A Hungry Girl's Guide to Brunch in Philadelphia
I look forward to the weekend social event we call "brunch". As Ron Swanson once said "breakfast food can serve many purposes". I mean who goes out to brunch to eat arugula?
Finding a great brunch spot in Philadelphia isn't a problem, there are so many amazing cafes and restaurants in the different neighborhoods that cater to whatever your heart desires. Finding one with no line on a Sunday without reservation is a different matter. There are two spots in Philadelphia that I really love (as in if anyone from out of town comes and visit I will most likely drag them to one of these two cafes for brunch). The last spot is a solid place for brunch but the service is super slow so if you are not in the mood to have a chill brunch I would skip it. These places are more affordable than some of the fancier places in Philly. For food and drink I would usually spend about $15-20 a person.
1. Call the place ahead of time to see if they have reservations available for brunch. A lot of places don't, in that case I would ask the restaurant their off-peak brunch hours when the wait is not so ridiculous.
2. Check their website or yelp page to see if they accept credit card. In Philadelphia there's still a lot of popular places that don't accept credit cards.
Finding a great brunch spot in Philadelphia isn't a problem, there are so many amazing cafes and restaurants in the different neighborhoods that cater to whatever your heart desires. Finding one with no line on a Sunday without reservation is a different matter. There are two spots in Philadelphia that I really love (as in if anyone from out of town comes and visit I will most likely drag them to one of these two cafes for brunch). The last spot is a solid place for brunch but the service is super slow so if you are not in the mood to have a chill brunch I would skip it. These places are more affordable than some of the fancier places in Philly. For food and drink I would usually spend about $15-20 a person.
Brunch Survival Tips
1. Call the place ahead of time to see if they have reservations available for brunch. A lot of places don't, in that case I would ask the restaurant their off-peak brunch hours when the wait is not so ridiculous.
2. Check their website or yelp page to see if they accept credit card. In Philadelphia there's still a lot of popular places that don't accept credit cards.
3. Popular places that offers Sunday Brunch in the city sometimes also won't seat you until your whole party arrives so that's something you might want to consider when planning to go to brunch as a group.
4. BYOB & 1/2 priced drinks - some places like Cafe Lift is BYOB. I haven't encountered a brunch place that offers bottomless brunch in Philly but there are a lot of places that are either BYOB or offer special 1/2 price brunch beverages.
Cafe Lift
Cafe Lift is located right off Broad Street and Spring Garden Avenue and it's motto is "Brunch. All Day. Every Day". I used to work right by Cafe Lift and I would eat brunch basically 3 days a week and never on Sundays. They have such an amazing array of food. My favorites are their Lemon Ricotta Pancakes which tastes so heavenly and divine and their Eggs Benedict. When I want to order something hearty I would opt for their crab bisque. There is always a line for Cafe Lift during peak lunch on weekdays and peak brunch hours so I would recommend going in earlier around 10 am.
Green Eggs Cafe (3 Locations)
Green Eggs Cafe is quite a popular place to go in Philadelphia for Brunch. They have 3 locations that are always buzzing with people. They are organic and source food locally. They also have a great selection of vegan options. I went to Green Eggs last week with a friend and since we couldn't decide on savory or sweet dish we decided to split a Chicken & Waffle Benedict (Yes, you read that correctly) and a Creme Brulee French Toast. They also have a lot of fun drink and food specials that are seasonal.
Le Pain Quotidiene
Where do I even start with Le Pain Quotidiene? They are hands down one of the best place to get coffee and pastries. The thing I don't understand is that I've been to Le Pain Quotidiene in 3 different states + the District of Columbia and at every single location on multiple occasions the service is just really bad. Besides their ridiculously slow service however, their food is spot on. They are a chain so it's not like this is something that's strictly based in Philadelphia but the food and coffee are solid. I usually get the Lox Omelette with bread obviously because they have an array of spreads, one of which is cookie butter/ spekulatius.
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Hope you've enjoyed this Philly Brunch edition of the Hungry Girl's Guide. There's going to be a second installment of places in DC as well coming next month. As always, thanks for reading!
Until next time,
Until next time,
