The Best Places to Eat and Stay in Southwark & around

Windowless, walk-in only, and usually packed, this South Philly izakaya earned a James Beard Award for Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic and a Michelin Bib Gourmand without ever taking a reservation. The menu roams confidently from raw to fried to grilled, cod skin crisped to a chip, chirashi bowls stacked with caviar and ikura. Regulars who know the right people find their way to the omakase counter tucked in the back, which is its own argument for becoming a regular.

1. James Beard Awards 2026 · Winner · Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic · Jesse Ito
2. James Beard Awards 2024 · Nominee · Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic · Jesse Ito
3. James Beard Awards 2023 · Nominee · Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic · Jesse Ito

A counter inside a historic row house is where the kitchen and the dining room become one thing, which is more or less the point. Provenance is a modern seafood tasting menu where Korean and French influences trade off through a parade of pristine fish, dry-aged proteins, and sauces that do the heavy lifting. The Michelin star and a James Beard semifinalist nod for pastry suggest the ambition runs the full length of the meal.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Star
2. The Infatuation Infatuation’s Highest-Rated Restaurants In America
3. Bon Appétit America's Best New Restaurants

Tell anyone in Philadelphia you're heading to Zahav and they'll nod like you've said something smart. This Israeli restaurant in Society Hill runs on a format where everyone starts with the same salatim and mezze, then the table splits into skewers or slow-smoked lamb shoulder territory. That lamb has become the thing people talk about on the train home. Reservations drop weeks out, so set a reminder.

1. AAA Four Diamonds
2. Eater The All-Time Eater 38
3. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

One communal table, four kitchen seats, and a tasting menu that runs three hours minimum, because the team is not in a hurry and neither should you be. Ambra is high-end Italian tasting, with house-made pasta, warm focaccia, and a beverage pairing that isn't optional. The New York Times named it among Philly's 25 best, and Philadelphia Magazine put it at number four on their annual list.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
2. Philadelphia Magazine #4 · 50 Best Restaurants in Philadelphia
3. The Infatuation #14 · The 25 Best Restaurants In Philadelphia

A BYOB fine dining room in Bella Vista small enough that the handwritten menus feel like personal notes from the kitchen. The chef's Asian-influenced seafood changes with the seasons, leaning into combinations that sound odd on paper and make obvious sense on the plate. Bring a bottle, settle in, and let the prix fixe do the work. A 2025 James Beard Outstanding Hospitality semifinalist, which tracks for a room this attentive.

1. The Infatuation #11 · The 25 Best Restaurants In Philadelphia
2. Philadelphia Magazine #38 · 50 Best Restaurants in Philadelphia
3. Eater The 38 Best Restaurants in Philadelphia

1. Eater Best Bakeries
2. Philadelphia Magazine Talami · Most Memorable Bites

Cute tile floors and globe lights in a relaxed Old City row house, and the menu reads like someone just got back from Lyon and had a lot of feelings about it. Chef Christopher Kearse runs a modern French bistro where escargot and frog legs share the card with dry-aged duck, all handled with a genuinely classical hand. Grab a bar seat up front for snacks if you're not committing to the full dining room.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
2. Philadelphia Magazine #37 · 50 Best Restaurants in Philadelphia
3. Eater The 38 Best Restaurants in Philadelphia

The corned beef and pastrami sandwiches here are the kind that require a game plan before you pick them up. This old-school Jewish deli in Queen Village has been feeding Philadelphia for as long as anyone can remember, with a menu that runs from Reubens and smoked fish to cheesesteaks and a full breakfast. The Michelin Guide awarded it a Bib Gourmand, which tracks. Come hungry and do not make afternoon plans.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

A boutique hotel sitting essentially next door to Independence Hall, the Monaco is Kimpton doing something a little looser and more playful than usual: brighter colors, a whimsical streak, less corporate gravitas than you'd expect from a building in the heart of Philadelphia's business district. Center City has no shortage of stiff, conservative hotels, and this one cheerfully ignores that tradition. Selected by the Michelin Guide.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

Thirteen rooms tucked into a pair of former South Street rowhouses, Yowie is a boutique hotel from a designer who spent years at Ralph Lauren before coming home to Philadelphia. The brick exterior is classic Queen Village, but inside it runs minimalist and colorful, full of the same eye that built her homewares shop downstairs. There's no front desk, just a self-check-in that feels less like hospitality protocol and more like borrowing a very stylish friend's apartment.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

Rooms named Ben and Betsy, after the neighbors who made this street famous, set the tone at this low-touch, apartment-style hotel in Old City. No front desk fuss, just an iPad stocked with neighborhood intel and urban-loft interiors with contemporary furniture. It's the kind of place that assumes you'd rather feel like a resident than a guest, which, on one of Philadelphia's most historically loaded blocks, is not a bad assumption.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

Purple walls, tatami tables on one side, and a menu that has no interest in what everyone else is doing right now. Roxanne is a small creative restaurant in South Philly where the chef named the place after her mother and mostly just wants to cook. The dishes are few and the seasoning is confident, duck arriving with a wedge of Stilton as if that were always the plan. It probably was.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
2. The Philadelphia Inquirer The 76

Botanical prints on pale walls, a red brick patio out back, and an Italian Mediterranean restaurant that treats a seasonal wine list as seriously as the kitchen treats pasta. The bucatini and the clams suggest the Mediterranean mindset is more than decorative. Queen Village locals who know their way around a wine list fill the bar up front while the dining room stays unhurried.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
2. Philadelphia Magazine 2025 · Best Sommelier · Best of Philly · Jamie Harrison Rubin

The kind of New American restaurant where your water glass refills before you notice it's low and plates disappear at exactly the right moment. The executive chef, who came up through Noma and Vernick, brings a menu worth slowing down for in a dining room that rewards lingering. Old City has plenty of options, but few rooms where the service feels this quietly choreographed.

1. Philadelphia Magazine #40 · 50 Best Restaurants in Philadelphia
2. James Beard Awards 2023 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Restaurateur · Ellen Yin - High Street Hospitality Group

1. Punch Best New Bartenders · Sam Pritchard
2. Philadelphia Magazine #8 · 50 Best Restaurants in Philadelphia
3. James Beard Awards 2025 · Semifinalist · Best New Bar

1. The Philadelphia Inquirer The 76

1. The Philadelphia Inquirer The 76

1. The Philadelphia Inquirer The 76

1. Philadelphia Magazine 2025 · Best New Old Bar · Best of Philly

1. Bon Appétit America's Best New Bars
2. Esquire Sadōtini · The Best Martinis in America
3. Philadelphia Magazine 2025 · Best New Cocktail Bar · Best of Philly

1. Philadelphia Magazine 2025 · Best Throwback Dessert · Best of Philly

1. The Infatuation #5 · Philadelphia’s Best New Restaurants

1. Philadelphia Magazine Hoagies & Antipasto · Most Memorable Bites

1. Eater The Best New Restaurants in America