Monk's Spanish Flies: The hottest wings in Philly

I like spicy food. Generally, when I order wings, I ask for the hottest ones without a second thought. I'm here to tell you that if you are like me, and decide to go to Monk's, you are about to make a mistake.

The culprit (Photo by Dave Hong)

These wings are painfully spicy. I was dining with my good friend Callen, and we had a great night. It's fantastic to get someone who regularly drinks Miller Lite to enjoy a Delirium Tremens. As usual, the mussels here were fantastic. This was also my first time sitting at the back bar, and I love the atmosphere back in that little room.

The wings are a slowly growing fire in your mouth, and it sticks with you. One of the worst things is that if you have any other food or beer, you can forget about tasting it. Luckily, I saved the wings for last. By the end of the six wings I ate, I was visibly sweating and involuntarily crying. I'm not sure if that's embarrassing. These may be the hottest wings I've ever had.

Bottom Line: If you're looking for a challenge with incredibly hot wings. Stop by Monk's. Order these to go. Then take them home so people don't see you cry.

Essentials:

264 S. 16th Street (16th and Spruce)

215-545-7005

Spanish Flies: $8.50
Avg Beer: 6-8

Cash only: No

Reservations: No

The Abbaye's "Speed" Lunch

Shame on me. I keep going to the Abbaye, despite knowing what I'll inevitably encounter. Yesterday Dan and I hit up the Abbaye for lunch. We waited for about five minutes for beers. We were not even offered the speed lunch menu; I had to go snag it from another table.

For beer, I had Atwater Voodoo Vader, and then moved to Phoenix Pale Ale. All of the beers were warmer than usual (think cask temperature). We both decided to try out the sliders and split an order of wings. The wings are advertised as Chimay marinated, but I didn't taste it. They were served with side of pathetic, watery blue cheese "dressing." All in all, they weren't terrible, but I wouldn't recommend them. The sliders, however, are a great value. $6 gets you two little sliders with one topping. They come with a side of fries, a pickle, and the Abbaye's fantastic dipping sauce. Considering the meal alone, I was satisfied.

But when my credit card sits on top of the check for ten minutes, it's poor service. Lunch was busy, but by the time we were trying to pay, there were only a few people left from the lunch rush. The word "speed" shouldn't be allowed in the Abbaye's lexicon. And while I'm complaining, let's talk about "Keep the Glass" night. Cool promotion. But having four taps from one brewery days after the event? I'm not interested in any one of those four from Manayunk brewery (Despite the face the Alpha Dog is surprisingly good).

Botton Line: The food here is generally great, and there's always a decent beer, but the service is subpar. Terrible Horrible. Ect, ect.

Essentials:

637 N 3rd St (3rd and Green)

(215) 627-6711

Avg Ent: 9-16, Speed lunch $5-7, served M-F 12-2pm

Cash only: Card accepted and ATM on site

Reservations: No

Tommy DiNic's and Flying Monkey

My good friend Brent came into town and we hit up our old favorite, Reading Terminal Market for lunch. While there are so many good tried and true options for lunch, I was tempted to try out a new spot. Tommy Dinic's serves up slow roasted pork and roast beef, and it is awesome. For the market, it's one of the better values for food. It's along the lines of John's Roast Pork, but also offers toppings. We had a roast beef sandwich is provolone and broccoli rabe. It's a unique sandwich that is delicious; RJD2 agrees. If you're a meat eater, this should definitely be one of your future stops at the market.

For dessert, I also passed on my favorite cookie stand and walked over to Flying Monkey for cupcakes. We had chia tea and peanut butter chocolate cupcakes. The frosting was excellent, but the cupcake was subpar. If you're going to charge 2-3 dollars per cupcake, I expect an all-around outstanding product. I did, however, purchase a double chocolate dipped peanut butter sandwich. This was incredible. Flying Monkey seems to offer mixed dessert, if overpriced.

It was a great trip to Reading Terminal Market, and I was glad to try out some new spots. This is an around great stop for produce, meat, cheese, spices, coffee, and prepared food.

Essentials:

12th and Arch

Hours: 8am-6pm, Sun 9am-4pm

A Full Plate

A Full Plate is a nice little BYO cafe in Northern Liberties. I met up with my good friend Manderson for dinner last week. But I'm having a hard time thinking of anything to write, because the overall experience is so...so....extremely mediocre. I hadn't visited in a while, because last time I was less than thrilled. This visit was no exception.

I do like the cool little vibe this cafe has going. It has a great atmosphere, and I like the friendly menu. Vegetarians, vegans, and glutenfrees will have no trouble eating here. Also, all of the food is fresh. The service wasn't great, but there seemed to only be two or three people working; weird for a weeknight dinner.

There was one fantastic part of the meal: The fries. We split a side of fries, which was a mix of hand cut sweet and regular potatoes. They were thick and perfectly cut. They were also a good compliment to my catfish po'boy, which had two huge pieces of fried catfish. Melissa ordered a salad that looked pretty good, but also pretty small. The prices aren't cheap, but they're not unreasonable either.

Bottom Line: I like that this place is BYO. There are also a few other place I'd rather go within walking distance. I know a lot of people who really love this place, so maybe you should talk to them instead of me. I don't see myself visit again. Honey's for dinner seems to be a much better option, and is also BYOB.

Essentials:

1009 N Bodine St (Liberties Walk)

215-627-4068

Hours: M-TH: 11-9, F: 11-10, Sat: 10-10, Sun: 10-3

Cash Only: No

Reservations: No

BYOB: Yes

SPTR

I've been to the South Philly Taproom a few times. I don't think I need to write an extensive review. I believe that most people who are likely go there already know what I'm about to write: It has some of the best beer and food under one roof in all of Philadelphia. And a cool vibe on top of that. On one of the quite snowy nights this last week, I went out with my friend Danny for dinner.

The beer list was great, as usual. I believe it was all American craft beer. There was a good selection of different styles, ABVs and regions in the country, which was awesome. I started with the Java Head stout from Troegs. This well made coffee stout paired well with the snowy evening. I had another drink, and tried a pair of Danny's, but I don't remember all of them. The beer list changes so often, that I don't really need to comment on what they were, because they're long gone.

One annoying factor was how dark and loud this place can get. Granted, it was a Friday night, but we had trouble reading the menu and hearing each other. Partly that was due to the incredibly drunk table next to us, which went from funny to annoying a few moments. This place is cozy but not cramped, and I usually love it here, but on this evening the atmosphere could have been a bit better. Our server did a good job despite the fact that the place was pretty busy.

The menu is a little small, but it's always accompanied with a nice amount of specials. We both ordered cheeseburgers for dinner. Before coming here, I've had the burger, and remember it being good. But it's more than that. It's excellent. Although paying $1 for the two small strips of bacon was a waste. Overall, it's one of my favorite burgers in the city. The bun and cheese are great, topped with lettuce, tomato and onion and special sauce. The meat is well seasoned and cooked. Overall, it's a great execution from every aspect. To boot, it's served with fries and pickled veggies. They serve it with a special "ketchup" which I didn't like, but you can get the real stuff by just asking.

Bottom Line:

I like this place for brunch, dinner, or just drinks. It has a great happy hour from 4 to 6. It's one of the best bars in the city. I just wish it was closer to my house. It's not getting the most outrageous lineup of beer, but I'd rather have a solid place that I can always count on. And that's exactly what SPTR is.

Essentials:

1509 Mifflin St

215-271-7787

Hours: 11am-2am

Avg Ent:9-14

Cash Only: No

Ants Pants Cafe

Lana and I used to love going here. It was a nice little place that no one seemed to know about, great coffee, and opens at 7am on the weekdays. It had been over a year since my last visit, so I was excited to go. I met with my friends Quinn and Nicole before we were going to head to a Penguins/Flyers game. This little cafe has a cool Australian theme.

It is really crazy on weekends. A space that is cute during the week quickly becomes cramped and uncomfortable. It was very busy, but that's not an excuse for the terrible service we received. I had to flag down our server even to get a refill of coffee, and we were never checked on after we got our food. I also remember the food being really good, and the breakfast potatoes (chips) blowing me away. The chips were a complete waste. Don't order them. They have a good range of specials, and the menu is varied enough to please almost anyone.

Bottom Line: The food was good, but not great. It's doubtful you'll even remember what you ate within a few days. However, there are several positive aspects of Ants Pants: The coffee here is great. They have decent grab and go breakfast foods, so it would definitely be a regular stop for me if I lived closer by. I'd like this place to be in my neighborhood, but it's too far away for me to justify the trip.

Essentials:

2212 South St

215-875-8002

Hours: M-F 7-4, S&S 8-3

Avg Ent: 5-10

Cash Only: Yes

Reservations: No

BYOB: No

Amada: Restaurant Week

As soon as I found out the dates for Restaurant week, I was on the phone making reservations at Amada within minutes. I met up with Quinn for drinks at Eulogy, and we then headed over for our 8pm reservations. We only waited a few minutes before we were seated. Amada is a huge, sprawling restaurant. The decor in the front in like a classy general store with a nice long open bar, while the back turns into a normal dining room after the open air kitchen.

Quinn had done a good bit of research (and I hadn't) and picked out everything that we ordered. Amada, like Chifa, is tapas inspired. Small dishes, meant for sharing, populate the table during the whole meal. For our first course, we started with an aged Manchego cheese. It was served with honey and apple slices, and the combination of these three were heavenly. We also ordered Serrano Ham, a thinly sliced antipasta style dish. This was good, but lacked the flavor to carry itself. The texture was more impressive than the taste. We followed up with goat cheese and roasted veggies on bread; nothing memorable here. We also had an order of garlic shrimp, and this tasted great.

The second course started with seasoned wild mushroom. I can't stress enough: These were amazing. That dish was one of the best things I've tasted in months. Excellent mushrooms in an even better marinade. We rounded out the second course with grilled chorizo, which was very good. We also had lima bean salad. It was okay. It had a weird texture and there were many menu ideas I would have rather tried. Lastly, we had grilled calamari, and that was great, too.

We had each of one of the desserts. I'm not a huge dessert person, and neither of these were that good. The best part was a complimentary almond wafer, which was basically a larger delicious fortune cookie.

For drinks, I usually don't expect much from nice restaurants. Amada, however, has a good, small selection. They have one representative from several styles: pilsner, IPA, lager, red ale, and stout. And they're all solid selections and normally priced. I had two Founders' Centennial IPA. Quinn stuck with the sangria and enjoyed that a lot. Amada has an extensive wine list, but I ignored it.

Bottom Line: It's easy to see why this spot is wildly popular. I've heard that it's even better off restaurant week. The atmosphere is cool and the service was great (Thanks Shelly!). Overall, the menu contains some hit or miss items, which is unfortunate. I was pleased with my meal, but this isn't at the top of my list for places to eat in the city. With the exception of the lima beans, everything was very good at the least, and spectacular at best.

Essentials:

217 Chestnut St

215-625-2450

Hours: Weekdays, 11:30-2:30, 5-10; weekend 11:30-2:30, 4-12

Avg meal: 40-60

Cash Only: No

Reservations: Required