Table 31

Great happy hour, this is the #1 spot for Philly Sips on Wenesdays in the summers.
Inside, the food is average for a steak house, but the service at the bar leaves much to be desired.
Calamari is a great appetizer to start with, slighly peppery and no hint of being oily or greasy (although a larger portion would be nice).
The pizza’s are hand tossed and large enough for 4 at the table to share as an appetizer. you can’t go wrong with the margherrita.
The steaks here are the most disappointing, you would expect more attention paid to the steaks in a steakhouse. The filet is a little on the dry side, and be mindful that whatever you order will consistently come out a little more well done than what you ordered (my medium rare was medium-​medium well)

Non-​conforming Center City Sips location: Table 31 does have the beer, wine, and cocktail specials, but they do NOT honor the half priced appetizers. And the Center City Sips website does list Table31 as having appetizer specials on Tuscan hummus with bruschetta; Artichoke, fresh ricotta and crap dip with pita chips. But good luck in trying to actually getting them to honor the deal.
As far as the drinks, stick with the beer. There are huge gatoraid coolers for the cocktails. And as you could imagine, good cocktails don’t come out of a gatoraid cooler.

I love this place. Their specials are amazing. The Pizza is Sinful, and the hand-​cut French Fries are TO DIE FOR. I love French Fries.
I’m not sure why it has such low ratings, but I enjoy it when I’m in the area. I’ve only been to Philly twice. My first trip we were starving, found the restaurant and decided to dine there because we were in a rush. We were not disappointed. The second time which was 3÷23÷13 I was coming from a funeral and insisted that I visit for the Fries alone.
If that doesn’t tell you something. I don’t know what will.

all talk no walk
Walking in, I was very impressed. We had a larger group reservation and they took us to their private back room dining room on the second floor. Walking through, I felt like royalty. It had strong lounge-​feel vibes and the darker lighting and red décor theme gave me really high expectations. The dining room I believe is traditionally used for meetings because of the TV on the wall and board room-​esque seating, but we were happy with the view.
We started the night with cocktails and also ordered a bottle of Chardonnay. This is where the night started to go downhill. The cocktails were not as good as people raved. My Ginger Kiss and my friends Comcastini tasted very watered-​down and for lack of better words, cheap. Our stomachs started rumbling and we went right to ordering.
I went with the pasta a la norma and got a large platter of antipasto misto for the table for appetizers. The wait time was noticeably long, about 25 minutes before we actually saw some food. I will say, the portions are huge. The pasta was sized like an entrée and I was able to give multiple people at the table a good portion to taste. However, it was very simple, something I’m sure I could throw together in my own kitchen. The antipasto was also very pretty, but nothing special, just a bunch of meats and pickled veggies on a wooden platter.
For the second course, I got the wild black cod. This course was miserable. I still have no idea what it was, but there was something in the oil that the fish was fried in that gave it a very very undesirable aftertaste. It was similar to the effect of adding too much MSG, but my tongue wasn’t tingling. It just felt like I was whiffing wafts of salty, spicy air. I couldn’t take more than one bite a minute. The celery root purée was also strangely flavored. Both me and a friend noted it tasted very similar to cup noodle seasoning packets and it just wasn’t impressive at all. The presentation was beautiful, but that’s it.
The dessert was also not impressive. The flavor of the semifreddo was okay, but it was so frozen that it was hard to cut through and the berries in the middle were rock hard. Definitely not an ideal finish to the meal.
Another thing to note was the music. I noticed it right away as we were ordering drinks and all I could hear was, «Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.» The remainder of our night was accompanied with 70’s and 80’s pop music, which definitely wasn’t fitting with the décor.
Food was definitely not worth the price. Cocktails weren’t amazing. Ambiance was awkward. I might come back for sips if I’m around, but that is about it. Not impressed.
Pros: beautiful décor, huge portions
Cons: watered-​down cocktails, awkward music, food quality, price
Dishes to skip: wild black cod

Table 31 is close to my date’s place, so we come here on a fairly regular basis for a bite to eat in the bar area when we don’t feel like headed far from his apartment that night.
If you don’t like Flo Rida, don’t come here. There is always music pop blaring, which I actually don’t mind. I find myself dancing in my chair during dinner and drinks — it feels like I’m in Olde City vs the Comcast Centre of all places. It’s loud yes, but you can somehow always still hear your conversation.
I like the food here a lot. I usually get the chopped salad, which is quite and filling delicious amount of Italian meats and cheeses mixed in. The mixto salad with shrimp is delicious, and the meatballs are huge and very good — at 6 oz per meatball, you can make a meal out of just those! The pork belly is juicy, and melts in your mouth.
The large antipasto platter is absolutely ginormous. We ordered this one night along with some other items, and barely touched our other food, and we didnt care. It comes on a wooden pizza tray, which is piled and piled with bread, olives, roasted red peppers, mushrooms, prosciutto, and other delectable things. This is a good platter to get if youre out with some friends and want something light a bunch of you can share over a glass or two of wine. Also, they cure a lot of their meats, and make some of the cheeses fresh on site.
Love it here for a quick bite and a glass of wine at a nice place!

food was OK. cocktails were GREAT. even though the staff were very informed of what was vegan and what was not, and they were really very nice, the service was HORRIBLE. took 45 mins from us sitting down to getting our drinks. also i asked them to bring my salad out during the appetizers and they said they didn’t do that. well i was hungry and didn’t want an appetizer. oh well.
i went for a work thing and wasnt responsible for the bill. i had a great time w/​my coworkers just wish the servers were more attentive.

Beautiful spot but I definitely need to check it out when it isn’t sips to give an accurate review. This place is packed elbow to elbow during and it’s no easy feat to get your hands on a drink.
My drink, when I was able to get my hands on it, was kind of watered down. I would chalk that up to Sips but I am a firm believer that if you are offering something (like low prices) to get people in the door, you need to deliver to get them to stay and perhaps even return.
Overall, great location. I’ll be back to give it another shot when it’s less crowded but if they aren’t up to par, it’s unlikely I will return.

I have to be 100% honest… I Unilocal everywhere new I go and read some of the reviews before-​hand and had a little bit of skepticism coming in. It’s always a great tool but with anything, it’s all opinion based and this is absolutely one that I differ from the majority on.
Table 31 was amazing. We were taken exceptional care of by Justin who not only kept the glasses full but described every part/​ingredient in the meal and when asked for an opinion, led us generously in the right way.
We started with drinks which were priced very fairly, we tried the «snail app» which is apparently a not very well kept secret and loved it… although I am not a fan of snails, my date was pleasantly surprised and loved the sauce and accompaniments with the dish.
From there we had House Made Cavatelli, the chef’s specialty, and it was phenomenal. We also sampled the lobster couscous and it was awesome.
By the time the main entrée came, we were stuffed but the steak was so delicious that I worked it in anyway. The house cut fries as the side were some of the best I’ve had.
We were a little bummed that although we didn’t have room for dessert, the one we were going to get anyway had run out for the evening… we’ll be back for that. The music was a little loud for dinner (coming from the bar) but the conversation was good enough to drain it out. The beer selection was pretty lackluster but the wine & cocktail list more than made up for it. To have Yuengling, in Philly is really all you need, honestly.
All in all, I would without a doubt return and it was so good, I had to review it and save some of the Unilocal-​ers that will see the middle of the pack review and maybe looks elsewhere… give it a shot, you’ll be surprised.

I am sad that out of all the amazing restaurants in Philadelphia, we came here. The ambience is so alluring and trendy and we were starving after a long day at the Art Museum. Our waiter was very kind and really talked up the exclusivity and freshness of the menu. There was not much selection, so I ordered the house made cavatelli.
I do not mind paying an exorbitant amount for great dining, but please make sure my pasta doesn’t taste like hard, uncooked macaroni noodles with ragu red sauce if you are charging that much.
Two stars for everything being pretty to look at.

This place is such a joke.
First of all, they are ridiculously overpriced. The quality of food varies from decent to well below average to being served cold black coffee. I think they’re trying to cut a lot of corners lately and just ride out a previously well-​earned reputation of being a nice Philly spot for fine dining, but that Table 31 is long gone and all that remains now is a very transparent attempt at being something they are clearly not.
I thought the hostess up front was rather rude, first pointing out that a friend of mine wasn’t dressed appropriately but that she would need to check with her manager to see if it was a forgivable offense. Is that the actual restaurant policy? Last I checked, when your business is sitting around completely empty, and five people who were decent enough to make a reservation show up, you seat them with a smile, not a stop sign, regardless of what color shoes or pants they’re wearing. Luckily the manager has half a brain and motioned that it was totally cool, but the pretentious hostess still felt the need to educate us on how to dress at a fine dining establishment. Clearly, she needed a way to feel important. Glad we could help.
The food was unfortunately pretty inconsistent. We had some decent appetizers and that was about as far as we got. The entrees were all over the place, some being completely offensive, others being decent, and the rest just showing some laziness in preparation.
We continually had to ask the waitress to come back to help us since she was focused on pandering for her tip at a table of old rich people.
Later we were handed serving spoons for eating our desserts, which in retrospect, I wish I hadn’t ordered because it was forgettable at best.
Definitely will not come back, and will also mention to others that it’s not worth going to.

I wish I didn’t have to rate this place because this is more a review about pointing certain people in the right direction and not about my experience.
Table 31 is hilarious, especially for Center City Sips. My office is 27 floors above Table 31 and I have always looked over the outdoor beer garden as the party gets started. I never dared enter as I could tell from above, this place was not for me… but a friend invited me, so there I was.
You can tell very quickly that for a Wednesday night, this is the place to get it on and by get it on, I mean network like you never networked before. Pocket squares, houndstooth, and cufflinks aplenty! Everyone’s eyes were roaming the outside beer garden as they tried to find a bigger and better conversation to get into. My friend ordered me a punch from the bar that came out of some large cooler. It is smart to not waste time mixing drinks — get these folks drunk faster! The punch was just fine.
We didn’t stay long, but I will always remember my time here.
For the young, beautiful and power hungry, this is where you have to go. Your career and genitals will thank you for it.

I must be missing something. Table 31 was great. I read the reviews and went into it not expecting much. After winning a work gift certificate we decided to make it a date night… and boy were were pleasantly surprised.
We walked in on 5pm on a Saturday and were the only table there for most of our meal (by the end there were 3 other tables).
We ordered
CHILLED SHELLFISH TIMBALLO (Shrimp, bay scallops, scungilli, red peppers, citrus vinaigrette) — This was a perfect tower of freshness.
CRAB AND CORN TORTA (Fresh corn, blue crab, tomatoes, house made burrata, salsa verde) — The homemade burrata alone makes this dish a hit. Burrata like that is rare to find. SO GOOD!
Zuppa De Pesce — clams, mussels with a white fish. The broth was some of the best broth I’ve had. It was a perfect bread dipping broth… we were both floored by how great it was.
Fillet Oscar — great cut of meat with a generous portion of crab, a whole roasted garlic and asparagus.
Drinks were ok. Servers were extremely knowledgeable.
Table 31 was a hit for us. A pricey for sure. Food is great. I’m not sure why they weren’t packed… but sometimes it’s nice having the place (almost) to yourself.

Table 31 … oh how you broke my heart.
Well not really … but it was still a disappointment for the GF and I.
We met after work for an early dinner. The space is beautiful.
Our waiter was great — the self-​professed best bartender in Philly.
We started with the massive antipasto platter for two — was decent. Wish we had gone for the cheese plate instead though. Had a good variety nonetheless.
I had the ribeye — I had read previous reviews and wasn’t expecting USDA Prime. However, with a price point above $ 30 … you’d think the quality would be decent.
Had absolutely sub-​par marbling … and the kicker … did not realize it would be sambuca flambé style (light a glass of sambuca with a match and douse it on the meat). It’s apparent why this is done — to have the alcohol drown out the quality of the meat.
The GF had the lemon pasta — was merely passable. Left unfinished — but I figured I could probably spice it up at home myself. (On another note … we experienced torrential downpours as we were leaving … and the leftovers were lost in the rain … perhaps it was for the best).
Severely disappointed. I had high hopes to return … I would only come back to try the outdoor lounge and a pizza.

The moment I walk in I am called out for wearing sandals, shorts, and a button down shirt with a tie. I made a reservation but without any warning about their fascist dress code. So I apologized about my dress code and I didn’t know about it. The host then proceeded to tell me that is policy of all fine dinning establishments. HAH! Did they ever live up to that…
Pros:
— good desserts
Cons:
— terrible wait staff and rude hostess
— inconsistent food, the good food was great but the bad food was unreal. They can’t cook duck or serve coffee hot, they don’t know when you want more drinks and don’t listen.
— chipped appetizer plate on the table that we had to ask to be replaced was switched with a saucer dish
— we were told they had run out of silverware and we were given serving spoons to eat dessert
I was a bit more picky with the place than usual, had it been applebees I would have cared less. The fact that, upon entering this place, they told me they were ‘fine dining’ I expected them to live up to their standards… they failed to meet them.
I don’t care for this place and they are over priced!!!

This place was sooo crowded at Sips this week. Of course, that’s something I expect when I go to a bar with Sips specials, but the awkward thing about Table 31 is that they just have a bunch of standing space on the Comcast Center plaza. That means that there are hundreds of people just standing around in little circles, with nowhere to sit! It feels like a summer graduation party with a lack of chairs, and your mom invited an extra 300 people.

This was my second trip to Philadelphia and my second time to enjoy cocktails at Table 31-​Plaza Café.
I love the bright setup they have outside! I haven’t tried the food and the drinks are good, but honestly, I enjoy it for the ambiance. The seats are very relaxing and on a beautiful day, I could easily drink myself into a nap! If you are visiting Philly or live there, make sure to check it out when the weather is beautiful!

Bizarre. You look at the lovely photos on their website of the first floor bar and it looks chic. But when you walk in, it looks more like a sports bar with a giant tv screen. It was late and there were only about 5 other people in the bar.
I ordered a special cosmopolitan. It had special fruit juice. It was bitter and had a lot of the pith in it. The drink was sweet and bitter in that awful pithy way, not the good, herbal way.
I felt like I was in Topeka at the Radisson. Apologies to Topeka, they probably have a better bar there than this place. (and they don’t even have a Radisson, probly)

Very average, verrrry expensive. oh, and very cougar-​rific* (oh, we’ll get to that, later).
Nothing comes cheap here, from the cocktails to the menu — The service just does not match the price and the offerings do not match the space either. Quite a conundrum, as both are far from elegant or refined — which is obviously what Table 31 is trying so hard to be. Which brings me to the space itself. The space screams ‘try hard”, so much so that it lacks a certain personality or pizazz, resulting in a generic space with dark booths and restrooms, and that’s it.
As reviewers have mentioned, their kitchen has a bit of a problem with the pacing of the meal and course progression timing. For example, during a six course tasting menu, the first three courses were served in quick, almost too quick succession, while the last three, we waited forever and a day to make an appearance and when they did, our group did not get the dishes all at the same time.
Food is so-​so, nothing to write home about but nothing severe enough to send back to the kitchen. Presentation and menu concepts aren’t a consideration here (unless we’re talking deserts), but all proteins are cooked to temperature (perfectly seared scallop, filet med-​rare as ordered), and pasta just so (al dente), but the pieces never quite seem to come together to make it a meal worth spending a lot of coinage over. Some flavors worked, a sauce here pulled the dish together, but the ensemble as a whole left me decidedly indifferent.
* While I have no problem whatsoever with women or men of a certain age, getting out and about to get their groove on, I felt like this place (much like R2L), is a definite feeding and roaming ground for cougars of all sorts. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

This is the most ridiculous place I’ve ever been to. AVOID this place at all costs unless you like overpriced food/​drinks and crappy service.
We came here for the first day of Sips, and while some may think it isn’t a fair assessment of the restaurant, I’d say it is for me because if I get a good impression of a place, whether it’s for happy hour or lunch/​dinner or because they were at a Unilocal event, I’ll come back.
Definitely not coming back to this place.
We arrived there and went to the hostess stand to try and get a table. She told us there were none available, but while we were waiting for one we could get drinks at the bar. Because there were only like, two bartenders, we waited about 30 minutes for drinks. One of them gave my friend the total of $ 11 for two beers and a diet Coke! Based on the Sips menu of $ 2 per beer, my soda would have been SEVEN DOLLARS. It turned out to be $ 1. Get your prices straight, people!
We finally snagged a table, only to be told by a snotty waitress, «You can’t buy drinks at the bar and then sit down. You have to order drinks and food from a server.» Obviously the right hand wasn’t talking to the left hand, because that was opposite what the hostess told us when we first got there. But we said, fine, we’ll order food. After we named the specials that were listed on the Sips website, she informed us that «we don’t have those specials. It’s a different menu» and proceeded to tell us two specials that were nowhere near what was online. I understand these menus are subject to change, but don’t act like we should have known this without your telling us!
We ordered one of each appetizer, avoiding the stupidly overpriced menu they first presented us with (really, $ 20 for a cheese plate?)…which took about 30 minutes to come out. I ordered another diet Coke in that time frame.
The appetizers finally came, and seriously, what a JOKE. Pictures are posted. The rolls they had were literally two bites (which we ended up halving to feed four people), and the hummus came with four small sticks of bread. Wow. You see four people sitting at a table and don’t mention how small the apps are? We would have been happy to order more, had we known how small these portions were.
By the way, the food was nothing special. The hummus was okay, and I’d say that was the best part about it.
We finished, were fed up, and wanted to get the hell out of there. We requested the check and the waitress said, «Oh, it’ll be about $ 12 total.» I saw the drink menu and a soda was $ 3.50…apps totaled $ 8.50. Ah, so that’s why they wouldn’t let us order drinks at the bar and then sit down at a table… it was so they could rape us with the sit-​down prices!
Freaking ridiculous. I’m never recommending this place to anyone, nor are we ever going back.

The dinner I had last night at Table 31 was probably my worst dining experience in over a year.
Table 31 is overpriced. Very overpriced, but I have no problem paying high prices if the service is good. However; on this occasion the service was horrible. Our drink order took 20 minutes. 20 minutes later when my water and beer were empty, it took 30 minutes before I managed to get a refill.
If the restaurant was busy, I would have a little more understanding, but besides two larger tables, the place was absolutely dead for a Saturday night. Our table was also right next to the wait station, in plain view of multiple staff members. My two empty glasses were right in their view, and nobody bothered. I even had a guy deliver our entrees, and he didn’t bother to ask.
As far as the food, our salads and appetizers were not that bad, but completely overpriced. The $ 20 shrimp cocktail had 4 shrimp, and they were not even close to being worth $ 5 a shrimp.
We were in the mood for pasta, so I had the lobster tortellini and my guest had the Fettuccine. The staff member informed us the the portions were relatively small, so he recommended getting double orders. Even the double orders were small considering the high prices.
Again, I have no problem paying for quality, but the quality wasn’t there. The «homemade» Fettuccine was frozen, not fresh, and a little bit higher quality than what you would find in a box at the grocery store. My lobster tortellini had a bunch of shells in it, cutting my gums.
I would of bothered complaining to the staff, but they didn’t care. I ended up flagging down someone to get our check after waiting for someone to stop by for 30 minutes with our dirty plates on the table.
Avoid this place at all costs. Ripoff pricing and bad service is the combination for a terrible meal.