PHILA LORN

A delicious cascade of influences, from Cambodia to South Philly, collide in this chef’s freewheeling menu.

- RAPHAEL BRION,ALEX LAU

WHEN PHILA LORN AND HIS WIFE, Rachel, first opened Mawn in 2023, they called it a “noodle house with no rules.” And indeed, there are neither limits nor borders on the freewheeling menu, which merges the flavors of Southeast Asia with the foodways of Philadelphia and beyond. Each dish is intentionally eclectic; Lorn and his chefs constantly ask themselves, “How do you make that Mawn?”

MAWN

Philadelphia

Oxtail katiew, a Cambodian noodle soup, at Mawn in Philadelphia

Take, for example, the dizzying khao soi, a northern Thai curry noodle soup. Lorn’s version improvises freely, incorporating a local ramen shop’s housemade noodles (prepared two ways, fresh and fried) into a chicken curry inspired by one his mother used to make, or, in one special iteration of the dish, injecting a classic Italian American Philly element: deeply savory, briny crab gravy. Then there’s the chicken noodle soup, inspired by Rachel’s Jewish heritage: It riffs on both pho and matzo ball soup, fortified with rendered schmaltz, infused with Southeast Asian aromatics, and topped with crispy garlic.