Kanella — Restaurant in Philadelphia

Kanella Grill is a great restaurant serving Mediterranean food in Philadelphia. If you are planning to have the tasting menu for $40 per person, I must warn you that it is going to be A LOT OF FOOD because the portion size is quite generous and having 4 dishes per person is too much. That being said, here’s how everything was:

Mezze

The muttabal was my absolute favorite dish of the night. So so so creamy and one you must try even if you aren’t an eggplant fan. The Muhammara was pretty bang-on with its flavors. The Cypress potato chips were crisp to perfection and the yogurt dip it was served alongside was interesting. The grilled halloumi had a strong sheep milk flavor which was neutralized by the candies apricots that it was served with. It wasn’t my favorite due to the pungent flavor but I still enjoyed it, nonetheless.

Mains:

The spanakopita was flaky and was stuffed with a delicious spinach ricotta filling. It was a good idea to serve it with a salad containing red bell peppers because they landed some much needed sweetness to a dish high on salt (feta is a salty cheese). Another thing that they could have done is drizzled some honey on top to add some more depth to the dish. The falafels were very mediocre. I have tasted better falafels in Philly itself. I would not recommend unless you are a big falafel fan.

Dessert

The semolina halva was served with spun sugar and the dish tasted EXACTLY like this Indian dish called sheera/suji ka halwa while the spun sugar was like another dish called Buddhi ka baal (translates to “old woman’s hair” in English. It was served with candied fruit. A good dish but since I was so familiar with the flavors, I was more comforted than fascinated by it. Also, wish the halva was served a little warm to allow the clarified butter in it to melt. The baklava was decent but a little too sweet for our liking. Again, we’ve had better baklava at other places.

The ambience is quite simple but has a very Greek-ish feeling to it. The servers are kind too. If you are looking for a pocket friendly Mediterranean place with good food then Kanella is the...

Interesting restaurant experience. Came in with a large group, were told we needed do the $42 fixed menu, however, we didn’t get to pick our meze or desserts. They brought the dishes out family style, which would've been fine… if they brought out a taste of all the mezes (we were given 7/12 of them). Same with the desserts. We were served 2/4 of the dessert options when clearly many of us wanted to try the other options. I just wish we could’ve gotten what we were paying for and chose our own meze and dessert.

In terms of food: Appetizers: humus, tzatziki, brussel sprouts and the shepherd salad were great. i personally would skip on the muhammara and mutabal, but there were people in my group who loved them. FYI the tzatziki served is actually the turkish equivalent “cacık” which makes the dish a bit more runny, and not as “dippy” as greek tzatziki

Main: I think this was the best course of our meal. The highlights were the chicken and ribeye cap

Dessert: We were given baklava and kunefe. The baklava was dry and I have definitely had better, but the flavor was good. The kunefe was good, buttery and the cheese wasnt overwhelming.

Overall I think it was a good experience, I just wish we had more of a choice in terms of the meze and desserts. I really wanted to try the helva, and many of my friends wanted to try the other mezes.

One more note, this is definitely more if a turkish cuisine leaning turk/greek fusion restaurant, so if you’re expecting a more traditional greek restaurant...

I have been in Philly for five dinners, each one carefully picked, and this was by far the best. Truth be told, my original destination was closed because I went pretty late on a weeknight so I walked a little bit and found this corner spot bustling and I am so glad I did.

I mentioned to the server that this was my first visit and they recommended the Crispy Brussels Sprouts as a starter. They sit on top of a creamy carrot dip. Absolutely delicious. I was also brought Mutabal, a hummus-like eggplant dip with perfectly crisp pomegranate on top served with delicious warm pita bread. I was told this dish was a gift, I’m honestly not sure why I was generously gifted with this but it was also delicious and I was quickly having a wonderful dinning experience.

My main was the Adana Kebab, a lamb kebab with great onions and pepper and rice that was better than rice should be. The lamb was perfect and I savored every bite. I had had more then enough food but I couldn’t resist dessert. Incredible baklava capped an honestly perfect meal.

Service was perfect. I was dining solo and like I said it was late but I was given perfectly attentive, sincerely kind service. The whole experience felt organically warm and welcoming. I am considering dining here again while in town because it was such a great experience. At any rate I won’t miss it my next time through. Thanks to chef and the...