Well, this is our first TRIPLE THREAT post of the entire blog. No wonder it comes so close to the end, when the restaurants are piling up street after street. We are slowly but surely making our way to the end of the line, I promise...
First up is South Garden. Sandya and I decided to come here on a Saturday afternoon after a party the night before, thinking it'd be a good hangover cure. I didn't end up drinking all that much, so it was mostly just mediocre chinese food. We ordered in the restaurant but my guess is most of their business is take-out, since they forgot and put our meals in to-go containers. Which actually saved up a step, since we ended up having leftovers anyways. I ordered the lunch special, with wonton soup, chicken with cashew nuts, and pork fried rice. I liked the wonton soup, it was salty and the wontons were a good consistency. The chicken with cashew nuts and fried rice were meh. They didn't have much flavor. We did however see Atul, our friend from Lovash, as he stopped in to get something from the owners of South Garden. It's nice to know the neighboring restaurants are friendly with one another.
Next, on a separate day, we visited Tavern 222 for dinner. The interior was dark, uncrowded, and loud. I could barely hear Sandya and she was sitting right next to me. I can understand this atmosphere on a weekend evening, but it was a weekday before 7 pm so it seemed a little strange. I was really in the mood for chicken fingers and BBQ sauce, and luckily for me they had these on the menu and in stock. The chicken fingers hit the spot, crispy on the outside, moist on the inside. The french fries were okay - they were pretty crisp but lacked a good baseline flavor. We ordered lagers but forgot to specify on draft, so y'know, drinking lager from a bottle. All in all I probably wouldn't come back to Tavern 222, mostly based on the loudness of the music.
Finally onto Rita's, which we combined with Tavern 222. It was a good day for it too, since it was a hot summer evening. I decided to go for the 4-flavor sampler, choosing blue raspberry, cherry, swedish fish, and lemon. When it comes to water ice, I'm all about the fruit flavors and less about the ice cream-like flavors. I almost always get gelati when I go to Rita's, but it was hot enough that water ice sounded delicious and I was pretty full from scarfing all those chicken fingers. I enjoyed the flavors, but they gave me waaay too much of each. I think I ate maybe half of the serving total, and most of it melted in the heat anyways. It made for a pretty combination of reds and blues, but for some reason I remember them serving a more reasonable amount of water ice. I have to point out that the swedish fish flavor totally tastes like swedish fish too, which is pretty great. Rita's is a great Philly staple that I'd recommend on a hot day, if you're in the mood for some water ice or a delicious custard + water ice combo (I highly recommend black cherry water ice with vanilla custard... mmmm....)
So while this is a triple threat of reviews, the places themselves were either underwhelming or commonplace, so onto bigger and better things next time around let's hope!
South Garden
220 South Street
Philadelphia, PA
(215) 413-0200
Tavern 222
222 South Street
Philadelphia, PA
(215) 923-1999
Rita's Water Ice
239 South Street
Philadelphia, PA
(215) 629-3910
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