#21 Indian Restaurant and #22 Magpie Artisan Pies- Sam's synopsis

Okay, so I have been terrible about keeping this updated. My apologies, the holiday season work craze has taken over my life, but I will give the people what they want!  So here it is, in all its glory, because I'm sure you've all been on the edge of your seats waiting to read this:

Because we are adults and get to decide when we eat dessert, we actually did this jaunt of the saunter in reverse and went to Magpie first. However, for the sake of continuity, I will share my thoughts on Indian Restaurant first, then fill you in on dessert-before-dinner.

delicious papadum

So, I order take-out from Indian Restaurant a lot. I'm pretty sure the delivery guy knows me by face, because he always seems to recognize me when I answer the door. I always get the same thing too - an order or two of papadum, an order of garlic naan, and an order of palak paneer. Since I am not of Indian origin (unlike Sandya), my opinion on what authentic Indian food does not exist so you real foodies may want to take my assessment with a grain of salt. However, this is one of my favorite take-out spots - it's fast, it's tasty and it'll fill you up so you can bring the rest in for lunch the following day. I absolutely love their papadum, I think it's some of the best I've ever tasted. For those of you who don't know what papadum is, it's a very thin wafer that often has lentils and other spices baked into it and it is delicious, non-harmful crack. So, of course I get us a double order for the table and I'm pretty sure I ate at least 50% of the 10 or so wafers myself.

We were quite the sizable crowd, so we decided to get a few dishes for the table to share (at least, those of us who either hadn't already eaten dinner or who don't have a gluten allergy). We decided on chicken biriyani, lamb and vegetable kofta. I enjoyed the kofta the best, the biriyani was not super flavorful and I'm not a huge lamb fan. But, I think in the future I will stick to my take-out staple of palak paneer, as I find that more flavorful than the dishes we had.

Also, let's not forget to mention the creepy mannequin that greets you as you enter and leave the restaurant. She's got quite the wig. Check out Sandya's post if you want to be a little terrified.

Prior to stuffing our faces with all of this food, we went to Magpie for you guessed it... pie. Magpie is an adorable shop. For those of you who watch Portlandia, it is the physical embodiment of "put a bird on it," but I mean that in the nicest way possible. The inside is soothing and really makes you want to settle in and eat a slice of pie while sipping a warm beverage, which is exactly what we did. I was also a big fan of the music selection - and at some point I'm pretty sure Andrew Bird came on which made me smile for multiple reasons.

such cute decor!

mmm.... pi(e)

I ordered a chai, of course. I'm pretty sure it was Oregon Chai, but it DID have a lot of foamy milk on top, which is my favorite. For pie, I went with a slice of the pumpkin streusel - they had chocolate peanut butter mousse but it was all sold out by the time we got there, which made me very, very sad. But, as it was (and still is) deep autumn when we went, it was easily the next best option. The pie was very delicious - the crust was perfectly flaky and the filling was smooth and creamy. Th color was also very pleasing (hello fall!), and there was caramelized pie crust/brown sugar generously sprinkled on top, which I imagine was the streusel portion of the pie. My only complaint was that the spice was a little overwhelming - I would have preferred a slightly more subtle flavor. But as you may have come to realize, I don't tend to enjoy loud flavors of anything (what can I say, my tastebuds were not trained very well growing up). I did try a bite of some of the other pies and they were fantastic - especially the chocolate coffee cinnamon pecan. When I go back, I will likely get a slice of that, unless there is some fantastic monthly pie still available.

I think I'll stick to ordering take-out from Indian Restaurant, but Magpie is a quaint little shop that fills its niche rather well.

Indian Restaurant
1634 South Street
Philadelphia, PA
(215) 964-9451

Magpie Artisan Pies
1622 South Street
Philadelphia, PA
(267) 519-2904

#21 Indian Restaurant and #22 Magpie Artisan Pies - Sandy's synopsis

We decided to visit Magpie first as they close at 8pm. Entering the restaurant was like being transported to another world - far away from the dreary winter days that turn dark at 5pm. This new world was bright and it promised comfort by means of the pie - one could not but feel uplifted.
I couldn't help but notice how organized everything was and this made a part of me so very happy. We know that Magpie Artisanal Pies is beautiful on the outside. It is safe to say it is beautiful on the inside too with pristine white counters, splashes of wood and black chalkboard. 

The menu has some pie staples and a couple of added seasonal items.

Since that is a horrible photo of their menu, please go here to see their fall offerings (both savory and sweet):

http://www.iluvmagpie.com/page/menu.aspx

What isn't on their online menu is their coffee selections. They have the usual lattes, cappachinos and mochas but also something I hadn't seen before - a pie flavoured coffee titled "Magpie coffee". The description sounded like it was pie in a cup of coffee - like they ground up pie and somehow made coffee with it. It had pie spices (cinnamon, cloves etc) in coffee with flavoured whipped cream -and it was different and delicious. 

After that great start we moved on to the pies. I ordered the coffee chocolate cinnamon pecan. The others in our group ordered the butterscotch bourbon, pumpkin streusel and the smoked gouda butternut squash. The sweet pies all came with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and the savoury pie came with salad. All around the table conversation stopped because, yes, as you guessed, the pies were delicious and required our entire attention. 

When we surfaced to speak again, there was consensus amongst the table - the pies were delicious. I absolutely wanted to stay and try everything- especially their savoury pies. Unfortunately blog duties needed to be fulfilled so forge onward we did to Indian Restaurant.

The entrance was creepy as we were greeted by this charming manikin:

The lighting inside was unnecessarily dim and the food mediocre. We ordered an assortment of curries and naans and they fell a little flat in the taste department. Also, the mango lassi had ice in it - and that is a big "no no" in my book.

There are better places in Philly for Indian food - Desi Chaat House, Ekta  and Philadelphia Chutney Company being the top on my list. 

So in summary - visit Magpie pies as often as you can until you have eaten all of the pies. Indian Restaurant can be skipped over - unless you are desperate for Indian Food and you happened to be in the neighbourhood and don't want to pay the delivery charge to get it from elsewhere.

    Indian Restaurant                    Magpie Artisan Pies

                               1634 South Street                     1622 South Street                               

215-964-9451                        267-519-2904