Italian Bistro of Center City

Terrible. I’m not a picky eater i love everything and I couldn’t even eat my meal.

Cool atmosphere. Good food. I’ve had better Italian food but this was solid.

You think you’re in for a treat when you see this place sitting on prime real estate — Avenue of the Arts, just a few short blocks from City Hall. There’s an enclosed sidewalk café that gives you a peek into the usually crowded restaurant. You think, «I’ve got to check this place out.»
You might want to think about that again. I had a tuna steak; dry doesn’t quite explain it. This fish tasted as though it had been cooked, and then stored in the Sahara for a week, and then shipped back to Philadelphia so that it could be served to me. They should have let the sand monsters keep it, because I was not a fan.
I could tell you what my girlfriend ate, but I’m pretty sure it’s not worth it.

We were walking around Center City and decided to pop in for dinner. It was a two hour wait without reservations (for two people), but we were told we could seat ourselves at the bar.
The bartender was rather standoffish. She brought our drinks/​refills grudgingly (and sans lemon even though I asked twice), forgot the extra dressing I ordered for my salad, and then took my entrée plate away before I was done.
We had ordered the fixed price menu (not seen in the laminated one they give, you need to ask for it separately) for $ 20. You get soup or salad, a choice of 3 – 4 entrees, and dessert. I had the salad, which was fine but when I asked what types of dressing were available, the bartender just said «Balsamic is our house.» and repeated herself when I asked if any other dressings were available.
The grilled chicken, asparagus, and mashed potato platter were just okay. The grilled chicken was moist, but had no flavor at all, the asparagus was okay, but the mashed potatoes were awesome. Like so awesome, I wanted seconds! And of course, the bartender ruined that part of the meal for me by taking my plate away before I was finished.
And my date said the bathrooms were shady. Apparently they look like they belong in a corner pizza joint and he said it reeked of weed outside the bathroom door. That’s when I decided I’d rather use a bathroom somewhere else!
The food was alright, but it was obvious the bartender was only concerned with turnover and not quality service. I may be back, but I’ll be sure to sit in a booth!

It was okay, nothing to write home about. I had purchased a Living Social deal so I decided to bring a friend for dinner. I had been here years ago and I can’t seem to remember how I felt about it.
Anyhoo, I do remember that it was brighter the last time. The dark made it romantic/​mysterious. We got to sit by the window and look on to Broad Street. Pretty cool during the summer, but not on the coldest day of the year, which it was when we were there.
Our waitress was nice enough, she didn’t stand out really. I remember having to ask for another cup of hot tea. I ordered the spaghetti pomodorini topped with crab. Or so I thought, they actually cooked the crab in the sauce. That made me realize the crab wasn’t anything fancy. No worries, it tasted good enough. I also had a salad, nothing to rave about.
My friend ordered from the prix fixe menu. His meal came with bruschetta. He decided he didn’t want it, so I got to eat it. It was okay, what gave it a bit of pop was the balsamic glaze. I absolutely ja’dore balsamic glaze. He had the chicken parm. Again, just okay.
The waitress does get a few points for the bread. The bread came with butter. I asked for olive oil, she brought out the olive oil with these wondeful spices in it. It was good, a winner.
Now my favorite part of the meal is always dessert. So, my friend got the oreo cheesecake. It was delicious! Yummy good! I got some italian strawberry cake. I got it wrong! I should have gotten the crème brule’
I guess I would go back. I say that because the food wasn’t yucky at all. I just didn’t have a fiesta in my mouth as I ate it.

I went here for a prix fixe menu and tried something that was kind of adventurous. I actually asked the waitress for her opinion on the dish and she gave me a «I’ve had it before it’s good» answer that sounded like she actually did… until I tried it. Anyone who has tried this dish (gnocchi with walnuts and gorgonzola cream sauce) would know exactly how to describe it. «It’s great if you love massive amounts of gorgonzola cheese and not much of anything else.»
So, the waitress was slow and she did not know how to give a good recommendation. I’d rather have an honest waitress than one that lies about trying dishes.
I ate about 5 or 6 bites which is totally uncharacteristic of me and definitely a sign that this place should be avoided. My fiancé did not seem to enjoy her meal very much either.

I had a great experience here. They have a deal for 4-​course dinner for $ 20. It’s a bruschetta, salad, entrée and tiramisu. The bruschetta looked burnt and the tiramisu was very small. But I guess, I can’t really complain for that price.
The salad was just like the regular salad. My entrée was broiled tilapia, which was ok. If I go back next time, I might not do the 4-​course dinner. I would just order the regular dishes, which is already included caesar salad.

I always wanted to come here but a gift certficate from
got me here.
I must say that I had a pleasant experience. Their food was DELISH… I ordered the eggplant parm which was exceptional. I went a little different because normally I would order a alfredo dish.
Also I’m not a huge fan of tiramisu from other places but their was great and not too much rum in it.
The wait time was long so I would suggest making a reservations especially on the weekend.
I will be back next week because now they have a promo if you buy $ 50 gift card you receive $ 25 back :)

I had a hankering for Italian and since I have a discount here, I decided to go. The place was pretty empty on a Sunday afternoon, but I guess it’s alright since it was Sunday. I ordered the calamari and the spaghetti pomodorini. With a practically empty restaurant, the waitress somehow still mistaken my order for chicken parm. I said whatever and just ate it b/​c I was hungry. The calamari was greasy and not crunchy at all. On top of that the fried zucchini was just pathetic looking, all thin and flappy. The chicken parm was alright, nothing to complain about or to rave over. I’m not coming back anytime soon that’s for sure.

I had a great experience here — staff was super friendly and they have a relaly great prix fixe deal for only $ 20 for a four course dinner even on the weekends.
Despite our group of seven, we were seated promptly and our waitress was very friendly and helpful. The four course dinner included an appetizer of bruschetta, soup or salad, entrée, and dessert. The bruschetta was pretty basic and simple with a house salad. Everyone else’s entrée was pretty good except that my chicken parmesean was a bit dry. Dessert was fresh strawberries with freshly made whipped cream — yum!
Overall, a pretty good deal and friendly solid Italian meal for Center City.

I came back here again because i wanted to take out my friend for his bday. I figured something nice and prices are reasonable, so why not to the place which i enjoyed their calamari! We got to sit next to the windows where youre right in front of the broad street on the sidewalk, which i thought was awesome!
so Yes indeed i ordered the calamari again and it was the same as i ordered it before, DELICIOUS! and plus we had the tuna steak thing, it was goooodd! I signed up to their newsletter to get a free bottle of wine, and yes i ordered their cupcake chardonnay and it was delicious! I am totally buying that brande from now on! JUSt because it says cupcake! lol
I had ordered the talapia and crabcakes and it was sooo good! Mash potatoes, they had put it on like ice cream swirls and it was soo flavorable and delicious! I savored every moment of them potatoes! They gave you big portions so every one of us, could not finish our entrees, plus they gave us salad and bread, which was also pretty big! My friend had the chicken pasta, and it was verryy flavorable as well. Love it!
And service was very fast and friendly! I was very happy once again! Plus also all their desserts, was mostly all of my favorites!!! SO it was sooo hard to decide to pick my dessert! lol but nontheless, i always go for the crème brûlée! I love a restaurant that has my fave dessert! woohoo! :)
PS i believe theyre serving a 4 course meal every day, so i will definitely take advantage of it! all the infod is on their website!

Center City Sips couldn’t have a better timeframe. It’s summer, everyone’s dressed to impress and looking for a good time. A lot of those times involve finding a good place for some grub. With Sips, there’s opportunity to experience places you might not have tried before, especially if a restaurant’s prices might put a scare on your wallet. With that said, I decided to take a chance on Italian Bistro, something I’ve always had mild curiousity about despite my fear of trying places on the south Broad Street strip. I’m a cheap date, you know.
Keeping that Sips theme in tact, the first steps I took into were appetizers from the Bistro. They sounded intriguing, including beer-​battered Mozzarella Frittes, mushrooms stuffed with sweet sausage, tuscan cheeses and spinach, and warm Crab cheesecake (say what!?). All of them sounded delicious but the taste was far from impressive. There was a lack of taste in the frittes and the mushrooms, and the crab cheesecake was alright but nothing wild. Their Sangria tasted like what I’d imagine boxed wine to taste like if you mixed it with America’s Choice’s version of Sprite.
I probably shouldn’t judge a restaurant based on just a few appetizers and a weak drink, but the purpose of an appetizer is to whet your cravings for something more. It’s an invitation of sorts; an assortment of baits you get to choose from before you leap out of the water into a world of entrees. And for the prices, you might be better off finding another Italian restaurant, somewhere in South Philly, if you’re not an elitist who’s too good for a neighborhood restaurant outside of the CC district and wants to pay for overpriced antipasto in hopes of «helping the economy.»
I also should mention the bartenders, who were wearing too much make-​up and looked far too plastic, weren’t friendly or nice at all and probably were disappointed to be working on Sips night knowing they wouldn’t be making much. Oh well. Suck it up, barbie, you represent the rest of your staff. I hope the rest of the servers aren’t like you.

The name describes it all. This place is a moderately priced bistro that serves… Italian food. Beyond stating the obvious, I must say that I’ve enjoyed the food. Thus far, I’ve sampled the bruschetta, ravioli, chili chicken penne, tiramisu, and crème brûlée, and have been impressed with all of the above. The crème brûlée had a nice crunchy carmelized sugar crust, just as it should.
This place seems to usually offer a prix fixe menu for around $ 20, in addition to taking coupons from
. Thus far, I’ve never gone here and paid full price. While not the fanciest Italian place, it really is quite pleasant.

I came here for one of my friend’s birthday dinners a few weeks ago and I must say I am not impressed with this place at all. I also have one near my house in the North East but I have never stepped foot into it. This was the first time that I have gone to an Italian Bistro.
Let’s start off with the service. Well, let me just say that they were quite rude to us the entire night, they seemed as if they didn’t care because they knew they would get the gratuity tip regardless. While I was eating my appetizer, one of the servers just snagged my plate MID-​BITE. MIDDDDD BITE!!! really? Unacceptable…
The food was average which is why I am giving them 2 stars.
The price range isn’t bad but you get what you paid for.
I would not recommend coming here.

I learned about the Italian Bistro from Groupon who was offering $ 40 worth of dinner for $ 20. Because I was going to see a show at the Kimmel Center, this place seemed like a convenient place to get dinner. Making reservations was really easy with Open Table although this restaurant does not offer any Open Table points. The food was really good, we had the warm crab cheesecake for an appetiser, our salads were tasty and I got the gnocchi with the Gorgonzola cream sauce. Soooo yummy and quite filling so there were plenty of left overs.

As Amanda A says, the food is just alright. We once came here on a dessert date and found ourselves very disappointed. The desserts were big, but they weren’t tasty. When it comes down to it, I’d rather have a smaller piece of cake that tastes amazing than a large slice that tastes like shit. I don’t know how much I can trust a place that is overly focused on portion size and not concerned with flavor.
One thing that I do like about this place though is the service. The servers are always knowledgeable and friendly. They work hard to please their customers. When we got married, we booked a small party at this place for 50 of our closest friends and were very pleased with the service. The head waiter assigned to our party was incredibly accommodating, as were the rest of the staff. While I would only give the food 1 or 2 stars, the service definitely gets 5 stars.
That said, when I go out to eat, I like to eat tasty food. This place is sorely lacking in that department and I doubt I’ll eat here again.

Carbohydrates: the ultimate comfort food. Those Italians sure do know how to bring the food coma.
Italian Bistro: food, good; price, great. Me Hungry. Me caveman. *grunt grunt*
I ordered the Chili Pepper Chicken Rigatoni ($ 13), and the friend chose the Salmone Incrosta ($ 9). Right off the bat, the price range [which rivals Olive Garden] was a pleasant surprise vis-​a-​vis the other establishments on this side of Broad.
The complementary bread was, well, just bread. Rigatoni came out close to al dente, which is a good indicator that someone in the kitchen is using his/​her noodle to make the noodles. The sauce was zesty and a copious amount of marinated grilled chicken breast was given. My friend’s Salmone salad also followed suit with a large portion, although she ate a quarter of the fish which may indicate that it didn’t quite suit her particular palate.
In short, we like it here. Though we’re no Italian epicureans, Italian Bistro won our hearts with its pristine location, bang-​for-​the-​buck pricing, and better than Olive Garden options.

I will be generous and give 4 stars — it may be more of a 3 star place for most people.
We were treated extremely well here todayfor our holiday luncheon — a party of 19 with a nice set of choices for a prix-​fixe menu. We all got the Tuscan Bean soup (good — not great) and choice of Caesar ir House Salad. I had the house with Balsamic vinaigrette — and it was fresh and tasty.
I had the Chicken Parm as an entrée — which was deep fried — but otherwise good.
Dessert was a chocolate mousse coated profiterole. Tasty but unappetizingly presented.
Service was surprisingly attentive and timely. And yes, just as Chrissy R. did, I heard the Broad Street line train rumble on by when I was downstairs in the ladies room.
3 steps up from an Olive Garden.

You can hear the Broad Street Line trains go by when you’re down in the bathroom. Srsly.
This place has got really carby gnocchi – basically my favorite thing ever, fore a reasonable price. Besides that I’m basically nonplussed with regards to this place.

The girls & I came here out of sheer vicinity and hunger after we left the Kimmel Center.
Twas very cold & rainy — and even though our first option was Capital Grille — there was a long wait because we didn’t have reservations. So as we were walking back to the parking lot to go home — we were like… ehhh, let’s just eat here.
I’ve been to Italian Bistro a few times now.
I don’t know why or how or WHY, but overnight it became a pretentious place to eat.
Not the customers but the wait staff. They seemed uppity and snobby.
I was home for the holidays so they had a new years menu — which is what we ordered. You could get a soup or salad, entrée, dessert (we chose tiramisu), and a champagne flute.
They have a full waitstuff who look busy as hell even when the restaurant isn’t. Yet, when you ask for something, they seem like they are in a rush to do something else — but what? Then, they forget to give you what ask (i.e. extra napkins, etc)
The food is okay. Presentation is better than the food itself.
Peep the pix.