Sao

“Sao is if Oyster House and Han Dynasty did a collab forever,” said Phila of the Southeast Asian, seafood-focused restaurant he opened with his wife, Rachel Lorn, and their business partner, Jesse Levinson—nodding to two Philadelphia institutions. Sao is the Lorns’ second restaurant, named for how Phila’s mother pronounces “South,” just as Phila (pronounced “pee-la”) was named for how she pronounced their adopted city.

Half of Sao’s menu centers on raw seafood. There are oysters mostly from the East Coast, but also from Washington and Japan; crudos of hamachi, bluefin tuna, scallops, and prawns that were first teased as specials at Mawn; and other cold plates like beef and tuna carpaccios. The concept was born during the pandemic, when Rachel and Phila indulged in discounted luxury seafood from local distributors and learned to savor daily life. For the Lorns, seafood is the ultimate indulgence, and they wanted to share that through Sao. The deeper you go into Sao—the further you move into the restaurant—the more it reveals itself as more than just a raw bar. Guests are rewarded with cooked dishes like a 20-ounce ribeye served with funky, spicy Cambodian prohok, mussels, scallops in crab gravy, and steamed branzino.

Unlike Mawn, Sao has a liquor license, allowing the team to serve a playfully named cocktail menu. Highlights include the “Jabroni Negroni,” sure to make anyone familiar with Philly culture smile, and “Wing Phat Plaza,” a tropical drink named for one of the clusters of Asian businesses on Washington Avenue.