CozyMeal is a national brand seeking to directly connect us with local professional chefs and…read morecaterers. Whether it's for cooking classes, team building activities, or catering services, it's a great way to enjoy a night out with loved ones or new acquaintances. Instead of the typical dinner at your everyday restaurant, why not go behind the scenes in a relaxed atmosphere and directly engage the Chef? Better yet, you'll find yourself cooking and picking up tips along the way. Chefs are vetted and come from a diverse range of culinary backgrounds. Hosted at their place or yours, you're able to choose from variety of experiences. They've recently expanded to Philadelphia and Chef Renee Weigel is one of their brightest stars. She was awarded the James Beard Scholarship and will soon graduate from the Drexel Culinary Arts program. But don't let the fresh face fool you. Her experience in the restaurant industry starts from a young age. With local Pennsylvania Dutch roots, she's worked in numerous restaurants and has a passion for sustainable agriculture and sourcing ingredients from local farmers. She's also involved with LocalStove, which provides subscription-based meal prep planning or catering. For CozyMeal, Chef Renee's base of operations is the open kitchen at Good Food Flats. With a gorgeous tablescape and place settings all ready, I knew all I had to do was pop open a bottle of wine and relax. After a brief introduction, Chef had us join in on the prep for the meal. My friend Sembat got to work on chopping up some shallots while I went after the onion. This was all for the base of a nice red sauce, with both fresh vine-ripened and canned tomatoes. Touch of sugar, salt, and herbs and it was good to go. There was also plenty left for us to take home in several jars! Chef Renee then cooked up some arborio rice to make risotto. With this cooled, we helped roll out some rice balls with bread crumbs, which were then deftly fried to give us our first course - arancini with homemade red sauce. Delicious! I was excited for our next dish. Having had Vetri's spinach gnocchi several times, I actually attempted a recreation a few months back. That was definitely a fail, with the gnocchi turning out rock hard. But having Chef Renee provide me with proper instruction, we were able to create a rustic and fluffy iteration, with ricotta and fresh spinach coming through. The browned butter and Parmesan helped to create a salty bite that was simply delicious. Definitely helped myself to seconds of this. For dessert, a quick 15 to 20-minute baked olive oil cake was all we needed. Crispy on the outside and fluffy within, we had a lot of fun plating our own dishes. We even made homemade whipped cream and topped it all with powdered sugar and slivered orange slices. Bellisimo! Be sure to check out the CozyMeal options available in Philadelphia. Apart from the Italian Recipes cooking class with Chef Renee, she also has cooking classes for Dim Sum, Mexican, and French fare as well. CozyMeal is expanding quickly and appears to be a great way for folks to amp up date night or provide a creative way to host friends.

Our asian fusion class with chef Huda was amazing. We had so much fun learning and the food was…read moredelicious from the appetizer to the dessert. We can't wait to do it again.

I attended a dumpling making workshop with my wife and seven-year-old son. Apple is a charming and…read moreknowledgeable host. The class is really well-organized and broken into parts. First you shop for ingredients at a market in Chinatown. During this part she shared interesting facts about the neighborhood and the Dumpling making process. Back at her space she kept everyone busy with different dumpling making tasks. After a while we broke broke into groups and each group worked on making dumplings of various shapes with homemade dough and with pre-made wrappers. This gives everyone a chance to experience the dough making process but also to be able to make a really nice amount during the allotted time. The Space is really beautiful and had plenty of room for a large group. My son was super excited the whole time and Apple did a great job of paying attention to him without letting him dominate the class that was otherwise populated by adults. I cannot stress enough what a great job she did of making everyone feel at home! Really really fun from start to finish and the final product was delicious! We had enough where everyone there was super full and still had a nice helping of dumplings to take home. I would highly, highly recommend this class for all ages!

Today a friend of mine arrived at the Dumpling Academy's AirBnB location. The location should have…read morebeen red flag number one. Looking past the nature of the outside of the house we entered but were not greeted inside by any better visual's. We arrived to a home that was not set up to accommodate 11 attendees to cook. The kitchen was not clean, wafting cob webs, dried up plants, and an overflowing trash can were front and center. Mochi balls were being rolled by hand (no gloves) and then served family style, with a complete disregard for food safety. It was by no means a cooking class as the recipes were made from memory and no actual measurements were given. The entire experience was made even more bizarre by the half clothed tenant who skirted through the class. 8 people tried to stand around a bowl of meat to make dumplings being fried in one 10 inch teflon pan. I hope anyone who ate today makes it out without a stomach issue.

Madame Saito is absolutely amazing…read more My girlfriend and I took her sushi class on Sunday night and had so much fun. We were able to make 12 rolls and also study the design of plating...I would highly recommend this if you are looking for fun date night or just love amazing sushi

Madame Saito is the 'Queen of Sushi' just as she says…read more We were told by another couple that the Madame teaches sushi making classes that if you wait can be found (almost always) on Groupon, Living Social, etc. Our class was Sunday from 3-6pm. We brought our own knifes and tuberware as instructed on the website. I went out and bought sushi knives for us... but I don't recommend that (maybe I was a little *too* into it). The class was packed and it took a bit to get started (3:30pm). Madame Saito explains the difference in types of sushi and gives an overview on why she's the Queen. The layout of the class could have been a little better. Madame was up front in the long thin room... She did a good job walking around and checking every table. I just thought it might have been easier for her to stand in the middle of the room behind the bar that way she'd be elevated and everyone could hear and see her. Lots of sushi was made that night. Starting off with a cucumber roll to California roll. You'll make rolls with rice on the inside and others with rice on the outside. You are given her rice recipe if you ever attempt to make sushi at home. My biggest suggestion would have to be efficiency. Instead of handing out one by one seaweed paper between each roll... maybe put a plate full on each table. Other rolls you make are spicy tuna hand rolls, salmon nigiri and two types of tuna sashimi. One pleasant surprise is there's a full bar! Drink prices were reasonable. I would definitely suggest Madame Saito's sushi class to anyone. I'd probably say it's more worth it if you wait to find it on Groupon than to buy it full price.

I've always had a great experience purchasing the super frozen tuna at Fishtown Seafood but my most…read morerecent purchase was quite disappointing. The frozen tuna saku here makes amazing poke, however, they were out at my recent visit so I purchased the frozen tuna steaks. I was informed by the staff member that although the tuna steak could be eaten raw it is not ideal due to the sinew. Since the difference in texture didn't sound like something I would mind too much, I figured I would purchase the steaks and see how it pans out. I could always give it a quick sear if it doesn't work out. I prepared the tuna shortly after it defrosted in the fridge and noticed that the tuna smelled awfully fishy! I did try a small (raw) piece marinated in soy sauce and sesame oil and it was inedible due to the intense fishiness. So I gave the tuna a quick sear after encrusting the steaks with sesame seeds. Again, waay too fishy. I had to put the tuna back in the pan to cook until they were well done and even then there was still a hint of fishiness. I've gotten tuna steaks at other markets before and they were never fishy, let alone be at this intense level. This is so disappointing because I expected better quality from here.

Fishtown Seafood is the only place I buy seafood now in Philadelphia. Their commitment to…read moresustainability and supporting women-owned and local businesses is truly commendable. And, all of the seafood I've bought there has been fresh and absolutely delicious. They just celebrated 1 year of opening this month () and I cannot say enough great things about Fishtown Seafood! --- First introduced to Fishtown Seafood after an oyster shucking course at their Fishtown location, I've become a regular at the Fitler Square location. The fish is a bit on the pricier side due to their commitment towards sustainability and ethical supplier transparency, but the taste is unmatched, so I am always OK to splurge. The staff is always friendly and full of recommendations if you're not sure what seafood you'd need for your dish. I'm a huge fan of their Fish Club monthly seafood boxes. The weekly pickup is some combination of 2-3 seafood items- either being two portions/filets of fish, mussels, clams, oysters, lobster tails, crab, octopus, etc. The pickups are during their store hours, whenever is convenient for your schedule. I splurged on the monthly box instead of going out to eat and it's really great value! I highly recommend it! It let me sample seafoods I'd typically never buy. I can't wait to do the seafood boxes again when they come back. On the shelves, there are sauces for seafood (wasabi, mignonette, yuzu soy sauces, etc.), tools for oyster shucking, and canned seafood (sardines, anchovies, etc.). Their sushi (although on the pricier side as a student) felt fresh and well-portioned. I've yet to try their meal kits, and I'm confident their quality and taste will be just as exceptional as everything else I've had. The oysters are very fresh, but vary in size based on the variety. There is also an oyster shell reclaiming program where they take the shells and use them to help rebuild eroding local beaches! Overall, really great, fresh seafood! I would highly recommend Fishtown Seafood.

I wish I can give this place 0/5 stars!…read more I went here tonight for a pharm dinner with my co-workers and we were in for a "treat" The decor was like the dirty living room of a frat house. The appetizers were ALL deep fried chinese-american foods (egg roll, crab rangoon, etc). The service by Joseph Poon himself was deplorable. We have a large group of ~20 people, some of which are vegetarian and some of which eat seafood only but no beef/chicken. When he found out we didn't give him advance notice of the number of people with vegetarian/seafood only diets, he literally had an panic attack in front of our party of 20 physicians and pharmaceutical reps. He started yelling at our vegetarian colleagues and lectured us about how "if this was morimoto, you guys would be kicked out". Those are his words VERBATIM! This guys needs some serious Haldol and Ativan STAT! When the non-vegetarian dishes came out, he again proceeded to ridicule our vegetarian friends by saying "finally we have some NORMAL people". The food was not traditional chinese at all, but Americanized just like the chinese takeout food you can get from any neighborhood restaurant. His waiters and waitresses were very nice and tried to apologize for their boss, but Mr Poon has some seriously ego issues (he has his picture put on the back of every seat in the "restaurant). His histrionic temper is uncalled for. I would not recommend anyone to goto this so called restaurant. He may be able to get away with it because the chef only caters to private events, but if he had a mainstream restaurant, the public will know the nasty temperament of this guy. We were astonished that this guy could be literally yelling at the top of his lungs in order to criticize our vegetarian friends in front of the ~20 person group. Do yourself a favor and goto one of the many other fine establishes in Chinatown, run away from this self-proclaimed "chef best in the world"

I wanted to book a hands-on cooking class for my friend's birthday, I wasn't able to do the…read morereservation online and it was harder by phone, since no one was answering, I even went to their location and it was always closed. Finally they responded to my email and I booked the only available date for the Double Happiness Class. On the day of, we waited outside until someone opened the door for us, then we waited again inside for the rest of the group to gather. Chef Joseph Poon showed up,he was very funny and enthusiastic. while they were setting up- they were NOT ready- Chef Poon realized that no one cooked the rice, so he had to asked his assistant to go and buy some!!!!!!! The class itself was energetic and fun, we learned how to make sushi and sum, then we had a nice dinner prepared by Chef Poon, However, it is not worth $120 per person and overrated. Two Yelps!

CT and his talented staff did an incredible job for our work event. He came to our home and brought…read moreall supplies needed. He was professional, on time, and most importantly the food he prepared was delicious. We had 12 guests and he and his team created a 4-course meal worthy of the 5-star rating. (salad, soup,meat,dessert), but add a billion ingredients to those foods and he made it mouth water. We will be using his services again in the future as he can obviously handle any group size easily. Thanks CT and team!

Really great service!…read more I worked with CT to prepare a Greek-inspired menu for my friend's bachelorette dinner, and it turned out wonderful. We did a consultation weeks prior to the event to discuss menu, budget, and process. Service was professional, and communication was responsive. The meal was fantastic! There were 9 of us, and he made food for what seemed to be a small army. However, I am not complaining because I got to keep and eat the leftovers! It was a four-course meal, and we were able to keep within our budget. The menu was inventive, and we were all satisfied with each course. Highly recommend!

I did not even realize there was a Paper Source in Center City until I had to do an online return…read moreand learned that they are one of the Happy Returns locations. Enticed by a $10 off coupon that resulted from my doing my Happy Return, I decided to shop around. The staff was very helpful with my initial visit reason, and let me know about sales happening at the store. I bought some adorable new cards, one with dogs on the cover and the other with succulents because there was a BOGO. Another great find was a To-Do list pad that has magnets so you can stick it to your fridge. There were tons of seasonal decor options, so I bought a "Happy Halloween" banner as well. The pricing was reasonable, and the quality of items is a match to the price point. If you are in need of a last minute gift, Paper Source is a great place to stop!

I asked if the Christmas music is a joke and the staff / sales person said no. It was a hilarious…read moremoment for me and several customers but I don't think the manager liked the comment haha It's early September - we can save the music for later... it's torture to blast boring Christmas music and its barely fall! Cute store and fun to bop around - just couldn't stand the vibe.