PHLReview
photo credit: EMILY SCHINDLER
Cheu Fishtown
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There are two types of neighborhood restaurants. The first kind includes places that no one else besides the people who live within a two-block radius know about. It’s small, it’s cozy, and, most importantly, it feels like its your little secret. If anyone else were to bring it up in a casual conversation, you’d probably feel the same pang of jealousy that you feel when you go over to your friend’s apartment and they have a wall hanging from an Etsy shop you thought only you knew about.
Then there’s the second kind. The kind of neighborhood spot that everyone knows about and people who live nearby eat at more than once a week. This is the type of place where you don’t need to dress up at all, but you usually do anyway because you’ll see at least three people you know as soon as you walk in the door. It’s somewhere that becomes a sort of unofficial clubhouse for the neighborhood, and you’re happy to tell the world about it because people think you’re cooler for living near it.
Cheu Fishtown falls in the second category.
photo credit: Emily Schindler
As soon as it opened in 2017, pretty much everyone who lived within Philadelphia’s city limits showed up. It was loud and a bit disorganized, but it was fun. That’s partially because it just looked like fun. It’s located in an old police horse stable that’s been gutted and plastered with wacky, mismatched wallpaper and stickers, and even the bathroom is a piece of art. There’s a long bar at the front that looks into the open kitchen, and above it is what looks like a movie theater marquee announcing what’s on draft.
photo credit: Emily Schindler
But you’re not just here to pretend you’re at a movie theater with really nice bathrooms, you’re here for the food. Much like at Cheu Old City and their sister restaurant, Bing Bing, they serve a mix of buns, dumplings, snacks, and noodles, but here the menu is much longer and includes more inventive options, like brisket ramen with a big matzo ball in the middle of it. It’s a lot of food and most of it is somewhat heavy, but if you fill up on small dishes and can’t make it through your miso cod fried rice, we can report that it tastes just as good for lunch the next day.
Since opening, the hype has died down, and Cheu Fishtown has settled into being the perfect neighborhood gathering spot for everything from a casual dinner with a friend to a solo ramen bowl at the bar. You might still have to wait a few minutes for a table, but you can order a drink with the host in the meantime and he’ll bring it to wherever you happen to be hanging out—unless it’s down the street in your apartment because you saw an ex at the bar. Then you’re out of luck.