiful haven of all types of seafood, what is wrong with you?" I'm sorry, I don't really have a great answer for you. So let's pretend I had a traumatic childhood experience involving something akin to a Sharknado and leave it at that.

As far as I remember, the happy hour specials were only for the summer months, but the waitress mentioned that their facebook page would reveal the next round of deals, and that they'd probably be pretty similar. So, if you are looking for tasty, filling sushi and a great happy hour deal, I definitely recommend Kidari.

Kidari Sushi Yatai

1824 South Street

Philadelphia, PA

(267) 273-0426

Map - Block of 2000-1800

#14 Randazzo's - Sam's synopsis

Sorry for the more-delayed-than-usual post, but I was away on a beautiful European vacation so... actually, I really have no excuse, I just wanted to make all you readers out there in readerland jealous.  So be jealous of my trip, or something.

Look at that tasty crust

Anyways - Randazzo's, what can I say about you? It's nice to have a pizza place close by, but then Omega is closer. It's nice to have a place that makes milkshakes, but then Philly Cupcake is closer. I guess what I'm saying is, Randazzo's will satisfy your craving for greasy pizza and generally unhealthy food products, but it's not out of this world. However, I will add that their cheesy fries were delicious and I can't remember if you can get those at Omega, so that might be something they have a one-up on. Compared to Omega, the pizza itself was pretty on par with what we had before, but the crust at Randazzo's was much better. It was thinner and had a better crunch, with less of that uncooked doughy flavor to it. We got BBQ Chicken (even though there was an ingredient on it that all three of us did not like - WTF were we thinking?), and I thought the sauce was just the right amount of salty and sweet to go well with the pizza. Otherwise, the rest of the pizza was pretty standard - chicken, some veggies, some cheese, some grease.

Delicious fried cheesiness

Prior to the pizza I ordered some cheesy fries, and I decided to go with mozzarella as my cheese of choice. I feel like mozzarella is generally a good cheese topping, because when it melts it gets nice and stringy, so you can easily wrap it around several fries at once and enjoy without making a huge mess. Big plus in my mind because I tend to spill things on myself a lot. The fries themselves were warm and crispy, which as also a big plus because at pizza joints like these they are often hit or miss. So I would recommend the cheesy fries if you are looking for an unhealthy treat.

Doesn't this remind you of your high
school pizza joint?

I did not order a milkshake, but I had some of Sandya's and it was delicious. But no better or worse than Philly Cupcake, and Philly Cupcake is closer to where I live, so I think I would choose it merely based on that fact.  You can't really fuck up a milkshake, although I'm sure there are many ways to make it extra delicious. 

I will leave on the note that I sometimes forget how ridiculous news reports from reputable stations can be (although how many people still consider CNN a reputable station?).  While we were eating, there was a segment about an 70-80 year-old doctor who was promoting body building, or some drug to help you stay fit. It seemed like a bad infomercial, but it was in fact a segment on CNN.  News these days...

This guy probably wouldn't stop for a bite to eat at
Randazzo's

Randazzo's Pizzeria

1826 South Street

Philadelphia, PA

(215) 546-1566