(upbeat music) - [Kae] Hi, I'm Kae Lani Palmisano.

Each week, three different guests recommend their favorite restaurants, then try each other's picks and come together to tell us what they think, right here on "Check, Please."

(upbeat music continues) Hi, I am Kae Lani Palmisano and welcome to "Check, Please" the show where regular people from all over the Philadelphia area recommend and review their favorite restaurants.

So here's how it all works.

Every week we have three guests.

Each guest recommends their favorite restaurant and then the other two go check them out to see what they think.

This week, director of marketing, Sarah Carter, says they know where to get good old Southern cooking.

But video producer Curt Riedy's Camden County pick is a blast from the past.

But up first, teacher Gwen Blackshear is here to school you on Philly's tastiest Cambodian BYOB.

This is Sophie's Kitchen in South Philly.

(upbeat music) - My name is Sophie Neth and I'm chef here.

Sophie's Kitchen is family owned.

All my kids, like my boys work here.

They're all like, you know, my sous chef.

Cambodian food is, I would say a lot of ingredients.

We use a lot of kuru, which is lemongrass, paste, it's a whole lot of herbs and garlic, cuff lime leaf, la ganga, like that's all main ingredient is the lemon grass paste.

We use it for everything.

Yes.

So Sophie's Kitchen, actually it's from my kitchen is where I started with my parent and then after they retired, me and my kids, we were like, you know, like we wanted to keep the Cambodian food, the culture and everything, you know, we wanted to keep it going, and they agreed.

So we saw this spot in Kanya, "Okay, this can be us."

Like I just want people to know Cambodian food and our culture and, you know, and family wise, like I always stick with that like, you know, be around my kids and my family.

(upbeat music continues) - Gwen, you love Sophie's.

What makes it so special?

- What makes it special for me is that I saw them from their inception, well when they were at six and Mifflin I believe it was, or six and Morris, it was the grandparents that did the cooking then and the kids would help them in the kitchen.

But eventually they closed down and the kids took it and moved to fifth and Washington and now they've started their own restaurant and it's just authentic.

It's great.

- This time around, you started your meal with the papaya salad.

- [Gwen] Yes.

- How was it?

- It was really good, spicy, pungent, fishy, sweet.

Just excellent.

- [Kae] And you get like a big plate of it too.

- [Gwen] Yes.

Usually it has like the long bean, it has dried shrimp, tomato, peanut.

It's in a fish sauce.

It's really good.

- [Kae] Curt, you tried the wings.

- [Curt] They were fantastic.

I was so excited.

Portions were huge on those by the way, too.

And my wife is a vegetarian so they were all for me.

So I really enjoyed that aspect of it.

But yeah, super crispy right at the top.

The sweet chili sauce was just like tangy and just mixed into that sort of deep fried, and the portions were huge too.

So you know, every bite was a delight.

Loved it.

- Sarah, we're all about having firsts on "Check, Please."

And this was your first time trying quail.

- It was, it was.

I feel a little cliche, but it did taste like chicken.

(everyone laughing) And it also had like the lemongrass dipping sauce and it was wild.

I wanna have that on everything, but it was also, it was a nice portion.

I could share it with the person I was with and it was really crispy.

I would absolutely have it again.

- You are also not really into curries, but Sophie's Kitchen changed your heart.

- It did.

I had the curry sauteed chicken and it was a really rich flavor.

As soon as it went into my mouth, it just felt full and flavorful and it was like, it was so good.

It was perfect with the rice.

It was great with the vegetables.

I wanna have it every week.

- Gwen, you tried for your first time, a seafood soup?

- Yes.

So it was like a seafood pho, almost.

I know pho is Vietnamese, but that's like the closest thing that it reminded me of.

And so it had like the, what was it, rice noodles.

It had like seafood balls, it had shrimp.

There was ground pork.

Yeah, it was spicy.

It had like lime, it had basil, mint, like really good.

- Curt, your wife had the winner dinner.

- She did.

She had the green curry which had this like, amazing texture profile to it, just like a thick curry sauce.

Every element of it was delightful.

I also had the sauteed chicken curry, which I really liked and I have some very similar notes to you or like crispy vegetable.

I think there was like some elements of mint in there, but wow, it was really good.

- And the vegetables, there's like big cuts of veggies, - [Curt] Yes.

- In that curry.

- Yeah, very large pieces of vegetable.

Very crispy and lots to take home at the end for sure.

- And it's a BYO, but they still have some tea.

You tried the Thai tea?

- Mhm, it was really sweet.

I've had Thai tea before but it was really nice.

It was like very thick and very flavorful, very creamy.

So it was really nice and really refreshing to kind of just get a tea, sit down and enjoy company.

- Curt, tell us all about green drink.

- So there was a Asian milk drink.

They have it in a variety of flavors.

I chose the one that has like a bit of like, sort of like a mango simple syrup to it.

But it had such a fun vibe.

It had like big Ecto Cooler vibes.

I am probably dating myself when I say that but if you remember the High Sea "Ghostbusters" drink, it looked exactly like that and you could tell our server was so excited for me to get this drink because she put it down, it has like, it's like the green and then has like a big foamy milk texture at the top and she's like, "Stir it up."

So I grabbed my spoon and she was watching it and it like creates this sort of like milky cool look as you're stirring it up.

It's like very like sort of like tie dye, textural whites and greens.

She's like, "Isn't that cool?"

I'm like, "Yeah."

She's like, "Have some," and I'm like, "It was really good."

It was like a mango flavor, but it also tasted a little bit like bubble gum, like the fake bubble gum, which I love.

(laughs) So I highly recommend it.

It was fun.

It was definitely like a good dessert drink.

I definitely had a couple sips to save that towards the end and I feel like that was the move.

- Gwen, as a frequent diner at Sophie's Kitchen, what do you think of the service?

- It's great.

Most of the waiters there are all related to the owners.

So a lot of nieces and nephews that work there, grandkids.

So I had a waitress, Naya, she was really good.

She was attentive, she just paid attention to everything.

She didn't like go and get lost after she brought my meals.

She was there just like watching to see if I needed anything.

- Gwen, Sophie's kitchen was your pick.

Sum it up for us.

- I would just say authentic Cambodian at a South Philly mom and pop.

- And Curt, what are your final thoughts?

- Oh, I loved it.

You know, I don't really jump into Cambodian food too much, but I loved every aspect of that.

The vegetables were great.

I'm usually not getting into vegetable dishes, but like I could eat a full plate of that curry vegetable dish any day.

I loved it.

I would absolutely be back.

- Sarah, sum it up for us.

- I thought that it was great and flavorful and a really great spot to have like, an intimate conversation with the people you're with.

- Try out Sophie's Kitchen for yourself, located at 522 Washington Ave in South Philly.

215-271-0888, reservations are not accepted and the average tab per person without drinks is $25.

Sarah Carter loves to tuck into their favorite booth for a little southern hospitality.

Craving soul food for brunch, lunch or dinner?

Check out Flannel in South Philly.

(groovy guitar music) - Hi, my name is Marc Grika.

I'm the owner, chef and head dishwasher here at Flannel.

I wanted to bring southern hospitality and southern food here to Philadelphia.

I really fell in love with the people and the food down there.

I think being in New Orleans, when we came back, we saw more strangers in our pictures than pictures of ourselves.

The people are just so friendly and that really makes you feel warm and I wanted comfort food to go along with that.

So that's what we are, southern comfort.

Well we got the name Flannel because my son was on the spectrum and when he was little, he loved all my flannel shirts.

Even when they became rags to use on cars and other things, he would steal them and and take them 'cause they made him feel good.

So therefore we wanted to make the restaurant flannel because it made him feel good.

We think it makes other people feel good.

It's care and honesty, you know?

It's being honest with the products and honest to the guests and care.

It's taking care, every part of the dish for every single guest, every single time.

- Sarah, Flannel is just a piece of southern style in South Philly.

Why did you pick it?

- It is legitimately my favorite restaurant in South Philly.

I take everyone I know there.

I lived in the south for four years and so whenever I go there, it reminds me of the good times that I've had with my friends, the excellent biscuits that I had when I lived down there.

And so it was great to connect over awesome food and just have good conversations with people.

So it really kind of embodies community for me and I love that.

- And you always start off with a classic cornbread.

- I love their cornbread so much.

I always get either that or a biscuit and so that, with their honey butter, is just honestly the best way to start a day.

- [Kae] So they put the butter on the side or is there like a dollop on top?

- [Sarah] They put it on the side, - [Kae] Okay.

- [Sarah] Which is great because I take the whole thing and just put the whole thing on there.

- Curt, you got a trinity of fried foods.

- Yes, perhaps too many pieces of fried food but I was not complaining.

- Is there such a thing?

No, there's not such a thing 'cause it's wonderful.

We got the popcorn cauliflower, we got the fried green tomatoes and we got the fried pickles.

You had that sort of like softer texture within the fried green tomato, but like, that beautiful deep fried crunch to it.

And then like the sweetness of the fried pickle, I loved both of those equally.

And, you know, the deep fried popcorn cauliflower, it had the vibe of like popcorn chicken but with like the crunch of cauliflower in it.

So it was really good.

- [Sarah] My friend and I got the popcorn cauliflower and we had so much food we ended up not eating it.

- Gwen, how were the Cajun chicken bombs?

- They were pretty good.

They were just like, almost like a chicken croquette.

It was just like a fried ball of maybe buffalo chicken and some kind of spicy cheese.

I think it was pimento, maybe, pimento cheese rolled into a ball and then they fried it and then they gave you a side of blue cheese dressing with it.

It just went together great with the salty and spicy of the chicken ball and then the sweetness and the kind of soury taste or sour taste of the blue cheese, together.

- Who knows?

It could have been sugar.

I feel like in southern cooking, they just like put sugar in everything.

You're just like, grits, sugar.

(everyone laughing) - No notes on that.

- They just like to put sugar into everything.

- That and cheese.

- [Curt] Yeah.

- For your entree, Sarah, you have one particular dish that is just something you constantly go to.

What is it?

- I always get the Flannel Benny.

It's the perfect amount.

It's an eggs benedict with pork roll and cornbread, and so it's just got like this excellent flavor.

It's great texture in your mouth because it's like, you get like a different flavor that all compliments each other and so it's the perfect way to start a brunch.

- Gwen, what did you get for your entrees?

- I actually had the hillbilly ossobuco.

So really what it was was like a lamb's neck.

It was huge.

It was on a bed of grits with some sort of like a gravy slash aju slash demi gloss and then it had like onions and carrots that were stewed with the lamb.

So it was falling off the bone.

It was really good.

- Ooh, I had the breakfast burger, which was easily one of the most intense burgers I've ever had.

When I say that it equally distributes every element of a giant breakfast that you've ever had onto a burger, I mean it.

Like every breakfast food item was represented outside of breakfast cereal.

It was like all the breakfast meats.

You have your sausage, your bacon, you have your hash brown, it's all on a smash burger, pimento cheese, Hollandaise sauce.

- [Kae] Wait, was there like french toast involved too?

- [Curt] Yes.

- [Kae] Was that the bread?

- [Curt] The bread was the french toast.

- [Kae] Oh my goodness.

- You had like a perfect blend of breakfast meats, the smash burger, the different types of sauces and cheeses and just melted in your mouth.

- What is this two for 22 situation?

- So when we arrived, we saw they had a two for 22 cocktail special where if you ordered two of the same drink, you got it for two for 22 which was actually a really good deal because the drinks are fairly large in proportion.

So we ended up getting the whiskey espresso martini and myself and my brother-in-law got that as well.

So it ended up being a great deal.

- And Sarah, you got a dessert that is, you called it the best thing you've ever had.

- Yeah 'cause I like to bake, and I love baking lemon things and shortbread.

So I had their blueberry lemon shortbread bar and it was so bright, it was so creamy.

My friend and I split it and we were glad that they had sliced it in half because I would've tried to take the whole thing.

But it was really bright and light and refreshing for after the big like bunch of food that we just had.

It was really nice to have.

- Sarah, going to Flannel is like part of the recipe of having a great day on East Passyunk.

- It's nice.

If it's usually early afternoon, it's great 'cause then I can walk down the ave and support other local businesses like A Novel Idea or Goodbye Supply and stop and pick up some things that I need or things that I don't need.

But it's a great way to start an avenue, start a day of supporting local business.

- Well Sarah, Flannel is your pick.

Sum it up for us.

- Oh I think it's Flannel is a great way to connect with friends, enjoy delicious southern food and support local businesses in Philadelphia.

- And Curt, what's the big takeaway?

- It was a great location.

It's, you know, a nice stroll down all like the bars and shops afterwards.

From South Jersey where I live, it's a very close commute.

So if you're a South Jersey, you know, resident like me, it's a very quick hop across the bridge.

- Gwen, sum up your experience at Flannel.

- It's a comfy, cozy neighborhood restaurant with loud live music and great food.

- Check out Flannel for yourself, located at 1819 East Passyunk Avenue in South Philadelphia.

215-465-1000, reservations are accepted and the average tab per person without drinks is $40.

Curt Riedy's pick might have Pennsauken's most famous, highway side road sign.

But step inside this retro steakhouse and you'll be transported back to the 70s, the 1370s that is.

We're going medieval at The Pub.

(upbeat music) - So my name is Stevie Logothetis and I am the general manager here at The Pub.

Basically we're one of the longest standing steakhouses in the area since 1952.

Well, not a lot has changed.

They still serve on an open fire with charcoal, our steaks of course, some are marinated, some are not.

Very few customers leave here without taking leftovers.

If you've never been here before, you can't understand what it's like until you've walked through the front doors.

We have customers that have been coming here since it's opened.

Their prom dates, their first dates, their engagements, baptisms, christenings and they come back and they bring their children, their grandchildren.

I like socializing, so of course a lot of our customers are repeat customers.

You get to grow with them, you see new generations, you see babies being born, you see grandparents coming in with a newborn.

I'm happy here.

- The Pub is just such an iconic part of New Jersey's landscape for over 70 years now.

Why did you pick it?

- All right, so like stepping back, I have a little story.

So when myself and my wife closed on our home in 2019, one of the first things that our realtor said to us was like, "You need to check out The Pub."

And we're like, "Oh, I think we saw the road sign."

And like, when we drive right across the bridge, he's like, "Just make a date.

You have to check it out."

And that we did and our lives are forever changed because of that decision 'cause it was aesthetically one of the wildest restaurants I've ever been to and one of the most unassuming spots in South Jersey.

- [Kae] Yeah, right off of Route 130, like where all those highways collide.

The sign is so big apparently because, so this place was built in the 1950s and apparently all along the side of the highway, there were other really tall signs.

So when they built "The Pub," they just made their sign the tallest.

But now that's the only sign that's there.

- [Curt] Yes.

- It's just gigantic.

Everyone that has lived in South Jersey has just been like, what is "The Pub?"

You had that experience too.

- Yeah, I grew up in West Stafford and so anytime we were going to Cherry Hill, we would pass this and be like, "What is The Pub?"

I never saw the building but I always saw the sign.

And so when I got the email that I was gonna be going there, I'm like, "Is that the same pub?"

And luckily it was and I got to experience the majesty of it.

- [Curt] Right, 'cause it's such an unassuming name.

You're like The Pub, The Pub could be anything.

Why is this The Pub?

And what I love about the aesthetic of this place is that it feels like two different restaurants, combined into one.

You look to your right and you see like this cocktail bar that looks straight out of like "Mad Men," like 60s, 70s styled "Mad Men."

Like aesthetically it has all of those elements.

And then you walk into the main dining room and it's all hearth style, medieval times, giant flags.

- [Kae] Massive dining room.

- [Curt] Yes, stuff like boars heads and moose heads on the wall and you're like, where am I right now?

- So apparently a lot of the decor actually comes from Scotland.

No one was Scottish.

They just had all this stuff.

So when you go, if you get an entree, you get access to the salad bar.

- Yes.

I love the salad bar.

It is filled with every strange type of pasta you can imagine, multiple types of salad, every accoutrement that you would ever put on a salad, several types of bread.

And one of the great things about the salad bar is that it comes with every like steak and seafood entree but if you're getting some other sort of side dish, it's a $5 add-on.

So it's a hundred percent worth it.

- You might as well.

And of course they're big on steak.

- You definitely have like any type of steak.

You know, I've had like the Texas roadhouse steak there, chicken, fish.

The primary entree I had was this golden brown, butterfly shrimp stuffed with crab, which is the most excessive thing ever.

- [Kae] That sounds decadent.

- [Curt] It was very decadent and I would've absolutely have just, had the deep fried shrimp and been completely fine with that.

But this was just like that hush puppy style thickness to the deep fried outside, and then you have like the big bites of shrimp and then that's just like every bite of that is also encased in like a thick crab meat.

So like just one of those pieces of shrimp and you're like whew, I need to calm down before I enjoy the rest of this meal.

- Gwen, you also got some seafood, the jumbo shrimp?

- Yeah, I got the baked scallop jumbo shrimp and sea scallop dish.

So it was pretty good.

It really wasn't seasoned a lot.

You know, I would say that they probably just seasoned it with salt and pepper, like basic salt, pepper, butter and maybe some lemon.

I think there was lemon on the side.

The seafood, I don't really feel like it was jumbo.

It just seemed like regular sized shrimp and under my seafood was like a platform of bread.

I guess it was kinda like to make it look bigger than it was.

Not really sure.

But it was good though.

And then it also came with mashed potato and string beans, which apparently is the only side that they have.

They said that's all they had.

- Just string beans?

- Yeah, just string beans.

So I was like, oh okay.

Yeah, so they were good.

- Sarah, you started your meal with some seafood as well.

It was the charcoal hickory shrimp.

- Yes.

It was good.

It was like, a little dry.

But other than that, like the flavor was really good.

You could tell it had just come off the grill and it was like, it was something great that I could share.

It was just enough for two people.

- Yeah, so I guess like when they're cooking, they have these big kind of like fire places that they're cooking and it is, all of it's like charcoal, hickory charcoal that they're cooking everything on.

- [Sarah] And we sat right by it, so it was kind of cool to look over and see.

- [Kae] Oh, you got dinner and a show.

- [Sarah] We got dinner and a show.

- [Kae] Oh, that's fun.

- [Gwen] It made the room really warm and cozy.

Like after we ate, we sat there for a while and just talked and had coffee and like, we didn't wanna leave.

- In terms of the service, Gwen, what did you think of the service?

- I had a great waitress.

She paid attention to everything.

She was able to answer all our questions.

She explained everything to us, so I thought she was great.

- [Sarah] We loved Gianna.

She was a delight.

We had a lot of questions about the menu.

She had, "Well this is what I had before the shift.

This is what I'm gonna have later."

We were there about an hour before close and she's like, "I think the pastry chef has left, but let me go track him down to see what's there," so we could get dessert.

And we talked about marching bands for about 20 minutes.

So that was also like, I feel like I got the full personable experience of The Pub.

- The bar menu is also a big deal.

It's lengthy.

What did you order to drink, Curt?

- I ordered a pear martini.

It's called The Pub pear.

It comes with Absolut pear, prosecco, and alta flour.

And it was very Absolut forward, which I love.

I'm not gonna complain about that.

But one of the fun hacks of going to The Pub is that if you order like a martini, you get a sidecar with whatever they make the drink with.

- [Kae] Oh.

- [Curt] So if whatever is in that like final mixing class, it's going into your glass and it's going into a sidecar and both are getting sent to you.

So it's kind of like getting a bonus drink when you're there.

- I got a 1920s old fashioned, which is great 'cause I got the prime rib.

So I felt like I was, you know, back in the 1960s, very fancy, great flavor.

It had the Maraschino cherry in.

So yeah, it was like a nice compliment to my meal.

- Oh yeah.

How was your steak?

- It was... - Say it, say it!

It's all good.

- It was simultaneously cold and dry.

- No!

- We did order it medium rare 'cause we actually split it and got the mashed potatoes and she was really nice and she brought out an extra side of mashed potatoes.

So not only did we each have a good portion, I went up to the salad bar and got some Caesar salad and took the extra bread and then took the leftovers to my dad.

- And desserts, now.

I heard you reference some cheesecake earlier.

- Oh yes.

We were gonna bring it back and share it, but ended up eating the whole thing in the to-go cup while we were sitting at the table because the cheesecake was so good.

It was just like really rich and creamy and just like everything you want in a cheesecake.

- What was the crust like?

Was it graham cracker?

- Oh, I ate it very quickly.

But it was a graham cracker crust, I think, yeah.

- I had some kind of zucchini bread.

I think it was actually, yeah, it was from the salad bar.

We didn't know what it was.

We thought it was banana bread.

But then the waitress came and told us, she says, "Oh no, that's our zucchini bread."

So that worked.

By the time we ate that and we had like coffee or something, you know, it was enough 'cause it was sweet.

- So I got the Hawaiian cake which, it was pretty good.

It was a great meal ender.

It was a nice, big, big slice of cake with little bit of coconut crumbles on the exterior with a little bit of icing and like a pineapple sweetness to the actual cake texture itself.

- [Kae] Ooh.

So the pineapple was in the sponge?

- Yes, it was sort of, I don't know if it was like sort of like a flavoring or a pineapple juice, but it was kind of like mixed into the sponge.

It was really good.

- Curt, this was your pick.

Sum it up for us.

- So if you are in South Jersey or in a close proximity to South Jersey, a hundred percent, I recommend going to The Pub.

Just immersing yourself in a completely wild aesthetic, having a nice piece of steak, having a little salad bar, a very strong drink and just enjoying the simple pleasures of like suburban South Jersey lifestyle.

- Gwen, how would you sum up The Pub?

- I guess medieval meat and potatoes on the side of the highway.

- And Sarah, bring it on home for us.

- As a resident of South Jersey for so long, a checklist in my bucket list.

Let's say I did that.

- Dine like a king at The Pub, located at 7600 Kaighns Avenue in Pennsauken.

856-665-6440, reservations are accepted and the average tab per person without drinks is $45.

So on this week's show, we featured Sophie's Kitchen in South Philly, Flannel in South Philly, and The Pub in Pennsauken.

Special thanks to my guests, Gwen Blackshear, Sarah Carter and Curt Riedy.

Join us next time for three new guests, recommending their favorite restaurants right here on "Check, Please."

And don't forget to find us on Instagram and TikTok.

We're @CheckPleasePhilly.

I'm Kae Lani Palmisano and I'll see you next time!

Here, here.

(upbeat music)