We like statistics so we were excited to see MenuPages posted the five most clicked on restaurants at their site. Some shockers here:

• La Viola
• Mixto
• Water Works Restaurant
• Honey’s Sit ‘n Eat
• Aqua

High Five! All-Around Introductory Edition [MenuPages]

Joy Manning, has a post up on Serious Eats detailing her six favorite “bargain BYOBs that offer unfussy but fantastic food, unbeatable prices and personality.”

• Alyan’s
• La Viola
• Cafe de Laos
• Mr. Martino’s Trattoria
• Taqueria Veracruzana
• Zento

The Best of Philly’s BYOBs [Serious Eats]

Taste Daily reminds us that not every good restaurant is new. La Viola and La Viola Oest are both still getting it done.

Don’t worry: they didn’t try to reinvent anything. The street address and phone numbers are one digit apart. The room is still a sparse afterthought. The waiters are still Italian. The booze is still carried in by customers and the menu is almost identical, still red-gravy satisfying and suitably priced. Warm up with a bowl of red or white mussels ($7) then dive into homemade fusilli with cannelloni beans, sausage, onions and a drizzle of olive oil ($12).

Restaurant You Forgot: La Viola [Taste Daily]

We have to be honest, risotto has never made our toes curl. But reading the descriptions of Philadelphia Weekly’s Top 5 risotto dishes have us reconsidering.

1. James (James’ Risotto Alla Kristina was recently named one of Food & Wine’s Best Restaurant Dishes)
2. Rx
3. Plough and the Stars
4. La Viola
5. Gayle

Places for Risotto: Tip of the Riceberg [City Paper]

Out of town guests are a great reason to eat out and Sloth Street certainly took advantage, dining at Tinto, Barclay Prime, La Viola, N. 3rd and Lolita over 9 days.

9 Days, 7 Out-of-Town Visitors, 5 Restaurants, 4 Bottles of Wine, 2 Cases of Beer, 1 pack of Tums [Sloth Street]

In Foodsday Tuesday Phillyist gives out the love to La Viola’s sibling, La Viola Ouest.

La Viola Ouest is the relatively recently opened western branch of my favorite BYO. Western, in that it’s on the west side of 16th Street – the original La Viola is on the east, almost directly across the street. Its menu is slightly bigger, but then again, so is its dining room. Many La Viola favorites are still present on the menu, but several others don’t appear or are somewhat different from their La Viola iterations. It was hard to tell whether the atmosphere was as romantic as the flagship restaurant in a large group, but the food, while different (my favorite, the vitello carcioffi, is apparently limited to the original La Viola), was no less delicious.

Foodsday Tuesday: Way Out Ouest [Phillyist]

Foodzings had been hearing good things about La Viola all summer so she tried it out herself and calls it the “best of the BYOBs.

La Viola Ouest – best of the BYOBs [Foodzings]

Stephen Starr will be turning his Blue Angel/Angelina’s spot on Chestnut Street into a gastropub. It’s about a year out. [Table Talk, Philadelphia Inquirer]

Asylum it is. Asylum won the name the “Yellow Bar” contest and will be the name of the new bar on Grays Ferry Avenue in G-Ho. [Philly Blog]

Ramazan Hima, the man behind Bistro La Viola has opened La Viola Ovest across the street from the original La Viola. [Table Talk, Philadelphia Inquirer]

Didn’t know the English monarch was a fan of steak sandwiches but evidently he was, why else would you name a steak shop after him? King Edward’s Steaks has opened on the 1300 block of Bainbridge. [Feeding Frenzy, City Paper]

Looks like Black N Brew, opening soon on East Passyunk, will be more than just a coffee shop. The breakfast menu will feature eggs and pancakes. For lunch there will be wraps and paninis. [Feeding Frenzy, City Paper]