La Fontana Della Citta

A lot of back and forth about this place. Restaurant week brought my girlfriend and I here for a relatively underwhelming experience.
It looks pretty nice from the outside; like a cozy little Italian restaurant nestled in Rittenhouse Square. We were seated immediately and got a nice spot right near the window. Our server went over the menu with us and even offered us a glass of complimentary wine when he realized we hadn’t brought our own bottle (they are BYO).
This is when the stars started to fall. The table next to us showed up later than us, but received service and their dishes before us. Despite being friendly, the service was incredibly slow. Like getting hungry between every dish type of slow. We even decided to order dessert as they brought out our main courses, figuring it would be a while. Confirmed!
The dishes were pretty small, and the quality for the most part was lacking. The salmon I ordered was almost certainly previously frozen. The pollo oscar was chicken. Covered with bland gravy. Sprinkled with fishy and limp «crab meat.» Pollo Oscar the Grouch. The only thing saving it was the gnocchi, otherwise, it was not worth the advertised $ 35 4-​course meal.

This is a decent spot for Italian cuisine. The prices aren’t too bad but the specials tend to be on the pricier side. I ordered the branzino for my meal and, although I was satisfied, I have to say that $ 36 is a bit steep for what I got. It was tasty but not so much that it was worth that price. The dish was also smaller than I thought it would be, but in the end I was definitely satiated.
The venue is a nice setting for a family dinner or even a date and it is also BYOB so bring your own wine. I would like to revisit this place again in the future.

DO NOT GO HERE! Came for lunch with my coworkers. Many were here about 4 years ago for a department holiday party. It was not as they remembered. One house salad smelled like fish. I had a hair in my chicken dish. No one came to apologize. The cooks sat at another table eating and stared at us while we sat there and just wanted to run out of the place. Looked up health code violations and were completely disgusted. Will not be returning and quite frankly wish I could forget this trip.

Gnocchi is great, BYOB is lovely, but the mussels were mediocre– honestly just tasted like they dumped canned tomatoes and garlic chunks on reheated seafood– and the veal + sauce was like neighborhood Chinese food. Nothing special, and I am not looking to go back.

My boyfriend and I came here for winter 2016 restaurant week, and I can see how the place got three stars– it’s not bad, but it’s also not great.
The Good:
— The Gnocchi. If you ever come here, this is a must. This pasta was surprisingly light and super delicious.
— BYOB. Those 4 letters say it all. Oh, and if you forget your bottle, they’ll offer you house wine.
— Friendly Staff. Our waiter here was beyond friendly when we interacted with him. Since we were seated in the back, I felt like he forgot about us at times.
–Dessert. Yum, Yum, Yum. The Tarfufo was delicious and so was the chocolate moose.
The Bad:
— The venue is small, which resulted in us sitting up against a very cold window.
— Over all the service was slow, they were nice, but the wait time between dishes was way too long and I often felt like they had forgotten about us.
— Pollo Oscar– This dish is unique, but the crab meat promised on the menu is really lacking on the dish.
— Overall I think the food was a little expensive for the quantity and quality.
— 10% discount for cash paying customers. Although some might see this as an advantage, I prefer paying with my credit card.
With all the options for Italian food in the city and restaurants for restaurant week, not sure I would come back.

One of my go to BYOB restaurants in center city– delicious and affordable.

I went to La Fontana with 10 of my girlfriends for restaurant week last night. We had a great experience. The staff was very friendly and accommodating. The restaurant was very cute and the food was delicious. I had the pasta fagioli for first course. Then the three pasta sampler next (loved this). The chicken parm for my meal and ice cream with a hard chocolate shell for dessert. Loved all of the food! We were having so much we ended up staying for 4 hours drinking wine. We did not feel rushed but it was Sunday night and not too crowded. Overall I would definitely come back.

We made a reservation for a party of 20 — we called to confirm said reservation — we arrive and surprise on a packed Saturday night there was no table available.
Furious — my friend who made the reservation spoke with them and about 35 minutes later (which involved the whole party — balloons and all — forced to wait outside) we were seated at two separate tables and not the one table we requested.
Either way that’s not the only thing I hated.
The waitstaff was terrible when it came to answered questions about the menu — simple things like «do you make your pasta with eggs?» «Is there butter in the arrabbiata?» Just basic menu questions… At one point they brought me out two entrees Bc they «didn’t understand» what I ordered. Then halfway through eating my pasta they came and grabbed the bowl away from me and claimed it was made with butter (wait didn’t I ask that already?)
I’m sure other people have had much better experiences but I was just not that impressed.

I don’t have enough time or space to explain how horrible this place is. I live local to Rittenhouse and thought that it was impossible to have such a poor experience at a restaurant since there are some of the greatest BYOs in town — until I came here.
From walking in with a group of 10 being told my reservation wasn’t in their system (along with a group of 8 behind me with the same issue), to being sat in a filthy basement with empty beer boxes below the table and half the place setting missing and us having to request everyone receive a fork. They gave us 4 menus and 3 pieces of bread to share, even after requesting more.
My friend’s food had PLASTIC in it, and when we made them aware of this they did NOTHING to address it.
We were never given more water after the first pour, and our server took 30 minutes to take our order. Our unhonored reservation was for 8:30pm and we got our food at 10pm.
I almost forgave them because they were busy, until the server came up and ACCUSED US of lying that we had a reservation. I’m confident he only even addressed us because we said we weren’t paying for the food with plastic in it. His exact words were «it’s not a coincidence two large parties came in without reservations claiming they had them.»
If this place doesn’t get shut down for the filthy bathroom and kitchen which is viewable, I would be surprised.
I’ve never gone to a restaurant with poor Unilocal reviews before this, and I never will again.

This place is not run by Italians, who know how to make a proper risotto. It was basically dry white rice. My friends agreed that it was bad too. The service was terrible. SLOW and neglectful. Take your money elsewhere!

Some of the best Italian food I have ever had hands down. It strays away from just the classic spaghetti and meatball ot chicken parm, this place is LEGIT!
Amazing specials that just sound mouth watering and the taste is out of this world. Not your classic Italian restaurant, La Fontana has a wide variety of seafoods, veal and things ive never even heard of. Truly amazing. It’ll be hard to not lick your plate clean! Delicious.
Desserts are fantastic, whatever fruit sorbert thing they have is amazing and my party older one of every dessert and it is truly speechlessly good. Nothings too strong or sweet and really this place fits my taste buds perfectly. ONE WORD– LOVE!

This place could be great. It’s a BYOB right in the heart of the city. However, unfortunately we went there with a big group for a birthday dinner and literally right after our bill was paid the waiter approached one guy at our table who was texting someone and said «if you’re going to be on your phone, then you guys should just leave». When we tried to ask for the manager, both the waiter and the hostess refused to tell us his name. We will never be back to this place after the way they kicked us out as soon as we paid.

The last time I was here I witnessed a waiter go after a customer outside and punch him. We ran into that group after and they said they were wrongfully accused of trying to dine and dash. Needless to say the service here is terrible. It is nearly impossible to get anyone’s attention to even just refill your glass. Also kept having issues with them trying to clear plates before we were done eating.
Had a reservation for a Friday night, table of 3 and they sat us in the basement in a room of a birthday party, very awkward.
The food is sub-​par, pasta tasteless, under cooked. I will not return or recommend this restaurant.

I’ve been here twice. First time was fine, mostly unmemorable food but nothing bad.
Second time was last night. Seven of us had reservations, and a few of us were late, which they were very accommodating about. Likely because their service ended up not being particularly speedy. At all. No worries on that though, as the ambiance IS great and we were really enjoying our conversations.
The food was… fine. My Gnocchi with mozzarella was delicious, but lukewarm. Consensus was that my friend’s meals were also lukewarm, and not as delicious.
One girl is gluten free and ordered chicken masala with a flour less sauce. The waiter said that wasn’t a problem. What she got was pathetic… two thin beaten chicken breasts without sauce or seasoning. And a few sad pieces of broccoli. Suffice to say she wasn’t happy, although did not complain.
Unfortunately, when I was just about done eating as much gnocchi as I could handle, I found a long black hair at the bottom of the plate. EWWW. The hair was straight and my hair is extremely curly so no chance it was mine. I told a waiter, who responded with a noise sembling disgust. He did nothing, so our waiter came and said there were no employees with long hair, implying it was mine. Um, no. He asked if I wanted something else. I explained I already ate most of it and was full so, no. I expected a comp or something on the bill, but we received nothing of the sort
Ambience — 3 stars
Service — 1 star
Food — 2 stars
They also have a 2 dollar corking charge and other weird rules, which other reviewers touch on.
Although good for groups, find another place.

Never again. I booked this place a little over a month in advance for a surprise birthday dinner for my mom’s 60^th. I thought it was strange that they never took a credit card number for a party of twenty-​five. I also expected that they’d discuss what prix fixe option I would be going with so they could plan accordingly, but they never did. Every week I would call back to make sure the reservation was indeed there. 25 people at 8PM, guest of honor to arrive at 8:30 for the big SURPRISE! Every time I called they were just really casual, «Yeah, we got it.»
So it rained the day of. And imagine my surprise and horror when I arrived at 8PM to see my 20-​something guests all standing outside in the rain. I walked into the restaurant and they told me the last party was still seated and paying the check now. I explained that the surprise would be ruined if we aren’t seated soon. She said, «Well, you should have told us.» I was livid. I told her I called to confirm this thing FOUR times! She apologized and we were actually seated at 8:30. (I called my dad to stall.)
This is not the end of the horror story though. As a party of 25, I expected to be at four tables, or at worst two. Then my mom could mingle a bit. Instead they shoved us all in a cramped downstairs room at one awkwardly long table. They crammed a bunch of tables together that didn’t even fit. They had to angle the last table bc it would have hit the wall. Not only this, but there was another large party of about 15 down there also at one table. The tiny room was packed. It was so loud we couldn’t even hear each other. And so hot.
The food wasn’t even good. I basically spent $ 1000 for a mediocre dish and a migraine. So in summation, this place is the worst. The absolute worst. Hated it!

I’ve never walked out of a restaurant before, but there’s a first for everyone.
Started out badly when the bread, slightly stale, was paired with a unique tasting olive oil. It had a strangely familiar taste, finally realized it was the taste of canola oil mixed with olive oil.
Then our Chicken Marsala arrived… Slightly weird looking, lumpy instead of pounded flat, covered in a ton of sauce. First bite, not Marsala but Chicken Gravy! Like packet mix with water chicken gravy taste. My wife’s had her’s over Angel Hair pasta that was so saturated with the goo, it was uneatable. Waiter seemed to disappear after serving it.
Complained to the girl at the register, that had an attitude, but also a look in her eyes like it wasn’t her first time hearing this sort of complaint. Manager came over and stated perhaps our taste was different.
Our taste is different, we expect a $ 25 Chicken Marsala to be excellent. I’ve had the misfortune to once eat at Olive Garden, this was far worse.
Charged us $ 10 for 2 glasses of kerosene house wine and we were out the door.
Burped up Canola oil for about 2 hours that night.

Some people need a plan to dine out, others may even need a flowchart. I, on the other hand, play it by ear most of the time.
I was going to show on a late Monday night at Play and Players theater, and I wanted to grab something to eat around that area. I didn’t realize, most restaurants don’t open on Mondays.
So, I consulted my best dinning friend « Unilocal!» La Fourno, was about a block away from the theater, and they were nice enough to serve me, even though It was very close to closing time.
I only had the Gnocchi Al Gorgonzola, and it was creamy, but tasted fairly bland. It needed some kind of spices or something. The service was friendly and it had the setting for nice dates.
If I was in the area again, I may give it a second chance.
Three Unilocal

Make sure you get reservations for large groups ahead of time, this place was packed on a Saturday! It’s been a couple years since I’ve been here, and I wasn’t impressed, I feel like it was better last time. The place was super super packed and loud, before we had a more private area down stairs. The bread is cold and unimpressive, you just get olive oil… no spices, so you make your own from salt and pepper. The food is pretty pricey, most dishes $ 20+. My salmon was really really average and came with two little potatoes and greens. The cappellini seafood special with pink sauce was really good though. Service is very slow, and we were there for a long while waiting for food and then check. There are also quite a few rules on the menu (I hate when restaurants do that), such as a min order requirement ($ 16.95), cork fee of $ 2 per bottle, will only split bill between two credit cards, etc. Not sure if these are enforced but just takes away from the experience. But it is really cute for people’s birthdays they turn off the lights and sing a song, and bring ice cream ball and candle.
Overall if you need a last minute Italian BYOB in the city this is an OK option, but would put towards the end of the list.

I was here most recently for Restaurant Week. Given how many Italian restaurants we have in Philly, this one is pretty forgettable.
In my experience, service is pleasant. We were greeted by multiple people on the way in, our server was friendly, and we had no issue with where we were sat. Other reviews indicate service is not consistently good, so maybe we just got lucky.
We opted for the RW menu, and I had the following.
Caesar salad: fine, but nothing special. You really can’t mess up Caesar salad.
Trio of penne pasta, cheese ravioli, gnocchi: Al dente pasta, pillow-​y gnocchi. All done well.
Chicken Oscar: chicken topped with spinach (4 leaves) and crab meat (2 chunks) in a marsala wine reduction. The chicken was tender, but the flavors were bland, and the magic of the description just wasn’t there in real life.
Dessert: They were out of several of them by the time we got to order, which was odd since it was RW and we had an early reservation. Anyhow, I ordered a sorbet, the kind that’s comes served in a piece of fruit. It was delicious, but reflects nothing on the restaurant since they didn’t make it. In fact, If I heard correctly, they order all of their desserts.
Bottom line: Get a pasta dish for a nice average not-​too-​expensive meal in Rittenhouse. Don’t expect your life to change.

Linguine Alla Pescatore — 26.95
Linguine sautéed with mussels, clams, shrimp, calamari, garlic extra olive oil. in white wine or tomato sauce
This was one of the best meals I have had in a long time and its a BYOB!!!
La Fontana is a go to from now on.