#57 Olympia II & #58 The Bean Café - Sam's synopsis

the bane of my
saturday afternoon

With so many restaurants on this block, we were bound to have a two-for-one event eventually, so we decided to combine the coffee shop and the pizza place into one outing (seems logical, right?). First up was Olympia II, a pizza/Greek joint that feels like it belongs in the late 90s. Do you remember those machines that you would put $1-2 worth of quarters into and get out sweet sparkly stickers and/or temporary tattoos? Those still exist, and they had multiple ones to choose from. They also have your standard quarter vending machines, which I suppose still exist in malls and grocery stores, but really seemed to have reached their zenith during my childhood. In fact, I got pretty excited about these machines and got $2 worth of bling - although the first item I received was just a chain with NOTHING ON IT. That wasn't even one of the advertised products! I wanted the necklace with the fake gun on it. Of course I had to try again - this time I got a slightly longer chain with an undetermined item on it. It might consist of daggers, swords, poison vials, or cigars. The world may never know, and now it's sitting beside my bed because of course the chain broke within the first 3 hours of me purchasing it. Some things never change. Maybe I should have gone for a sticker instead.

$$$BLINGBLING$$$

On top of the vending machines, the 90s vibe was furthered by the tacky trays our food was sometimes served on (I did not get a tray sadly), the faded decorations, and the overall layout of the restaurant. I got a lunch special which consisted of 2 slices of cheese pizza and a fountain soda for about $6, which isn't a bad deal. The pizza was alright. It wasn't terrible, but not that flavorful and the crust was pretty bland. Adding salt and dipping the crust in the leftover pizza grease helped a bit. The staff was a mix between slightly annoyed at customers and cheerful, and the customer base consisted of what looked like regulars and college sports players. I don't think I'd go out of my way to return here again.

After our lunch, we crossed the street and entered the Bean Café. The first thing that Sandya pointed out was a large glass display box filled with Star Wars figurines arranged in a scene that somewhat mimicked events on Tatooine. The walls were covered with photographs for sale that had scenes of various comic book/cartoon character figurines in some interesting poses. They had a couple of Pokemon ones, but I think my favorite was of Aquaman with a surfboard with his back to us, looking (presumably) longingly at the water. They also had a few random phone charms for sale - I was particularly excited to see a character from Barbapapa. I must confess that my knowledge of this franchise is rather limited, but I do own a small shopping bag with these characters on it that I purchased for $1 at Otakon many years ago. I was attracted to the colors and bizarre concept of some of them turning into airplanes and using each other for transportation. I almost bought said phone charm but in the end decided against it.

dat steamed milk tho

I ordered a chai latte and we decided to split some banana bread. I was pretty meh on both - the banana bread was too dry and not really flavorful. The chai was pretty standard (I enjoyed the copious amounts of steamed milk), but didn't have any defining quality that set it over the edge. They seemed to have some exciting coffee-containing lattes, and the overall vibe of the place was relaxing so I enjoyed that. The bathrooms were covered in graffiti, in what I guarantee is a purposeful manner, and the bathroom I used did have "I <3 SF" written in it, so I'll just go ahead and believe that someone carved that in there about me. So +5 points for stroking my ego Bean Café. Otherwise, I don't think I'd go out of my way to come here again.

Olympia II
616 South Street
Philadelphia, PA 
(215) 592-6574

The Bean Café
615 South Street
Philadelphia, PA
(215) 629-2250

#56 Golden Empress Garden - Sam's synopsis

dem walls
dat face (sorry Sandya)

Don't confuse Golden Empress Garden with Empress Garden, the latter being in Chinatown. I was expecting a fiesty short-haired waitress thanks to browsing some Yelp reviews, but alas, it was not meant to be. Instead, we had a friendly young man as our waiter - I should mention this is the first sit-down Chinese restaurant we've encountered, although the menu is pretty much laid out like the flyers for Chinese restaurants you get slipped under your door. Before I even get to the review, I will say that this is flat-out the best Chinese restaurant we've encountered on our saunter - every dish was just fresher and tastier than any of the other places we've been to so far. Also, it had a beautiful interior - seriously the nicest stone walls I have seen in any restaurant on South Street we've encountered so far.

wonton soup

Of course, I ordered the wonton soup as a starter - it's my baseline assessment of any Chinese restaurant. This, again, is the best one I've had so far. It wasn't overly salty and the broth was a bit different than usual - I think it was more vegetable based than chicken based, which went really well with the wontons. The wontons themselves were great too. You know how sometimes wontons from cheap restaurants are kind of waxy and lack any flavor? These ones were nice and chewy, and didn't taste like I was chewing on cardboard. The pork filling was nice too, complemented well with some scallions. We also ordered some fried dumplings as an appetizer, and Erin ordered a scallion pancake which she kindly shared with us. Both were very good - nothing out of this world, but definitely not bland or overly dry.

fried dumplings

I ordered chicken (real, not fake) and broccoli. The reason I mention this is because Golden Empress Garden is slated as being a vegetarian and vegan-friendly restaurant. They have an entire menu devoted to faux meat items, which is almost as extensive as their meat-friendly menu. I'm pretty sure we ordered food from here during a ~girl's night sleepover~ and it being pretty tasty except for the faux Peking duck (sorry Julie). Sandya got the fake General Tso's chicken, so read her review for comments on that, but it's nice to see a Chinese delivery place that caters to herbivores without being overly obnoxious (see: Pure Fare and/or the juice place we went to that I can't even remember the name of because it was so terrible and overpriced). I enjoyed my meal, and it was even better the next day for leftovers. The meat seemed like better quality than you normally get at these types of restaurants, the vegetables were fresh, and the sauce was not overly salty OMG MSG IN YO FACE. It actually had some flavor to it other than salt - but what that flavor was I couldn't tell you, because my palate is not yet so refined.

All in all, it was a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon - eating tasty food with friends. In the future, I will be ordering take-out from here when I have a hankerin' for wonton soup. And as an added bonus, we even previewed a future stop by grabbing beers at Woolly Mammouth's afterwards - an even better way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

Golden Empress Garden
618 South Street
Philadelphia, PA
(215) 625-6688

#56 Golden Empress Garden - Sandy's synopsis

The Golden Empress Garden is in our opinion the best Chinese food we have had so far on South Street. Also, for you meat loving carnivores, do not be mis-lead by the sign, like we were. They also have vegetarian specialties - not only have vegetarian specialties. It'll make the menu less confusing when you realize this. For the vegetarians and vegans, they have a large selection of mock meat dishes. 

We decided to start with some hot tea which came in a quaint little tea pot. You definitely want to let the tea steap a little as they do give you a fresh leaves, not pre-steaped tea. 

We also ordered a couple of appetizers which were the stars of the meal for me. Erin always orders the chinese pancakes. The fried dough with scallions came with a soy sauce based dipping sauce and were so so good. So simple and so good. 

We also ordered the pan fried wontons, with pork as the filling, I believe.

Also very delicious.

With all the excitement about the vegetarian specialties I decided to try one of the mock meat dishes. Something I do at Chinese restaurants is order the mock General Tso's chicken if they have it. I do this to see if any place in Philly can come close to the version of this dish that Square on Square, on 19th and chestnut, makes. Unfortunately this did not, but it wasn't bad. 

The sauce was a little too sweet for my likes and not enough garlic. The mock meat though was light balls of seitan that were quite delicious. I had enough for leftovers that evening that I snarfed down real quick. 

Ergo, if you are in this part of town and are craving chinese, I recommend Golden Empress Garden. They have a large selection of food for vegetarians and meat lovers alike and the quality of the food is higher than other Chinese places on South Street that we've encountered. 

Golden Empress Garden

618 South Street

Philadelphia PA 19147

215-625-6688

#55 Evil Eye Cafe - Sandy's synopsis

Evil Eye cafe is a Turkish themed coffee shop with a great selection of salads and desserts. They also have a great selection of evil eye art on the wall, none of which I took a photo off apparently. It's a small, clean, cozy place with about 5 tables and a very sweet lady behind the counter to take your order. 

Before placing your order, however, make sure you have cash on you as the establishment is cash only. There is a conveniently located ATM opposite the cafe. 

To start, I went with this puff pastry stuffed with potatoes.

It looked delicious but was a little too bland for my tastes. 

For my main course, I decided to go with one of their salads.  I tend to hate salads unless they are the non-traditional kind where the base is not lettuce. Here I had a choice between cous-cous and bulgur. Since I couldn't decide which, I was told that I could get a plate with both on it. Perfect.

The cous-cous salad (white one on the right) was extremely delicious and refreshing. Light, with an occasional burst of sweetness from maybe ricotta and some honeyed nuts all mixed in with some savoury herbs. Just typing this out is making me crave it. 

The bulgur salad was heavy on the cucumber and tomatoes and tasted slightly sour. It wasn't my favourite but it wasn't bad. 

We also ordered dessert. I had the chocolate cheesecake, which was pretty standard - heavy dense cheese cake with a crumb crust.

We were at a cafe and I couldn't leave without ordering their Turkish coffee.

It was a very strong, delicious coffee that came in a very pretty cup and saucer. I do want to give a shout out to the Turkish coffee we had at Saqqara cafe though - still the best one in my books.

In summary, it was a pleasant experience. The cous-cous salad was out of this world and I will definitely go back for that. I would also like to try their milkshakes sometime. So, until then, I encourage YOU to go enjoy some great cous-cous salad at Evil Eye Cafe.

Evil Eye Cafe

628 South Street

Philadelphia PA 19147

267-872-7560

#55 Evil Eye Café - Sam's synopsis

Well, we ended up dining at Evil Eye Café on a bit of a whim, since the original plan was to check out Hot Diggity. We arrived at Hot Diggity only to find that it was completely dark, with all the chairs stacked up on the tables. There was no sign on the door/window indicating why they were closed (since their hours indicated they should have been open), nothing on social media about the reason they were closed, etc. It was pretty frustrating, but then a few days later I saw this, which explained everything. The curse continues, as we've now seen at least 4 places close while partaking in our saunter. Although 4 out of 55 is only about 7%, so we could be doing a lot worse.

With our stomachs and hearts empty, we made the executive decision to stop at Evil Eye Café. Ben and Jo were pretty excited to be joining us for Hot Diggity, but due to some poor timing of phone exchanges/driving and Sandya needing to get some work done, we had to scramble and get our food as soon as possible. Sorry Ben and Jo! 

The inside of Evil Eye reminded me very much of coffee shops in Rochester for some reason - I think it was the overall vibe and the brightly colored paintings. The theme of all the paintings was not unsurprisingly, the evil eye charm, which is used to ward off misfortune and bad luck. I am a big fan of this motif - I have one in my car that has kept me safe for years and I definitely purchased a few as gifts while I was in Greece. I never knew the name for theses - nazars - and I just learned the difference between an amulet and a talisman (a talisman provides good fortune or luck in addition to offering protection), so this blog continues to educate me in many ways other than food. There also is an art gallery upstairs, but the café was closing in the next 45 minutes so we didn't get a chance to go check it out.

I went ahead and ordered my food, but turns out the place is cash only, so I had to run across the street to an ATM. It was a chilly night, so I ordered lentil soup and something referred to as a sort of Turkish quesadilla. The lentil soup was served first, with a lemon on the side. I knew this was a good sign, because growing up my uncle would always take us to this Lebanese restaurant outside Boston, and they had the best lentil soup I have ever tasted and it was always served with lemon. The soup was delicious! The lemon adds a nice tanginess that works well with the lentils, and the broth was very savory without being overly salty. Next was the Turkish quesadilla, which was a thin, flat bread with cheese and spices, including dill. I freaking love dill. It's one of my favorite spices, so I had to order this. I enjoyed it, but it wasn't my favorite. You can't really mess up bread/cheese/spices, and it was certainly very tasty, but I feel like it could have been a little more flavorful. 

I really wanted dessert, and I was in the mood for chocolate so I went with the chocolate cheesecake. Sandya had also ordered this so the woman running the counter (who was very friendly) tried to get me to order something else, but I was stuck in my ways. Honestly, I would have gone for the tiramisu, but it looked a little too soggy at the end of the day and not very appetizing. The chocolate cheesecake was meh - it was kind of bland and heavy, and not very creamy as I was hoping. I'm hoping the other desserts are better.

All in all, while I was not expecting to be dining at Evil Eye this particular night, I really enjoyed the food and experience. I am a big fan of evil eye decor in general, so I liked the ambiance of the place. I also noticed that there are a large number of outlets by tables here, which makes this a great place to come by, have a good meal and get some work done. I'll also note that they serve ice cream, which still continues to be a slightly rare commodity in Philadelphia for some reason, but I suppose I am spoiled having grown up in a summer vacation locale. 

Evil Eye Café

628 South Street

Philadelphia, PA

(267) 872-7560

#54 Latin Flavor - Sandy's synopsis

So, Latin Flavor was this little restaurant that popped up sometime at the end of last year that almost slipped under our radar. I didn't even have it up on a map. It was so new, there were only three reviews on Yelp - all positive. It is also what made this a little more exciting. Clearly almost nobody had been here so we didn't really have any past prejudices or opinions to influence our decision.

When we first entered, almost an hour and a half after they had opened, we were told that they were cleaning and weren't seating people. Which was weird, as it was empty and it looked very clean. Anyway, after a couple of exchanges we were told we could take a seat.

From glancing at the menu it seemed predominantly cuban cuisine. As we continued to peruse the menu in more detail, we were given some pressed garlic bread to start. It was alright and seemed a little stale.

Sam and I decided to order the yucca fries as an appetizer. These were pretty delicious. Since Yucca is rather uncommon in Philly restaurants is was a pleasant change from the usual potato fries (freedom fries?). It also came with a delicious dipping mayo sauce.

I had also ordered a coffee, which I really should've done after my meal instead of during. It was delicious either way.

So for the main course they had many versions of meat cooked in various ways, from stews, to curries to sandwiches. Each entree comes with a side of Rice (brown rice or white rice with red beans) and two fried plantains.

Before I get to the main course I would like to tell you  how awesome this was. The rice was robust and flavorful and the plaintains were just... heaven in your mouth. The BEST part - Sam hates plantains, so I got hers. Always go to Latin restaurants with Sam.

The entree that came with these delicious sides, was clearly less fantastic to me. It was pepper chicken which in my head I was thinking this pepper:

Source: Wikipedia

and a dish that looked something like this:

Source: Google images

Not this pepper:

Source: Wikipedia

and a dish that looked like this:

Source: My Android phone at Latin Flavor

So it looks like a case of incredibly wrong expectations on my part and I really should stop assuming and start asking the wait staff if the dish is going to be what I expect. Speaking of which the wait staff here is extremely friendly.

Suffice to say I was a little disappointed by the entree as I found it to be a little bland. The rice and beans and plantains though more than made up for it.

All in all, Latin Flavor is a solid choice for Latin food in the area. I do think Caribbean delight is close enough that if you were craving something much spicier and more Jamaican I would go there.

If you are craving red beans and rice however - this is the place people.

Latin Flavor

627 South Street

Philadelphia PA 19147

267-519-2027

#54 Latin Flavor - Sam's synopsis

We arrived at Latin Flavor on a cold and icy evening, so the warmth inside was a welcome respite. The front of the restaurant looks like you can order many different items from the menu to go as a cafeteria-style restaurant, but when we arrived they were in the process of cleaning everything so it came off like the place was closed. I think the staff was happy to have some customers though, and there is a seated area, so we grabbed a table and perused the menu. The inside of the restaurant is bright and cheery, with a few pieces of art and sculpture decorating the walls. The staff was friendly and attentive, although we were pretty much the only people there so not much competition for attention.

Sandya and I were both pretty hungry, so we ordered fried yucca as an appetizer as a somewhat "healthier" option. It was very tasty - a hint of sweetness but a great consistency that was somehow both crispier and chewier than normal french fries. The dipping sauce was garlic aioli and was a nice flavor complement to the yucca. We were also treated to complimentary garlic bread slices, which were crispy and had a lot of delicious melted parmesan cheese on them. For my main dish, I went with stew chicken, which was chicken in a thick brown savory gravy-like sauce. The perfect dish for a cold winter's night, and boy was it tasty. The carrots and potatoes were nice and soft, and I also had a side of brown rice with red beans that I could mix to soak up the sauce. If I hadn't eaten so many yucca fries, I probably would have finished my meal, but at that point I was pretty full so I took the rest home. The leftovers held up and were just as good the next day - in some ways they might have been a little better, because they had a night to "stew" in their own flavors (LULZ), which really enhanced the next-day dining experience.

The dishes here are similar to Jamaican Jerk Hut and Caribbean Delight, and I've ordered very similar dishes at all three establishments. While I enjoyed all three meals, I think Latin Flavor has the best price-to-taste ratio, and even without that edge I found this the tastiest of the three. But that's not a dig on the other two restaurants, because they were still plenty delicious. Latin Flavor is a new establishment, having only opened in late November, but here's to hoping it sticks around for a long time - the food is great and the ambiance is very welcoming.

Latin Flavor

627 South Street

Philadelphia, PA

(215) 298-9627