Sorrento’s Italian Restaurant

Always good food and good service here.

Was here last night with a party of 11 and there was also a larger party of about 16 men. The service was wonderful and staff was friendly and helpful. The BEST marinara sauce I have ever had! All the entrees our party had were delicious and flavorful. The roasted peppers were amazing and I don’t usually eat them but couldn’t resist because they looked and smelled amazing. I came home and told my husband we are going together to dine ASAP! It’s that good. We will definitely be repeat customers. I will say it again… Best red sauce I’ve ever had!!!

We enjoyed the food at Sorrento’s! The roasted pepper appetizer was served hot and was SUBLIME. Simple and delicious! We enjoyed this with the fresh, hot and slightly toasted Italian bread — nice touch! The garlic bread was horrible — we would not order that again. It had copious amounts of raw garlic, so much that it burned your mouth. It was overly oily and not enjoyable.
My chicken was some of the most tender I’ve ever had and the cacciatore very flavorful. I would absolutely make the trip back to Sorrento’s again for this entrée. The accompanying pasta was mediocre, at best. Overcooked large spaghetti noodles with a basic sauce, despite having asked for angel hair. The chicken parmesan was average, but tasty and tender. Portions are gargantuan and very fairly priced.
Service — wow. It was bad. Just on the edge of rude, very inattentive, no finesse at all. More like order takers and food flingers than «service». If they forget ANYTHING on the first pass, don’t count on ever getting it. Or plan to repeat your request multiple times. I would have given them a pass thinking they were understaffed the night we were there, but it seems to be consistent based on the other reviews posted.
No ambiance, but that was fine with us since we were dining with children. Had it been a nice dining room, I likely wouldn’t have felt comfortable bringing in the children for a meal. Wear your jeans and sweatshirts — it’s that kind of place.
All in all, we would return for the food!

Sorrentos never ceases to deliver delicious, authentic Italian wonderful meals. It’s a favorite of ours and we eat there at least once a month. The portions are large so we always have some to take home. The service is friendly and kind. I wish they would expand and could accommodate more people!!! Try their red sauce. It’s amazing.

FOOD — Very good across the board.
AMBIENCE — Zero
SERVICE — Just okay to dismal
PRICES — Appropriate and competitive
CLEANLINESS — Good
First and foremost, Sorrento’s is a casual BYOB with very good food. Do not expect warm, fuzzy, efficient service, sophistication or fine décor. The owners are fixated on food and they provide the best Southern Italian cuisine in at least a 6-​mile radius. I’ve eaten a wide range of entrees at Sorrento’s over the course of decades: shrimp scampi, eggplant and chicken parm, spaghetti with Bolognese or white clam sauce, veal and chicken dishes, and their magnificent pasta concoctions: manicotti and ravioli. Their garlicky side of spinach is wonderful! I and my dining companions have never once complained about the food at Sorrento’s.
Sorrento’s exhibits a little bit of the mayhem found at a big Italian family meal. Imperfections occur but never associated with the food. Snubs happen, dinnerware is missing and maybe the salt and pepper shakers can’t be found. The bottle of wine sits on the table ignored. Oh, well… Judge the place on it’s primary mission and you’ll get over the service flaws.
The contingency that prefers the other Italian restaurant in Lafayette Hill has different taste buds. No problem. There are enough hungry diners in the world to support both restaurants; however, my unshakable first choice is Sorrento’s. If you’re too fragile to handle poor service, consider take out. I’ve utilized that option many times and have never been disappointed.

The Meal/​The OK-​to-​Good
The entrée was delicious and the fact that it is BYOB is icing on the cake.
Appetizer: Tomato Mozz Salad — Meh, juicy yet bland tomatoes, 0 seasoning
Entrée: Veal Sorrento — ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS. Basically veal marsala with provolone cheese melted on top and a spinach side. Opted for Fettuccine Alfredo for my side, which was tasty if a bit too oily.
Dessert: I wanted to get a cannoli and an espresso, but we opted to leave for the reason below.
The Bad & The Ugly
The main reason that this review isn’t three stars is because we had the bad luck of opting to dine here on a night when roughly half of the small-​yet-​open-​concept dining room was occupied by a group of ladies celebrating a 60^th birthday. As a result of such a large party having an event, the noise level was to the point where we had to shout at one another in order to have a conversation (until we were asked to quiet down while the birthday girl gave her speech, irony!).
Our server was polite, but was obviously overloaded as we had to basically jump up and down to get:
–Salt & Pepper (not on the table)
–A missing fork
–A bucket of ice for our white wine (you should probably automatically bring this if people come in with white wine)
–A bowl for my wife’s mussels (we never got this, ended up using a salad plate)
–Seltzer (if someone asks for seltzer you probably shouldn’t give them 7-​Up, but my diabetic father thanks you)
–Basically anything we needed we had to shout at the waitress as she ran by, and then hope she remembered (she often did not).
I would recommend asking any party that plans on taking over half your restaurant to rent the whole thing out in the future. Just my $ 0.02.

Such a great little place to eat! It’s byob which is a plus and you get every bite for your buck. Service is great and the food is even better!

Phenomenal !! Been going for years. Italian doesn’t get any better than this place. Love the staff, love the authenticity, love the fresh ingredients, love everything on the menu. I’ve actually never had better Italian food in my life

The place is small. Was amazed we had most of the dining room to ourselves at dinner Friday night. The server wasn’t the friendliest. Plus she never brought us our drinks. Then the next server never brought us our drinks. Third server was the charm. Finally had drinks just after our food arrived. The food was fine but nothing wow’ed us. And we wanted to be wow’ed for the price tag. And my biggest issue was it took forever for the check to arrive and for the check to be picked up. When the place is a graveyard you expect a bit faster service.

I love this place. Best home made spaghetti sauce and roasted peppers. I am taking one star off because I don’t care much about their deserts.

I sincerely hope the owners and chefs (if you can call them that) are not Italian because this place is an abomination. Dated décor, rude staff, and the food is atrocious and insanely overpriced. I have told several people never to go here because there are several real Italian options in the area. From the Boot is pretty good and only 5 minutes from this disappointment.

Well now, I waited a few days to write this review, but I must tell you, three days later I am still so disappointed by our visit that I will NEVER go to Sorrento’s again. It was my mothers birthday, and I wanted to give her a treat… well, we were so disappointed that I was embarrassed. We arrived and asked for a table for three. They gave us a nice four top. Gave us water, opened our wine then we never were attended to again for 15 minutes… and I had to stop someone to ask them if we could order appetizers. Really, and I only asked after a six top that came in after us got seated, given bread and butter and started to order their entrees. They were not to busy, it was a Tuesday evening and it had snowed. Anyway, we received the appetizers… mussels for the birthday girl were good, however, when you serve someone a plate of seafood with a lot of shells, you need to give the customer a bowl or plate to put the discarded shells into. Well we kept looking for someone to bring us something but we seemed to be invisible to the staff. Everyone around us getting service, but not us. So, my mother, tired of waiting because they were getting cold started eating and we just started stacking the empty shells on the small B&B plates we had on the table. Now the shells are falling all over the place… tablecloth, the floor, which I kept picking up, but no one seemed to think that was a problem. Except for us.. but the fried Calamari was a disgrace. For $ 11.95…the most expensive appetizer on the menu… I could not believe what I was served… very low quality and not a lemon to be seen. Take it off of your menu… you should not even offer what you are serving as calamari. We still had not gotten bread and butter and our salt was empty. Now our salads are being served and the appetizer dishes were still on our table. Here was my big mistake… I had the nerve to ask for bread and butter and salt… well it got worse after that. Apparently even though the waitress said it would not be a problem if we wanted bread and butter and salt… she needed to discuss the fact that we asked for it with the other female that was working in the dining room with her. Really, because we could hear every word… and they were busy telling the kitchen staff about it so now the staff starts coming one at a time into the service area looking at us and making comments. It doesn’t get more low class than that. My 22 year old son was so aggravated that he wanted to say something to let them know, but I begged him not to because we still needed more service to get our entrees and I was afraid of what they may do to our food. So, we sat there watching the staff comment on us and throw disapproving looks at us. I wanted to die. So, we get the bread and butter, and a new salt/​pepper shaker. Butter served in small plastic packets that were frozen. Really, for the prices you can do butter so that your guest could actually use it during dinner. The entrees came… The Veal Sorrento was very good… however a little fresh spinach would have been better. My son who ordered the Baked Ziti in a casserole dish that had been under the broiler was served with no plate to scoop his pasta from the casserole dish to a dinner plate. He just waited and waited, finally I asked for a plate for him and he was so disgusted that he refused the plate and did not even eat one bite. He was still angry from us having to ask for everything and watching the staff discuss us. You can forget coffee and dessert… I paid the check and left. WE WILL NEVER GO TO SORRENTO’S AGAIN… We went elsewhere for coffee and dessert. Missed income for them.

Family owned BYOB with fabulous traditional Italian dishes. Excellent homemade pasta, sauces, lasagna and chicken dishes. Must try the roasted peppers. Casual dining with good portions and always delicious.

Been here twice in the last 6 months and both times were awesome. Very mom and pop old school type Italian place. Its fairly small, but both times we have not had to wait for a table (once with a party of 4, once with just 2 of us). The food is great and authentic. Had veal scaloppini the first time and it was scrumptious. 2^nd time I had sausage and peppers which might have been the best sausage and peppers I’ve ever had. Girlfriend said the chicken parm was her favorite she’s had. The bruschetta is also great and made on Italian bread instead of crostinis, which I usually find too crunchy, so that’s also a plus. And who could forget that its BYOB! Its not cheap, but I think the prices are reasonable and the food is top notch so its worth it. It is also awesome that they are open until 10 every night so you can arrive for a later dinner, even during the week. I will be back again soon.

I was here once years ago and didn’t remembering liking it I went again with someone who says they go all the time. Cute little BYOB. small crowed got bumped in the back to many times. OK Italian food –good bread to start –No –rolls that you make a hoagie on. Salad was iceburg lettuce an onion and four cherry tomatoes. They didn’t have balsamic vinegar only dressing. Steam clams good The mussels not so good. Breaded calamari was frozen out of a box. I got eggplant and pasta for dinner which could of made at home. Not impressed! Some of the other peoples food looked good– veal which I don’t eat and chicken look good but I won’t find out because I won’t go back!

charming… although crowded and hot hot hot — i mean the temperature, not the food

I ate there after 20 years away and I could wait another 20 years. The bruschetta was on a toasted kaiser roll. The bread was from Conshohocken Bakery which is not very good. The lasagne did not set and the gravy was too sweet. The chicken parm was not crisp and had too much cheese. If you are in this area go to Maria’s or Cassellis in Roxborough, Fiorinos in East Falls or Viggianos in Conshohocken. Definitely pass this by.

A-​OK is right.
Sorrento’s is a family owned, make you feel at home, «everybody knows your name,» italian restaurant in lafayette hills. It is fairly unassuming from the outside, with a quaint, nice enough interior that accommodates enough people, however, gets easily filled on weekends. I don’t eat there very often at all, however, many of the generally «silver» crowd seemed to be well known by all of the wait staff. These people will think this place is a 5, however, it gets annoying at these places you try as a newbie where you can see the difference in treatment received.
As for the food, the menu is fairly standard, starters, pastas, seafood, chicken, veal, some specials. Each dish is served with a side of pasta, fries, or salad. The warm bread they served was decent, warm, grocery store italian bread, which is fine by me. They were nice enough to bring some freshly roasted peppers that were great with the bread. The salad was beyond weak, meh iceberg lettuce, meh tomatoes, meh onions, and a single meh green olive. No worries, the entrees were much better. I had the chicken sorrento, whic essentially is flattened chicken cutlets in a marsala wine sauce served with sauteed mushrooms and spinach. Good portions, nice marsala sauce, very good. My mother had the eggplant manicotti style aka eggplant rollatini. I really liked her dish, crispy without being overly oily. The winner here is there standard red sauce, it was delicious.
Overall, the entrees are pretty solid with great sauces. Didn’t get a chance to try the pasta so cannot comment unfortunately. A solid BYO, italian restaurant that is worth checking out with your family if you want to stay local.

HUGE fan of small, mom and pop type restaraunts… this isnt one of them.
After years of driving by this place, we decided to give it a try.
I will usually rip overly negaive reviews someone gives a restaraunt as more often than not they are OVERLY harsh and critical… in this case however, the naysayers… Are Correct.
the place really small, and it gets packed, which are usually good signs. it does get loud, and you re just about sitting on other peoples laps, when you are seated. which is really no problem
The place is clean the staff is friendly, though not completely attentive, even in such a small place, I had to ask for refills several times.
sadly, the problem here … is the food … its just not that good. and they arent cheap either.
Once seated which was quick, we were given rolls (which were hoagie rolls) but good ones, and water…
We decided to split a small antipasto, my wife ordered Chicken Marsala, and I ordered the Delmonico Steak Pizziaola.
Lets start with the antipasto. Now Im not too stupid to undestand an antipasto platter may vary from place to place, but this looked as if a 10 yo kid put it together.
First off it was a antipasto SALAD, which isnt noted on the menu. It had Mortadella, provlone, egg, white onion, tomtoes, giardinera, tuna, green olives, and sour pickles… Yes i said pickles. Served on a bed of iceberg lettuce
The tuna was right out of the can, not TUNA salad. tuna somewhat still in the shape of the can… Ive eaten it like that before, and theres no mistaking it.
Ok so far tiny place, hoagie rolls, bad antipasto «salad» …
We held out hope for the entrees. honestly we shouldve left
the Pizziaola, was overcooked, I asked for it medium rare. it was well done, it was also REALLY REALLY fatty, which made it greasy. and I swear to god they forgot to seson the damn thing. tasted like unseasoned, meat. they put WAAAAY too much damn sauce on it, which is bad in and of itself, then the melt cheese over it …
Now lets be honest, you could melt cheese over one of your shoes and it would taste good. but it couldnt help this poor creature. I actually had to bury it under parmesean, cheese to try to mask the taste.
It was served with stemed buttered broccoli, which was really good, and a side of angel hair pasta with sauce. Which also SUCKED. BAD.
My Wife got a plate full of mushroome they called chicken marsala, there were 3 small pieces of chicken hidden under the plate of mushrooms… the sauce wasnt bad, but because theydont coat the chicken in flour or anything (so it seemed) the sauce didnt stick to or coat the chicken.
the sauce was pretty good though. because I love mushrooms…
So lets recap. Bad appetizer, bad meal. might s well stay arond for bad dessert right… sorrycouldnt stomach it. hit the DQ, on the way home.
was pissed t myself for 3 hours after diner for spending 60 bucs (including tip) on a really really subpar meal
I was really hoping for this place to be a hit, but it was FAR from. You will do 10x better hitting Piatto Grile, or driving the extra 2 miles to Gil’s in roxborough
. pretty bad

I read on a poster somewhere «A tavela non s’invecchia», which loosely translates into «We do not age at the dinner table». That’s appropriate for Sorrento’s, as you never feel rushed when eating here.
Sorrento’s is a casual dining experience. I had dinner here with family awhile ago. With reasonable prices, huge portions of pasta (try the linguini) and friendly, personal service, why bother going to one of the «Italian» restaurant chains? (Of course, there are reasons why not, but those don’t apply here.) This spot gets crowded, so arrive early if possible. Thankfully, there’s ample parking. Worth a try!