S&H Kebab House (Philadelphia)

Rating:

Quality, Taste, Cleanliness, Environment, Price , & Staff

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Positive: Excellent Black Angus Steak with excellent ambiance in a great location.  Turkish tea and Baklava are delicious.

Negative:  Turkish food is average in quality and they serve grocery store quality pita bread rather than fresh Turkish bread.

Overall: Great place to go with family and friends, especially if you like steaks and appreciate great service and ambiance. 

Revisit:  Will definitely revisit them, especially when family and friends come to the Philadelphia area.

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Looking for halal steaks in philly?

I have had the chance to visit S&H Kabab house a number of times for dinner and lunch.  It is located on Pasayunk Road close to the busy South Street area by Penns Landing in Philadelphia.  This is a nicely decorated Turkish restaurant with great ambiance and good quality food. Not to mention their great service from kind staff.  They have black Angus steaks which are unheard of in the Halal food realm.  The steaks offered include New York strip steak, Filet Mignon, and the T bone steak.  I get them medium rare and find them to be very succulent and delicious every time I eat there. They are probably one of the best steaks I have ever eaten; I have yet to try Cairo Steakhouse on Steinway street in Queens, NY though.

The Turkish food is also good in quality but not as good as other Turkish restaurants I have eaten at in New York City.  It is probably somewhat better than Sahara Restaurant and Efes in New Brunswick, NJ. Their doner kebab and chicken sheesh kabab (which is very tender unlike what you find at other restaurants) are probably the best Turkish dishes they offer, but you can try their mixed platter which gives a huge helping of all their Turkish meats. Their portion sizes are good but the amount of rice they give is usually not enough for me.  I also tried their Turkish tea as I saw most customers drinking it and although I find Turkish tea to be too strong for me, I enjoyed their tea. Their home-made baklava is very delicious as well and tastes very fresh.  One problem is that their Pita bread is the frozen ones you can find at grocery stores.  However, their hummus makes up for it and is a great appetizer.

In addition to the restaurant decor, service, and high quality food, the owner is very friendly and came to check on us while we ate.  He also allowed me to pray at their restaurant in the back where they usually have their Hookah Lounge.  Another time I went, though, the owner was not there and the workers did not allow me to pray in the restaurant as it was raining and the Hookah Lounge is located outside in the back.
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S&H KEBAB HOUSE WEBSITE

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Related articles

• Al Basha (Northern NJ) (halalfoodcritic.wordpress.com)
• Bakhtar Halal Kababs (Queens) (halalfoodcritic.wordpress.com)
• Doner Kebab – Turkey (beatcancer2010.wordpress.com)

Sabrina’s Cafe (Philadelphia)

Rating:

Quality, Taste, Cleanliness, Environment, Price , & Staff

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Positive: Delicious, unique breakfast and brunch items for all taste buds to enjoy.

Negative: Lots of meat filled dishes on the menu so be careful and ask for help.  Also, long wait times so call ahead!

Overall: The food tastes good and the environment is perfect for a weekend brunch with friends and family.

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Thinking of going to the Italian Market on the Weekend? Well don’t forget to stop in at Sabrina’s Cafe for brunch!

I went to the cute cafe located by the Italian Market with a wide variety of options for a perfect weekend brunch whether you’re with family or friends. There are two other locations as well, one by the Art Museum and one by the Drexel Campus.There is a long wait so make sure you call ahead before you go to get seated faster (they do not accept reservations but you can call ahead the same day).

I would recommend their Hunter Pence’s Lets Eat Stuffed French Toast with cream cheese, mascarpone, apricot, topped with peach-apricot syrup (note that the serving size for this is more than enough for 2 people). If you love stuffed french toast and want something sweet, you should order this. As for the eggs, if you like mexican food, I would recommend the poached eggs with beans, guacamole, and peppers (note that you can get vegetarian sausage with this). If you like corn bread, then I’d suggest The Phantic’s Belly Shaking Egg Breakfast. The potatoes that come with the eggs taste very fresh and have a home-made touch.

The restaurant also has lunch and dinner options and other appealing breakfast items such as Breakfast burritos and Challah French Toast.  Overall, I would recommend this cafe as the food taste goods and the environment is perfect for a weekend brunch.

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Sweet Revenge (West Village)

Rating:

Quality, Taste, Cleanliness, Environment, Price , & Staff

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Positive: Uniquely delicious cupcake flavors and a wide variety of non-alcoholic drinks.

Negative: Bar type atmosphere with expensive dishes.

Overall: Great place to go with friends for dessert and non-alcoholic drink if you want to try a new type of setting.

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You want to try a high-end cupcake place with a delicious non-alcoholic drink with your friends at a bar?

Sweet revenge is a very unique and small cafe in the Village. It has many different kinds of signature ‘Artisan’ flavors.  This place is actually a bar/cupcake place so that people who drink can have wine with their cupcakes and pies.

However, for those who don’t drink alcohol they have a bunch of non-alcoholic drinks as well. Some of these nonalcoholic drinks include their South African rock shandy and American rock shandy. You can also have frozen hot chocolate which is pretty bitter and probably made from dark chocolate. They also have a bunch of coffees, teas, lattes, milk, lemonades, and sodas. They are known for the cupcakes and pies.

The signature flavor which I enjoyed was something called Sweet Revenge which included peanut butter cake, a ganache center, and peanut butter fudge frosting. We also had a chance to try there very rich and delicious Bird of Paradise cupcake which consisted of lime chiffon cake with mango butter cream and fresh lime zest. They have a variety of other unique signature flavors including ‘Pure” which consists of Mexican vanilla cake and Mexican vanilla buttercream as well as ‘Dirty’  which consists of Valrohna Cake with dark chocolate truffle.  I also tried their ‘Crimson and Cream’ which has raspberry red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting. It was very unique compared to other red velvet cakes I have eaten. However, it did have somewhat of a raspberry flavor to it. They also have some pies which I did not have a chance to try.

I think overall that this place is a very interesting and unique place to go to especially if you want to have a quick delicious cupcake with a nice non-alcoholic drink. You can always check their website to see what kind of nonalcoholic drinks they have. When comparing this to other cupcake places like Magnolia, Crumbs, and Georgetown cupcakes I think this is more of a exotic cupcake place. However at the other places the cupcakes have the usual delicious flavors.  Therefore, this place definitely has more of a unique experience than other places.  By the way, the owner is very nice and the service is excellent, which makes your experience there soo much better!

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Sweet Revenge Website

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Self-serve Frozen Yogurt (Central NJ)

Rating: (see below)

Quality, Taste, Cleanliness, Environment, Price , & Staff

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Positive: Aside from Red Mango and Phileo Yogurt (not located in Central NJ), Yogurt Land has unique, delicious high quality yogurt flavors with an average number of toppings.  Yo Mon has the nicest environ (although small) and topping selection with average quality yogurt.Wicked twist is in third place with lower quality yogurt and an average number of toppings.

Negative: Twist and Fruity Yogurt have lower quality frozen yogurt which doesn’t taste like its respective flavors with below average toppings.

Overall: Go with Red Mango or Phileo Yogurt if they are in your area.  Otherwise if you live in central NJ go with , Yo Mon (if you are into toppings and environ), or Wicked Twist.  I wouldn’t go to Twist or Fruity Yogurt.

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I had a chance to visit multiple self-serve frozen yogurt chains in central New Jersey and compare them to well-known chains like Red Mango and Phileo Yogurt. (I did not include Pinkberry as it is not self serve at the moment in the Tri-state area) What I gathered from my experiences was that Red Mango is probably the best in terms of its quality, healthiness, and the fruity yogurts they carry. Phileo Yogurt was not far behind either and I would eat yogurt at any of those chains any day of the week.

I would regard these chains as the standards to compare other frozen yogurt places with.   The self-serve frozen yogurt trend has made its way to New Jersey with a wide variety of small businesses opening to offer their customers a wide variety of flavors and toppings for around 45-49 cents per ounce.  The way it works is that you come in and choose your cup (small or large), taste a few small samples of the flavors, fill up your cups as you wish and add the topping you wish before weighing, paying, and obtaining  a spoon to eat your delicious concoction.  

Yo Mon, located in Freehold, NJ is best known for its exciting environ with a colorful, young scheme and multiple TVs as well as a small sitting place right outside the door.  Although it is one of the smaller places I have been too, they make full use of the space even though most of the time the lines are out the door.  Their frozen yogurt selection is nicely varied, although they have less fruity flavors at one time like Red Mango. Their quality of frozen yogurt is not as good as Red Mango, again, but it is nonetheless better than the other places in Central NJ.  Their Espresso and Mango flavors are probably the best they carry and their wide variety of toppings really makes the yogurt  even more worth it.  Aside from the typical variety of fruits, nuts, cookies, etc they also have a lot of liquid toppings like corn flakes dipped in nutella as well as crushed, warm Ferrero Rocher chocolate.  This place has the most variety and best toppings from any other place I’ve been too, including Red Mango and the other location for you to jersey has an excellent environment as well as a huge number of toppings.

Wicked Twist, located in Old Bridge, NJ is located in a small shopping center similar to Yo Mon and has a good variety of frozen yogurt treats, similar to Yo Mon with less quality in the yogurt.   They also have  a small location and sitting places both inside and out.  The local crowd keeps this place busy as well.  Their topping selection was average and therefore similar to the toppings offered by Red Mango, with a smaller fruit selection.  

Twist, located in Princeton and Fruity Yogurt, located in New Brunswick, NJ are definitely well placed in ideal locations to tap the huge number of students in their respective areas.  Sadly, they don’t taste as good as Yo Mon or Wicked Twist.  Twist does have smoothies and frappes that you can order.  Red Mango, though, also has a wide variety of smoothies, shakes, juices, and teas that you can order from the counter. 

Yogurt Land, is located in Hamilton and Denville, NJ.  This place has a larger variety of delicious, unique flavors than other yogurt chains in Central NJ including Devil’s Food and Red Velvet Cupcake Batter.  I had a chance to go there recently and was very impressed with their selection and quality.  Their topping selection, however, is not as good as Yo Mon.  It is a chain that recently opened and seems to be doing very well.  I think it is better than Yo Mon in terms of quality and sitting room, and therefore I would recommend going here if you are in the Central Jersey area and want high quality yogurt but willing to compromise on the toppings.

Overall I would consider going to Red Mango if in the mood for a fruity flavor like Pomegranite from POM, White Peach, Mango, Blueberry or any other flavor while visiting an area in which it is located.  If I am in the Philly area of parts of New York where Phileo Yogurt is located I would go visit them as well.  However, if in Central NJ I would go with Yogurt Land or Yo Mon followed by Wicked Twist.  But if I am in the more busy cities like New Brunswick or Princeton I would rather have ice cream or some other sweet ending rather than the frozen yogurt places open there.

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Red Mango

Phileo Yogurt

Yo Mon

Fruity Yogurt

Twist

Yogurt Land