"This Queen Village Japanese restaurant has a walk-in izakaya in front where you can sit in a booth, drink a balanced cocktail, and eat chirashi and fried fish collars like a happy kitten. The room is dark, the bar is bumping, and we rarely spend fewer than three hours loitering here. But if you want to feel like the princess of Philadelphia, try to book the 17-piece sushi omakase in the back. You might get dry-aged mackerel with chive oil or a silky chawanmushi topped with an obscene amount of caviar. Both dining options are memorable in their own ways. Which is nice, considering you probably can't get into the omakase. Royal's sushi omakase is the single hardest reservation to book in Philadelphia. (At the end of the meal, diners can rebook for the following month, and many do—thus creating a defacto club of omakase regulars.) Open slots become available 30 days in advance, so we suggest setting an alarm or 10 and signing up for the waitlist notifications. It's rare, but not unheard of, to get a last-minute reservation. Alternatively, you could dine in the walk-in-only izakaya portion of the restaurant, get “lost” heading to the bathroom, and try to blend in with the Eagles player gulping toro." - candis mclean, alison kessler