Restaurant Review: Chifa (Philly)
Posted by Jess - 03/06/10 at 08:06 am Chifa 707 Chestnut St., Philadelphia, PA 19106http://www.chifarestaurant.com/
Food: If you’re not tiring of the tapas trend (and we admit we are), you cannot be disappointed with Chifa. We were there with a group for restaurant week and were able to do a global tour of the menu. One of our Iron Chef Jose Garces’s little kingdom, Chifa’s cuisine is meant to replicate culinary influence of Chinese immigrants in Peru. Obscure? You bet. Tasty? Absolutely. Our favorites were the spring rolls, pho, and red crab curry.
Drink: As long as money is no object, you’ll be fine! By which we mean, eek! The wine bottle prices are daunting. And while I typically tell myself the prices are due to the fine and rare quality vintages on offer… I found it hard to suspend disbelief when our server brought out a familiar bottle of Alsatian wine for $40. It strongly resembled the kind we used to get in grad school in Europe because it was the cheapest on the supermarket shelves (about $5 but hey that’s Europe for you). I also sampled the lychee sangria (LOVE lychee!!!) which I will give a solid good. My fellow diners all got “vodka and club” which went down as happily as it does for them at every other restaurant in the city (they are wise…).
Bathroom Rating: What is with our city and the unisex bathroom? I thought we had exhausted the funny factor when the Ally McBeal series came to an end. Apparently not. In any case, here’s what I can tell you. It’s dark and it can be disconcerting when a man pops out of a stall in front of you (see, men in weird places). Anyhoo, WE spent our time in the bathroom combing the dark shadows under the sink in search of my sister’s lipstick. Dark, dark shadows + black tube of lipstick = challenging. Also, bare fingers on a public bathroom floor……. well, at least the soap had a clean and pleasant lavender fragrance.
High Heel Quotient: Meh. You can walk it from Market East station (better if you catch get the Broad St Line express to 8th and Market). Unless it’s raining, you forget your umbrella, you wear new heels that pinch your toes, or you are too stubborn to let your boyfriend drive all the way across the city and back just to drive you. Or wait, maybe that’s just us.
Eye Candy: Um, its dark. Very dark.
Waitstaff: Friendly and professional, tolerated (barely) our noisy antics.
Overall Rating: 3.8 out of 5
