Philadelphia Food Critics Reveal the Best Dishes They Ate This Week Featuring Italian and Turkish Delights
The Philadelphia Inquirer’s food team recently published their weekly roundup of standout dishes, highlighting a mix of sweet and savory items found across the city’s neighborhoods. For the week ending January 31, 2026, writers Jenn Ladd, Esra Erol, and Kiki Aranita focused on comfort foods suitable for the winter season, specifically praising items from Roxborough, Northern Liberties, and South Philly. The list encompasses a unique take on Italian pastries, traditional Turkish dumplings, and warming soups.
The standout sweet item mentioned is the Maritozzi from Dead King Bread in Roxborough. Traditionally, Maritozzi are Roman sweet buns sliced open and filled with copious amounts of whipped cream. However, the version highlighted by the critics incorporates a modern twist, utilizing lemon curd and whipped labneh—a strained yogurt cheese common in Middle Eastern cuisine—instead of standard sweetened cream. This modification likely adds a significant tangy profile to balance the sugar, though purists of Roman pastries might argue that replacing the traditional panna with labneh deviates too far from the classic experience.
On the savory side, the team identified “homey Turkish dumplings” in Northern Liberties as a “taste of home.” These are likely Manti, small dough parcels typically filled with spiced meat and topped with garlic yogurt and chili oil. While Manti is celebrated for its texture and flavor complexity, it is a labor-intensive dish that can command higher prices in restaurant settings compared to other dumpling varieties. Additionally, the critics pointed to “two warming bowls” in South Philly, specifically listing a sauerkraut soup and a fried chicken curry. Sauerkraut soup, or Kapusniak, is a staple in Eastern European dining known for its sour, fermented cabbage base, which can be polarizing for diners sensitive to high acidity or fermented flavors. The fried chicken curry offers a heartier option, though health-conscious consumers might object to the combination of deep-fried protein and rich, calorie-dense curry sauce.
This weekly column serves as a curated guide for local diners, aiming to cut through the noise of Philadelphia’s extensive restaurant scene. By focusing on specific, successful dishes rather than full restaurant reviews, the format allows the writers to champion smaller establishments or specific menu items that might otherwise go unnoticed. However, dining out based on such lists can present challenges for residents, including potential wait times at highlighted venues and the cumulative cost of chasing trend-driven food items. Furthermore, the selection is inherently subjective, reflecting the personal palates of the three specific writers rather than a comprehensive survey of the city’s culinary offerings.
