Your Top 3 Places at Reading Terminal Market, Philadelphia PA

Reading Terminal Market. A place which everyone likes. I know it has been discussed many times in other boards, but not this one. There are many high quality stores there. Can you name 2-3 place which you really enjoy at Reading Terminal Market?

I will start:

  1. Hershel’s East Side. I absolutely love their sandwiches, especially the Reuben. Great tasting and affordable.
  2. Miller’s Twist. Their pretzels are head and shoulder above many other places I know of
  3. Metropolitan Bakery. I just love to get my bread there. Good selection and good quality.

I’ll play.

  1. Bassett’s ice cream
  2. DiNic’s pulled pork
  3. Don’t know it’s name, but the Amish spot with bacon egg & cheese breakfast sandwiches
    I’ll add a fourth: Famous 4th Street Cookie. Many times their chocolate chip sustained me until dinner.

:smile:
I really like Bassett’s ice cream.
DiNic’s Pork Sandwich is excellent, but sometime the line is just very long
I have never tried that Amish place (Dutch Eating Place), but I heard a lot of good things. I definitely should go there sometime. Any recommended dish?

Thanks for playing.

I’ve eaten at the Dutch Eating Place several times . . . It’s OK. But I really prefer a generic-type stall run by an Amish family that’s more towards the center of the Market. They have thick-cut bacon and really creamy cheese and you can stand there and watch them cook everything.

No particular order:

  1. Dienner’s BBQ Chicken
  2. Tea Leaf (loose leaf teas)
  3. Don’t have a third … yet.

I have never tried that place. :slight_smile: Hmmmm

It’s extremely informal - and the only thing I can recommend is the chicken, but it’s good chicken offered with a variety of sauces. The sides are so-so.

This thread makes me smile. I grew up in Phila. and going to the Reading Terminal Market as a little girl with my mother is one of my fondest memories. We always bought Bassett’s ice cream, which she told me was the best in the world. It probably still is, although back then (I am ancient), it only came in one flavor… vanilla.

I’ll save these ideas for my next trip back, ‘home.’

How long has Bassett been there? I didn’t know it is an old store. Anyway, I do enjoy Bassett a lot. Very creamy. Anyway, I like Bassett ice ream, and I like green tea ice cream (along with many other flavor). However, I didn’t find Bassett Green Tea ice cream to be outstanding. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great. The ice cream was creamy for sure, but there wasn’t much of a tea flavor to it in my opinion.

I knew from personal experience that Bassett’s was in the Market during the 40’s. I did a bit of Googling and found this:

1861 — Lewis Dubois Bassett, a
Quaker school teacher and farmer, begins making ice cream in his Salem,
NJ backyard using a mule-turned churn.
1885 — L.D. begins selling his ice cream from a location at 5th & Market Streets in Philadelphia.
1892 — The Reading Terminal Market opens; Bassetts Ice Cream opens a retail store and moves production into the basement.

I have lived now in England for a long time, and I have to admit that the ice cream here is excellent.

Wow. That is a long history then.

Great topic, I love RTM – it was the first place I explored when I moved to Philly.

  1. Hershel’s Deli. I prefer the pastrami over the corned beef, but both are great. Been meaning to try the pastrami breakfast sandwich, but don’t get there that early in the morning often enough.
  2. Salumeria. Great Italian hoagie. Get it with sharp provolone, the spread, and hot peppers. So good.
  3. Miller’s Twist. We often will munch on the pretzel wrapped lil smokies or pick up a couple of pretzels on the way out the door. Breakfast pretzels are good too.

Honorable mention: Termini Brothers cannoli. I grew up in the midwest, so I didn’t really understand the aura surrounding cannolis until I tried Termini Bros. I have a hard time leaving the market without a neatly packaged box for later.

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I love both, but maybe I like the corned beef just a bit more.(opposite from you)

Another place I haven’t yet tried. Great suggestion.

I like both their cannoli and their cheesecake.

I’ve not tried their cheesecake, but will have to check it out. I’ve tried some of their other small, individual sized cakes and wasn’t terribly impressed. Not bad, just not as good as they looked, and certainly not as good as the cannoli!

I’m surprised Beiler’s yeast doughnuts haven’t been mentioned. I’ve never had tasted anything like them. They are incredibly soft, fluffy, and airy and when you take a bite it collapses wonderfully in your mouth.

Now I’m craving a trip the market, but I don’t have time this week to make it over for lunch!

Tough to pick favorites, but the three stops I always seem to make are at:

Metropolitan Bakery.

Downtown Cheese.

Old City Coffee.

The first two provide “dinner” for when I get home. The third, the fuel for the drive there.

  1. Tommy DiNic’s roast pork with broccoli rabe and sharp provolone
  2. Valley Shepherd Creamery for a grilled cheese sandwich (MeltKraft)
  3. Dutch Eating Place for a scrapple and egg sandwich
  1. Valley Shepherd Creamery also makes some really good cheeses, their blue (they call it “Azure”) is especially great.
  2. Bassett’s
  3. La Divisa Meats, I much prefer their sausages to Wursthaus Schmitz.
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I’ve tried a few places, but the only one I went back to was DiNic’s. That said, I was there in July and was underwhelmed (though did get to speak in Indonesian with one of the line cooks).

Does anyone know where the olive oil store went? Used to like trying a couple of non-“flavored” samples there.

Guess my 2nd-3rd choice would be one of the Amish produce vendors.

If anyone has suggestions for baked goods, I’m curious.

Jonathan

Tubby Olive is gone??? I don’t go to Reading Terminal Market all the time, but I thought it was doing ok. Moreover, I just checked its facebook. It just posted a message 8 hours ago.

oh no kidding…I went when it was by the restrooms/shoe shiners, but is it in another part of the market now?

Good catch.