Ed’s Buffalo Wings & Pizza (Philadelphia)

Rating:

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

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Positive: Clean location in University City with large screen TVs to watch sports.

Negative: Below average quality and taste.

Overall: Good place to visit for halal food if you are a college student in the area.  Otherwise look elsewhere. 

Revisit:  Nope

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are you a student looking for a quick bite while in university city?

Ed’s is located by University City and is in a great location for students at Drexel and Penn who are looking for a quick halal bite. I have been to this restaurant two times and since my visit earlier in 2011, they have renovated. The restaurant is very clean and has two wide screen tv’s, making it an ideal location to watch sports with friends.

But besides this, the food lacks quality and taste. We ordered curly fries, boneless chicken fingers, philly cheesesteak, and buffalo chicken cheesesteak. Out of these, only the curly fries were good. I do not recommend the other items. The chicken fingers were dry and hard with way too much buffalo sauce. The meat for the philly cheesesteak had a very strong meat taste and no flavor; there was more cheese on one half of the sandwich too. It just was not made well. As for the buffalo chicken cheesesteak, the chicken was dry and tasted too much like buffalo sauce. It didn’t have much cheese in it either. So all in all, I would not go back again and the only reason I went a 2nd time was because I had forgotten how bad their food was. Oh and make sure to ask them for the halal menu because not all their items are halal.
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Ed’s Buffalo Wings & Pizza Website

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Al Salam Pizza (Philadelphia)

Rating:

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

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Positive: Delicious, American style food that will satisfy your hunger for meat!

Negative: Location is less than ideal and may not be suitable for everyone during late hours.

Overall: Solid, excellent quality American food with variety of delicious dishes, and a non-typical halal meat store located right next door.

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Looking for solid, good quality american food in philly?  

AlSalam is located in Germantown in a small strip mall adjacent to a halal meat store.  The halal meat store has a good selection of unique products that you may not find at other halal meat stores including pre-seasoned ground beef, chicken wings, steaks, and rotisserie chicken.  They also have tasty hot dogs and sausages from the Philly Halal Company that come in mild and hot flavors and are great for BBQ!

AlSalam has multiple booths you may find at typical pizza restaurants for you to eat at, but the booths along the far side of the restaurant are very unique.  They have curtains around the booth that allow you to sit and eat without being disturbed or having others look at you while you eat.  Also this is a great idea for those women who cover themselves and do not want the opposite gender to see or interact with them.

Their menu is pretty vast and extraordinarily delicious, definitely more than Douglass Pizza located in New Brunswick.  The menu includes breakfast, lunch, and dinner entrees. Their breakfast menu contains belgian waffles and various platters, including eggs and sausages.  Their lunch and dinner menu includes various Arabic platters, pizza, sandwiches, seafood, and of course Philly Cheesesteaks. I have eaten there many times and all the dishes are tasty. Their meat pizza is definitely worth having and includes pepperoni, sausage, and minced meat. The sandwich selection includes Philly Cheesesteaks, corned beef, roast beaf, salami, hoagies, calzones, stromboli, etc. Their Al Salam Hoagie made hot and toasted is definitely worth trying; just make sure to tell them not to warm up the lettuce, tomatoes, and pickles in the process. The workers are very nice and they accommodate you in any way possible.  Their Philly Cheesesteak is definitely one of the better ones I have tasted. The chicken cheesesteak is also delicious.

Overall its a great place to go to for consistent, high quality and delicious foods.  Only problem may be the setting and location.   If you are near the Philly area I would definitely try it out, especially if you are in the mood for meat! While you’re there check out the halal meat store next door because they may have some meats and seasoned products that you may not find at other places.

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Al-Salaam Website

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Naked Chocolate Cafe (Philadelphia) – CLOSED

PLEASE NOTE THIS PLACE HAS CLOSED DOWN & wILL BE RELOCATING AS PER THEIR WEBSITE.

Rating: 

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

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Positive: Delicious European chocolate drinks open later than other similar cafes.

Negative: Somewhat pricey for the sizes of the drinks.

Overall: Great place to try if you love chocolate, and if you especially like hot chocolate drinks.

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smooth creamy European chocolate?  yes!

This fine cafe is situated at a great location on Walnut street next to Tutti-Frutti frozen yogurt within a building consisting of many offices. When you enter this small cafe it is reminiscent of many of the cafés you see throughout New York and Philadelphia. There is a nice counter with a variety of homemade chocolates of various kinds as well as various chocolate drinks and desserts, including cupcakes. The sitting arrangement is very comfortable and typical of what you may find at a nice cafe.  On one side of the store there are many small circular tables with two chairs by each, in the middle of the store there is a more comfortable sitting arrangement with cushioned chairs, and at the back of the store there is a soft couch with a center table. Overall the service is very good with staff who are willing to give appropriate advice when you are deciding on what to get.

The negative, though, is that the bathroom is located in the basement of the building which takes a few turns and going down stairs to get too.  The classic hot chocolate here is one of the best I’ve had especially if you get it with some milk, American style.  The dessert menu consists of various Mouse cakes, fudge cakes, cupcakes, etc.  I enjoyed their Mocha fudge cake, although it did end up becoming too chocolaty to handle while sipping on some hot chocolate.  The prices overall are slightly more than I would want to pay, but probably appropriate for the area in which this location is situated.  The petite hot chocolate, by the way, is way too small and I would recommend the next size up. Another advantage of this place is that most other places like this cafe close by 8pm and this stays open till 11 pm.  When I went to this location there was a long line around 9:30pm, signifying how much people like chocolate and this cafe.  If you are in the area with friends and want to get together at a nice cafe definitely try this place out. Its better suited for groups of 4 but not more than that. If you like chocolate, especially high quality european chocolate, this is a place to definitely try!

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Naked Chocolate Cafe Website

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