No Reservations, No Problem: Izzy’s in Ardmore Is Worth the Wait

Fried chicken bao buns at Izzy’s in Ardmore / Photograph by Ted Nghiem

At the bar, the smiling tender pours me the best version of a Last Word I’ve had in years — gin and green Chartreuse, Midori in place of maraschino liqueur, a splash of citrus, and a lime rind. It is an Asian play on a classically American cocktail, vibrant green in its Nick and Nora coupe. And no tiny bit of it was accidental, because when I stop the bartender to tell him how much I like it, he talks about it like he assembled it from the atoms up all by himself, glass included.

I expected Izzy’s to be okay, but not much more. Fun, sure, but not any deeper than that. It’s an izakaya in Ardmore, operated by Peter Martin, who also runs Ardmore Music Hall and Ripplewood next door — a gastropub and neighborhood whiskey bar with which Izzy’s shares a kitchen. There are no reservations. No website. Just an Instagram page and a door on Lancaster Avenue. The locals have found it already. It gets lines during prime time — milling crowds standing near the front windows, all waiting their turn because the space is small. Twenty seats, give or take. Narrow and dim, with a handful of chairs at the window counter, a pair of small high-tops, and a bar. Pale wood. Hanging lamps. Subtle, and with a great ’80s New Wave soundtrack that gives the place a haze of nostalgia that makes you want to slouch there under the latticed ceiling longer than simple politeness might allow.

The menu is tight but packed with interesting diversions — hand rolls; shredded brisket birria from the Ripplewood kitchen­ tucked into soft, sweet bao buns, topped with Oaxaca cheese and dipped in a guajillo broth; warm miso soup cloudy with smooth tofu; and whole soft-shell shrimp, fried, wrapped in soy paper, and served with butter lettuce and a black lime remoulade. The bao are substantial, borderline sandwiches. The hand rolls are gone in two bites — shima aji cured in kombu, delicate madai with wasabi, simple spicy tuna at happy hour, mounded along two fingers of warm sushi rice in an envelope of black nori. You could order all of them and, one cocktail later, want to run through the entire list again.

Izzy’s is easy to fall for and tough to quit. Playing on the lineage of American interpretations of Japanese barrooms and offering a fusion menu with cocktails that match, it’s a place that, somehow, manages to do everything right. A neighborhood spot that’s quickly becoming its own destination. A tiny place that understands how to make smallness a strength.

3 Stars — Come from anywhere in Philly

Rating Key
0 stars: stay away
★: come if you have no other options
★★: come if you’re in the neighborhood
★★★: come from anywhere in Philly
★★★★: come from anywhere in America

Published as “Small Space, Big Flavors” in the June 2025 issue of Philadelphia magazine.