See Us Eat: Snack at Pod, Philadelphia, PA

Friday, December 07, 2007

Snack at Pod, Philadelphia, PA

Giao had always heard about Pod ever since it opened on the campus of his old alma mater, Penn, but never had a chance to visit it on his infrequent visits to Philly. We dropped in on it while Giao was showing Alexis his old stomping grounds.

The interior is pretty striking, opening up to an active bar area with a large red hard foam structure, which served as both couch and table. It was much more comfortable then is looked. But the choatic and connected nature of it often brought other parties uncomfortable close. Stairs lead down to the main dining area, in which everything was white. The sushi bar was a modern take on the sushi boat, with a conveyor belt transporting covered sushi plates 360 degrees around the chefs. We aren't fans of sushi that isn't made to order, but we weren't planning to eat sushi in Philly anyway. The name of the restaurant comes from three tables that can seat about 10 people and are enclosed in a cylinder with a window around eye level when seated. You can control the colors of the lights within your pod with a control panel. This feature caused much shrieks of joy from a what looked like a child birthday party. The much ballyhoed bathrooms failed to please us, Giao felt that the ergonomics were off, while Alexis found it cramped.