#84 Lovash Indian Restaurant and Bar - Sandy's synopsis

I have to admit that I am always skeptical about an Indian restaurant before trying it. Having grown up in India, I am a little more critical. However, I have definitely grown from being a person who used complain that a dish "doesn't taste like it would in India" to someone who can appreciate that, even if the dish doesn't taste "authentic", it still tastes good!

Lovash fits into that category for me, it doesn't taste exactly like what I would have in India, but the flavours are so good and the food so fresh, that it was a win all around.

I would be remiss if I did not start by saying the folk at Lovash are extremely nice. I run into them occasionally on the street and I always get see them in happy healthy interactions with their staff and with their customers. Suffice to say, we were greeted with what seemed like a genuine warmth.

After our party arrived, we started our meal with some beverages and appetizers. For appetizers we ordered the tandoori chicken samosas, shami kebab (lamb patties) and sheekh kebab (beef kebabs). For beverages we ordered some mango and salt lassis and chai.

Shami Kebab

Shish Kebab

The appetizers were fantastic, very flavourful and now, come highly recommended. I thin kI liked the two kebabs over the samosa. This is also the first place where I actually liked the salt lassi.

For our main course, each of us ordered an entree and some naan to share. They have a south Indian flavours section that I was curious about.  I ordered the Coondapur Chicken Curry from this section and I was not disappointed.

The curry tasted freshly made, with tender chicken and the right amount of spice. The naan was a great accompaniment. Lovash also has a great "hot sauce" if you need to add more heat to your dish. The

I also had a chance to try most of everyone's else curries and liked them all. The portions are ample with a chance for leftovers.

To  conclude, I was pleasantly surprised by Lovash. They have great food, friendly service and so a great restaurant all around.

Lovash

236 South Street

Philadelphia PA 19147

215-925-3881

#84 Lovash Indian Restaurant & Bar - Sam's synopsis

On the list of "Sam's Most Frequented Food Carts While Toiling Away as a Grad Student," Lovash occupies the #1 spot by a wide margin. So needless to say, I was very excited to finally make it to their restaurant.

mmm papadum

Sandya arrived first and had a large table ready and waiting for when the rest of us arrived - we got a good group of people to join. I don't make it to the food truck any more, but one of our fellow dinner guests Kelly gets lunch from there quite a bit. Which became even more obvious when our waiter recognized her from earlier in the day - guess she forgot about our dinner plans! But we were finally able to put a name to the face that serves lunch at the cart almost every day - Atul. He must work pretty crazy hours, serving lunch at the cart and then waiting on tables for dinner. But it was nice to finally have a formal introduction, and we spent much of the dinner chatting with Atul and getting to know him a little better. Turns out when he lives in San Francisco he once helped Maya Angelou in his shop... pretty great encounter!

The door to the restaurant is a little misleading, so it might take you a few extra seconds to get inside (like it did for me). It's a medium-sized restaurant with a few different rooms, several tables, and a small bar. While using the bathroom later in the evening, I did see that there's a party room on the second floor as well. The decor was pretty standard, although we did have a running fountain above our table that was a little leaky and soaked my jacket a bit... but it was hard to be too upset in the spirit of the evening.

While waiting for the remainder of our party to arrive, we ordered some appetizers. The restaurant, not surprisingly, has a much larger menu than the food cart. Tandoori chicken samosas and beef shish kebob, as well as some papadum on the house. I really enjoyed the samosas and while I didn't have any of the beef, I had some of the accompanying vegetables and they were also great - well seasoned and spicy (in the sense that they were well spiced). I love papadum - it's a thin crispy wafer made from lentils or other flour. These ones were pretty tasty - not the best I've had but definitely snackable. I think I ate the most out of anyone... sorry guys.

butter chicken

Once Doug arrived, we decided to each order our own meal but share the love by passing our dishes around, minus Steph who is limited in what she can eat due to Celiacs. Luckily for her, they had a small South Indian menu that included dosas. As I recently learned on our excursion to our friend Lee's wedding, Steph is a big fan of said dish, which I agree are totally delicious. Unluckily for Steph, they did not have any dosa batter made. Such is life. Not limited in my food choices, I went with butter chicken, one of the house specials. We had a spattering of all kinds of food - lamb chettinad, coondapur chicken curry, and mushroom vindaloo, just to name a few. We also ordered several breads - naan, garlic naan, and onion kulcha to go along with our meals. Service was swift and we were quickly eating our main meals. I ventured out on a limb and ordered my meal at the medium spicy level, which I think was a good choice. It was a bit hot, but it really brought the spices and flavors out. The creaminess of the sauce paired well with the tender chicken, and the accompanying bread was perfect for scooping up food. Most people agreed that Sandya's dish - the coondapur curry chicken - was the best, and while I thought hers tasted great, I liked mine just as much. I had also ordered a spiced Indian tea, and it was pleasant with its additional spices added, but not the best cup of tea I've ever had. Those are some pretty big shoes to fill though.

By the end of our meals, we were completely full with no room for dessert, but we lingered a bit and chatted amongst ourselves and with Atul. It was a wonderful evening full of friends, great food and conversation. I'm happy to report that Lovash's restaurant is just as good as the food cart, and I'd definitely return in the future for another meal.

Lovash Indian Restaurant & Bar
236 South Street
Philadelphia, PA
(215) 925-3881

#82 Green Basil and #83 Haagen Dazs - Sandy's synopsis

Green Basil is a new Thai BYOB that opened a few months ago. With Circles a block west and Tamarind a block east, Thai restaurants are becoming commonplace on this part of South street.

The staff at Green Basil are wonderful and very patient and helpful when it comes to choosing your dishes. Green Basil does have some dishes that are unique to them (as compared to Circles at least), particularly in the appetizers section.

To start, we ordered the curry puffs, Thai sausage and papaya salad.

Curry Puffs

Thai Sausage

Papaya Salad

The curry puffs were delicious, the more burnt parts of the thai sausage were fantastic. (That's more my weirdness with sausages. I think people who like sausages would like the non-burnt parts as well.) The papaya salad was decent. 

For my main course, I decided to try one of the fancy whole fish dishes - the pla rad prik - described in the menu as "crispy tilapia with Thai sweet chilli sauce. Spicy."

Turns out, I'm not the biggest fan of deep fried whole fish. The flavours were nice, but it just wasn't my jam. I did, however, get to taste the Massaman curry and that was fantastic! It managed to have a distinct flavour from Circle's massaman curry and I know Steph (who ordered it) liked it better than Circle's Massaman Curry. That is a huge compliment. Keeping that in mind, I definitely want to come back here and try things of the non-whole fish menu. I'm especially excited to try some of their noodles.

All in all it is a good place to have some beers and good Thai food and I clearly would like to go back. It doesn't hurt that it is around the corner from my house.

Later that evening, before calling it a night, we moseyed over to Haagen Dazs for some ice cream. 

I ordered the banana split because 1) I had never had it here before and 2) I like the idea of bananas and icecream (banana milkshakes are the best!). It was okay. It comes with strawberries too which I didn't like. Guess I'm a banana purist. The chocolate fudge though was pretty delightful. 

Overall, I do like going here. Even though they don't have a banana milkshake on the menu, they are always very happy to make me one as they have all the ingredients. Also doesn't hurt that it is around the corner from my house and I am not a Rita's fan. I will say, finding out that Haagen Dazs is an American chain and not some fancy European chain, kind of blew my mind. I did not know that. 

Green Basil

240 South Street

215-644-8180

Haagen Dazs

242 South street

215-925-3373

Philadelphia PA 19147

#82 Green Basil and #83 Häagen-Dazs - Sam's synopsis

curry puffs!

We visited Green Basil on a warm spring Saturday evening. Sandya checked ahead of time to see if it is BYOB (it is), so we picked up lots of beer and headed over with our respective SOs in tow. Ari and I arrived first, and were able to get a table for 4, even though the restaurant is on the smaller side. Our waitress was very friendly, and as it turns out, may be stalking Sandya and Steph (but just so she can hang out with their dog Pavlov). In any case, they soon arrived and we spent a good deal of time chatting and catching up, but finally decided it was time to order food. We were all pretty hungry so we ordered a couple of appetizers in addition to our main dishes. I wanted to order a Thai iced tea, but because we were getting ice cream later and already had beer, I decided against it. But I kind of wish I had gotten it, because I do love Thai iced tea...

this is "thai sausage"

For appetizers, we ordered the papaya salad, curry puffs, and thai sausage. What is thai sausage you ask? An excellent question. It is basically pork sausage with thai seasonings - lemongrass, lime, soy sauce, etc. It was pretty crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside, but almost a little too salty. Which was fine with me, but I don't think the rest of the table enjoyed it as much. I thought the papaya salad was refreshing, but it felt like it was missing something. It also had little mini dried shrimps in it, which is probably a normal way to prepare this dish, but not something I'm a fan of (because yeah, seafood is not really my bag, as I think we've all established at this point). I really liked the curry puffs, I thought the filling of chicken, potato and curry was delicious and flavorful, and the puff was fried and crispy. Spoiler alert: I thought the appetizers were the best part of the meal. But more on that later...

pad thai. a nice presentation at least.

..Or now, because I'm onto the next paragraph. So, I had wanted to order the green curry friend rice with chicken, but when I asked the waitress, she said it was super spicy. After trying some of the spicier dishes that were ordered by others at the table, I think I probably could have handled it. But alas, my spice intolerance got the best of me, so I went for the pad thai instead. Someone had to order it, right? When I first tasted it, I found the sauce a little off-putting, but over time it grew on me. It was a little too sweet and did not have enough spice (of the flavor variety, not the heat variety). But, I was hungry, and it wasn't terrible or anything, so I ate most of it. I know that Ari and Sandya also weren't super impressed with their meals - they were decent, but not outstanding. Steph really enjoyed her massaman curry and I totally agreed on that front - it was rich and creamy and I liked it over my pad thai. If I remember correctly, this is a newer restaurant, so I think they have some room to try out and improve their recipes. The service was great, but I think there are better thai options in the near vicinity (like Circles, even if it's on the pricier side).

ICE CREAM AND CATS.
THE BEST.

Sorry Sandya.
It's too good not to post.
Plus we are honoring the
memory of Tangier <3

Ari departed, and we took a break to prepare our amazing wedding gift for Lee (of Tangier fame). After a few beers, our amazing art skillz came through and we had drawn what can only be described as a headless camel with a very buff rear leg. We decided it was time to reward our hard labor with some ice cream (and it was time for Pavlov to go for his nightly bathroom stroll). While Sandya went in and ordered, I kept watch of Pavlov while the drunken masses oohed and awwed at how adorable he is with his cute fluffy face and 3 legs (they're not wrong). I was still rather full from dinner, so I got a single scoop of caramel cone ice cream in a cone. It was good ice cream, a nice balance of pieces of cone and chocolate mixed in with vanilla ice cream and caramel swirls. Häagen-Dazs is one of the better "chain" places around, but nothing that blew me out of the water. What can I say? Even though I dislike seafood, I love the never ending supply of homemade ice cream on Cape Cod. It's hard to compete with that.

Green Basil

240 South Street

Philadelphia, PA

(215) 644-8180

Häagen-Dazs

242 South Street

Philadelphia, PA

(215) 925-3373