Cucina Maria South Philly — Restaurant in Philadelphia

Unexpected gem in South Philly! My husband, myself, and our friends found this restaurant while visiting the Italian Market and found a lot of restaurants closed. We googled nearby restaurants and this popped up. We entered into a empty restaurant which is never a good sign. It’s BYOB so our friend hoofed it to south street to get wine. We sat down wondering if we had a made a mistake! The restaurant is spotless. The waitress (owner) came over and gave us a short lunch menu but told us we could order from the full dinner menu. Still uncertain we decided to just order from the lunch menu and go. While we waited for our friend to get back with the wine, the waitress brought over some bread and warm marinara sauce. Delicious! We ordered house salads and an antipasti salad with persciutto. We were going to order gnocchis from the lunch menu when Juana mentioned she could do several different gnocchi and sauces. So we ordered gnocchi and marinara and fresh fettuccine from the lunch menu and the guys ordered gnocchi with Gorgonzola sauce and spinach gnocchi with mushroom sauce. The salads came out fresh and beautifully plated. The house balsamic dressing was very good. The gnocchis came out not looking like your typical gnocchis but came out larger and more oval and were like little pillows of tenderness. The marinara sauce and the mushroom sauce were both delicious but the real standout was the Gorgonzola sauce. This was an unexpected delight of a lunch and if you are in south Philly we can highly recommend...

The food was very good. My wife's lobster ravioli was excellent. We had a table of 6 and all the food came out at the same time hot and fresh which doesn't happen very often. The appitizers's were excellent the best being the Portabello mushroom stuffed with crab meat and gorganzola cheese. We were even soaking up the cheese and crab with bread after we devoured the portabello mushroom. Dessert was good too the best there was the Ricotta Cheese Cake. Overall this place stays on the places to go and recommend list. This one thing other than the food being very good and prices being reasonable that stood out was the service The two people that were taking orders and serving us definitely exceeded expectations. They knew the specials to the last detail well as the menu but the genuine excitement about the food they were serving and overall enthusiastic attitudes made it seem as if we were at someone's house for dinner not at a restaurant. They made us feel at home comfortable and had great personalities it was a nice change from some places where it seems people are there just to work and get you fed and out. These two were just great and I would go back just based on their work alone. They were excited about the food they were serving genuinely interested in our opinions and satisfaction about what we ordered and were eating. We will definitely be.back, thanks to the servers for great dinner, and to the...

We stopped here based on the good reviews, and we are sorry we did. The food was flavorless. We paid $73 for two pasta dishes, one salad and a water. The final total was $4 more than presented on the bill as the server never mentioned the card upcharge of 4%. All total, we were in for $77 for some of the worst Italian food we have ever had.

The service was no better. The server had no personality what so ever. He did not check on diners or ask if anything was needed. We had to ask for everything, including the bill. We did not have even a slight conversation with him. For a customer facing food service worker, he did not seem interested.

We ordered the Tacconelli ai Porcini. The pasta was ok, but the sauce and mushrooms were not good. My boyfriend said the mushrooms had the texture of wood and were difficult to chew.

I ordered the spinach gnocchi. This was unlike any gnocchi I have ever seen. They were big pieces of pasta, heavy on dough with an overpowering taste of overcooked spinach. I didnt finish it and really should have asked to order something else.

The salad was OK but not worth $15. It was basically similar to a bag of arugala blend greens mixed with their house dressing and topped with cheese. Nothing special.

I hate to leave a bad review because this is someone's business and livelihood. We work hard for what we have though, and this meal was...