<p>Arriving mid am and need a lunch suggestion before info session/tour etc...between hotel and session would be most convenient. Is there a campus eatery thats a good choice?
(staying at the Sheraton near campus)</p>
<p>Need a dinner suggestion as well.</p>
<p>no junk food please... (;o)</p>
<p>penn has the BESSSSSSSSSST dining hall that i have ever visited.</p>
<p>white dog 34th and sansom. Best filet I ever had.</p>
<p>Between the Sheraton and College Hall you have a good amount of options. </p>
<p>On the route there, one good bet is turning off of 36th (which you’ll be on if you’re walking to College Hall) onto Sansom, where there’s a bunch of little restaurants. If price isn’t too much of an issue, White Dog Cafe is pretty well-known for lunch, with a lot of locally-grown type food. I’d recommend that one a lot.</p>
<p>Back on 36th, you have Cosi right next to the bookstore for solid sandwiches/salads/soups, and a couple fast food type places along Walnut (though those probably violate the “no junk food” clause :P).</p>
<p>Right by College Hall (where most info sessions/tours will start) is Houston Hall. Most of the options there are gonna be on the bottom floor, with (if I’m remembering this correctly) a sushi-type area, a grill-type area, a custom-salad type area, a pasta-type area, some take out options, a coffee place to the side, and probably something else I’m forgetting. Upstairs (on the floor you’ll enter on) is a creperie. Personally I’m a fan of Houston Hall; it’s not a campus dining hall but you should have a bunch of options before your tour. </p>
<p>Then there’s the regular campus dining halls if you want a taste of typical Penn dining hall food, pretty normal stuff.</p>
<p>One last thing, scattered around campus you’ll find a bunch of food trucks; some of them probably also break the no junk food rule, but they’re also super awesome and a cool thing that’s pretty unique to Penn, at least within the Ivies. There’s some by 37th and Walnut, which is pretty close to you, and 34th and Walnut, also pretty close, and some other places.</p>
<p>For dinner, two of the more well-known (but also more expensive) and walkable places are Pod, in the Inn at Penn, for sushi, and Distrito, which is a little bit of a longer walk on 40th and Chestnut, for tapas. They’re both pretty fun places, and the food at both is good; there’s probably gonna be a substantial wait though depending on which day you’re visiting.</p>
<p>An even longer walk if you want something pretty fancy is Marigold Kitchen; to get there you’d take Chestnut down to 45th, then take that to Larchwood and turn left. It’s really good food, but probably more a special-occasion type place.</p>
<p>Besides that, there’s a bunch of other good, more affordable dinner places that are walkable. I like Nan for Indian food, that’s on 40th between Sansom and Chestnut. I like Lemon Grass for Thai, which you can get to by walking down 36th in the opposite direction from before, then turning left on to Lancaster and it’ll be a block down (again, these two are a little bit longer walks, nothing bad though). There’s some other places in the area, but my fingers are tired.</p>
<p>Basically seconding Joe’s information.</p>
<p>White Dog is a Philadelphia institution. I’ve never loved it that much, but it’s never bad, and it IS an institution on the Penn campus, so a great choice for lunch.</p>
<p>Distrito is a ton of fun for dinner. Inventive Mexican-based food. It is the low(er) priced restaurant in the mini-empire of one of Philly’s hottest chefs, Jose Garces. It’s just off campus, and the walk there will take you past most of the official dorms and the huge, new, upscale, privately owned unofficial dorm. I’m pretty sure it takes reservations, and also walk-ins. It would be my current first choice.</p>
<p>Marigold IS a much longer walk, but is a first-rate BYOB based on traditional American dishes. It’s in a house on 44th. Definitely need a reservation.</p>
<p>Pod is sort of pan-Asian-fusion, with cool modern decor involving stuff that changes color all the time. Teenagers love it. It’s more expensive than it sounds.</p>
<p>Great ideas here and appreciate the help. We arrive by train.</p>
<p>How best to get to the Sheraton from the station?</p>
<p>To get to the Sheraton: walk (7 blocks) or take a taxi if you’re tired. Walking is seriously an option, and you can get a brief tour of Drexel University’s campus along the way 
The train station puts you out at 30th / 31st and Market, and the Sheraton is one block south on Chestnut, and 6ish blocks west at 35th/36th.</p>
<p>I recommend New Deck Tavern or White Dog for eats.</p>
<p>Thanks so much. The plan is to be traveling light–hopefully one carry on a piece and I am praying I can keep mine as light as my student’s…ha ha</p>
<p>Hoping for no blizzards come later next month</p>
<p>Walked from 30th Street station to the Sheraton on our visit. No problem, especially if not schlepping luggage.</p>
<p>We did do the White Dog, but then ventured further from campus to get a feel for the surrounding area. Had a great and very reasonable dinner at the Ethiopian restaurant, Abyssinia.
A Penn visit would never be complete for me without a visit to Koch’s Deli and one of their enormous and delicious sandwiches, but that is because of the great dearth of decent delis in my area.</p>
<p>Well, so the weather is supposed to be cold, rainy and possible sleet next week? :eek:</p>
<p>Hopefully not too bad when we arrive with luggage!</p>
<p>We love Ethiopian–I will check that out–</p>
<p>and thanks for the other lunch ideas. </p>
<p>I wonder if we’d be best served to eat somewhere on campus since the info session and tour starts at 1, the Eng tour is like 3:30–so we will go from a tour to the Eng portion within 30 minutes…enough time for coffee…</p>
<p>fogfog
is your child a current junior? i am visiting both schools in may and am keeping notes of all of the good places you have been told to eat at penn and princeton.</p>