Mabu Kitchen — Restaurant in Philadelphia

Mabu is a charming, cozy, family-owned restaurant located around the ever popular and touristy Center City area of Philadelphia, PA. They serve delicious Southern/New Age American food at fair prices. They also honor BYOB! How awesome! Such a lovely ambiance for a Sunday afternoon. However, Mabu is a victim of being located around Center City because parking over there is absolutely horrendous. So bad to the point where I sat at the table for at least 30 minutes while my friend struggled badly to find parking. Our server was very kind, patient and understanding.

Overall, although our time here was short, we had a fantastic BYOB brunch dining experience. We were sad that we didn't get a chance to order something else from the menu before the kitchen closed. We did get two plates of their outstanding Texas style chili poutine ($16), which is what we planned to order before trying anything else. It consists of beef gravy, cheese curds and hand cut fries. We are both poutine snobs so we didn't know what to expect. We were surprisingly impressed from the presentation and also the first bite. Our main issue with establishments that make poutine is when they don't provide enough gravy to cover all of the fries. Mabu surpassed the mark! We also loved the chunks of super tender beef mixed in as well. Highly recommended! We look forward to going back for this dish and to also try...

I had a reservation for 4 people. I called stating that one person will not show up given that she was sick, however I was still going to buy the food to go for that person. They stated that given that the reservation was for 4 people they would be charging their $20 cancellation policy on that seat due to the fact that I " disorganized their seating chart" . I managed to get another person for the 4th person seay into the reservation. Food took 50 minutes to get served and it was good. The restaurant was half empty and I was seated at a 5 person table and there were multiple other empty tables. I am surprised they are so short sighted business wise given that I was still going to consume the portion of that reservation but they were still going to charge me a $20 dollar fee. This fee equals to any of their plates. However, they didn't loose 1 customer, they lost 5 and a repeat visit from 5 people which equals to more revenue than their $20 fee, since we will not be coming to this restaurant again. They value more a $20 dollar sit rather than repeat visits from customers, when there is easily 100 more restaurants in the city serving the same food. No wonder restaurants dont last long if they...

Once again we challenged ourselves to be interested in brunch food. And I'll say this menu had a lot of options we were interested in.

I don't totally know the vibe, but I think it's meant to be French. I got the croque madame. It was pretty nice. I do wish the bread was a bit more complex, as the white bread really didn't do the dish justice. The ham also was a bit on the simpler side, more-of a store-bought brand, whereas I felt like maybe it would be more flavorful. Torn between the caesar salad and the burger-talked into the burger by the waiter. It was delicious, don't get me wrong. I didn't love the jam but I can see that being very appealing to some. Love a thin-cut fry.

The place itself is quite small. We got a reservation and they do seem like they require it, as we noted many people trying to walk in who were told they could only sit at the counter by the window (despite 3-4 open tables I guess they were waiting for parties to show up to occupy?). Pricing is fair. Parking is terrible but that's no fault of the restaurant. It's BYOB and we definitely regretted not bringing some champagne to make mimosas.

Would definitely consider coming back to try some of the other stuff...