Little Nonna's — Restaurant in Philadelphia

First things first, the food at Little Nonna’s ranges from pretty good to “wow, that’s great”. My wife and I went there with our son and we were particularly impressed with the South Philly salad and the Tufoli Rigate. Both are definitely worth trying. Finally, the atmosphere is pretty cozy and makes for an intimate, yet relaxed setting.

Unfortunately, my experience there tonight makes me think I will not be returning (how did I become one of these people who writes reviews like this?). With my family in town, I decided to take them here since we live nearby and had been meaning to go back. Upon entering the restaurant (which was 90% empty because it was a Wednesday and an absolute sauna outside) I was told that they wouldn’t seat us because they “don’t accept parties greater than 5”- which is interesting considering the fact that their IG has pictures of tables set for 6 - and our dining party was 5 adults and a child. Logically, if you can seat 5 people at a table then you clearly have space for 6, since you’re already combining three 2 chair tables to accommodate the fifth person. Had we walked in separately as two parties of 3 there suddenly wouldn’t have been a problem with having enough room for us? Actually, had we walked in separately we would have taken up an additional table! Again, purely illogical and unnecessarily rigid in a restaurant that was empty but for a single table at 5:30 on a Wednesday in a heat wave.

Now, to be fair, maybe the real reason why their empty restaurant couldn’t handle our party is because they don’t want children in their restaurant and all of the potential annoyances that come with them. If that’s the case then I say fair enough and applaud them for keeping some places kid free. While I have children, I too would rather not eat with children! Perhaps a clearer and more transparent policy would be better for all when it comes to this because I would absolutely respect such a decision, but not if it’s hidden in some silly policy which on its face is absurd and illogical.

But let’s be clear here, Little Nonna’s is definitely a solid option when you’re in the neighborhood, just make sure you send your large party in separately since apparently 3 + 3

I was out on a Saturday night walked by Little Nonna's, and it seemed like a very nice place, and I had a craving for some good Italian food so I went inside.

Had to wait about 40 min for a table and was seated in the rear of the building in what looked like a walled in patio with a roof and heaters.

First things first. it was God awful noisy, so noisy it was impossible to carry on a conversation or even hear yourself think.

I was hungry though and really wanted to eat some good Italian food.

I ordered Nonna's spaghetti and meatballs off the menu, and it took less than five minutes for them to serve it to me at our table.

It came with a very large portion of spaghetti, and two pretty large meatballs on the side next to the pile of spaghetti. It looked pretty dam good

First thing I noticed was that there was a lot of water in the plate with the sauce, which tells me that they did not strain the spaghetti completely after taking it out of the water.

Second I put the fork in the pasta and twirled the spaghetti, and it was all cut up. Why some restaurants cut up their spaghetti makes no sense to me. It's like getting a children's portion or a kids meal.

Took my first bite and noticed this was also a meat sauce, that had stringy stew beef in the sauce. Problem was I couldn't taste any garlic in the sauce, it had little to no flavor and It was extremely bland. Even the meat had a little to no flavor.

On a scale from one to ten, the sauce was at best a two. very disappointing

Next I tried the meatballs. It was even worse, because first off it was extremely soggy, and had overwhelmingly way too much oregano and seasoning in it. Bottom line it was just nasty. Worst meatball I've ever had in my life. At best a 1.5 out of a 10. I could barely stomach half of the first meatball and did not touch the second.

To be honest the meal was so bad I could not even finish it. I've had better spaghetti and meatballs out of a can of Chef Boyardee than I did here at Little Nonna's in Philly.

This was literally the worst Italian meal I've ever had on the East Coast specifically the tri-state area, New York, New Jersey Pennsylvania.

Il cibo della...

The first time I came here I sat on the sidewalk and really enjoyed the cozy but perfectly breezy booth. Before I was seated, the hostess told me that I could have a table but only for an hour. At the table there was additional printed information about the time limits (1 person is 1 hour, 2 people is 1.5 hours I think- you'll want to clarify before you go) so I know it was an actual policy and not an arbitrarily decided thing for me.

The 2nd time I went, We sat in the courtyard and while it did have a nice romantic ambiance and did have some fans, it felt a little stuffy to me (I will chalk this up as a ME problem and not the restaurants fault but if you're easily overheated like me it's something to consider).

I got the gnocchi dish without sausage and it was fantastic. The portion size was a little small for American standards but I didn't leave hungry by any means. I liked the gnocchi so much that I took my husband there 2 days later even though we only had less than a week in Philly.

I'm giving 4 stars instead of 5 for a couple reasons: while they are upfront about their time limits, I think it's a bad policy. I could understand their problem with 1 person taking a table to themselves for more than 2 hours during a busy time or if they had to close their dining room and courtyard due to covid but they had more than adequate seating especially when compared to other restaurants. They had their sidewalk, dining room and courtyard seating available. Also- the waitress was not super helpful the 2nd time we came. My husband ordered garlic bread (which was like $5 so we assumed it was a smallish order. It was not small), the pulled mozzarella and the $2 french bread (also assumed it was a small serving but it also was not small) for appetizers and she didn't say a word about that being a lot of bread- even though the mozzarella dish ALSO came with bread which we didn't know. Yeah, we ordered both garlic bread and a side of regular bread but you'd think she would just briefly mention that it was going to be a lot of bread for 2 people. Mostly the missing star was for the seating time limit...