Balkan Express Restaurant

Overall: very authentic and charming warm place tucked into one of the rowhouses streets of Center City Philly across from the South Square market. It is owned by the South Square Hardware people and it is not open during the summer and some weeks but when it is open, seize the chance and try some good Balkan, Hungarian foods. Hosts are warm and will take the time to explain dishes to you. Spread the word b/c they are rarely open and so people don't know if it and it's often empty in there.

Food: I ordered a soup and salad for lunch. 7.50$ was my spicy fish Hungarian chowder and it came with a spinach salad (spinach in vinegrette and grilled pepper), toasted flat bread and ball of butter.

Spicy Fish Chowder: if you've had goulash this is similar- it is a tomato based vegetable broth with chunks of fish- spicy so make sure you ask for mild if you're not used to spiciness.

Balkan Express is a cash-only, modestly-decorated, family-owned and operated restaurant. A restaurant with very limited business hours (per Yelp, the hours are Thurs to Sat 5-10pm, so yes, 15 hours per WEEK). In fact, I first tried to have dinner there one time in August, but they were closed because the chef (who I think is also the owner) was away for the summer. They asked that I try back again. And that I did!

The smoked meat and pickled veggies platter was delightful. Smoked pork and beef were thinly cut and served around a bed of pickled cauliflower, tomatoes, carrots, olives, peppers. Salty, sour, savory, and smoky -- it was all there. The sarma cabbage roll was so light and had incredible deep rich flavors. However, I feel it was slightly overpriced for the amount offered. We also tried the special of the night, chicken paprikash, which came on a bed of noodles. Chicken was tender and the sauce was very tasty and light, but perhaps lacking a small pinch of salt.

If you're lucky and able to try them out, please do. You'd be hard-pressed to find about establishment in Philly that serves home-cooked, authentic Balkan cuisine.

Do note that this restaurant is BYOB, cash-only, and has very limited operating hours, though they will open on other days and times to accommodate large groups (8 to 20+ - call ahead).

We very much enjoyed our dinner here. As other reviewers have mentioned, the proprietors are very welcoming - it's almost as if you were enjoying a meal at your favorite relative's home. Except that your relatives are Eastern European. They will gladly accommodate children and have children's books available.

We had the sarma (stuffed sauerkraut cabbage rolls), roasted red pepper salad with garlic, vesalica (smoked pork cutlet with pork cubes on a skewer), muchkalica (beef stew), lamb steak, and baklava for dessert.

Though all the dishes were well-executed, if I had to pick favorites, I'd say that the roasted red pepper salad and the muchkalica beef stew left an impression for also being unique (I cannot vouch for authenticity though). Also, the baklava was nutty and not overly sweet (as far as desserts go!).

Simply amazing!
From appetizers to the main course everything was wonderful. Fresh and locally sourced. Great presentation and relaxing atmosphere. Owners are wonderful and friendly. Coming back on my next visit to Philadelphia. Try the serbian beans with smoked meat, you won't regret it!

One of these small gems hard to find. Husband and wife handle the cooking and the service.
Excellent food from the Balkans, Serbia / Bulgaria / Macedonia. You will not find it in many places and you need to be adventurous in term of culinary. If typically you look for local foods when you travel abroad, the Balkan restaurant is for you.
I gave 4 stars for the quality of the food, friendly service and price very affordable. And yes, it's BYOB, yes they will accommodate you if you are Gluten Free.

Came for dinner on a rainy Thursday night in November with a friend. We were the only ones in the restaurant the whole time - sounds like the beginning of a horror story but it was actually great.

Service: Is mixed in with the ambiance that others mention - simple, straightforward, warm, and homey. An extremely nice couple owns and runs the place. We chatted it up with them (they were prepping for a full restaurant event the next day and didn't seem to mind that business was slow). The wife was happy to give us order recommendations and kept our water glasses full.

We ordered vegetarian - a tasty, steaming hot cabbage roll with walnut and rice filling and an assortment of their salads. The food was light (granted we ordered mainly veggies) and oozed of home-cooking at your aunt's where half the yummy factor might be that you didn't have to do anything.

A great little find on a small street just off of South St. If you want a casual, simple, home-cooked Mediterranean meal, come here.

After yet another fabulous meal here, I learned another cool thing about Balkan Express. Many of the dishes feature produce from their garden. My dish featured tomato and peppers that they'd grown.

If they have a special, I recommend ordering it (despite what Anthony Bourdain might advise). Specials like stroganoff are excellent; get them while you can. There aren't many specials in summer, save an occasional meatless dish. The chef experiments with dishes on the menu, so you'll never get the same thing twice (those who crave consistency might be disappointed). You'll find food from across Eastern Europe on the menu and in the specials.

Summer is a slow time for them, so they have limited hours and take vacation. Call ahead. But whatever you do, please go soon! Brunch is coming back, so look for that.

WOW! My family is Croatian and after moving here from New York, I was upset that I wasn't able to find an ethnic restaurant in Philadelphia that compared to home.

By random luck, my fiance (whose father is from Hungary) and I came across this restaurant on Yelp last night and read nothing but great reviews. We decided to try it out and I am SOOOO incredibly happy that I did. The owners, Radovan and Wendy, are so friendly and helpful, it truly is like you are dining in their home. The food is straightforward and simple - but high quality and packed with flavor. All the vegetables are organic and grown in their own garden.

We had the Cevapcici and Hungarian fish soup to start. Cevapcici are like a cross between hamburgers and skinless sausages - they are paired with raw diced onions. I highly recommend asking for the Ajvar, a red pepper spread, to accompany them. It's how I grew up eating them and it's fantastic! My fiance said his Fish soup was nice and spicy and pretty spot on close to ones enjoyed in Budapest.

We followed that up with the Mixed Grilled Meat plate for two and a Cucumber salad on the side. The grilled meats were all great and offered a nice variety - chicken, pork, hamburger, beef, etc over rice - and there was so much food we couldn't finish it!

For dessert, we forced ourselves to order the almond cake, which was light, smooth and tasty. Afterwards, we stayed to chat with Radovan and Wendy for over an hour! We shared stories of travels throughout Europe and Radovan offered us two samples of homemade brandy - one grape, one plum. They were STRONG, but very good. The whole experience reminded me of summers at my uncle's house in Croatia and it was a very warm and friendly experience!

It's obviously not a familiar cuisine for most people, but if you're looking for something different, very reasonably priced, and a place that feels like home, I can't recommend it enough! In fact, although they are only open for regular business on Thursday - Saturday, if you have a group of 6 or more, they'll open especially for you and create a special menu for your group.

This place is great!! Its run by who I assume are husband and wife, and they are so nice. Eating there was like being welcomed to eat in a house of an old friend. Everything is fresh and made to order. All the vegetables come from their garden and you can taste the freshness. My boyfriend and I shared the caseless meat sausages and he had the lamb dish and I had the vegetable stew. The bread is made fresh everyday and was awesome and they give you a dish of hot peppers that are really something.

When we were leaving we gave them our email address because apparently they have nights with live music. We will totally be back. Its our new special date night location.

Its BYOB and cash only but still worth checking out.

My wife and I had dinner there on a Saturday, arriving at about 5:30. We were the first diners that evening, but more arrived as the evening progressed, The dining room is clean, neat, comfortable, and reasonably quiet. The neighborhood has been gentrified over the past several years, with young families all around, enjoying a semi-suburban life style inside the city. We echo the other four and five star comments. Our fifth star was the need to bring cash and whatever alcoholic beverages I might have liked to drink. We understood that the restaurant's friendly chef-owner prepares almost every dish to order, conversing with guests when he's not cooking, while his friendly, cheerful wife runs the dining room.

All the food is fresh and tasty, but the seasonings are those of the countries that make up the region called "the Balkans." The chef uses his own preferences, which might not exactly be what a diner is familiar with from Grandmother's "old country" recipes. Some familiarity with dishes from Balkan countries (as well as their names) could be helpful in making ordering choices. One shouldn't hesitate to ask specifics about dishes; the host and his wife are good explainers.

While the fish soup was quite different from what my wife had eaten as a youth, she was most impressed by the quality and freshness of the fish used. The three salads we had were very good, and the stuffed cabbage pleased us a lot despite being made without tomatoes or any sweetness. The poppy seed cake was outstanding, as were the Baklava and the Turkish coffee.

No longer having youthful capacities, we chose to defer entrees to a future visit. I think a light red wine or a Czech Pilsener could go well with most dishes, plus a good brandy to finish the meal. Our experience was delightful, and very gentle on our wallets.