A Mano — Restaurant in Philadelphia

My wife and I wandered in here on our second night of moving to the states. We found the service to be very good and the food to be reasonably good, but not really good enough to justify the price from our perspective. It was a little fancier than we were looking for, but they didn't make us feel uncomfortable despite being a fairly disheveled pair who'd been navigating the city on foot all day.

I was surprised to learn that this Italian restaurant does not serve wine, however BYO was an option (our server suggested we could grab a bottle at the pub across the road if we weren't too picky). They did serve soft drinks, tea, and coffee (not sure what kind of coffee as we didn't order any).

We started with some complimentary house-made sourdough, and some butter which was appropriately soft and of a fairly high quality. The sourdough was softer than I'd expect and without much of the characteristic sourness of sourdough, but good nonetheless. I ordered a braised pork shank which was served with polenta and pickled fennel. This dish was a substantial feed and was quite good - nothing to rave about though. My wife ordered a tomato gnocchi and a serve of charred broccoli - both featured a particularly salty taleggio cheese which was a little overdone for our palettes. The same cheese was present in the polenta served with my pork shank, but was much better in this context, mixed together with the rich meat. For dessert we shared a corn panna cotta, which sounded very novel to us (an American-Italian invention, I supposed). The polenta itself had an odd texture (more paste-like than the desired wobbly panna cotta texture). It was not too sweet, despite being flavoured (I assume) with corn syrup; blueberries and blueberry sauce added a little tartness, which made for a nice tasting dessert. Some incredibly sweet yellow flakes which I think were some kind of candied or otherwise sweetened corn were not really to our tastes, but they did bring a nice crunch, and those with a powerful sweet tooth might find them to be a worthy addition to the dessert.

On the whole it was a pleasant meal, but at this price range I expect the kinds of flavours and textures that you find yourself pausing to really appreciate - we did not find this on this...

If you are looking to have a nice night out in Philly then save yourself the frustration and pass on this restaurant. We were a group of five and we dined at Amano late Wednesday night. The food was good, but the pretentious management really put a damper on our night out. The management thinks they are so great they don't need to answer the phone because potential customers are just not as important as those who are sitting in their less than half full restaurant. They also don’t take reservations and because they don't take reservations they don't feel it is important to answer their phone. We called three times that day but because they didn't answer their phone, we couldn’t give them a heads up that a party of five would be coming. We didn't know they were cash only either which caused an inconvenience to some in our party. Even though the restaurant was less than half full, we still had to wait more than 20 minutes for our table. The manager refused to put a chair on the end of one of the many open tables to sit our party because it might interfere with other diners. While we waited, we asked if we could have some glasses for our champagne, but they also told us NO. They also made an error on our bill and overcharged us. The hostess was sweet and our waitress was knowledgeable and friendly, but the operations manager was the rudest. Her body language was really off putting and when our group had asked to speak with her regarding our inability to get ahold of the restaurant during the day, she never came. Instead she sent one of the waiters to speak with us. The food was well prepared and tasty but with attitudes like that, you will only be left with a disappointed meal and money out of your pocket. With so many other good restaurants in Philly, this one will never make it unless they act a little more cordial to their customers. When we were leaving we asked them if they might start answering their phones because not getting ahold of a restaurant to ask a question, might frustrate potential customers. The waiter smugly laughed and answered with a “probably not.” Apparently they are not willing to listen to their customers and that translates to not caring about...

I believe my experience at A Mano was a 7/10, meaning nothing was profoundly wrong by the food was not memorable either.

A group of two, one of us ordered the 3-course and the other the 4-course menu from the winter offerings.

From my pork belly app I enjoyed the cheakpeas more than the pork belly, which had this smell of reheated pork, not too much but enough to spoil it for me.

My partner's beef tartare was tasty and the handcut and home-cooked potato chips added a crunchiness and a funkyness to the dish.

Our pastas lacked in depth and intensity. They were not bad, I would just not order them again. I had the "special of the day" braised short rib ravioli which was fine, but certainly not a dish that i will be craving. The sauce was a bit thin, even though you could taste the butter and parmesan, but I think intensity is key in this dish, and that was lacking.

My braised posk shank was fine, slightly colder than expected and the meat had become a bit more firm because of that. The side of polenta was decent, but nothing to die for.

I love rustic food and presentation when it comes with rich flavors. When the braising process is done right the result is rich, melt-in-your-mouth meat that has all these flavors from the onions, the celery, the carrot the grarlic and some red wine. I think the pork shank was 3/4 of the way there, it tasted a bit flat, surely underseasoned and the polenta did not perfom well either.

The olive cake reminded me of my mom's (that's a good thing right?) while the tiramisu was a bit small but very enjoyable.

The restaurant is generous with its portions, it has good service and I think it does offer value for how much you end up paying. It does accept credit cards but they will charge you an extra fee for the convenience, which I am not sure it makes much sense in 2023 and when a 4-course menu costs apprx $70.

With a series of small adjucements I can see the food becoming considerably better.

From my experience, I dont crave any of their dishes and for that reason it will take me a...