Sabrina’s Cafe – Philadelphia, PA

There are thousands of restaurants in Philadelphia. Make sure Sabrina’s Cafe is on your list. With fabulous food and all-day breakfast, you cannot go wrong.

A couple weeks ago, Kara and I did a 3-day East Coast tour. She met me in Maryland, and our first stop was breakfast at Miss Shirley’s Cafe in Baltimore. Our trip included lunch with Coach White and his family in New Jersey, and 2 full days of sightseeing in NYC. Our friend Nadine lives in Philly, and we hadn’t seen her in at least 7 years, so we decided to meet for lunch. Philly is about the midway point between NYC and Maryland, so it was perfect.

Kara, Nadine and I had lots of fun times together in college.  Nothing crazy, nothing outrageous, just lots of fun.  We also did a spring break in South Padre Island with 15 girls, a 2-room suite, and countless funtivities.  So many memories from that trip, including a guy who tried to convince us he was the star basketball player for U of Oklahoma. I easily busted him on that, considering OU was playing in the NCAA tournament that same week.

Nadine suggested Sabrina’s Cafe, because she heard they have a great Sunday brunch.  There are 5 Sabrina’s Cafe locations, and 4 of them are BYOB.  We visited the location in Powelton Village, located just NW of Philly’s City Center. The restaurant is in one of the gorgeous historic buildings. It is on the Drexel University campus, and is the only location that does not permit BYOB. Sabrina’s Cafe was absolutely packed when we arrived. They don’t take reservations, but Nadine had called ahead so our wait was not too long.

The Sabrina’s Cafe menu includes an everyday menu, brunch specials, and dinner specials that vary by location. Breakfast is available all day long. The everyday menu includes sandwiches, vegetarian, burgers, “on the lighter side”, soups & salads, and a kid’s menu.

Kara and Nadine split the Stuffed Challah French Toast and Alfred’s Wing Man Mexi Special

One thing is certain…you will never leave hungry!  The 3 of us probably could have split the 2 breakfast items.  I tried both, and they were amazing.  I don’t normally like mushy bananas, but these maintained their texture. The french toast was delicious. The syrup is rich, but not heavy, and the cream cheese lends a wonderful creaminess.  The tomatillos and pepper jack cheese provide a wonderful kick to the eggs, which were light and fluffy. The guacamole tastes homemade.

I don’t do well with large menus. This menu isn’t huge, but there are a lot of options. Our server said the the popularity of the burgers led to the owner opening Spencer Burger across the hall. That’s all I needed to hear to order the Onyx Slamburger

This burger is huge. I’m glad they include the steak knife, because I had to cut it in half before I could even begin to eat. Angus burger has so much flavor, and I love brioche bread. The mix of cheeses was a perfect accompaniment for the burger, and with all the flavor it doesn’t even matter that they use turkey bacon rather than regular. I’m slowly becoming a fan of sweet potato fries. I’m a huge french fry snob, so I was a little disappointed that these looked as though they were near the bottom of the batch. But we already had a pretty long wait for our food, so I decided to just go with it. The fries were still delicious, and I love the topping of powdered sugar and cinnamon.

There were only 2 negatives from our visit. The AC was not on, so we were melting. Also, Kara & Nadine’s food came out at least 5 minutes before mine. However, the food and atmosphere made up for it.

Will I go back to Sabrina’s Cafe?  The next time I’m in Philly, no question!!  The food was delicious, and I would love to try other things on the menu.

I told Kara I wanted to run up the museum steps like Rocky, to work off some of the food we ate.  But the GPS took us out of Philly the other way; and by that point I was tired and just wanted to get home.

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