Melissa "melly pie" K.'s Profile

I came to Percy Street BBQ for a Yelp event.  The food is pretty tasty.  The brisket and chicken salad sandwiches/sliders are delicious.  I loved the baked pinto beans, mac n cheese, and pork belly.  The pecan pie and banana pudding were good, too, though strangely different than what one might traditionally expect.

Overall, this place is fun!

I've only been to Raw three or four times, but I really do think it's among the best sushi places in the city.  Some positives:

1. good food (including really yummy seaweed salad)
2. a variety of choices for vegetarians and non-sushi eaters
3. pretty setting, nice for a date or for happy hour with friends/coworkers
4. really cool outdoor lounge

One thing you should know: the place gets really crowded at dinner time.  I recently had a lunch date here with my husband and there was almost no crowd.  The lunch specials were huge, delicious, and well-priced, and the service was great.  If you're into sushi and want to beat the crowd, I definitely recommend trying it at lunch time.

I'm from Philadelphia and my organization was hosting an event in San Diego as part of a conference.  We are so happy we chose Anthology.  For starters, the service was great: their on-site staff were friendly, creative and helpful; the event planners we worked with via email and phone were equally kind and helpful; plus, the food and drinks were delicious.

Although our event was on the top floor of the venue, looking over the dining and concert areas, Anthology gave our 100 guests wrist tags to access the concert/dance space for a really small per-person rate.

Overall, we were thrilled with this event.  It was by far the classiest event in the conference, all thanks to the staff at Anthology.

Ugh... where to start?

Seemingly good things:
- self-serve
- charged by the ounce
- fat-free
- cute decor

Not that good:
- the yogurt is FLAVORLESS!

I just don't get it...

A quick story: my friend works at Temple and I wanted to have a pizza delivered to her office for her birthday.  I called City View and they were so accommodating and pleasant!  I had asked if they could write "Happy Birthday" on the pizza, which they did willingly (with veggies).

Plus, one extra-special treat they came up with all by themselves: the delivery guy sang Happy Birthday to my friend when he delivered the pizza.  How sweet is that?

Bottom line: I love these guys!

I've ordered from them a number of times and even on busy times (like Friday and Saturday nights), they deliver really quickly.  The delivery guys are always nice and friendly.  The food is pretty good, too.  I haven't gotten their pizza too many times, but I do really enjoy it.  When you order onions, they use super thinly sliced red onions -- this little detail rocks my world.

A couple things you should know:
1. The phone guys are fast and sometimes rude on the phone.  To save yourself and them frustration, be completely prepared with your full order before calling.
2. Try the gyro, but skip the platter.  The feta never tastes fresh and the fries in the platter can sometimes be soggy.

I love this cafe! I've only been here a couple times, but definitely plan to go back.  The barristas are friendly and fun.  There is always an interesting mix of people in the cafe.  It's a great place to read/study alone, or to hang out with friends.

The drinks and food are delicious, too.  If you're into cake, definitely try whatever they have on the cake stand -- as one barrista told me and as my taste buds confirmed, the cakes are made by a South Philly grandma and are amazing.

I've been to AAI to see a few different exhibitions, all totally excellent.  I've also volunteered as a workshop facilitator here and have had a wonderful experience.  Toni Dang, a program coordinator there, is the bomb.  If you're interested in working with this organization, I definitely recommend contacting them and getting involved.

I just tried Cafe Estelle for the first time last weekend and loved it!  Our waiter was full of energy and just super pleasant and knowledgeable.  I definitely plan to go back.

Some things I loved:
1. Coffee bar -- They have a do-it-yourself coffee bar with four kinds of coffee (including one decaf).  Plus, if you want, you can take a cup to go when you leave.
2. Great food -- I got the Eggs Benny which was topped with some of the best Hollandaise I've ever had.  Among the other diners, one got the breakfast pizza, another got the stuffed french toast, and another got the sticky bun.  They were all really pleased.
3. Hot sauce choices (including Sriracha and Tabasco)
4. Yummy, moist carrot cake
5. Pay at the counter -- I actually LOVE pay-at-the-counter for two major reasons: they are willing to split the check; it's fast.  However, when my friends and I went to pay at the counter, it was a slightly different story.  Read more about that below.

Some things I didn't like:
1. Not good for groups -- We were a party of 6 and they sat us at what had been a table for 4.  While I didn't mind being squeezed in with people, I know some of the bigger people at our table did.  Plus, the tables were uneven, i.e. one table was a couple of inches higher than the other, and I was sitting in the crack of the two tables.  My Eggs Benny, though delicious, were served on a rectangular plate, so I had a really hard time eating b/c of the hugely uneven tables.
2. Customer favoritism -- As I say above, I love pay-at-the-counter, but even though my friends and I were waiting in line to pay, some guy who had ordered take-out came in and was allowed to butt in front of us, seemingly because he was friends with the cashier.  This seems like a small thing, but after waiting in a long line to pay, it was majorly insulting to be shown that if you know the cashier, you don't have to wait in line AND you can get in front of other customers.

Overall, I definitely recommend trying this place, but beware of certain non-food-related things that come off as customer-unfriendly.

Monks is quite possibly the most overrated burger and beer place in the city.  Yes -- they have a wide beer selection, but it's not worth waiting to be seated or waiting for the boring food.  The service is average and the food is really not that great.  If you want Belgian beers, you can get many of them at other bars in the city like Eulogy, Prohibition, and even Jose Pistola's.