Queen Village Restaurant Week returns for its third year, running July 24 through August 9 (excluding Saturdays), with prix fixe menus across more than 20 independent restaurants throughout the neighborhood. Leading the pack this year: The Twisted Tail, whose four-course Southern feast might be the single best value on the whole list.
The Twisted Tail’s Four-Course Southern Feast
For Queen Village Restaurant Week, the Southern-inspired contemporary American restaurant, bar, and live music venue in the heart of Headhouse Square is offering a four-course dinner menu for $50 per person during Queen Village Restaurant Week — a genuinely stacked mix-and-match lineup built around bold Southern flavors and seasonal ingredients.
Spanish Octopus arrives with paprika fingerling potatoes and chorizo; Truffle Scallop Ceviche gets jalapeño, tomato, citrus, and crispy tortilla; Crawfish Mac & Cheese comes topped with toasted breadcrumbs. Mains run from Braised Short Rib with Parmesan polenta and gremolata to Buttermilk Fried Chicken with rosemary honey and sweet potato to Roasted Salmon with purple cauliflower purée and kumquats, with a Grilled Cauliflower Steak in chimichurri and truffle purée covering vegetarian diners. Dessert closes it out with Caramel Budino, Plum Upside-Down Cake, or Vanilla Bean Panna Cotta.
Pair any of it with The Twisted Tail’s renowned whiskey program and nightly live music, and $50 starts to look like one of the better deals in the neighborhood all year, not just Restaurant Week. Reservations are available via OpenTable.
Where Else to Eat During Queen Village Restaurant Week
Organized by the Queen Village Neighbors Association, this year’s roster spans lunch specials under $25 and dinner menus running $40 to $60, across a genuinely wide range of cuisines. On the lunch side: Bridget Foy’s, Casa Oui, Mahalo Hawaiian BBQ, Puyero Venezuelan Flavor, and MilkBoy all have midday prix fixe options. For dinner, BYOB spots include Casa Nostra, La Nonna, and Gnocchi, the recently relaunched South Philadelphia institution under new ownership. Full-bar dinner options round things out with Capri, Cry Baby, Southwark, Side Eye, and Fitz on 4th, alongside The Twisted Tail.
Rotating Specials and Where to Park
A few spots are treating Queen Village Restaurant Week as two separate events rather than one long menu. Tattooed Mom is running rotating specials in two rounds — Round One, July 24–28, features a Classic or Vegan Chop Cheez (ground beef or its vegan counterpart, cheddar, fried onion, lettuce, tomato, pickle, and garlic dill aioli on a seeded roll) alongside Peri Peri Fries topped with vegan cheez whiz, fried onions, jalapeños, and peri peri mayo.
Round Two, July 29–August 2, swaps in an entirely different set of specials, meaning a single visit only tells half the story. Worth noting for regulars: Tattooed Mom’s own weekly specials keep running underneath Restaurant Week too — Meatless Mondays, Taco Tuesdays, $6 Smash Burger Wednesdays, and 75-cent Pierogi Thursdays, each paired with its own drink deal.
A handful of restaurants show up on both the lunch and dinner lists — Adoro, Casa Oui, and Guzo Café all offer separate prix fixe menus depending on when you visit, which makes them worth a second stop across the two and a half weeks if the first meal goes well. Parking around the neighborhood is manageable if you know where to look: garages at 215 Lombard Street and 524 S. 3rd Street offer hourly rates, with additional street parking available along Bainbridge, Front, and 3rd Streets.
The full participant list and individual restaurant menus are available at qvna.org/restaurantweek, along with a map to help plan a route between spots. With this many options packed into one of Philadelphia’s most walkable dining neighborhoods, the hardest part of Queen Village Restaurant Week is narrowing it down — but The Twisted Tail is a genuinely great place to start.
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