Philly G’s

My husband and I went to Philly G’s for my birthday dinner. It was wonderful from the service to the delicious food!!! I love the romantic feel of this restaurant and could not wait to leave positive feedback for them. Do not hesitate to dine here. It is the best dining experience you will ever have!

I went here on a date night with my husband. It was early on a weeknight, so we pretty much had the room we were in to ourselves. The waiter was friendly and took great care of us. The entrées we had were amazing. Maybe I picked the wrong dessert from the available selections that night, but it was just ok. After the entrées, I was expecting something to make my eyes roll back into my head to be accompanied by sound effects from «When Harry Met Sally;» however, I just quietly enjoyed it. If we are looking for a nice place to go, either by ourselves or with friends, we would definitely not hesitate to go back.

We were looking for a new place to try for date night recently. We have a go to italian place but decided to give Philly G’s a try. We made a reservation and discovered afterward that a Groupon was being offered so we were excited. Upon our arrival we were greeted by the hostess who just said she would check us in – we’d never been there before and she didn’t direct us on where to go so we wandered into the bar area. It was fairly busy but not completely crazy. No staff in the bar acknowledged us or offered us anything to drink. We only waited a few minutes and were taken to our table which felt like an afterthought as it was crammed in a busy doorway near other large tables. We waited several minutes for our waitress who took our drink order. Again it was fairly busy so we were fine waiting. Our service was incredibly slow throughout the evening. We ordered the Shrimp DeJohnge as an appetizer. The shrimp was very chewy and not particularly appetizing. The sauce was cold and gelatinous. Salads were fine, nothing extraordinary. For dinner, my fiancée ordered a ravioli special – it was served on a bed of raw pancetta. Raw pancetta. Not at all appetizing. My fiancée, who is a meat man, was thoroughly put off by it. I ordered the asiago tortellini. My dish was cold and had clearly been sitting for some time before it was delivered to me. I asked to have it heated and it was but so much so that the pancetta bits were like little rocks. For dessert we ordered the lemon berry cake and it was decent. I had ordered decaf coffee and when the server finally offered us more coffee (it took 15 minutes), she poured us both regular. One of the more frustrating things about our experience is a table that came in 20 minutes after us and received all of their courses before we did. Not only was our table an afterthought, we also felt like an afterthought.
One final thing – they use carts to transport food through the dining room. It’s distracting and loud. If it weren’t for the Groupon, I would have felt thoroughly ripped off by our experience. We won’t be going back. If you are looking for a good, local italian place, I recommend Enzo and Lucia in Long Grove. Sorry we strayed.

Definitely don’t come here hungry!
Came in on a Tuesday night well past dinner time and the place wasn’t even that busy. Waited over an hour for 2 entrees after being given mediocre salad and some prosciutto wrapped asparagus that I remember being better than it was. Took over an hour for food that we ended up just getting boxed up. Another 10 – 15 minute to get the check and my credit card ran. Overall, I wish I could get my $ 64 back.

Good place. Old school style for sure. We had a retirement party there. Good service. Good drinks and appetizers.

Not sure why all the bad reviews, but we’ve been several times, and never a bad meal. Tonight, the wife had a beef ravioli, I had the Cornish hen, and both dishes were exceptional. The staff was very attentive, and great ambience. We’ll be back…

I came for lunch with coworkers to celebrate another coworker’s impending marriage. He selected the place. While the prices are reasonable, the food is boring, and the service is atrocious. Our server was incompetent and failed to acknowledge our request for something special for our coworker. She served the wrong entrees to each one of us and we had to trade our plates. My water was never refilled, and we had to wait a long time for our check while sitting with our dirty plates. This must be a great place for senior citizens on a budget. If you are not that, stay away!

Honestly, not impressed at all. Our waitress was nice and positive but she was running around like a chicken with its head cut off. I am sure this has to do with poor management. Food took forever but it was good for the most part but too expensive for what you get.

There was no one in the restaurant and they put us by the kitchen entrance. We were the only people born after World War II in the place. The food was below average and not worth the price. We will avoid and never go back.

Philly G’s you know just how to make a customer feel unwanted. From letting a smoker stand outside your entrance even though code calls for 15′ to having a confused hostess.
Come in for dinner on a Sunday night with my love bride and young son. Hostess seems a bit frazzled and asks if we have a reservation. Nope sorry but we are ok with sitting in the bar. Ok let me grab you some menus.
Another person (manager?) comes over and overrides that call. Nope you can’t even SIT IN THE BAR and eat?! What?! How? Well ok thanks for a big pile of «please leave our restaurant». Thanks for being so close Roti and providing fast delicious food.
Disappointed Philly G’s. Very very disappointed.

What a shame! Philly G’s is really a beautifully place with a very friendly staff but sadly the food wasn’t very good, especially for the prices they charge. The grilled Calamari appetizer we started with didn’t look very appetizing and it consisted of tiny pieces of squid that looked and tasted like it was previously frozen. It was very greasy and salty and certainly not reflective of the $ 13 charge. Our salad accompaniment was warm, welted and looked and tasted like ordinary supermarket bag salad. The single tiny tomato wedge had better days.
My wife commented that the meat in her Veal Francese was rubbery, over breaded and was over sauced with a thick almost pudding like gravy that completely overpowered everything on the plate. The Chicken Cacciatore that I had was pretty good but had hardly any mushrooms or onions. The marinara sauce on my pasta side wasn’t very flavorful.
This was our first visit to Philly G’s and I doubt we’ll be back.

Staff was rude, we wouldn’t recommend. We don’t get out very often, so when we do we would like good food and service. To be treated with an attitude when I am paying for your service is just unacceptable. We won’t be back

Went there for a private party.
The FOOD:
The calamari, stuffed clams and stuffed mushrooms appetizers were all very good. The vinaigrette dressing for the salads was delicious. For the entrée I had Shrimp Scampi, The shrimp were large sized and cooked correctly. I would liked to have had more shrimp since the plate had 3 shrimp; it was served on a bowl of pasta with the sauce.
Chicken Vesuvio was also served and it was excellent. I had sampled some. Nice portion of chicken with a savory sauce.
There was a New York Strip steak served as well. The steaks were served medium rare to medium. The steaks needed to be seasoned and were not hot when served at the table. One steak at our table was a bit more rare.
Desserts were mediocre. There were mini cannoli (too sweet) and tiramisu which was decent. Not overly excited about the desserts
The SERVICE:
Service I am mixed on. There were 3 servers taking care of 80 people. The servers themselves were friendly and took care of us. But sometimes there was a delay in getting something refilled. I will attribute that to 3 servers for the number of guests.
MY TAKE:
Overall it was a pleasant experience. I would eat there again when up that way visiting family. I would not make a special trip to go there since I am an hour + away. I have seen deals in emails for discounts there. That is a nice incentive to eat there.

Decided to give this place another shot since it was a good in between meeting spot for my grandma’s birthday lunch. I stand by my previous review in that the food was just ok; again the salad was blah, bread was nothing to get excited about, and the food was under seasoned. Our server today (Angie??? I wish I paid better attention) was great, friendly and professional, she made me give them an extra star this time! Also, I enjoyed sitting on the enclosed porch as opposed to the dinning room area. I thought the prices at lunch were much more reasonable except for the $ 10.50 for carrot cake!!! (which of course you don’t know the price of until you get the bill) sorry, that’s ridiculous!

I have never experienced such terrible service as I have at Philly G’s. I guess we should have checked the Unilocal reviews before stepping into this horrendous establishment. The service was shitty from the get go. The hostess seated us at the most inconvenient table near a passageway and the bathroom. We constantly had a noisy dining experience with people coming in and out using the bathroom, delivering food, etc. Kind of baffling to think that we were seated there when we saw empty tables all around us in more quieter rooms. Our waitress showed up to get our drink order, which was only one soft drink and a lemon mind you, and it literally took him 15 minutes to get. By the look of it, he didn’t even need to pour the drink the bartender just handed him a bottle. Even after getting our drink, I had to constantly ask the waiter to get me a lemon.
Anyway, we still had our hopes up for the food tasting okay. But after waiting over an hour for three measly entrees with our waiter going mysteriously mia, we still didn’t see any sign of our meal. By this point we were getting pretty angry and about to walk out. When our food finally showed up the waiter serves the table that came a good 20 minutes after us before giving out our food. I mean come on.
Anyway we got our food and it was clearly evident that our food was sitting under a heat lamp for a while. The Italian beef sandwich was lackluster and had dried up slices of beef. The pasta primavera was actually not seasoned at all and the pasta was dried up and sticking together. I was actually baffled that the kitchen could not even remember to season their food! Never in my life have I had a dish served to me that didn’t have a hint of salt! We sent the pasta primavera back and it was returned mysteriously a hell of a lot smaller of a portion than when it had came out. The last dish we had was the clam pasta and the clams were even raw and clearly not fresh. We ended up not needing to finish the food to know we were done here.
The waiter did not even bother to clean up our salad dishes while being so tentative and quick with the other tables. Maybe it was because we were the only Asian people there.
The service here was terrible from the get go, the hostess didn’t even greet us when we walked in. No one greeted us while we walked out. The wait staff are completely negligent to their tables and can be seen goofing around and talking to each other by the bar. Clearly everyone needs some semblance of training here.
This place is a joke. Will never come again. And for the public’s sake I hope this place closes down soon.

I have to tell you if you’re looking for
restaurant with good food and service
take a pass on this place. Decided to
have dinner with my daughters and their
families to celebrate a birthday.
Reservation was early at 5:15 for party
of 9. Orders were placed at 5:45
Food came at 7:10. All was luke
warm at best. Asked the waitress why it took so long we were met up with somewhat of an attitude and an eye roll. Thought she was having a seizure. Minestrone was cold tasted like ketchup and water. Grandsons burger came raw on the inside. Son in laws pork chop came the same way raw inside. Back to
the kitchen for another half hour.
All was a joke. To add insult to injury
we called the owner the next day who
said he would look into everything and
get back to us by the next day. Never heard back.
Bottom line
COLD FOOD
RAW FOOD
POOR SERVICE
AND A OWNER WHO DOESNT CARE
«TAKE A PASS»

This place could have been a 5 star review, unfortunately the service was definitely not the best. Our visit last night was almost perfect. The setting is beautiful, different and the food was delicious. Definitely worth coming back for. What is NOT worth coming back for is the bad attitude female server we had. She did not explain any specials, she kinda just «handed» (more like tossed since it didn’t even land in his hands) the specials menu to my boyfriend. We heard her explained pretty detailed the menu to the couple next to us. Our salad took forever to come after our appetizer. She checked on us once. Finally she was so annoyed when we said we had a Groupon. I was coming back from the bathroom and I moved aside for her to go and she rolled her eyes and in an exasperated voice was like «go.» Ugh she made the evening so blah.

This is one of those establishments I have dined at many times over the year each time with a gap of time between visits making me unsure what it was that didn’t bring me right back. So this time I am writing a review to remind myself.
First off the good. I really enjoy the building. What was once a house way back when was converted to what was once called Gillardis now Philly Gs. I find the space very charming with the wrap around porch, great little bar space and multiple little nooks or rooms in which to dine in. The people watching here is also a perk to me. They obviously have their regulars who come back over and over and make me smile.
Now onto the parts which I forget which is why I don’t end up coming back more often. The service in my experience is not good. The wait staff is untrained for the kind of fine dining restaurant they try to be. Uninformed on food/​wine/​etiquette etc. and in the case of last night fairly rude and apparently did not want to be there. The food is WAY over sauced so make sure to ask for light sauce unless u like your food swimming. The wine list could use an upgrade. Nothing interesting or inventive here.
So all in all I think there are better options for food and service although with this said I am sure I will be back in another year or two to try it again. Never horrible… never great… Philly Gs.

Philly G’s already gets a +1 for having a restaurant built inside a giant mansion-​like building… which could theoretically be very creepy walking through if it wasn’t filled with so many people and music. It’s so interesting seeing each of the rooms as you’re led to the table and I think the food here is pretty solid too.
To start off, we got the Portobello Rockefeller which I thought tasted excellent. I just didn’t expect to be paying close to $ 10 for one big mushroom — even though it was stuffed with spinach and cream sauce. Maybe two big mushrooms would be more adequate?
We also got the Strawberry Feta salad which was very light and refreshing for a summer day. Loved the candied walnut toppings too.
Our two main courses were the Eggplant Parmigiana and the Chicken Saltimbocca. The Eggplant Parm was overall very standard. It tasted like something you can order at most other Italian restaurants. The Chicken Saltimbocca was my favorite dish of the night. I loved the proscuitto, sage, and provolone on top of the chicken and the wine sauce glaze was made just right. Overall, lots of flavor to go along with the chicken (could’ve been a bit more moist by itself though).
Each dinner entrée comes with a soup or salad plus a complimentary side so it turns out to be very filling and worth the price. We chose soups and the potato pancake as our sides. Both were delicious and worthy of being chosen again!

On this busy corner of Milwaukee and Half Day road, the multigenerational family institution of Philly G’s sits. The original building seems is a house-​come-​restaurant, which over the years has been augmented and renovated to add multiple smaller dining rooms for a more congenial, intimate experience. The layout is a bit odd insofar as the main entrance isn’t immediately apparent from the parking lot, and once you get in, you have to walk through some dining areas to reach the host desk which sits nearer the center of the buildings.
The place smells of herbs and garlic, just like an authentic Italian place in Little Italy. The interior itself feels upscale and romantic with white table cloths and candles on all of the tables.
This evening I went to enjoy some absolutely fantastic live blues in the bar starting at around 9PM. The bar menu was awesome and had an added bonus of half price for almost all of them from 9PM to close. Beer choices were standard, with the most exciting offering being Stella on draft. The views from the bar and the dining rooms are very nice at night with large window surrounds. This place is a winner.