Corey’s Crafty Vietnamese Cuisine has been criminally overlooked by the Philly food press. As of 9/4/2023 it has 100% five-star reviews (on 129 reviews) on Google, but no articles have been written about the restaurant by the local papers, online news outlets or food blogs.  Corey’s serves up some of the best Vietnamese food in Philadelphia, with amazing rice dishes, Pho, Banh Mi and Bun. The Com Dac Biet is sensational – it is a broken rice dish with your choice of a Vietnamese BBQ pork chop or boneless BBQ pork, with pate and shrimp and a fried egg that is cooked with insane technique. The vegan salt and pepper crusted tofu is another standout dish and is the best substitute for salt and pepper shrimp I have come across.  They serve a house made chili oil that is blazing hot, but has layers of flavor, some of which comes from Kaffir lime, which brings bright and tangy notes. Chef Corey has a classical French cuisine background, having worked in top restaurants in Philly, and opened up his own venture in the penumbra of the pandemic.    

The Dumplings: Corey’s menu has five dumpling options, each of which is served with its own sauce.  The vegan Portobello Mushroom and Leek dumplings come with a soy balsamic vinaigrette over baby greens, and while the dumplings could stand alone flavor-wise, you will want to sop up all of the vinaigrette with the dumplings and eat the greens garnish to get every last bit of the sauce.  This dish can be ordered with steamed or pan-fried dumplings. 

I have also had the Golden Bags several times, which are deep-fried dumplings filled with shrimp and crab, wrapped in a pouch made of a wonton wrapper that has been tied shut with pandam leave strips.  These dumplings come sitting on a sweet and spicy chili sauce.  The shrimp and crab filling always tastes fresh and flavorful and the thin crispy wrapper provides a great textural contrast to the filling.  One issue with this dish is that it is a little hard to get the chili sauce onto the dumplings, a side bowl of sauce that the dumplings could be dunked into would be welcome.          

Another favorite is the Berkshire Pork and Shrimp Dumpling served with a roasted bell pepper sauce. The wonton wrapper on these dumplings is thicker, so when you order the deep-fried version, the wrappers are crispy, crunchy and bubbled like a cannoli shell.  These dumplings have a seriously unctuous, savory pork flavor, typical of Berkshire pork, that is delicious, but I am never quite sure what the shrimp bring to the recipe.  As with the other sauces, the roasted bell pepper sauce is a tasty compliment to the dumplings. 

In addition to these dumplings, Corey’s serves Crispy Curry Chicken Dumplings and Beef Dumplings.

The Location:  Corey’s Crafty Vietnamese Cuisine is on the 1300 block of South Street in Philadelphia.  Their web-site is pretty poor, lacks photos of a lot of the dishes and generally looks like it is from the early 2000’s.  But ignore their weak web presence and go for the food.