Bistro La Baia Reviews

We went for dinner before a show, choosing this restaurant based on the reviews here. We had the grilled calamari and the mushroom dish appetizers and they were amazing! My wife and her friend both had the grilled salmon and are still talking about it. Service was friendly and attentive, and the prices were reasonable. Add to that you can BYOB and the cost for 3 people was a bargain for what we had. Will definitely return.

This was my first time going in bistro la baia, and had a great experience. Food was awesome and service was super. Going back for sure.

We had reserved seating for four at this small Italian restaurant in Philly. We had Grilled Calamari and Funghi as appetizers. and Vitello Porcini, Pappardelle con Salsiccia, and Linguine Bolognese as Entrees. Everything was wonderful. I believe that the veal and funghi was the finest I have ever had.

Me and my family dined there for New Years Day and it was absolutely lovely. Not only was the food fabulous and delicious but the service was spectacular! Everyone should go and try it out because it really is absolutely perfect!

This is a great family owned Italian restaurant not too far from Rittenhouse Square. My friend and I had made reservations prior to enjoying a show on Broad St and were delighted! Bistro La Baia encompasses the hospitality that family owned Italian restaurants are known for, and great food, which was fresh and delicious! Don’t leave without trying the Tiramisu! It’s the perfect end to a lovely dinner! Staff was attentive and polite. Will come again!

Great Southern Italian style restaurant not far from City Center. I tried the Salmon Risotto and my wife had the Branzino over Linguini with lemon-caper sauce. Both were delicious. Good sized portions and reasonable value. BYOB restaurant. I recommend it highly.

It is a tiny place in the centre of Philladelphia. It opens in the afternoon so you can only have dinner there, no breakfast or lunch. Beuatifully cooked vegetables, fish was delicious.

We went to Bistro La Baia for Restaurant Week. The selection of appetizers and entrees were much better than in most other restaurants. Caponata was the best I have ever tried. Branzino and the Pork Chop were perfectly cooked. Tartuffo with candied orange was to die for. Will absolutely come back to this place.

Upon our fourth or fifth visit to Bistro LacBaia, we were disappointed to learn that the owner had sold the business. It had been a delightful neighborhood bistro, with excellent food and close to the Kimmel Center and Avenue of the Arts. The new owner had put in charge a host who criticized the previous owner, menu and decor. He talked constantly often interrupting our conversations. The food is as good as always because the kitchen staff has remained. I believe the new owner should know that his host is harming his business. We won’t return because of him and other former regulars agreed they also would not return.

Even though they were full they went out of their way to squeeze us in for a delightful dinner. Pleasant wait staff and the food is great. Be sure to visit.

After our second visit to Bistro La Baia last night, I've determined that it just might be my favorite restaurant in Philly. This gem is unassuming from the outside but inside is lovely and inviting. The hostess and server, Samira, is fantastic. She is efficient without being intrusive as she takes orders, answers the phone, serves food, and checks in to see how everything is. And the food! Amazing. Clearly someone in the kitchen takes great pride in his/her work. Each appetizer and entree is perfectly prepared, and the tiramisu is among the best I've ever had. Let's not forget the prices, which are incredibly reasonable for food of this quality. It's a joke that this place wasn't mentioned in Philadelphia magazine's recent list of Philly's 50 best restaurants. I would put Bistro La Baia up against any of them any day.

Not much ambiance but the food was excellent, and prices reasonable. Portions are large, and the fact that you can bring i your own drinks makes it quite affordable. Would definitely go back!

We reserved the entire restaurant to celebrate our parents' 45th wedding anniversary for 18 adults and 6 kids. It was absolutely perfect! The food was delicious (the salmon, veal and chicken piccata were superb, as were the nudies--ricotta cheese in balsamic vinaigrette with walnuts!) and the service spectacular! We never felt rushed and really got to enjoy the party. Reed and Ilirjan made the event so easy to coordinate in the weeks ahead. They accommodated our kids from the appetizers to the dessert! Thank you so much! We will DEFINITELY be back!

went here for restaurant week with a couple of girl friends. the restaurant had a nice, homey feel and was pretty packed on a Wednesday night. food was basic Italian, everything was going great until I found a long black hair at the bottom of my vodka pasta dish. EW. needless to say, I will not be coming back

Had a reservation with Bistro La Baia and as we walked in, the owner acknowledged that we have a reservation for two but said he cannot seat us at the moment. No problem, I understand that sometimes the schedule runs a little tight and issues do come up. As I looked around the room I saw two open tables for two and asked why we couldn't be seated at any one of those tables. The man gave no reason and simply keeps saying that he cannot seat us there. When I said that I would be making sure to mention this in my review of the restaurant online, the owner responded with "I don't think you want to be eating here tonight" and continued repeating that essentially forcing us to leave the restaurant. Least to say, it's a crowded restaurant with little seating and their rating is already pretty low. If you're looking for a good place to eat, trust me, there are a lot of better options in CC and they'll cost you about the same. Don't make our mistake and find a reputable place that will leave you with a good experience.

Darling corner bistro. Second time I’ve ordered salmon risotto..and second time ordering the grilled calamari with a very nice little arugula salad with capers and a lemon olive oil dressing. All very good. House made tartuffo for dessert and attentive service throughout. Cash only so come prepared..it’s worth every penny!

La Baia is a wonderful gem in the Rittenhouse Square neighborhood. It is a cozy, warm, and relaxed restaurant. The owner is so welcoming and friendly. The food is terrific and reasonably priced for the quality. I particularly enjoy the pasta and the chicken dishes. There is creativity and thought behind the way the food is prepared. They have interesting and very good specials, too, besides what is on the menu. You will be welcome as a group, couple, or solo. It is also in a nice neighborhood that is away from the crowds.

If a place could have negative ambience, this is it. They need a professional to bring paint and a fresh design. They may not have addressed this for over a decade. Others have written of great food. On this date, it was very average fare. Did not beckon one to return for more dishes. Service was spot on. Prices are extremely fair. They now take credit cards and it is BYOB

We stayed at the Warwick at Rittenhouse in Philadelphia and wanted a small romantic place close by to celebrate our 35th wedding anniversary. We found Bistro La Baia and it was perfect! The Chicken Marsala was gourmet and the Lobster Ravioli was "thoroughly" (as in lick the plate) finished! Reed, owner made us feel like family and Samira our waitress treated us like royalty! This is a small gem, visited by the local residents. If you want to experience great food, amazing hospitality and an all around wonderful experience, make your reservation today! We highly recommend Bistro La Baia!

We ordered five dishes. None of them tasted fresh. The veal entree was like leather with a nondescript sauce. The salad had old arugula that was brown green, the apples in the salad were rotting. The calamari and mussels were average. We had good service because no one was there. Avoid this place.

A longtime BYO with new owners serves up Italian comfort food favorites in a cozy (read small) room. Our dinner for four was lovely, service was warm and efficient. The food here won’t blow you away but you’ll leave feeling sated (portions are large) and well cared for. I really enjoyed my risotto with asparagus and salmon which paired nicely with a crisp white we’d brought along. Four appetizers, four pasta entrees and 2 desserts for sharing set us back about $42 per person with tax and tip. A very good value.

Bistro la baia was a great choise, the service was the best, and se tried some of the dishes. All delicious.

Don't complicate this, great food, great service meatballs were fab.The review wants me to say more but i have no more to say.

Cute tiny restaurant with amazing food. So creamy and delicious. Mash potatoes were amazing as well!! I will be coming back soon!

We wanted to try a restaurant we had never visited and my wife found Bistro La Baia. What a jewel. It’s a cozy room along with al fresco dining. We were fortunate, it was restaurant week and we all had four courses. Appetizers were delicious, especially the stewed eggplant. My risotto balls were fine as were the meatballs. Our entrees were large and also fantastic - the spaghetti and the gnocchi were perfect al dente and the gravy and pesto were exactly what we wanted. Finally, tiramisu was served to finish our excellent meal. I can definitely recommend this bistro.

The service was excellent: Ioannis knows how to balance being available with giving diners a sense of unrushed luxury. The meal was amazing, from the seasoned oil to dip bread in, to the last delicious bite! The mussels are a must, although they are not on the menu: you gotta know to order them (and now you do 😉) We also ordered the grilled squid which they prepare with salt, pepper and olive oil (keeping the fresh squid flavor front and center) with a terrific tomato and caper garnish. We shared the linguini vongole (clams) which anywhere else would have been the highlight of the meal. But we ordered the branzino (gorgeous flavor!) and the NY strip with funghi reduction: definitely in the top 3 steaks I've ever had. Flavor of a NY strip but the texture of a filet mignon. Don't know how they do it!! It's BYOB so you can accompany your food with your favorite wine at the wine-shop price. And then the bill came in at about 60% of what I expected. Cannot say enough about La Baia!!

I came to Bistro La Baia for restaurant week in January. The space was small, a corner spot that has the narrow row home set up, but very cute. Tables are close together and because of the size of the space it's not a spot for sharing secrets with your date. The restaurant week menu had multiple courses and a few options within each area. The portions were much larger than I expected, in fact I didn't finish most of my dishes. Cesar salad was average, pesto gnocchi was decent. The BYOB option is convenient. The staff were incredibly attentive and seemed almost concerned when I didn't finish my meal - but it was purely based on the volume of food and my inability to consume it all. In short, it wasn't amazing, but it was fine. No reason not to go there and see for yourself!

Thank you very much for this moment! The meals were excellent, the staff very friendly. Thanks a lot !

Exactly the kind of place that has helped make Philly a food city. Seems family owned. A corner Italian bistro with a reasonably priced interesting menu - and what a great savings to be byo. Everything we had was well portioned and delicious - nothing snooty but still unique Italian dishes. Great option in the usually overpriced rittenhouse area.

Food was amazing, service was great, very hospitable! Will definitely be back soon. At the end of the night they gave us free homemade tiramisu on the house! What a treat!

Since Tripadvisor doesn't do half stars, I've rounded up. We love this place, and they've done outdoor pandemic dining better than 95% of the venues in Center City. The menu is age-old Italo-American ("red gravy" in local parlance): the caprese salad appetizer is the only concession to the twenty-first century. So expect large portions, heavy on the sauce, low on the subtlety. But... for the appetizers and mains, the ingredients are good, everything is made to order, and the prices are ultra competitive, and far better value than any chain restaurant in the burbs. There are also pleasant surprises, like the caesar salad, which is done with a light enough touch to have taste and character and uses good quality anchovies. This is, in fact, the only place in the city where we will order a caesar. Likewise the polpette appetizer, which tastes like a kitchen blend, not a factory one, even when swathed in sauce, as Italo-American meatballs must be... The pastas are what you'd expect, the chicken parm too, but always totally reliably so, with the pasta not quite al dente, but not overcooked, and the breading on the parm thin and flavorful, with no sogginess nor grease. Kicking it up a notch, the veal dishes are significantly better than any of the Queen Village, Italian Market, and Passyunk competitors (including a couple launched by some of the local restaurateur titans), who try to class up a standard vitello con porcini and always fail. One should never, ever underrate the importance of solid local restaurants that aren't destinations for anyone outside the neighborhood, but nor should one oversell them, because the result of that helps no one. What La Baia has always had right is gloriously friendly and helpful, but unobtrusive, service; the pandemic has given that aspect a boost. There are any number of streeteries here in Center City, lots of cabanas, lots of sheds, and tents, and heaters, and what have you. Some of them are so enclosed they defeat the purpose of being outdoors; some are so exposed you can feel the icy blasts off the Delaware every time there's a breath of wind. La Baia have managed to maximize ventilation, but having partitions to the street at head height, with plenty of ventilation, partitions within their structure at shoulder height, and no more than four seats within a partitioned area, each of which has a wonderfully powerful propane heater. It's the only place where eating outside with real-feel temperatures at or below freezing feels totally fine. And the service continues to be magically friendly and also unobtrusive.

Came here because it was restaurant Week $35/3 course meal Wife loved her Bronzino I had veal scallopini it was delicious I recommend the tiramisu We will be back when it’s not restaurant week

The food is always delicious and staff is very friendly. So far I have tried some of the dishes. Highly recommend this place.

We wanted a place close to our hotel and this place satisfied that need! Good food and nice staff...perfect dinner on our trip in PA.

Very good food and friendly atmosphere, feels like home. Service was awesome. Highly recommended! Going back.

I had the pleasure to visit this wonderful restaurant recently with my wife and nephew and his girlfriend. I could not have been more impressed with the service and o my the food! Ilir is the owner I believe is the correct spelling of his first name. Well we arrived an hour early and sat out side while waiting for our table and other guests to arrive. No problem we sipped on our own BYOB wine and enjoyed the view. When we got inside the apps and entree selection were numerous and simply delicious to say the least. I had a pappardelle with sausage that had a tasty cheesy red sauce wish the portion was bigger. The others had lobster ravioli and a Mediterranean fish that was new to my wife she enjoyed very much. All in all a hidden gem on an unusually busy street. The topper was we were entertained by an unfortunate young women with car trouble clogging the street in front. O well it all had a happy ending. Loved this place!

Tasty eggplant rollatini and fig and arugula salad. Excellent bronzino and very good veal porcini. Arancini was doughy. Good service and value.

This restaurant is a real treasure. We tried the steak, salmon risotto, appetizers meatball, kallamari, all delicious. Service great too.

Small BYOB Italian hole in the wall. Prices are fair, servings are large, and sauces are to die for. Best Tiramisu ever!!

Back again and had the same nice impressions. Great food, great service. Will go back again for sure!

Went for dinner last night with the family. It was Christmas Eve. We had evening plans and needed to eat early. When we walked up to this place, I thought “this was a mistake”. The restaurant is tiny and the dining room is cramped and dull. We decided to eat there anyway because what else can you find on Christmas Eve? Well, let me tell you-our food was DELICIOUS. I loved my gnocchi Gorgonzola. It tasted without being overwhelming. Between the 4 of us we had a number of appetizers and entrées, all of which were well executed. This is Sicilian food: simple fare, fresh flavors, seafood heavy. BYOB and an 8% discount for paying in cash made this holiday meal a steal. Within 30 minutes the restaurant was full, btw. I’ll take peeling window panes for this quality food any day. Will definitely return. Highly recommend.

We had a wonderful time at Bistro La Baia this past weekend. A nice little neighborhood BYOB. There were 13 in our party. The food was delicious and the service was very good. Perfect.

Nice restaurant bring your own wine. Super nice evening and what about the service and food. Everything was perfect. Small attention that added to the appreciation of the evening. I recommend this place. If i come back to philadelphia i'm sure i'll go back! Thank you for the beautiful evening :)

Great find! Stumbled on this cafe on a sweltering night in Philly. Still have to eat outside due to Covid. My wife had the Sea-bass and it was excellent: fresh caught and perfectly cooked. The kids got the chicken parmigiana and it was a heaping serving and they loved it. More than enough for a normal human, teenage boys still had room for dessert. And the tiramisu was awesome. Prices were reasonable for such quality.

We worked with the restaurant to plan our 1-year anniversary dinner after researching lots of options in the Philadelphia area for a group of 23 people. We stumbled across Bistro la Baia and have only wonderful things to say about the whole experience. Management was very helpful in the planning, and the space was perfect for us. The food and service was incredible. Everyone in our family raved about the food, and we can't wait to go back!

My wife and I ate here recently before going to the theater. Everything we had was delicious. The calamari and funghi appetizers were excellent, as were our main courses (chicken piccatta and chicken marsala). Good-sized portions, too, not the microscopic portions you get at a lot of places. We didn't get dessert but I imagine they would also be excellent. The bill was extremely reasonable, making Bistro La Baia a great value for what you get. Plus the service was very pleasant and unobtrusive. Would definitely go back. FYI - BYOB and cash only.

I am giving 5 stars, excellent rate to this restaurant because it really deserves. The food was awesome and the service also. Going back there.

It’s convenient to my downtown location with ample parking near the restaurant. Since we usually arrive on a Monday at 5:00, it is rarely busy, which enhances the fine service. The food is good quality, value and large enough to enjoy another day. Arguably, its best attribute is that it is a BYOB, without a service fee. Also, its output is consistent, as good as it was during my last visit, which was shy of two years ago. Try it and you won’t be disappointed. Highly Recommended!

The menu is somewhat more limited than it used to be but continues to offer the same highlights that have been drawing so many patrons back to La Baia again and again. The quality is sustained. The four of us seem as well to be coming here for years "again and again" in conjunction with our outings to the Kimmel Center and Wilma Theater. Some changes in interior decor look like work in progress. My Bronzino with capers and white wine sauce was very good and my husband praised his salmon dish. The accompanying couple opted for veal main courses. Everybody was satisfied. We always have calamari appetizers. We especially enjoy the BYOB aspect of La Baia. This place should be given a try.

This is one of our favorite BYOB restaurants in Philadelphia, one that we frequent with friends rather regularly. It is surviving recent ( Jan 2018) changes in management. The chefs are supposedly the same. They are trying slowly to upgrade the layout and appearance of this cute friendly place. There is seating both outdoor and indoor . There is a slight change but they deserve a chance.