We had an amazing experience from door service, seating through the meal and when finish. We sampled multiple items from the menu and every one of them was an amazing experience. Well worth the 1000+ mile journey
David
Delicious meal on Christmas Eve. Shaved Brussels Sprouts and their version of Caprese were awesome. The blistered cherry tomatoes on the Caprese were really good (respect for someone that hates cherry tomatoes). We each had pasta for our entree; I had Tortelloni in Brown Butter Sauce and she had their EggplantPasta. Both were great. We finished with Tiramisu. Great meal. Pretty reasonably priced. We will return soon.
fred
Borromini -it's my fourth time dining with you. Each time has improved and last night( Christmas Eve) I went with my wife and our daughter. It was delicious; service was perfect and the atmosphere continues to shine. Craig Laban needs to update his review. Stephen Starr wanted to create an Italian PARC and he is well on his way!
peter
Too noisy. Tables too close together, too small for party of 4, tables/chairs cafe-like but not restaurant worthy, constantly bumped by servers. Food outstanding but offset by design drawbacks.
Carla
First time dining with family of 4 for Christmas Eve lunch. Love the interior space and vibe. Service was very good (with exception of not cleaning the table of droppings after shared appetizers.) I really wanted to love this restaurant and am hoping for its success, but it needs to be stepped up a few notches in the food department. The menu reads well -- it all sounded delicious and it was hard to make a choice; however, the flavor did not live up to the expectations. Appetizers were good with the standout being the zucchini blossoms. The pastas were good but not great (including the lasagna). And the chicken milanese was disappointing. There was a lack of depth of flavor in the entrees, whether it was seasoning, more butter or fat -- something was missing. The chocolate olive oil cake was outstanding and I would return just for that! Panna cotta was also very good. Cocktails were also tasty. I will try again in a few months. Thank you.
Pradeep
Terrible food, mediocre service, not an authentic ambience. Does not feel like a Starr restaurant. Perhaps Starr should not be in Italian food business. This is not his first rodeo in Italian food and they failed before. I don't even know where to start but it is all bad. The front part of the restaurant is really tacky also with the booths. $150 for two people for lunch with a glass of wine each and a sandwich. Don't waste your money here.
Ava
Very slow service, a restaurant that doesn't have things figured out yet at all, do not recommend
Carl
First time eating here. We are big fan of Starr restaurants! Love Parc and Morimoto. Nice restaurant. The lunch menu was smaller but things looked appetizing. We ordered the squash blossoms and Crudo to start. Both were great. Nothing amazing. But the entrees were so disappointing. The crab pasta was so salty we couldn't eat it. We returned it and they made us a new one. The second one was even saltier. The waiter admitted that he tried it and it was very salty. We did not eat much of it but the manager did remove it from our bill. The second entree was a meatball sandwich. The meatballs were also so so salty but I ate it since the bread counter acted the saltiness. Looks like they have a lot of kinks to work out. Again we have been to Parc and Morimoto many times a year for 20 plus years and it never disappoints. Hope it makes it!!
Greg
All the pasta dishes we ordered were excellent, especially the blue crab gnocchettie. The drinks were also fun. The noise level, however, made it very difficult to talk. We were a party of 5 at a small round table in the back dining room and it got exhausting to shout at each other.
A
The restaurant is pretty. Very loud. Cannot hear. My table was near the restroom. Not as requested. Moved to little quieter booth. Appetizers were not staggered so they came out so fast we couldn't relax and dine Service good. Drinks very expensive. $72 veal parm, meatballs and all of the dishes were salty and not true Italian food. Packed solid. Most people don't know good food. Very expensive. Left without ordering dessert or coffee. Won't go back and wouldn't recommend it. There are plenty of amazing place in Philadelphia like Giorgios on Pine or other landmarks. Starr just can't hit this mark with Italian. Just a darn shame. Even bread wasn't Italian or very good. It needs to be spectacular food for the price which this was not. The value to the restaurant was in the liquor. As I know Abbruzzese food, this wasn't it. Most of the main courses were poor or inedible and this was on a Tuesday night. Some people might like the entire experience, ours was not a worthy one.
Love the design, the service and you cannot beat the location. The menu needs an upgrade though the execution of it was superb. the drinks and the glasses used to serve them require an upgrade as well. I expected more in that department.
April
Can't wait to come back to try more! The staff, in particular, Erica and Tomas, were warm, welcoming and set the tone for a great meal.
Taylor
This review is solely about service, not food, and unfortunately the lack of attention overshadowed the entire experience. I've dined at many Stephen Starr restaurants and have never had an issue, which made this experience especially disappointing. We had a lunch reservation and arrived on time but were seated in the back and completely ignored. Another table seated after us was immediately greeted and even placed their food order while we were never offered water or asked for drink orders. Management was nearby and multiple servers walked past us, including one cleaning the server station next to our table, without acknowledging us. After about 15 minutes with no service at all, we left. While the restaurant later called to apologize and offered to comp our meal if we returned, we had already gone elsewhere.
Louis
Good cacio e pepe and eggplant parm. Excellent service. It's just a little too loud for my comfort.
Carmen
The noise level is very high. We had to speak loudly to hear one another on the second floor seated next to a bar and our waitress had laryngitis from straining her voice. The focaccia was exceptional and the branzino was also good. The pasta dishes were more Americanized versions of Italian dishes rather than true old world Italian - some people have a preference for one over the other. The pork was a bit hard in the carbonara pasta. The eggplant and most dishes we had that night had more salt than I care for. Overall, the experience and food were good.
We had an amazing experience from door service, seating through the meal and when finish. We sampled multiple items from the menu and every one of them was an amazing experience. Well worth the 1000+ mile journey
Delicious meal on Christmas Eve. Shaved Brussels Sprouts and their version of Caprese were awesome. The blistered cherry tomatoes on the Caprese were really good (respect for someone that hates cherry tomatoes). We each had pasta for our entree; I had Tortelloni in Brown Butter Sauce and she had their EggplantPasta. Both were great. We finished with Tiramisu. Great meal. Pretty reasonably priced. We will return soon.
Borromini -it's my fourth time dining with you. Each time has improved and last night( Christmas Eve) I went with my wife and our daughter. It was delicious; service was perfect and the atmosphere continues to shine. Craig Laban needs to update his review. Stephen Starr wanted to create an Italian PARC and he is well on his way!
Too noisy. Tables too close together, too small for party of 4, tables/chairs cafe-like but not restaurant worthy, constantly bumped by servers. Food outstanding but offset by design drawbacks.
First time dining with family of 4 for Christmas Eve lunch. Love the interior space and vibe. Service was very good (with exception of not cleaning the table of droppings after shared appetizers.) I really wanted to love this restaurant and am hoping for its success, but it needs to be stepped up a few notches in the food department. The menu reads well -- it all sounded delicious and it was hard to make a choice; however, the flavor did not live up to the expectations. Appetizers were good with the standout being the zucchini blossoms. The pastas were good but not great (including the lasagna). And the chicken milanese was disappointing. There was a lack of depth of flavor in the entrees, whether it was seasoning, more butter or fat -- something was missing. The chocolate olive oil cake was outstanding and I would return just for that! Panna cotta was also very good. Cocktails were also tasty. I will try again in a few months. Thank you.
Terrible food, mediocre service, not an authentic ambience. Does not feel like a Starr restaurant. Perhaps Starr should not be in Italian food business. This is not his first rodeo in Italian food and they failed before. I don't even know where to start but it is all bad. The front part of the restaurant is really tacky also with the booths. $150 for two people for lunch with a glass of wine each and a sandwich. Don't waste your money here.
Very slow service, a restaurant that doesn't have things figured out yet at all, do not recommend
First time eating here. We are big fan of Starr restaurants! Love Parc and Morimoto. Nice restaurant. The lunch menu was smaller but things looked appetizing. We ordered the squash blossoms and Crudo to start. Both were great. Nothing amazing. But the entrees were so disappointing. The crab pasta was so salty we couldn't eat it. We returned it and they made us a new one. The second one was even saltier. The waiter admitted that he tried it and it was very salty. We did not eat much of it but the manager did remove it from our bill. The second entree was a meatball sandwich. The meatballs were also so so salty but I ate it since the bread counter acted the saltiness. Looks like they have a lot of kinks to work out. Again we have been to Parc and Morimoto many times a year for 20 plus years and it never disappoints. Hope it makes it!!
All the pasta dishes we ordered were excellent, especially the blue crab gnocchettie. The drinks were also fun. The noise level, however, made it very difficult to talk. We were a party of 5 at a small round table in the back dining room and it got exhausting to shout at each other.
The restaurant is pretty. Very loud. Cannot hear. My table was near the restroom. Not as requested. Moved to little quieter booth. Appetizers were not staggered so they came out so fast we couldn't relax and dine Service good. Drinks very expensive. $72 veal parm, meatballs and all of the dishes were salty and not true Italian food. Packed solid. Most people don't know good food. Very expensive. Left without ordering dessert or coffee. Won't go back and wouldn't recommend it. There are plenty of amazing place in Philadelphia like Giorgios on Pine or other landmarks. Starr just can't hit this mark with Italian. Just a darn shame. Even bread wasn't Italian or very good. It needs to be spectacular food for the price which this was not. The value to the restaurant was in the liquor. As I know Abbruzzese food, this wasn't it. Most of the main courses were poor or inedible and this was on a Tuesday night. Some people might like the entire experience, ours was not a worthy one.
Restaurantji Recommends
Love the design, the service and you cannot beat the location. The menu needs an upgrade though the execution of it was superb. the drinks and the glasses used to serve them require an upgrade as well. I expected more in that department.
Can't wait to come back to try more! The staff, in particular, Erica and Tomas, were warm, welcoming and set the tone for a great meal.
This review is solely about service, not food, and unfortunately the lack of attention overshadowed the entire experience. I've dined at many Stephen Starr restaurants and have never had an issue, which made this experience especially disappointing. We had a lunch reservation and arrived on time but were seated in the back and completely ignored. Another table seated after us was immediately greeted and even placed their food order while we were never offered water or asked for drink orders. Management was nearby and multiple servers walked past us, including one cleaning the server station next to our table, without acknowledging us. After about 15 minutes with no service at all, we left. While the restaurant later called to apologize and offered to comp our meal if we returned, we had already gone elsewhere.
Good cacio e pepe and eggplant parm. Excellent service. It's just a little too loud for my comfort.
The noise level is very high. We had to speak loudly to hear one another on the second floor seated next to a bar and our waitress had laryngitis from straining her voice. The focaccia was exceptional and the branzino was also good. The pasta dishes were more Americanized versions of Italian dishes rather than true old world Italian - some people have a preference for one over the other. The pork was a bit hard in the carbonara pasta. The eggplant and most dishes we had that night had more salt than I care for. Overall, the experience and food were good.
Loading...