Best Neighborhood Gem Restaurants in South Philly

I always have a great experience at PARC, but my Christmas night dinner was nothing short of exceptional. From the warm welcome I received at check in, my wonderful server, Miss Amy’s attentive and fun service, and my delicious meal, this particular visit is one I’ll happily remember. Also, a special thank you for always treating solo diners with respect! It’s for all these reasons I’m a loyal + faithful PARC diner. Looking forward to my next visit!

This has become out Christmas Eve tradition to have lunch at Craftsman Row. This year we had Marissa as a waitress and she was incredible.

The service was amazing. All the severs were very attentive. The octopus was nice a charred but it was a bit on the salty side. The beef carpaccio was a bit too sour problem too much lemon juice. The squid ink rigatoni was very flavorful and we also really enjoyed the bread it was nice and chewy and the sun dried tomatoes dip was the bread was also really good.

Wow! This was an awesome experience! As a fan of the Rocky film series, I knew about this place from the Rocky Balboa and Creed films. It is so much more than that, though. As the founder was a major player in early 20th century opera recordings, The Victor Cafe has an opera theme permeating its soul. The walls are adorned with photos of the opera greats, opera music plays softly in the background, and, most importantly, the waitstaff are all classically-trained opera performers. Every half hour or so, they gather everyone’s attention to perform a selection from a popular opera, complete with a synopsis of the story they’re about to tell through their performance. Every performer was wonderful and this made for a unique, joyful and memorable experience for my family. I grew up on Italian cuisine, and this was among the best I’ve had in a long time. We shared the Calamari Fritti, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that we could have substituted Smelts for the calamari. This was a staple of our Christmas Eve dinners when I was young. My Veal Saltimbocca was perfect, as was my Daughter’s Prince Igor (penne with a vodka blush, salmon, tomato, and Asparagus). We enjoyed our cannolis while watching our last performance of the evening. Breathtaking! Special shout out to our server, Brenna, who took our dessert order mere seconds after completing her duet! Remarkable! I can’t say enough about The Victor Cafe; if you’re looking for a classic South Philly Italian Restaurant, paired with one of the most wonderful and unique experiences you’ll find today, then this is the place for you.

The food here is delicious and the portions are large. I have ordered from here many times and will continue to order from here. On the whole, the staff was super friendly. Of note, they do not have Coke products. There was an issue with our order- something forgotten- and one of the staff yelled at another staff member and that was upsetting. The noise level was low except for the same staff that yelled being very loud on the phone.