It’s the last of a dying breed. Old World elegance (pink marble, thick drapery), soigné service, and tasty – if not groundbreaking-Italian fare has kept the Sena family’s Old City stalwart chugging along for the past 30 years, while similar spots have come and gone.
Philly Mag's Recommendations: The tender calamari, homemade pastas.
http://www.lafamiglia.com/
David's Thoughts:
It took awhile, but at #48 on our list, we finally visited a "fancy" restaurant on the Philly Top 50. No, there weren't waiters brushing the crumbs from our table, but La Famiglia certainly goes above and beyond to make their visitors feel welcome. Warm introduction? Check. May I take your coats? Check. 4 different waiters before we'd even ordered drinks? Excessive, but check.
Beth and I started with a round of drinks: house white wine for me (with 13,000 bottles on the menu, going "house wine" felt a little lame... but whatever) and an unexpected variation on the Old Fashioned for Beth (I'll leave that description for her). We started things off with an appetizer from the daily menu: tuna carpaccio. Not a bad choice- I'm a tuna fan- but the texture left something to be desired. The pounded tuna had the "sinew-y" feel of deli-style roast beef. Perhaps that's overly-critical, but I had high hopes.
Decidedly overwhelmed by the course options, we elected to split two half-orders of pasta and follow up with a single entree. Both dishes were tasty, and (now on my 2nd glass of wine) things were looking up. But then again... what quality Italian restaurant doesn't offer good pasta dishes? Fair conclusion, right? At this point in the meal, I started taking note of the ambiance. Nice restaurant- solid bar, excellent service, and an AMAZING wine cellar in the basement (literally, the whole downstairs. They could hide corpses down there, nobody would know. NOT that I'm trying to make an "Its Italian they must be mobsters" parallel... not at all... not even a little...)
We ordered the Veal for our entree- at the recommendation of our waiter (yes, we did finally settle on a single waiter). Again, the dish was good- not "I'd induce vomiting just to eat this again right now" good... but solid. Tasty. We didn't finish it, because we were both full. Then again... when something is really really good, I rarely take it to go. Again, I'm just sayin'...
We finished the evening with a Limoncello (Beth insists on these things) and graciously thanked our hosts. Who were really quite nice. Very "by the book", but nice. And the meal was good. And we had a nice time. But honestly- would I go back again? Probably not. Would I take my girlfriend's parents if they were in town for one evening and I had to convince them that I was the guy they wanted to trust with their beloved daughter? No. I wouldn't. I would say "thats a really nice place. Really. Nice. But lets go somewhere else." And then I would take them somewhere memorable. Which, sadly, La Famiglia was not. At least not to me. But Beth might have a different idea...
Beth's thoughts:
I live in South Philly. My family is from Brooklyn. I know my Italian. In fact, it wasn't until I was in junior high school that I realized I was NOT Italian. Talk about an identity crisis.
La Famiglia. Not so much.
Now, let me qualify this. The food was good. But not great.
This is partially based in the fact that, living where I do, I can throw a rock in the air and when it falls it will inevitably hit a family-owned, fresh-pasta-made-daily, one-of-a-kind, truly excellent Italian restaurant. In fact, I guarantee that when we have successfully completed Philly Mag's 50 Best, David and I will compile a list of restaurants that we thought should have been included on this list but were omitted.
Was the decor nice? Yes. Very old-school.
La Famiglia means the family. Did I feel like I was treated like family? Did they attend to my every need? Did they take the time to ask me exactly how I wanted my drink and with what kind of bourbon? Yes, yes and yes, but the drink was still too sweet. So much so that for my second drink I joined David in a glass of the house white, which yes, was a cop out considering their extensive wine list, but so it goes.
The Tuna Carpaccio was largely forgettable. The pastas were good, but nothing special. I do wish that we had started with the Veal so we had the opportunity to finish it before the pastas stuffed our bellies, but I was able to enjoy it again as a leftover. It was quite a decadent leftover.
I hate to admit it, but I think my favorite part of the whole meal was the first item that made it to our table: the hard cheesy breadsticks. Yum. I feel bad that David only got one - maybe two - but wow. Those were truly enjoyable.
I make limoncello, so I generally order it at the end of a meal if it is available. You know, to compare. This limoncello was a worthy opponent.
If you're in Old City and looking for Italian, this is your place. Am I going to cross Washington Avenue to eat here again? Probably not.
The service was excellent. These days, that is worth a lot.
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