Five Must-Try Restaurants During University City Dining Days This July

The Experience

More than 25 of the neighborhood’s most popular eateries offer special three-course lunches or dinners for $20, $30 or $40 per person during the annual University City Dining Days.

The yearly promo allows visitors to try new restaurants or sample fare from longtime neighborhood favorites — and features international cuisine from Mexican to Thai to Korean and beyond.

Note: Some spots only offer lunch and/or dinner, and reservations are recommended for the finer-dining choices.

Five Must-Try Restaurants for 2022

With so many participating restaurants for 2022, you could eat lunch and dinner at a different spot every day of the 11-day promo and still not try them all. (That sounds like a great idea, no?)

That said, if you need to narrow down your options, you can’t go wrong with any of the following (arranged in alphabetical order):

• Aksum: For 2022, this Mediterranean, Afro-centric bring-your-own-bottle (BYOB) spot on Baltimore Avenue offers your choice of lemon caper chicken, Moroccan lamb burger or pan-seared Atlantic salmon for a dinner entree ($40, dinner).
• Booker’s Restaurant & Bar: Named after Booker Wright, a server who risked and later lost his life for voicing what it was like to be a Black waiter in 1960s Mississippi in an all-white restaurant, this West Philly destination draws families and more with Southern-inspired cuisine. Entree options for Dining Days 2022 include Creole vegan jambalaya, blackened catfish and spicy mango salmon ($40, dinner).

• Dahlak: Eritrean and Ethiopian restaurant and bar Dahlak invites diners to chow down in the traditional Eritrean way by using their hands to scoop up food with the soft bread injera. Diners swinging by for dinner during Dining Days (say that three times fast) can enjoy either a one-meat-and-two-veggie or three-veggie main course ($20, dinner).
• Kpod: The Stephen Starr restaurant formerly known as Podis was recently refreshed with help from Peter Serpico, adding Korean dishes — including pork belly ssam, carrot mandu and stir-fried glass noodle, all available during Dining Days — and design elements under the moniker KPod ($30, lunch; $40, dinner).
• Walnut Street Cafe: The sleek, all-day restaurant in Philly’s first “vertical neighborhood” at FMC Tower in Cira Centre South offers an all-diet-friendly American menu. Lunch and dinner choices for Dining Days include everything from a watermelon sorbet to striploin steak to heirloom tomato salad ($30, lunch; $40, dinner).

More Information

For a full list of participating restaurants, menus and pricing, click the button below.