Post Punk Kitchen Forum

Really? I loved the benedict. Though I think they might have changed it up a bit since I last had it...

I've only had it once, about three months ago. Huge block of plain, spongy tofu with a cold watery sauce. It was sad.

One a positive note... I had some crazy-good pizza for dinner at Blackbird: a slice with daiya, broccoli rabe, spinach, and whole cloves of roasted garlic. Holy shiitake.

Gross. The last time I had it was over a year ago and it was surprisingly fantastic. There was avocado involved, which I was skeptical about but it was really nice and the whole thing was perfectly put together. Not that I've been to Mi Lah a ton but it seems like food quality can vary quite a bit between each visit..

Jut wanted to add my love for Blackbird. This weekend, I called in an order for an avocado and sausage pizza. When we got there, they apologized and said it was overcooked and they were making a new one that should be done soon. We were only waiting an extra 10-15 minutes. Not a big deal. The guy there (wish I got his name) said it was free because it was his mistake. We said that was not necessary and that we wanted to pay for it, but he was really insistent that he wouldn't accept payment for the pizza. I couldn't believe how nice they are and what good customer service they have. For some minor mistake that they didn't even have to acknowledge (could have just said the pizza's not ready and not said anything went wrong), they gave us a free pizza (that is normally like $20). As usual, it was really delicious. I've had the cheeseless tomato slices, pepperoni and this avocado-sausage-daiya, and they've all been awesome.

All this talk of Blackbird is making my mouth water. Need. Pizza. Now.

I really want them to do a deep-dish sicilian pizza.

Anybody wanna do another pizza night this Thursday?

I still haven't been yet!

Speaking of Scillian style pizzas. I have heard conflicting info on how the crust is made. Does it normally have eggs or not? I called a couple of places near me and they all said no. But a few weeks ago I was with friends and we ordered a Scillian tomato pie (from a place I've never eaten at before) and they all told me that it wasn't vegan because the crust had egg and that all Scillian pizza crust have egg.

True/False, anyone know?

I also looked up recipes online before and didn't see any that called for eggs.

GraciaKai, I have no clue! I figured it was the same as regular crust, but more of it? But, like regular crust, I'm sure the ingredients depend on the location. Love me some good Sicilian pizza.

Blackbird is now open for lunch! 11am! This is so bad..

I agree, I think the ingredients change from pizza place to pizza place with the use of eggs/dairy in the dough. And sometimes the dough is not even vegetarian :)

today's groupon is for sweet freedom!!!! philadelphia PA- $5 for $10 worth of vegan GF cupcakes, cookies, muffins & more at Sweet Freedom Bakery

i can't believe i've still never gone. slap me on my wrists please.

Just bought it! I took my son to a friends Birthday Party over the weekend and the birthday cake was from Sweet Freedom. It was good.

I don't think this Thursday will work for me but I definitely want to go soon! I want to try their sandwiches.

Dude, I totally forgot about Sweet Freedom!

I want to support Sweet Freedom, but so far, I've only liked one thing I got there. I tried a cupcake, I think vanilla with vanilla frosting. The frosting was kind of granular and just had a weird taste. Then, i tried the chocolate chip cookie sandwich, which was kind of oily with cream inside that tasted similar to the frosting. This weekend, I went back after not going for a while, and I tried the banana-chocolate chip bread, recommended by the cashier (who I think may be a co-owner). It was so bad, I am about to give up. It tasted undercooked. The whole center was mushy and gummy and tasted like raw chickpea flour. The only thing I tried that was good was a berry crumble bar, but I had a similar apple one this weekend that was not good. They're really nice, people and I want to like more of their products. What have you guys tried that's good?

I got the Groupon, too, because I am there at least every other week. The only thing I'm not crazy about at Sweet Freedom is probably the cupcake, but I would rather eat a cupcake there than anything from Vegan Treats. It tastes less artificial to me and I care more about healthy, natural ingredients than I do about it tasting like a Tastykake. And it's not bad, they have managed to develop a pretty decent gluten-free product. Of course it doesn't taste like one of those giant cupcake abominations that Americans are used to.

The owners are amazing, they really care about what they offer for people with allergies, and for those looking for a healthier indulgence. I also feel a million times better after eating the treats here and I don't crash after having them.

I hate sugar and fun and rainbows.

I highly recommend the cookie sandwiches, which taste best frozen and are seriously addictive. Get the pumpkin or gingerbread cookie sandwich if they have it. I also like the daily fruit crumble and the brownie (on the fudgy, gooey side, if that's your preference).

Yeah, and I've never been back.

My food was amazing (I had the tofu benedict), but everything else, mainly the service, was TERRIBLE. I normally don't even care about that, but it was just insane. I bugged my boyfriend to go there forever, and we finally went. We made our reservation for an hour after they opened, and when we got there it was us and 3 other tables (and a few upstairs as well). It was a prix fixe menu/price, but they were out of both the mimosa mix AND coffee cups (an hour after opening without the place being full, really?). So they gave us plain orange juice and coffee in styrofoam cups- halfway full. We had to ask for soymilk, which they brought on a plate (are we cats? there was, like, one tablespoon of soy milk. On a plate.). Our waiter didn't take our order for about a half hour (again, I really don't usually care about this type of thing, but it was ridiculous), and meanwhile the radio was blasting "Sexyback." At this point the 1/4 cup of coffee and 1/2 cup of orange juice we were given was gone, but another half hour went by without seeing our waiter. When he came back, we asked for more of each (plus more soymilk, please!) and decided to order before we never saw him again. I got the tofu benedict and my boyfriend got the lumberjack platter. The rolls and scones came out next, which were yummy. Not out of this world, but not bad either. I love a plate of scones that I can actually eat, so they probably could've been bad and I would've devoured them. Now, I don't know if this is because I've worked in a lot of restaurants, but one minute after we got our plate of goodies our main dishes came out. Kind of weird timing for having have sat for over an hour prior to this. Oh, and we still didn't have anything to drink. Or utensils. So, we had to find our waiter (took about 10 minutes), and asked for utensils, coffee (we decided to just give up on the OJ), soy milk, and salt. The dude came back and said they didn't have salt (???), and that he had to make more coffee. He brought utensils though, so we started to eat. I loved mine, it was delicious. My boyfriend nicely said that he would rather my pancakes, and didn't eat half of his food. I do have to say that his comment made me pretty happy, though. He was saying how he couldn't have brunch without coffee, and I was kind of on the same page. We finally got more- still not in a mug or more than half full, but no soymilk. We just drank it black. Then we went home and I made him some waffles.

Honestly, the food was great (at least the benedict was. The scones were scones that a non-vegan would understand as being "vegan food"). However, it's actually the only place we've ever not gone back to because of the terrible service. We paid a prix fixe price, but didn't get a few things that we paid for (the "unlimited" mimosas and coffee... and salt). Plus, the fact that we spent the whole morning (and half of the afternoon) laughing about how terrible the service was.... that's not really something you go back to. I'd say, go and make your own judgment. Maybe our waiter was fired and they're great now.... ?

I'm going to be in the Philadelphia Weekly events section on (next?) Wednesday, can someone scan it or something? Or grab me a copy?

I'll look for it!!!


I ended up not going to Mi Lah last weekend so if anyone dares go in the future, I will have to try it. Amandah I go to Mi Lah all the time and yeah the service is always in need of improvement. But your experience sounds insane! No wonder you never went back; I wouldn't after something like that.

Yeah, I mean, I really don't get mad that easily, and it wasn't so much that I was mad, but that I spent so much time there and my boyfriend left hungry. We laughed about it, but I mean, how do you run out of coffee cups and not have salt? haha

Seriously! A restaurant not having SALT??? I would have assumed Ashton was punking me.

I agree that the tofu omlette is good, but really big. The biscuits from the sausage and biscuits were really dry and hard.

Yech, Mi-Lah is so overpriced for such gross food. I've never had any bad service experiences like any of you, just inedible food that I paid too much for. I tried the tofu omlette, and wow..it had this weird cheese on it, the mushrooms tasted funky and it was covered in a thick layer of grease. My boyfriend on the other hand had the yards beer battered seitan and waffles, which was good, but nothing I'd write home about.

I would really recommend A Full Plate Cafe in Northern Liberties for brunch, it's probably the best in the city for price, quality and quantity. Their granola-crusted french toast and YUM homefries are really nice...and they usually have a vegan baked good they give out complimentary. You can eat for 2 there for under $20, which I like a lot.

Speaking of brunch, I am finally trying Sprig & Vine for brunch this Sunday...I am very excited, I have heard nothing but amazing things about this place. The menu sounds great too, I don't know what to get. Does anybody know if I need to make reservations for brunch? Does it tend to be busy?

Also, I would like to take a minute to declare how much I love Blackbird. I had probably the most amazing sandwich ever...it was the tofu cubano. Thinly sliced tofu, upton's pepperoni, thinly sliced pickles, caramelized onions, grain mustard aioli, and daiya, flat grilled with yum, crunchy bread!!! Complete mouthgasm...and they just started opening for lunch today!

I reeeeally want to try A Full Plate! It sounds awesome.

Let's!