Renata's Kitchen — Restaurant in Philadelphia

This place has excellent food and the restaurant is clean and accessible in terms of wheelchairs and other mobility equipment. We sat outside in their patio area. One of the host was very considerate and offered my service dog a nice bowl of water. I went to this restaurant with my wife and daughter and the weather was rather brisk. The one thing I wish they would've had on the patio are heaters. It is on the shady side of the street so there is no direct sun in the outside patio area. The one reason why they are getting three stars, was because the service was somewhat lacking. We asked for numerous items, and had to request them a number of times. It appeared that there was no communication between the numerous people going back and forth. If you would ask one person for something they would never come back and you would have to ask another person. Normally, I'm not super picky about that but it happened so often. Again, no complain about the food which was excellent. I will give them another try when it is warmer outside. I think, like many businesses sometimes things get hectic and service suffers. My daughter likes this place a lot and she's usually a good barometer.

We had and loved the following:

The Eggplant Haloumi Sandwich with Fries was exceptional. The bread was toasted just right in butter, the cheese and eggplant combined well with the other veggies and pesto aïoli. The Moroccan Lentil Soup was superb it was accompanied by pita bread triangles which were also delicious. Cauliflower with Light Tahini was a really surprising as the five-county farmer really pairs well with the tahini. The Shakshuka Merguez was really good, it had spicy chorizo and poach Moroccan salsa and also came accompanied with grilled pita. This best dish has so many variations that it is easy to mess it up. This place did a really good job and all the food came out hot.

There...

Unfortunately this will be our last time visiting for a while even though we love right next door.

Service: There has been a pattern of poorly trained servers that are unable to answer questions about food and drink. This falls on management to make sure servers are learning the material in the menu and trying the food/drinks when possible. The table attentiveness could also increase. It takes some time to get a servers attention if you need anything. Servers at Renata's have almost never been able to answer food questions for me and one time I had to tell the bar that one of the kegs was pouring flat after I received two glasses of flat beer.

Appetizers: We ordered the Long Hots, hummus and grilled olives appetizers. The long hot plate came out with 3 hardly grilled JALAPENOS. I'm not joking, they weren't even long hots. The olives came out cold and didn't show any signs of having ever been grilled. Sent those back and they brought them back out warm, but they had obviously been microwaved as the baby cast iron they were in was still cold and the olives had become rubbery. Hummus was good.

Mains: The fisherman stew was pretty good. I enjoyed that. Some of the shellfish was a little overcooked but passable at this point. My partner had a cuban sandwich that just okay. Their french fries are always tight though. We killed those.

TL;DR: We had enjoyed Renata's food before the pandemic, but this seems to have gone down hill. We won't be returning for a while. The service has always been lacking, and...

My son and I ate brunch at Renata's Kitchen in University City this past week. It was our first time eating at Renata's Kitchen. I chose this eatery based on its close proximity to Penn Medical Center since we dropped a family member off at Penn for a doctor's appointment. The place opened at 10am, which was perfect since we arrived a few minutes after opening. There was only 1 other customer while we were there, so nice and quiet on weekday mornings.

My son had the chicken shawarma with Miriam's Limonana (mint and cucumber infused lemonade). I had the "A Tale of 2 Eggs" breakfast platter with a cappuccino. It was pretty good. My one criticism is that the food on my plate (except for the roasted potatoes) had cooled down by the time it was brought to our table. My sourdough toast was cold and hard. I couldn't even get the butter to spread. We were pressed for time, so I didn't want to request it be heated up. Our table was inside positioned under an air conditioning vent, so I'm sure that didn't help matters. That being said, we liked the ambiance of the place and plan to visit Renata's Kitchen again later in the day to try out some other menu items.

Our server told us that Thursdays are "half price margaritas all day," though the menu explicitly stated that the half-price offer is valid during happy hour. It was a bit too early for a margarita at 10am, but I wouldn't mind returning to see how their cocktails are. Renata's has a pretty decent selection of cocktails & mocktails on...