Sophie's Kitchen

Bring your friends, maybe even an enemy or two, and everyone throw a dart at the menu, except Louis (the enemy you brought), because he just gets to watch. Dude better wise up if he wants to be able to join in on the fun next time.Sophie's Kitchen turns out food that is the fancy version of the kinds of things you might have had at a Khmer picnic, cookout, or home cooked dinner.Papaya salad, whole fried fish, curries, steak with prahok dipping sauce, soups - get it all. I'm really serious, you can't go wrong - you'll experience salty, sour, sweet, umami flavors in every dish. And again, bring friends, because the portions for a single dish can usually be split between at least 2-3 people. It's also a BYO. My real drink recommendation will be generally dry white wines, or neutral lagers - nothing too strongly flavored because the food at Sophie's will cover you there.

A few things to note: Khmer Kitchen was my favorite restaurant of all time, and definitely in Philly. I was heartbroken to learn it closed, and then I moved away from Philly. I had no idea they reopened at all, and upon moving back to Philly last year I didn't know when I'd have the chance to go explore a new favorite Cambodian restaurant. Cut to last night: My friend's threw me a birthday dinner without telling me where we're going. I arrive at the location to find out it's Sophie's Kitchen, but I didn't even know what kind of food it was! And then I see Tony, the knowledgeable and friendly waiter from Khmer Kitchen and he recognizes me from 8 years ago! My friends had zero prior knowledge of my intense love for Khmer Kitchen (I wrote them two Yelp reviews!) so it was total kismet and birthday magic that I we celebrated my birthday with a meal here. And what a meal it was!I think this family consistently makes a dining experience where every single bite of food is better than the last. Dishes are bursting with flavor in combinations you haven't tried elsewhere. We had the lemongrass chicken wings, sweet chili chicken wings, chicken and beef skewers, the flat noodles with vegetables, the curry coconut soup with pineapple, the sautéed morning glories, the calamari, a green curry, and the fried snapper. Our group of 6 were absolutely stuffed! Every single thing was scrumptious. I don't even have the words to truly articulate how good this meal was. The piece de resistance, as always, was the fried snapper with black bean and ginger sauce. Everything I wrote in my review for Khmer Kitchen in years past about this dish held true, and it was even more delicious because it held up to the nostalgia. I legit think it was birthday magic to discover that my favorite restaurant is back and better than ever. I'm so grateful to the Sophie's Kitchen family for making the best food I've ever had in my life. You guys are working miracles! And thank you Tony for being the best guide to your family's food- you made our evening!

Five stars all around. A must-have experience if you're looking for flavor that knocks you tf out (not literally).This was such an incredible dining experience. We came here by recommendation of a friend who had eaten here before, and we decided to try it out. This was our first time officially eating Cambodian food (or eating at a Cambodian restaurant) and our server really helped us to navigate the menu. He explained that the food here is served family style. The dishes are larger (reflected in the price) and meant to be shared. He also answered specific questions about the dishes we were eyeing up (like, what's the difference between the two papaya salads on the menu).We decided on the papaya salad with lime and tamarind (S4, bok lahong, I believe), beef skewers in Khmer spices (A1), and Sautéed curry mussels with the house ginger sauce (E4), and got a Cafe du monde or Iced coffee. Everything we ate was packed with flavor, but especially the sautéed curry mussels. It delivered a deep umami flavor exceptionally. My partner loved the sauce so much, he tried to scoop up all the sauce on the remaining piece of mussel we had. I've never had anything like it and I don't think I could go back to having mussels any other way. If you get the papaya salad and beef skewers, our waiter gave us a tip to try wrapping the papaya salad around the piece of beef and eating it together like that--almost like street food. It was sooo much better than eating the two separately. Thank you for the tip. We had such a good time dining here and chatting with our server, and we'd love to come back when we're in the area again.

We loved everything about this restaurant. It's beautiful and the service is very friendly, though not fast. It's family owned, and everything is cooked by family members in the kitchen. My absolute favorite was the Japanese eggplant, which was tender and just fantastic flavor. We also got the yellow curry with fish and mee con tang (sautéed wide rice noodles). My son was disappointed because it wasn't spicier, and there's no hot sauces offered. He probably should have asked to have his dish made hotter. We also got the frog legs, which would have been better if they hadn't been served room temperature - they came out at the same time as our food instead of as an appetizer. But that's a minor complaint. We look forward to returning and trying more of their delicious dishes.

What can I say, this is an awesome place with super delicious Cambodian food. I recently found out this place is owned and operated by the same family who had Khmer Kitchen years ago! When they closed due to family reasons I was so sad. Sophie's Kitchen is larger and the food cooked by the mother (whereas Khmer Kitchen was cooked by the grandmother). The service is down to earth, friendly, and efficient. It is a really comfortable place to get together with friends and families. I would definitely recommend going with groups of people so you can try as many dishes!

Sophie's Kitchen has been around South Philly neighborhood for a while now, but I never wanted to eat it here, because I cook my own Khmer food at home. Finally, I decided to give it a try with a friend and I must say it surprised me. Food was delicious. We had Amok Trei (Fish curry steamed in banana leaves) and it was amazing. It was so flavorful, but wish it had more veggies (green leaves). There's one popular dish that you have to order here is the Prohok Ktiss (fermented fish w minced pork) dip with side of various veggies. It was also good and full of kreung flavor, which I like. However, the mussels curry sauce was too sweet for my taste. Other than that everything was great. I like the inside atmosphere with plants are around the table. It feels like we're dining in the jungle, but a romantic one lol. Services are great! Highly recommend this restaurant if you want to try authentic Khmer food.

The first thing about Sophie's kitchen that blew me away was how intimate and beautiful/lush the first floor seating area is. You're enveloped in all these tropical green plants and the staff were so helpful and friendly in navigating the menu. We came on a lucky day as the stuffed chicken wings with lemongrass and vermicelli were available (it's a family recipe and are painstaking to make!). If it's available, get it. It's probably the best chicken wing you've ever had.We also got the papaya salad and chicken curry. I think we could have asked for spicier (we asked for 3 chilis) but both dishes were plenty flavorful and complimented each other well. So happy to have finally gotten to try this place and will definitely be coming back!

There's a little parking lot next to the building and I was able to find street parking because it was Saturday after 6 pm, parking was free. Walked inside and we were immediately greeted and asked if we wanted to go upstairs. Surprisingly, when we walked in we thought it was cute but small, we had no idea there was an upstairs and were delighted to see a bigger area with more guest. Staff was very friendly, attentive, and helpful with explaining what certain things were and tried comparing them to things we may have been familiar with. We ordered the pink drink which was a sweet, milky drink...to me it was too sweet and I love all things sugar but this was a lot, ended up getting a soda. The Thai tea was good but could've used more sweetener. We ordered the chicken and beef skewers and the fried chicken with the sweet chili sauce. OMG, they were amazing. Everything was cooked to perfection and flavored so well. The fried chicken was amazing. You can decide on how hot or mild you'd like. The skewers are served with a mini cucumber/carrot salad. For our main meal, I had the chicken over onions, peppers, and string beans and it came with white rice. OMG this was soool amazing, the flavor, I couldn't stop eating and I was stuffed. This tasted so good. I'd definitely suggest this place. We stopped randomly as we had plans to go elsewhere and I'm so glad we did. I will definitely be coming back.

Amazing meal for 2 with a big fried fish, beef lemongrass veggies soup, and papaya salad. All for $75 including tips ! I've been coming to this family restaurant for close to a decade since they were Khmer Kitchen in a small space in deep south Philly. Now that they expanded to a better location, the food quality has not changed. I'm glad they kept it authentically Cambodian and didn't make it milder to please mainstream taste. If you want the real deal Cambodian cuisine, give this place a try. Beef skewers and stuffed wings are always popular. But try their soups as well, very complex flavors. Service is great and attentive. My only suggestion is to make the black bean ginger sauce less sweet. I dipped my fish in the papaya salad's sauce instead and it was perfect.

Fantastic authentic family kitchen! Get the Japanese eggplant and the pumpkin. So good!