Dinner, Saturday night. Begin with saying I think this is an excellent, authentic, under the radar classic Italian restaurant with a menu of the standard, classic dishes one would want without any unfamiliar or experimental flourishes. I had pasta puttanesca and honestly feel it's the best puttanesca I've ever had -- large caper berries, anchovies you couldn't see but definitely taste, rich tomato sauce -- really good. Wife had the veal milanese and, again, cooked to perfection, not breaded too heavily, fresh arugula. Calamari appetizer not overbreaded, nor overfried, nice mildly spicy sauce. The bread they serve with the meal -- an important, often overlooked item -- was high quality with thick crust, served with quality olive oil and canellini beans. The one miss of the entire meal was an appetizer they're supposedly known for -- Artichokes Core de Roma. Unfortunately, we found this tasteless. Literally without taste. With that one exception, we found everything about this restaurant high quality and will return.
James Hamilton
One of Philadelphia's charms is its wealth of neighborhood bistros representing regional Italian cuisines. Core de Roma is such a restaurant. Arrive early, as we did, before the place begins to fill up, and you'll meet Luigi, a loquacious, bushy-eyebrowed native of Trastevere who exudes justified pride in his food and his restaurant.This quirky BYOB, perched in the prosperous hills of Bala Cynwood, greeted us with warm, freshly baked bread accompanied by a plate of olive oil, sage, and white beans for dipping. Many delights followed: abundant, freshly made fettucine alla Bolognese; creamy, al dente spaghetti caccio e pepe; a simple, voluptuous tiramisú. Not everything was perfect; such a good restaurant should offer a decent espresso. Still, the pleasures of a small family restaurant, aspiring albeit uneven, far outweigh its odd deficiencies. The left-over fettucine was even better the next day, reminding us to return soon. See you there.
Recommended dishes: Fried Calamari, Tiramisu
Jen S
I ordered a chicken dish which was delicious. My fiancé ordered a veal entree, which was decent but a bit tough. Service was fine. The chocolate cake was very dry and we’d never order it again. Although this restaurant was a BYO, they charge a $5 corkage fee. Why charge a corkage fee if you don’t offer alcohol options?
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 3
Service: 3
Marc Shaw
Core De Roma is one of our favorites!! Get the artichokes as an appetizer!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Sharon Farrell
The food is always cooked to perfection. Absolutely delicious!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 4
Surisa
Family owned and friendly atmosphere Excellent service Food was quite tasty but menu could use more vegetarian offerings- pasta without meat or seafood and a few more fish options Although it was noisy because of a large party we enjoyed our New Years Eve dinner
Ahmet M
Great food. I only ordered take out but planning to visit in person as well.Their ordering app is Slice and it's causing some misunderstandings. Doesnt show sub orders on the restaurant side but it's not the restaurant's fault. I am no italian but the owner seems like real italian and care about his customers.
Food: 5
CarolD
Core de Roma is authentic Italian food, I highly recommend this adorable Italian Restaurant and the owners are so friendly too. Its reasonably priced & also a BYOB which makes it very affordable too. Excellent & delicious!
I'm Italian and picky about my Italian restaurant experiences. Core di Roma is one of the most authentic and delicious Italian I have had anywhere. I have been a patron for at least the past 15 yrs at their previous location. The owners are lovely and truly treat their guests like family. Service is always fantastic. Highly recommend
Edward
TLDR;Atmosphere: datedFood: food was decentService: we were kinda ignored and the owners wife didn't seem to like us being thereOutcome: not likely we'll returnMy veteran buddy loves Italian food and wanted to go to a new spot. Upon arrival we sat there for a few minutes waiting to be acknowledged--not like we were hiding or anything--we were in plain view of the owner! I thought it was customary to wait to be seated right?The owner finally tells us from behind the bar, we can sit anywhere. Seemed like a decent place, although, I get a little nervous when there are no other customers. Tonight, there were 2 other tables being waited on.Fast-forward, we order and food arrives. My friend ordered lasagna, I think a bottom corner of it was burnt so he was having trouble cutting into it. The one waitress noticed and asked if he needed a sharpener knife, when she brings it over, the owners wife is visibly upset stating he doesn't need a sharper knife. I personally don't appreciate when people belittle their employees.One of the dishes sounded great on paper, turned out to be incredibly heavy. I think maybe the recipe should be tweaked. My bechamel at home isn't that heavy either.The owner seemed to be hanging out with one table in particular, I was nervous I wouldn't know what to talk about when he came to hang with us... This didn't happen but it was very noticeable that their friends were in town.Dessert was pretty good. And the bill was somewhat reasonable.But based on the service, food quality to price ratio, I think if you want to try it, it might not hurt, but we won't be going back
Not an attractive place but we heard good things so sat down at table with family 3 adults 2 teens. Service very spotty. Long story short. I have never had such inedible, terrible food at the worst place I've been in my life. One family member who will eat anything, left his food after a couple bites. There is nothing good I can say about the food or the place except we got out of there and no one got sick from what few bites we did eat. I cannot understand how it stays in business. Sorry to give a bad review but all 5 of us agreed and everyone got something different.
Steph Judge
We had a wonderful experience at this restaurant! The food was authentic and delicious, highly recommend their artichoke appetizer. If you’re looking for a relaxing and nice atmosphere, this place is it!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Jason Czarnota
The best authentic Italian food we have had in the past few years living in
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Mommc
From the appetizers and the entrées to the desserts, everything was absolutely delicious! The service was exceptional, and each member of the staff made us feel like we were family, especially our waiter!!!
Jana B
This was our first time here and the food is absolutely awesome ? loved the risotto rolls and Alfredo ❤️ we had the limoncello cake as desert - so so good! we’ll definitely come back!!!!!! Everyone was super friendly.
Dinner, Saturday night. Begin with saying I think this is an excellent, authentic, under the radar classic Italian restaurant with a menu of the standard, classic dishes one would want without any unfamiliar or experimental flourishes. I had pasta puttanesca and honestly feel it's the best puttanesca I've ever had -- large caper berries, anchovies you couldn't see but definitely taste, rich tomato sauce -- really good. Wife had the veal milanese and, again, cooked to perfection, not breaded too heavily, fresh arugula. Calamari appetizer not overbreaded, nor overfried, nice mildly spicy sauce. The bread they serve with the meal -- an important, often overlooked item -- was high quality with thick crust, served with quality olive oil and canellini beans. The one miss of the entire meal was an appetizer they're supposedly known for -- Artichokes Core de Roma. Unfortunately, we found this tasteless. Literally without taste. With that one exception, we found everything about this restaurant high quality and will return.
One of Philadelphia's charms is its wealth of neighborhood bistros representing regional Italian cuisines. Core de Roma is such a restaurant. Arrive early, as we did, before the place begins to fill up, and you'll meet Luigi, a loquacious, bushy-eyebrowed native of Trastevere who exudes justified pride in his food and his restaurant.This quirky BYOB, perched in the prosperous hills of Bala Cynwood, greeted us with warm, freshly baked bread accompanied by a plate of olive oil, sage, and white beans for dipping. Many delights followed: abundant, freshly made fettucine alla Bolognese; creamy, al dente spaghetti caccio e pepe; a simple, voluptuous tiramisú. Not everything was perfect; such a good restaurant should offer a decent espresso. Still, the pleasures of a small family restaurant, aspiring albeit uneven, far outweigh its odd deficiencies. The left-over fettucine was even better the next day, reminding us to return soon. See you there.
Recommended dishes: Fried Calamari, Tiramisu
I ordered a chicken dish which was delicious. My fiancé ordered a veal entree, which was decent but a bit tough. Service was fine. The chocolate cake was very dry and we’d never order it again. Although this restaurant was a BYO, they charge a $5 corkage fee. Why charge a corkage fee if you don’t offer alcohol options?
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 3
Service: 3
Core De Roma is one of our favorites!! Get the artichokes as an appetizer!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
The food is always cooked to perfection. Absolutely delicious!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 4
Family owned and friendly atmosphere Excellent service Food was quite tasty but menu could use more vegetarian offerings- pasta without meat or seafood and a few more fish options Although it was noisy because of a large party we enjoyed our New Years Eve dinner
Great food. I only ordered take out but planning to visit in person as well.Their ordering app is Slice and it's causing some misunderstandings. Doesnt show sub orders on the restaurant side but it's not the restaurant's fault. I am no italian but the owner seems like real italian and care about his customers.
Food: 5
Core de Roma is authentic Italian food, I highly recommend this adorable Italian Restaurant and the owners are so friendly too. Its reasonably priced & also a BYOB which makes it very affordable too. Excellent & delicious!
I'm Italian and picky about my Italian restaurant experiences. Core di Roma is one of the most authentic and delicious Italian I have had anywhere. I have been a patron for at least the past 15 yrs at their previous location. The owners are lovely and truly treat their guests like family. Service is always fantastic. Highly recommend
TLDR;Atmosphere: datedFood: food was decentService: we were kinda ignored and the owners wife didn't seem to like us being thereOutcome: not likely we'll returnMy veteran buddy loves Italian food and wanted to go to a new spot. Upon arrival we sat there for a few minutes waiting to be acknowledged--not like we were hiding or anything--we were in plain view of the owner! I thought it was customary to wait to be seated right?The owner finally tells us from behind the bar, we can sit anywhere. Seemed like a decent place, although, I get a little nervous when there are no other customers. Tonight, there were 2 other tables being waited on.Fast-forward, we order and food arrives. My friend ordered lasagna, I think a bottom corner of it was burnt so he was having trouble cutting into it. The one waitress noticed and asked if he needed a sharpener knife, when she brings it over, the owners wife is visibly upset stating he doesn't need a sharper knife. I personally don't appreciate when people belittle their employees.One of the dishes sounded great on paper, turned out to be incredibly heavy. I think maybe the recipe should be tweaked. My bechamel at home isn't that heavy either.The owner seemed to be hanging out with one table in particular, I was nervous I wouldn't know what to talk about when he came to hang with us... This didn't happen but it was very noticeable that their friends were in town.Dessert was pretty good. And the bill was somewhat reasonable.But based on the service, food quality to price ratio, I think if you want to try it, it might not hurt, but we won't be going back
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 3
Service: 1
Restaurantji Recommends
Not an attractive place but we heard good things so sat down at table with family 3 adults 2 teens. Service very spotty. Long story short. I have never had such inedible, terrible food at the worst place I've been in my life. One family member who will eat anything, left his food after a couple bites. There is nothing good I can say about the food or the place except we got out of there and no one got sick from what few bites we did eat. I cannot understand how it stays in business. Sorry to give a bad review but all 5 of us agreed and everyone got something different.
We had a wonderful experience at this restaurant! The food was authentic and delicious, highly recommend their artichoke appetizer. If you’re looking for a relaxing and nice atmosphere, this place is it!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
The best authentic Italian food we have had in the past few years living in
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
From the appetizers and the entrées to the desserts, everything was absolutely delicious! The service was exceptional, and each member of the staff made us feel like we were family, especially our waiter!!!
This was our first time here and the food is absolutely awesome ? loved the risotto rolls and Alfredo ❤️ we had the limoncello cake as desert - so so good! we’ll definitely come back!!!!!! Everyone was super friendly.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Fettuccine Alfredo