I visited Philippe The Original in Los Angeles with my daughter last weekend, and I must say, the restaurant was interesting and the food was very good. As a non-native speaker, I used to think of the Philippines instead of a man's name when I saw the word "Philippe." I had known about this restaurant for a while, but I am not the kind of person who follows trends, especially if it means waiting in a long queue. However, while translating Jim Gaffigan's book Food: A Love Story into Chinese, which was already published in China in 2001, I came across the story of Katz's Delicatessen and became curious if there were similar restaurants in Los Angeles. After doing some research, I found Philippe The Original and Canter's.

I still don't know why I eventually decided to go to Philippe, maybe just because I was too lazy to cook for my daughter who had returned from San Diego. We arrived at around 1:00 p.m. and, despite Google Maps guiding me to the restaurant, I missed the turn and had to drive all the way around to park behind the restaurant.

As we walked from the parking lot to the restaurant, we saw a side door marked "Do Not Enter," so we continued walking and entered through the front door. The first thing we saw was a souvenir counter, and to the left were five old-fashioned telephone booths, which you can sit inside and make phone calls.

Then we saw the crowd, a zig-zag line was waiting to order, and there were about 30 people ahead of us, so we had to join the line. The line moved very fast, thanks to the four counters, which meant the eighth round would be ours. I had enough time to study the menu on the blackboards, and I was amazed by the variety of items, including coffee for only $0.46, draft beer, and several types of wine. The restaurant currently serves 10 draft beers, 7 white wines, and 8 red wines.

The line was fast, and I checked the photos I took. The first one was taken at 1:11 p.m. when we walked in, we were ordering at 1:27 p.m., and we sat down to eat at 1:38 p.m. Philippe The Original is famous for its French dip sandwiches, which are made by cutting French rolls in half and dipping them in the natural gravy of the roasts. There are three options: single dip, double dip, and wet. However, I heard a grandma telling her grandson that he could have a triple dip, so I guess you can request this option as well. If you prefer not to have the dip, you can always ask the staff if it's possible to have a sandwich with no dip, but this option may not be advertised publicly.

The ladies behind the counter were not only cashiers but also chefs who prepared our food. They cut the meat, cut the French rolls, dipped them, combined the rolls with the meat, and cut the sandwiches into two or the pieces as per our order. We ordered coffee, iced tea, hot chocolate, lamb dip sandwich with blue cheese, pastrami sandwich dip with Swiss cheese, pork dip sandwich, beef stew, cherry pie, two pickled eggs, and one kosher pickled cucumber. I asked for double dip and cut our sandwiches into 3 so that we could share them.

We shared the sandwiches by having one piece each, and I started with the lamb dip sandwich. It was so delicious that I decided to give the restaurant a 5-star rating. The lamb was juicy and not dry at all, and the blue cheese was mild, which I liked. The pastrami sandwich was even better, with a very strong smell that pastrami should have. I also love another pastrami sandwich restaurant called The Hat, but I have to admit that Philippe The Original is much better than The Hat, even though I still love The Hat. I added some famous house mustard on the pastrami, and it was way stronger than I expected.

(1/2)