Amazing! As soon as you walk in it smells delicious. It's0 cute and cozy and small so it's enjoyable and personable. Our food was amazing, I don't eat fish... and the fish was so good I ate so much of it! The chicken was juicy.. the sauce on the vegetables.... the rice.. it just tastes like it was made with love.
Getting to share their culture was such a nice experience.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Adrienne Gilliam
This was genuinely the best filipino food I have ever had. If you are in Philly this is a MUST EAT location ! The service was incredible, they gave us a whole rundown of the experience of a kamayan and then the food came and immediately all conversation died because we couldn't stop eating it was so delicious. The garlic fried rice, was phenomenal and often times can be bitter but not at perla it was buttery delicious and the best vehicle for the MOUNDS of food they pile before you. I was a little hesitant about the price but honestly they gave way more than $50 worth of food per person. I've never had ginataan in that style but I wish I had their recipe because I live on the west coast but I will dream about it until the next time I'm in Philly. If I was a michelin judge I would give them a star.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Elton Torres
I had high expectations, because seeing a “high end” Filipino restaurant thriving in my hometown (being Filipino-American myself) is so cool. However, I don’t think I’d ever go back or recommend going here. The kamayan style of serving felt very much like a gimmick…eating on banana leaves is nice, sure, but dumping everything on one pile? Not great. The curry (which was bland) made the lumpia (way too salty) soggy. The vegetables were undercooked. The rice was not sticky so eating it with your hands isn’t even ideal. The chicken, pork, and fish are also bland. They have little sauce jars for you but since there are no sauce dishes, it’s a bit hard to use. To top it off, the service was not great. We had a reservation but the server literally asked us after an hour “are you guys almost done, cause I need this table?” Not one person working there smiled. At these prices ($50 per person), this was such a let down!
Go to Tambayan in Reading Terminal instead! It’s not “high end” Filipino food, but tastes much more authentic! And the people are much friendlier!
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 3
Service: 3
D B
A little pricey but you get a LOT of good food, plenty of leftovers to bring home. Best to reserve a table
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Chris Birthwright
I've been here twice in back to back months. It was amazing. BYOB too. No matter how much you stuff yourself, take the leftovers to go! You'll regret it the next day when you want more. Go with less than 4 people, and the pork shank gets replaced with pork belly. You can't lose.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Toure Gardiner
Filipino food prepared and served the traditional way! We had Pompano, pork belly, asparagus, green beans, cauliflower, zucchini, tomatoes, garlic rice, roasted chicken!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Anna Marie Llamas
Fun fun fun experience! Everything was perfect and the smoked honeycomb crunch on the chocolate mouse was the perfect lingering smile!
Such a fun experience! And delicious. Save room for dessert!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Lexy Pathickal
This is one of my favorite restaurants in Philly! They never disappoint on the food and their desserts are also so amazing.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 4
Hannah Guevara
Tried Perla for the first time after recently moving to the neighborhood. The experience itself eating with your hands without plates or utensils is unique but I can’t say that the taste of the food lived up to the hype of this place. The vegetable curry lacked salt and the proteins were pretty bland. The service was also very dry slow and lackluster. It was mine and my partners first time trying Filipino food and I wish the servers explained to us what we were eating. Every course we had to ask what it was (there was no menu to read ahead of time) . It would also be nice if the employees looked like they enjoyed working there…
We refer to the method they serve the dish as Boodle Fight. Even though you have the preference to use utensils, eating with your hands is enjoyable and although it appears unclean, it's a great method to experience the true flavor of the dish. Back home, it's fairly prevalent in the provinces, on farms, and in rural places. The cuisine, not the setting, is the main reason for my evaluation. I rated it two stars because of the way it was served, not because I didn't enjoy the cuisine. The second reason is that I want this place to succeed by providing the meals in the proper manner. Rarely is food served with soup in the actual Boodle fight. This is due to the fact that scooping rice with your fingers when it is already wet is difficult. The issue is that they serve the rice first, followed by some wet vegetables, and then the remaining meat, which makes it resemble a pig wash. The once-crunchy egg roll turned droopy, and the rice began to taste like the concoction of all the food juices. It would have been better to offer the vegetables with soup on the side or in a bowl, or to serve the entire meal dry, including the vegetables. Another issue I've observed is that because the food was all provided in one serving, customers had no choice in what they ate. The food in a restaurant-style boodle fight is served in sections or groups so that patrons may distinguish the flavor of the fish or egg roll from the other items if they would rather eat just that. And so, I felt compelled to consume the rice in my situation even though I dislike the taste of the vegetables or their juice because everything was already mixed together. I hope that this review can contribute to PERLA's success. And as I said, the food was excellent. I just felt like it was simply not served the way it should be.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 2
Service: 5
Lily W
The food was overall great! The fish was absolutely the best part. Note: there are bones in the fish for anyone averse to eating meat with bones. The chicken was kind of dry and not as flavorful, sadly it couldn’t be rescued with the soy sauce. The pork was juicy and crispy, which was enjoyable to eat. The cream like curry vegetables were tasty and paired well with the meats. For dessert, you get a chocolate pudding with honeycomb. I think this dessert was really delicious! One complaint I have is it was kind of challenging to grab sufficient bites of rice with your hands because the type used fell apart. I thought of sticky rice as a potential alternative. This place is worth trying anyways.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 4
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Chocolate Coconut Budino
Barjis Immuno
Food is okay, interesting way of eating haha
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 3
Service: 5
Ilexis Elba
So flavorful! So fresh! Staff is very friendly and patient! Very much recommend!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Daniel Willcockson
Came here with a decently sized group (about 8) and WOW, the portions were generous. And that’s an understatement. Most importantly, the food was super tasty! They give you chicken, pork, and fish for protein - all super well seasoned with crispy skin. Underneath the protein is a mountain of seasoned rice and a vegetable curry. It’s also fun to eat because they recommend that you eat with your hands! (They’ve give you silverware if you’d like). All in all, you should definitely check this place out!
Oh and it’s like $50 or $55 per person. Flat charge.
Amazing! As soon as you walk in it smells delicious. It's0 cute and cozy and small so it's enjoyable and personable. Our food was amazing, I don't eat fish... and the fish was so good I ate so much of it! The chicken was juicy.. the sauce on the vegetables.... the rice.. it just tastes like it was made with love.
Getting to share their culture was such a nice experience.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
This was genuinely the best filipino food I have ever had. If you are in Philly this is a MUST EAT location ! The service was incredible, they gave us a whole rundown of the experience of a kamayan and then the food came and immediately all conversation died because we couldn't stop eating it was so delicious. The garlic fried rice, was phenomenal and often times can be bitter but not at perla it was buttery delicious and the best vehicle for the MOUNDS of food they pile before you. I was a little hesitant about the price but honestly they gave way more than $50 worth of food per person. I've never had ginataan in that style but I wish I had their recipe because I live on the west coast but I will dream about it until the next time I'm in Philly. If I was a michelin judge I would give them a star.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
I had high expectations, because seeing a “high end” Filipino restaurant thriving in my hometown (being Filipino-American myself) is so cool. However, I don’t think I’d ever go back or recommend going here. The kamayan style of serving felt very much like a gimmick…eating on banana leaves is nice, sure, but dumping everything on one pile? Not great. The curry (which was bland) made the lumpia (way too salty) soggy. The vegetables were undercooked. The rice was not sticky so eating it with your hands isn’t even ideal. The chicken, pork, and fish are also bland. They have little sauce jars for you but since there are no sauce dishes, it’s a bit hard to use. To top it off, the service was not great. We had a reservation but the server literally asked us after an hour “are you guys almost done, cause I need this table?” Not one person working there smiled. At these prices ($50 per person), this was such a let down!
Go to Tambayan in Reading Terminal instead! It’s not “high end” Filipino food, but tastes much more authentic! And the people are much friendlier!
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 3
Service: 3
A little pricey but you get a LOT of good food, plenty of leftovers to bring home. Best to reserve a table
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
I've been here twice in back to back months. It was amazing. BYOB too. No matter how much you stuff yourself, take the leftovers to go! You'll regret it the next day when you want more. Go with less than 4 people, and the pork shank gets replaced with pork belly. You can't lose.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Filipino food prepared and served the traditional way! We had Pompano, pork belly, asparagus, green beans, cauliflower, zucchini, tomatoes, garlic rice, roasted chicken!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Fun fun fun experience! Everything was perfect and the smoked honeycomb crunch on the chocolate mouse was the perfect lingering smile!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Chocolate Coconut Budino, Whole Fried Pompano, Spanish Octopus, Chicken Rice, Adobo, Berkshire Pork Belly, Rohan Duck Breast, Kinilaw, Fish Pompana, Duck Egg Salad
Such a fun experience! And delicious. Save room for dessert!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
This is one of my favorite restaurants in Philly! They never disappoint on the food and their desserts are also so amazing.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 4
Tried Perla for the first time after recently moving to the neighborhood. The experience itself eating with your hands without plates or utensils is unique but I can’t say that the taste of the food lived up to the hype of this place. The vegetable curry lacked salt and the proteins were pretty bland. The service was also very dry slow and lackluster. It was mine and my partners first time trying Filipino food and I wish the servers explained to us what we were eating. Every course we had to ask what it was (there was no menu to read ahead of time) . It would also be nice if the employees looked like they enjoyed working there…
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 2
Service: 2
Restaurantji Recommends
We refer to the method they serve the dish as Boodle Fight. Even though you have the preference to use utensils, eating with your hands is enjoyable and although it appears unclean, it's a great method to experience the true flavor of the dish. Back home, it's fairly prevalent in the provinces, on farms, and in rural places.
The cuisine, not the setting, is the main reason for my evaluation. I rated it two stars because of the way it was served, not because I didn't enjoy the cuisine. The second reason is that I want this place to succeed by providing the meals in the proper manner.
Rarely is food served with soup in the actual Boodle fight. This is due to the fact that scooping rice with your fingers when it is already wet is difficult. The issue is that they serve the rice first, followed by some wet vegetables, and then the remaining meat, which makes it resemble a pig wash. The once-crunchy egg roll turned droopy, and the rice began to taste like the concoction of all the food juices. It would have been better to offer the vegetables with soup on the side or in a bowl, or to serve the entire meal dry, including the vegetables.
Another issue I've observed is that because the food was all provided in one serving, customers had no choice in what they ate. The food in a restaurant-style boodle fight is served in sections or groups so that patrons may distinguish the flavor of the fish or egg roll from the other items if they would rather eat just that. And so, I felt compelled to consume the rice in my situation even though I dislike the taste of the vegetables or their juice because everything was already mixed together. I hope that this review can contribute to PERLA's success. And as I said, the food was excellent. I just felt like it was simply not served the way it should be.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 2
Service: 5
The food was overall great! The fish was absolutely the best part. Note: there are bones in the fish for anyone averse to eating meat with bones. The chicken was kind of dry and not as flavorful, sadly it couldn’t be rescued with the soy sauce. The pork was juicy and crispy, which was enjoyable to eat. The cream like curry vegetables were tasty and paired well with the meats. For dessert, you get a chocolate pudding with honeycomb. I think this dessert was really delicious! One complaint I have is it was kind of challenging to grab sufficient bites of rice with your hands because the type used fell apart. I thought of sticky rice as a potential alternative. This place is worth trying anyways.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 4
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Chocolate Coconut Budino
Food is okay, interesting way of eating haha
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 3
Service: 5
So flavorful! So fresh! Staff is very friendly and patient! Very much recommend!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Came here with a decently sized group (about 8) and WOW, the portions were generous. And that’s an understatement. Most importantly, the food was super tasty! They give you chicken, pork, and fish for protein - all super well seasoned with crispy skin. Underneath the protein is a mountain of seasoned rice and a vegetable curry. It’s also fun to eat because they recommend that you eat with your hands! (They’ve give you silverware if you’d like). All in all, you should definitely check this place out!
Oh and it’s like $50 or $55 per person. Flat charge.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Berkshire Pork Belly, Dark Chocolate Coconut Mousse, Whole Fried Pompano
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