Pod

I am a college student and went with some friends to Pod, and loved it! It was quite expensive, so it is one of those special occasion places, but it has a really neat atmosphere. It is underground, with small windows, but everything inside is white, and the lights are all colored, making a fun combo. We did not have the service issues that someone else had spoken of. Our waitress was really friendly and helpful. I will return at some point... when there is extra cash in the budget to splurge. :)

This place USED TO be one of my favorite restaurants. More recently, it has become a hangout for college kids. You can imagine the noise! The wait staff is extremely indifferent to your concerns. It seems as thoughh the chef became obsessed with choppingg scallions for the miso soup because the soup was in definite scallion overload. Our waitress ignored our comment about this with her face practically saying "Either you eat it or you don't. I couldn't care less." The dumplings were cold. Needless to say, I won't be going back there any time soon. I should have known when I saw the sushi bar practically empty. I have NEVER seen that.

We weren't sure what to expect but it looked cool on the website. We made reservations and arrived on time at 7 PM and were warmly greeted and seated immediately. Trendy, upscale and hip... great vibes from the get go. The menu is nothing short of fantastic. The colored martinis were very interesting and refreshing; I had the blueberry and plum martini. The menu had a ton of very interesting choices, including the desert menu. My main course was the filet with truffles and it was hands down THE best red meat I've ever had. The sauce was nothing short of amazing. My date... well, I can't even tell you what she had because I was so engrossed in my own meal but she raved about it as well. The service was great, our waitress was very well informed on the entire menu and drink selection and she was cheery and helpful, guiding us through the numerous choices in front of us. I'm a repeat customer from here on. We loved it and will go again whenever we're in town!

When I pay this much for dinner I hope for a feast for all my senses. In this case, the food was beautifully presented, well seasoned and (with the exception of the glazed salmon which was very undercooked and served lukewarm) well prepared. The decor is Japanese modern with plastic seating, anime playing on the large flatscreen tv over the sushi bar, and incessant anime techno music. Actually, the din was so great that I think it was techno music, I could just hear the repetitious drumming of base notes, like when a car with a custom sound system pulls up next to you at a red light. The cement floors and hard furniture leave nothing to absorb the sound in this large restaurant. We arrived at 7:30 and left at 10 pm, by which time the noise level was so great that I could not hear the person across the table from me and had to lean into the person next to me and talk directly into their ear. I find it exhausting to have to raise my voice to converse for 2 1/2 hours. In the end, we just gave up trying to talk, ate and left. On the way out I noticed that the fringes of the room were much quieter than the central part where we were (unfortunately) seated. If you go, ask for one of the few private pod booths or to be seated on the edge of the dining floor if you want less noise.

Ate @ Pod this past Saturday night and the food was great! There were 4 of us and we had the following: appetizers - the lobster roll (great), chicken pot stickers (really good) , kobe beef (really good), main course - glazed sea bass (great), pork special with au gratin japanese potatoes (great), terriyaki salmon (good), the tuna 3 ways (I didn't taste but was assured it was great and a side of mushroom fried rice (delicious). We all ate every last morsel of food that came across our table. Everyone reported that all drinks were yummy. Only minor complaint is that we had a 9:15 reservation and we still had to wait another 15 minutes or so before we were seated. I took the time to get a drink at the bar but a couple in my party were restless. In terms of service - our bartender and our waitress were both great. I highly recommend POD if you're looking for a good meal + drinks. There's definitely a very trendy/borderline pretentious scene - so if you're not up for that, skip it.

We went here for a birthday a few weeks ago - food was great, atmosphere was pretty trendy, which was refreshing since it is an upscale place. I recommend the wasabi encrusted filet.

We ate at Pod this past weekend and had the spicy tuna roll and lettuce wrap appetizers (both were delicious!) and the pork tenderloin and macademia chicken for dinner as well as the tower dessert. We thought the food and atmosphere were great. The menu is a bit pricey, but no worse then any other eatery in Philadelphia. Our server seemed to be new and we found ourselves wondering quite frequently where he had dissapeared to with our drinks, etc. Other then that we had a very nice time!!