Philadelphia has a small but vibrant Chinatown. While no one will mistake our Chinatown for San Francisco’s, the neighborhood has been undergoing a renaissance for the past decade as a younger generation moves in and replaces the older establishments with trendier options. We’ve got bubble tea cafes. We’ve got fancy desert places. We’ve got a swanky, speak easy cocktail bar. There’s even a Bonchon. There’s a new food court, albeit not quite like the food courts in Hong Kong or Queens. Heng Fa is a supermarket in the center of Chinatown and beyond supplying Chinese food goods they also have the best pork belly in the city. My wife and I try to combine a stop at a restaurant in this neighborhood when we pick up pork belly or my wife is catching a bus to Manhattan, so over the past few years I think we’ve eaten our way through the entire neighborhood.
Philadelphia does not have a high volume of Asian immigrants, so Chinatown has become a neighborhood for other cultures to open restaurants featuring their native cuisine. The neighborhood has the best Vietnamese, Malaysian (should say Chinese Malaysian that you’d find in Singapore or Penang), and Burmese food in the city.
Besides a few events and block parties throughout the year, there’s no major attraction in this neighborhood, although I would contend that Heng Fa is always worth a quick spin through, to bring people here beyond the food.
Philadelphia does not have a high volume of Asian immigrants, so Chinatown has become a neighborhood for other cultures to open restaurants featuring their native cuisine. The neighborhood has the best Vietnamese, Malaysian (should say Chinese Malaysian that you’d find in Singapore or Penang), and Burmese food in the city.
Besides a few events and block parties throughout the year, there’s no major attraction in this neighborhood, although I would contend that Heng Fa is always worth a quick spin through, to bring people here beyond the food.
RESTAURANTS