Copied to Clipboard
Philadelphians (and those who visit often) know how amazing the city is, with mural-bejeweled neighborhoods, fawned-over restaurants, praise-worthy bars, treasure-filled museums, awe-inspiring gardens and design-forward hotels.
But don’t take our word.
The national and international press — including Bon Appétit, Travel + Leisure, The New York Times, Eater, Condé Nast Traveler and more (including the James Beard Foundation) — have given Philly plenty of love over the last year, and we’re here for it.
Some of the biggest and best accolades of the year were for the destination itself:
Read on for more of the national and international media’s favorite spots to explore, eat, shop and sleep in Philly.
The Restaurant List 2023: The 50 places in the US that we’re most excited about right now, The New York Times
After plying his trade as executive chef at upscale local Italian and French restaurants, Juan Carlos Aparicio revisited his Mexican origin story, opening El Chingon in in 2022. Within a year, the elevated Pueblan spot — serving dishes inspired by Aparicio’s mother who taught him to cook — finds itself on The New York Times’ 2023 Restaurant List of places the publication is most excited about. Dig into the neighborhood spot’s menu — including Pueblan items both traditional (like tacos al pastor) and non-traditional (try the vegan mushroom tacos árabes), and Aparicio’s signature cemitas with springy bread — and you’ll see why.
Where: El Chingon, 1524 S. 10th Street
Outstanding Restaurant, James Beard Foundation (2023)
In 2023, much-raved-about prix-fixe spot Friday Saturday Sunday picked up its first-ever James Beard Award nomination — then turned around and won the whole thing, snagging the title of the most Outstanding Restaurant in the nation. Anchored by fresh seasonal ingredients, chef Chad Williams’ eight-course tasting menu is expertly complemented by an optional wine pairing inside an intimate upstairs dining room.
Where: Friday Saturday Sunday, 261 S. 21st Street
New Favorite Place to Eat in Philadelphia, Food & Wine
When Amanda Shulman was a student, she threw elaborate dinner parties for her University of Pennsylvania classmates. That’s the vibe at Her Place Supper Club, Shulman’s James Beard Award-nominated restaurant serving a family-style fixed-price menu that feels like one of her college soirees. In 2022, both Esquire and Bon Appétit named the spot one of America’s best new restaurants. Now, the cozy Rittenhouse Square dining space and its Italian-, French- and Jewish-influenced menu finds itself as Food & Wine’s favorite place to eat in Philadelphia, period. Maybe it’s the warm sourdough chocolate chip cookie each guest receives at the end of the meal.
Where: Her Place Supper Club, 1740 Sansom Street
Outstanding Restaurateur, James Beard Foundation (2023)
It’s no wonder High Street Hospitality restaurant group’s Ellen Yin has four James Beard Award nominations (2018, 2019, 2022, 2023) and a semifinalist placement (2017) for Outstanding Restaurateur, which culminated with her massive win in the category in 2023. Two of her Philly establishments — Fork and High Street Philly — have earned multiple foundation nods over the years for their celebrated chefs, with the third, a.kitchen + bar at AKA Rittenhouse Hotel, a 2022 semifinalist for Outstanding Wine Program.
Where: Fork, 306 Market Street
VIEW OTHER LOCATIONS (2)
a.kitchen+bar, 135 S. 18th Street
High Street Philly, 101 S. 9th Street
The Best New Restaurants in America, 2023, Esquire
Best New Restaurants, 2023, Eater
Formerly a beloved pop up, the Afrocentric Honeysuckle Provisions officially opened in a permanent all-day location in 2023 in Philly’s Cedar Park neighborhood — and the nation took notice, with both Esquire and Eater naming the spot one of the best new restaurants in the country for 2023. The publications call out Omar Tate and Cybille St. Aude-Tate’s “destination-worthy” breakfast sandwiches, plantain snack cakes and Haitian potato salad. Also highlighted: the killer selection of hoagies, including the Friday Special with Creole-spiced fried fish, the Dolla on an African benne seed roll and a scratchmade turkey hoagie that Esquire calls, “as delicious as any American sandwich.”
Where: Honeysuckle Provisions, 310 S. 48th Street
Five-Star Rating in the 2023 Stars Awards, Forbes Travel Guide
Occupying the top floors of the 60-story Comcast Technology Center (the tallest building in the U.S. outside New York and Chicago), Jean-Georges Philadelphia is not just the highest restaurant in the city — it’s one of its most outstanding, backing up the claim by being honored as a 2023 Five-Star Award Winner from Forbes Travel Guide. The self-named fine dining spot inside the Four Seasons Hotel Philadelphia from Michelin-starred chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten offers curated four-, six- and eight-course tasting menus. The only thing topping your meal are the sweeping panoramic views out 40-foot-tall windows 1,121 feet above the city.
Where: Jean-Georges Philadelphia, 1 N. 19th Street
Best New Dish in Philadelphia, Eater
One of the most significant names in Philly cheesesteaks is Jim. The original Jim’s Steaks opened in 1939 and remained a West Philly staple for the next eight decades before closing. (Note that Jim’s West is not affiliated with Jim’s South Street, which is temporarily closed, and neither are affiliated with Jim’s Steaks in Springfield, Delco.) In 2023, a grand reopening came, with new owners, a new name — Jim’s West — and a new entry into the cheesesteak wars: a traditional chopped ribeye on an Amoroso’s roll so good that, even in the cheesesteak capital of the world, Eater anointed it the best new dish in Philadelphia for 2023.
Where: Jim’s West, 431 N. 62nd Street
Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic, James Beard Foundation (2023)
In 2020, Kalaya was named Esquire’s best new restaurant in America, among other honors from across the culinary world. But chef-owner Chutatip “Nok” Suntaranon hit the stratosphere in 2023, walking away from the James Beard Awards with the title of Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic. Kalaya was also named to the 2023 Restaurant List of places The New York Times is most excited about. Nok learned the authentic southern Thai cooking served at the restaurant from her mother, for whom the restaurant is named. Learn more about Suntaranon on season 1, episode 25 of Visit Philly’s Love + Grit podcast.
Where: Kalaya, 4 W. Palmer Street
Best Collaboration in Philadelphia, Eater
Philly chef Chad Rosenthal’s vision: a first-of-its-kind platform and launching pad where independent and up-and-coming culinary artists from around the city could create their own dishes and concepts from a shared kitchen attached to four distinct restaurant spaces and a bar. The Lucky Well Incubator in Callowhill gathers a diverse and rotating assortment of chefs and aspiring restauranteurs to offer up an eclectic menu like nowhere else, a partnership that garnered the project a best collaboration in Philadelphia award from Eater.
Where: The Lucky Well Incubator, 990 Spring Garden Street
Best New Restaurants, Eater
It’s hard to open a successful new restaurant in one of America’s great culinary cities. But Rittenhouse Square’s My Loup didn’t seem to have much of a problem, racking up best new restaurant in America honors from both Esquire and Eater, along with being named to The New York Times’ 2023 Restaurant List. My Loup, from married chefs Amanda Shulman and Alex Kemp (of Her Place Supper Club), offers French cuisine with a Quebecois influence and a lot of fun. On the menu: decadent items like roast beef au poivre with frites and horseradish and playful dishes like deep-fried “Philly balls” stuffed with roast pork sandwich fixings.
Where: My Loup, 2005 Walnut Street
In a world where new vegan restaurants are popping up in every neighborhood, what might stand out is authenticity. That’s what’s served at chef Ian Graye’s “intentionally plant-based” Pietramala — authentic and honest vegan dishes without fake meats, shunning reliance on substitutes and putting “Plants on a Pedestal” (which is the eatery’s slogan). Esquire noticed, naming it among the 50 best new restaurants in America for 2023, one of three Philly establishments to earn that honor. The magazine calls out the Northern Liberties bring-your-own spot for its “technical precision and intense passion,” with the restaurant focusing on quality crafted dishes from locally sourced ingredients.
Where: Pietramala, 614 N. 2nd Street
Chef of the Year in Philadelphia, Eater
In a city home to three James Beard Award-winning best chefs (and a dozen more nominees and semifinalists), it’s tough to break through. But that’s what Restaurant Aleksandar’s Montana Houston has done, topped off by a 2023 Eater award for chef of the year in Philadelphia. Houston’s crafty take on contemporary European cuisine has been “able to impress diners from across the region,” exclaims Eater in praising the chef who “excels at applying his flavorful approach to every dish.” The article calls out specialties like chicken schnitzel with Calabrian chili and crispy Brussels sprouts with shishito peppers as favorites.
Where: Restaurant Aleksandar, 126 S. 19th Street
One of the Best Food Markets in America, Food & Wine
Bring an empty stomach and your own grocery tote to the weekend-only Southeast Asian Market in FDR Park, recently crowned one of the best food markets in America by Food & Wine. A community of refugees and immigrants transformed the South Philadelphia space into a bustling cultural landmark boasting upward of 70 vendors from Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia and numerous other nations serving up street food, exotic produce, flavorful spice blends and delicious beverage. The park market’s season is split in two halves: Find it near the Broad Street exit from April to June, and near the Taney Baseball field from July to October.
Where: FDR Park, South Broad Street & Pattison Avenue
The Best Bars in America, 2023, Esquire
It didn’t take long for Andra Hem to catch on. The speakeasy-esque cocktail bar launched in 2022 with no social media or website to bring patrons to the steps of its nondescript entrance. But within a year, the sleek drinkery found national attention, named one of the best bars in America for 2023 by Esquire. Located in an inconspicuous black-painted brick Rittenhouse Square building, Andra Hem offers Scandinavian eats — everything from smörgås sandwiches to salmon rillettes to Swedish meatballs — and an eclectic cocktail menu. For drinks, Esquire highlights the mezcal-and-horseradish Nothing Beets a Dala Horse and the Lambhattan, a Manhattan with a lamb-fat-washed bourbon.
Where: Andra Hem, 218 S. 16th Street
The Best New Cocktail Bars in America, Punch
“Hyperlocal” may be a food industry buzzword, but Kensington’s Post Haste takes the concept’s sustainability message to heart, with its entire inventory coming from this side of the Mississippi, glasses made of recycled liquor bottles from local bars, and reused and recycled décor. But you don’t get named one of Punch’s best new bars of 2023 on effort alone. Post Haste specializes in tasty versions of cocktail classics showcasing local distilleries, including the Escape from Manhattan made with Philadelphia Distilling Red Aperitivo and the ch-ch-ch-ch-Cherry Bomb, made with vermouth from Fell To Earth, Philly’s first vermouthery.
Where: Post Haste, 2519 Frankford Avenue
Is Rittenhouse Square one of the best cocktail bar neighborhoods in America? Well, yes — and somehow it keeps getting better with every grand opening. Enter Superfolie, which took only 116 days from opening day to be named one of Esquire’s best bars in America for 2023. With a name meaning fantastical or wild in fanciful French, the space is, as the article describes, “Frenchy, but not seriously so,” as much a place to crack open a bottle of champagne or Cabernet Franc as one for freezer martinis or an after-work beer. In other words, yet another spot in Rittenhouse that just happens to be among the nation’s best.
Where: Superfolie, 1602 Spruce Street
The 25 Most Important American Craft Beers Ever Brewed, Food & Wine
The Philadelphia region has penned several chapters in the history of modern craft beer, and Food & Wine recently broke down the evolution of that history by pouring through the 25 most important American craft beers ever brewed. Two of those iconic 25 were produced right here in Greater Philadelphia by legendary Downingtown-based Victory Brewing Company, one of the American beer scene’s originators that has four taprooms in the region. Victory’s flagship Hop Devil was recognized as a bold move in the introduction of hoppy East Coast beers, while its Prima Pils helped lead the industry back to a traditional style largely rejected by microbrewers.
Where: Victory Brewing Company Philadelphia, 1776 Benjamin Franklin Parkway
VIEW OTHER LOCATIONS (3)
Victory Brewing Company Downingtown, 420 Acorn Lane, Downingtown
Victory Brewing Company Parkesburg, 3127 Lower Valley Road, Parkesburg
Victory Brewing Company Kennett Square, 650 W. Cypress Street, Kennett Square
Best New Bar in Philadelphia, Eater
Center City’s Vinyl mixes serious drinks, serious music and serious fun into an experience that Eater, in naming it the best new bar in Philadelphia, calls “something special.” Offering live music in a cocktail setting, Vinyl serves up drinks bearing song-inspired names — the article highlights the Let the Devil In and the I Knew You Were Trouble (beloved by Swifties, for sure) — enjoyed in front of a stage featuring inclusive local and touring musicians (John Legend has already stopped by) which transforms into a DJ dance party in late night. The classy-chill vibe is defined by Eater as “the return of the fancy Philly barspot.”
Where: Vinyl, 215 S. 15th Street
The 12 Best Botanical Gardens Across the United States, Fodor’s (2023)
If spring springs in your heart year-round, make a (pollinating) bee-line for Longwood Gardens, named No. 1 on Fodor’s’ list of best botanical gardens across the United States. The travel leader boasts that Longwood leads its rankings as a “charming respite” outside of the city in Kennett Square, and calls out the Chrysanthemum Festival, Festival of Fountains and A Longwood Christmas, along with the orchid house, the silver garden’s prickly plants and springtime blooms in the 1,100 acres of “stunning” gardens. Come back in fall 2024 for Longwood Reimagined, a complete renovation of the institution’s grounds and displays.
Where: Longwood Gardens, 1001 Longwood Road, Kennett Square
Best City for Street Art, USA Today 10Best Readers’ Choice Awards
Alongside works inside institutions like the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Barnes Foundation, some of Philly’s best art lives (for free!) on the walls, bridges and sidewalks of the city. Thanks to organizations like Mural Arts Philadelphia, the living gallery features more than 4,000 murals, sculptures and installations along giant buildings and down intimate alleys across the city. The scene is so vibrant, USA Today’s 10Best named Philadelphia the No. 1 city you must visit to see incredible street art. The article offers A Love Letter For You, a series of 50 rooftop murals visible from the Market-Frankford train, as a highlight of the collection. Start your public art exploration of Philly using our guide to the essential pieces throughout the city.
Where: Various locations including South 13th Street & Locust Street
16 Super Bizarre Landmarks to Visit in the U.S., Time Out
The collections spread across Greater Philadelphia’s dozens of museums can be described as stunning, historic and awe-inspiring. But they can also be weird, and none exude the curious and creepy like The Mütter Museum, which was named one of 16 Super Bizarre Landmarks to Visit in the U.S. by TimeOut. The institution features fascinating medical oddities including anatomical and pathological specimens, wax models, antique medical equipment and even slices of Albert Einstein’s brain and 139 human heads. The piece warns the squeamish to tread lightly before viewing the “human specimens, stomach-churning surgical objects and more bones than you could imagine.”
Where: The Mütter Museum, 19 S. 22nd Street
Top 15 Hotels in the Mid-Atlantic: Readers’ Choice Awards, Condé Nast Traveler
According to readers of Condé Nast Traveler, one of the best hotels in Philly is the AKA Rittenhouse Square, which they chose as No. 2 in their rankings of the top 15 hotels in the mid-Atlantic. The property is a boutique hotel that balances the style and hospitality of an intimate hotel with the space and comfort of a fully appointed luxury residence, an ideal choice for both long- and short-term stays. Located steps from the eponymous park, AKA Rittenhouse Square offers convenient access to the numerous high-end shopping, dining and entertainment options in the neighborhood for which it is named.
Where: AKA Rittenhouse Square, 135 S. 18th Street
Top 15 Hotels in the Mid-Atlantic: Readers’ Choice Awards 2023, Condé Nast Traveler
The Four Seasons Hotel Philadelphia offers spectacular views of some of the city’s most beloved landmarks. In naming it a 2023 Five-Star Award winner, Forbes says the space balances sleek design with warmth and comfort, using dramatic florals, windows and mirrors, and even an infinity pool to bring the outside in. The accommodation’s cutting-edge tech is also noted, perhaps an inevitable trait of this hotel that crowns the Comcast Center. No wonder Condé Nast Traveler readers also anointed the Four Seasons as number five in their list of top 15 hotels in the mid-Atlantic.
Where: Four Seasons Hotel Philadelphia, 1 N. 19th Street
Philadelphia properties fill nearly half of Condé Nast Traveler’s 2023 top 15 hotels in the mid-Atlantic. Voted third overall is Logan Square’s The Logan Philadelphia Located on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, The Logan both nods to Philly’s rich history and exudes modern luxury with fresh color palettes, updated rooms, a full-service spa and health club, and a chic on-site restaurant and bar, all convenient to many of Philadelphia’s most popular attractions.
Where: The Logan Philadelphia
Located right on picturesque Rittenhouse Square, The Rittenhouse continues to wow critics with its proper but friendly service, elegance, and access to the rich vitality of Center City’s dining, culture and neighborhoods. In placing the hotel among its 2023 Five-Star Award winners, Forbes Travel Guide says the property feels “fresh and intimate” and calls out the amenities, including the Lacroix at The Rittenhouse restaurant and the Mary Cassatt Tea Room. Condé Nast Traveler’s Readers’ Choice Awards also voted The Rittenhouse No. 7 among the top 15 hotels in the mid-Atlantic.
Where: The Rittenhouse Hotel, 210 W. Rittenhouse Square
Readers’ 10 Favorite Mid-Atlantic Resorts of 2023, Travel + Leisure
The historic River House at Odette’s location on the Delaware River in the charming Bucks County shopping and dining hamlet of New Hope catapulted the accommodation to No. 1 in Travel + Leisure’s World’s Best Awards: Readers’ 10 Favorite Mid-Atlantic Resorts. The 36-room inn dates back to 1794 and is named for actress Odette Myrtil Logan who ran the Chez Odette bistro and cabaret here in the 1960s. The current property features a piano lounge with live music and a 1970s-inspired rooftop bar offering unobstructed views of the Delaware River.
Where: River House at Odette's, 274 River Road, New Hope
A sleek hotel with upscale dining, a massive fitness center and a legendary hair salon, the Warwick Hotel Rittenhouse Square offers stylish accommodations and designer interiors in the beloved eponymous park neighborhood, enough to be voted No. 8 on the top 15 Hotels in the mid-Atlantic list according to Condé Nast Traveler readers. Guests appreciate the hotel’s chic decor and furnishings while the intriguing script on the walls is a guaranteed conversation starter. Its prime location in Center City means visitors can easily walk and tour all the amazing shopping, dining, cultural and historic attractions Philadelphia has to offer.
Where: The Warwick Hotel, Rittenhouse Square Philadelphia, 220 S. 17th Street
The 10 Best Hotels in Philadelphia, Forbes, 2023
Let’s be honest: Philly has no shortage of spectacular lodging options. In a 2023 ranking of the 10 best hotels in Philadelphia, Forbes outlines the top options for every brand of traveler.
Where: Various locations including The Dwight D, a City House Hotel, 256 S. 16th Street
The only way to fully experience Philly? Stay over.
Book the Visit Philly Overnight Package and get free hotel parking and choose-your-own-adventure perks, including tickets to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Franklin Institute, or the National Constitution Center and the Museum of the American Revolution.
Or maybe you’d prefer to buy two Philly hotel nights and get a third night for free? Then book the new Visit Philly 3-Day Stay package.
Which will you choose?