The Best Hole-In-The-Wall Restaurant In Pennsylvania

There is a huge discrepancy in etiquette when it comes to fine dining, versus dive-ier spots, but where the two equal out is often in flavor. Just because a restaurant looks unassuming (or run down) does not mean you won't have a transcendent dining experience; in fact, it's typically the opposite. Food Republic recognized this when it did a deep dive into researching the best hole-in-the-wall restaurant in your state, and for Pennsylvania, we came up with a banger. Coming from the City of Brotherly Love (that's Philadelphia) and specializing in Polish fare is Mom-Mom's Kitchen.

This restaurant, which currently shares a storefront with Carbon Copy Beer & Wine in Port Richmond, serves up Polish classics, like five varieties of pierogi (we have a guide to these pockets of potato here), as well as beet salad, pickle soup, seared cabbage, kielbasa, and golabki, or stuffed cabbage rolls, among other dishes. But what really catches people's attention is its nod to Philadelphian cuisine: The Philly Cheesesteak pierogi. This decidedly untraditional quasi-Polish item got a big thumbs up when Guy Fieri featured the little eatery on his Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives in 2020.

While Mom-Mom's Kitchen (which is named after one of the owners' grandmothers) clearly doesn't take itself too seriously — its website URL is mommomnomnom.com — there is a certain gravitas to its food. That's because Mom-Mom's owners know they're serving up more than a hot meal; they're serving up history.

Mom-Mom Kitchen's Port Richmond location is actually its fourth iteration of the restaurant, and like so many eateries today, it started out as a food truck. Owners Ryan Elmore and Kaitlin Wines started the laborious process of making and selling their pierogi out of a brilliantly decorated food stand, but five years after they began their venture, they were ready to go brick-and-mortar. So they opened a location in Bridesburg, using a shared kitchen with over 50 other small culinary outfits.

But the team behind Mom-Mom's Kitchen kept climbing, and just a few months before the COVID-19 pandemic, the duo began a Kickstarter. This endeavor ended up getting fully funded so that they could open a take-out window on South Street (a matter of terrific timing). The South Street window is where Mom-Mom's would stay for four years, until in 2024 they opted to collaborate with the aforementioned Carbon Copy brewery in Port Richmond. The new kitchen allowed Mom-Mom's to expand its menu, while the beer fridges are also stocked with grab-n-go 12-packs of pierogi for taking home and cooking in your own kitchen.

Throughout each move, too, Mom-Mom's hasn't forgotten its roots and has indeed maintained its food cart. The pierogi purveyors also sell their wares at local farmer's markets, in a variety of retailers, and their potato dumplings are featured on the menus of breweries.