Scarpetta Philadelphia — Restaurant in Philadelphia

Scarpetta Philadelphia was our third stop on our culinary mini moon on our way back from getting married in NC to our home in upstate NY.

The hostess was delightful and prompt. She was also working in some seriously kickass lace-up open-toed black booties, but I didn’t get the chance to tell her that those shoes rocked! Can you please pass along the compliment?

We wanted to maximize our visit, so we opted for the dinner tasting menu. It was definitely a great decision!

The first course, a crudo duo, was sparkly and refreshing! The pickled red onion on the raw yellowtail was a fantastic addition to the fish.

The second course was a beet salad and creamy polenta with mushrooms for the table. You can’t go wrong with a beet salad. So I’ll just gush over the creamy polenta. It was deliciously simple and complex all at the same time! I equate it to taking a Sunday afternoon nap, exactly what you wanted and didn’t know you needed!

The third course was the pasta course. It was a course of classical paired with innovative. The tomato and basil was perfection. The short rib and bone marrow agnolotti could become an addiction if I lived closer!

Fourth course for me was the stone bass. It was everything I hoped for - skin was crispy and fish was flakey. The romanesco and other accompaniments were resting comfortably in a sauce that exemplified cohesion of flavor. My husband had the duck, which was cooked perfectly. The butternut squash was a little underdone, but still yummy.

Lastly came dessert and it was a great set of flavors to end the meal with. The cheesecake was a great combo of sweet and spice.

My only issues were that we didn’t have a menu card with us during the tasting so we could refer back to what we had and what made it so great. The servers, often, rattled off what each dish consisted of so quickly, and robotically, that it was difficult to recall all the components of what we were tasting. Our server was very friendly and attentive but I don’t remember him ever saying his nam,e so I can’t compliment him directly.

Overall, it was a delicious culinary experience and we will return on our next visit to...

Haven't been to Scarpetta since the Thanksgiving dinner in 2017, and the food is still quite good, well most of it. The menu is very interesting with this touch of modern and inventive 'cucina Italiana', good ingredients and more than enough choices. The obviously overcooked pasta, very far from al-dente, and the equally overcooked seared scallops couldn't change the overall positive gastro experience. The ambiance is great with magnificent views to the Rittenhouse Square. Then was the service. A total and complete disaster. Very pushy gentleman who repeatedly tried to upsell everything, from wine to adding lobster/crabmeat to our fillet mignon. Then a big no-no for a fine dining establishment, trying to sell a bottle of Super Tuscan advertized as his personal favorite. The server wasn't Robert Parker neither James Suckling, his personal tastes in wines are of no authority neither interest for us. When we ordered an additional glass of Barbaresco it was poured in the same glass where our bottle of Nebbiolo was poured before! And finally a $104 bottle of Veneto, ordered originally and found to be unavailable, was included in our check atop of the Nebbiolo bottle served as a second choice. An honest mistake? This kind of mistake would have put $104 in the server's pockets, and not vice versa. Being very forgiving and very far from bloodthirsty diners, such uhm... servers shouldn't be allowed to work in Rittenhouse Square fine dining...

We got to the restaurant at 8:30 and had a 9pm reservation. We finally got seated for our reservation at almost 10pm! We kept being told that they were waiting for 2 tables to pay and that is why we waited so long. When we were being seated there were many open tables and were told by the hostess that they were sorry for the wait and that they were going to make up for it and would be worth the wait.

The service staff was nice. The rest of the experience just got worse. We finally were able to get our food order in around 10:30pm. Our apps were good but the streaks my friend and I both ordered came out over cooked and not hot. At this point it is 11:20 and I just want out of this place. Clearly the chefs felt the same way. They took one of the steaks off the bill but charged us for the other one. At this point we just want to leave but they insisted on sending us dessert. Why not just take an app or two off of our bill and let us leave since it is midnight at this point?!?! This is how you "make it worth the 45 minute wait"for our table? Almost forgot that we wanted to order a bottle of champagne when we got there and they only had 1 bottle on the menu. Who only has one bottle of "sparkling" on the menu?!?! Wasn't even champagne!!!! Luckily I live in NYC and love Scarpetta there. The Philly sister has a lot of work to even try and catch up to its great...