Cicala at the Divine Lorraine

What an amazing experience! The vibe of this restaurant is sexy and romantic. My husband and I sat in a banquette and it was so cozy. We were heading to a show at the Met and we arrived late due to traffic on broad street. The staff was so accommodating and made sure we enjoyed ourselves but got to the show with plenty of time. We had a wonderful time, the sommelier was helpful in picking out a great wine, our waitress was a doll. Food was amazing, started with burrata and grilled octopus, 2 pastas which were both delish and shared an entree, the short rib special. Photos below. This is a great date night place!

Lots of potential but disappointing execution. The dining room is beautiful and ambiance is on point. Unfortunately everything moved a little slower than it should, especially considering we were 1 of 4 tables we saw the whole night. Apps were delicious but they made us wait for the bread after asking and the pasta was all undercooked. We ordered a second bottle of wine and proceeded to wait for our entrees which never came. We planned to order dessert for my sisters bday but it was too late for a weeknight and had to get out of there. I love this building and the spot but the entire experience is lacking for the price.

Came here for dinner a few nights back and had an OK time. We didn't have a reservation so we sat at the full service bar. Our seats were positioned a little awkwardly - we were looking out over the dining room and I'm pretty sure the table below us could hear our entire conversation :) Didn't exactly set the perfect mood for our date night, but not a huge deal.They brought us complimentary bread and butter to start the meal, and it was pretty tasty! For our entree, we ended up splitting the Bistecca alla Fiorentina, a huge porterhouse steak, cooked medium rare. I was honestly impressed with how quickly they brought out the food. The steak was good but for the price tag (the online menu says $95 but I'm pretty sure we paid $125, so not sure what's up with that...) I was a tiny bit underwhelmed. Not bad at all but I did feel like I would have been just as happy with a $30-40 steak. The accompanying grilled radicchio were a bit too charred for my liking. Because we were facing away from the actual bar but still sitting in the bar area, I had to get up and flag someone down to get our check, but not a big deal since they were so busy (and it's the bar, after all).Overall, I don't think I would come back here - it was a little too expensive and the food was good but not great.

Good food, good service, nice restaurant inside. Fancy, nice plate for a date night, full bar, service was spot on.

Cicala is a beautiful restaurant in a beautiful building. It's best to enter from the building lobby so you can see some of the building, instead of going directly into the restaurant. The ambiance is clearly 5 stars. The service is 5 stars as well, as my waitress was knowledgeable not only about the menu but also the history of the building. The food is where Cicala falls a bit short, especially when you consider the high price. The meal starts with a bread basket, which I liked. My friend an I shared multiple dishes. We had a crab pasta dish special, which was spicy and just OK. This is an amazing dish at other restaurants. On the other hand, the pappardelle pasta dish with a wild boar ragu was an outstanding dish. There was a clear winner in that pasta dish showdown. We had the rack of lamb entree, which was 2 large succulent pieces of perfectly cooked lamb. The lamb was the highlight of the meal. I wanted to lick the bones. For dessert we had the Babamisu, a rum soaked brioche. I don't even remember how it was at this point, meaning I should have saved myself the calories and the $16. The cocktails were good. The food was a mixed bag. If you order the right combination of dishes you might give Cicala 5 stars. But at the price point of these dishes, I expected them all to be top of the line.

We've been meaning to try this restaurant out for a while. Decided to finally give it a whirl before heading to a show at The MET. We started with cocktails- their version of a Manhattan was quite nice. The selection of fresh bread was great. There was a type of black bread that we've never seen before that was really good with olive oil. We started with the Burrata salad which was nice and refreshing. The calamari was lacking in flavor, but the presentation was lovely. The fish of the day was good- although it lacked a little flavor too - the dorado was served with blistered cherry tomatoes and olives. The service and ambience were fine- although there was some type of commotion with a disgruntled guy that warranted a call to the police. I applaud the way that staff handled it. I wouldn't mind returning and trying some other menu options.

What a great experience! This is such a sheek place to eat, tucked away in the north side of Philly. It's worth the destination - no matter where you are coming from in the city. It's literally like stepping back in time. They did such a great job of keeping the integrity and history of the building. I loved the decor and the whole vibe. The food was great, to boot! I have to mention, they not only accommodated our part of TWELVE PEOPLE, but the timing and execution of everything was spot on and consistent throughout the entire night. Huge shout out to the entire staff...from walking in and having our coats checked, to our waitress managing the table herself, to the sommelier...it all felt so personal and special.I ordered the steak & mushrooms - would highly recommend!I will say, it can get pricey fast. It's worth it, but just be prepared from a budget perspective.

This restaurant has been on my list for a while and I was really excited to finally be going! Unfortunately, the experience was a bit of a let down. Upon arriving at the host stand at 7:58, we were asked if we had ever been dined at the restaurant and we responded no. Second question was if we were going to a show that night at the Met in which we responded, yes. We were greeted by the busser at the table first after about 10 minutes. Initially, believing it was our server, we had asked for wine as well. When she returned, she said your server will be right with you. We waited another 30 minutes before asking the host if our server would be coming over soon. It took another 15 minutes for the server come over and asked if we had any questions about the menu. At this point, we did not, we had a lot of time to study it. We ordered three items from the specials menu; Prosuitto and baby buffalo mozzarella balls, Short Rib ravioli, and the gran piatti napoletano which was sausage, meatballs, and stuffed filet. We also ordered the Shrimp cavatelli. We were given bread a few minutes later and the prosciutto and mozzarella came out 5 minutes later. We weren't given any utensils so we had to wait a few minutes for that as well. Ravioli came out and was not super hot but the flavor was very good and light, 7 small raviolis. We finish and are excited for our next plate and wanted to order another drink. It's 9:30 and we haven't seen our server since our order was taken. Other tables were walking up to the bar directly to order drinks and there were still tables that had been waiting to order who came in shortly after us. At this point, we are getting concerned as we were still waiting on two more dishes and the Shrimp Cavatelli should haven come out with the short rib ravioli. Around 9:45 the meat platter comes out and appeared to be steaming but when bit in to the meat was lukewarm. I understand being short staffed but no one had a sense of urgency or even present in the event of being short staffed. I worked in the restaurant industry for over 10 years and if we were short staffed, you better believe everyone was running around and checking in. We cancelled the cavatelli and left at 9:53, to be at the show for 10PM. It seems they likely lost a lot of business last night as multiple people left before even placing orders or receiving their food. It's a shame, the food is clearly quality.

We have been meaning to check out Cicala since their doors opened and finally did last Friday. I took a quick look at their menu beforehand, and it seemed very promising.We did not make reservations since it was a last-minute decision on our part to dine out. So, I called the restaurant to ask if there were any available tables, and if they are dog friendly cuz I noticed a gated patio in their photos. The staff member told us there were plenty of available tables, and that only well-behaved dogs were welcomed. No problem there, since our dog is very well-behaved. We arrived at Cicala shortly after. As we walked through the restaurant to get to our table out on the patio, we saw much of the historical elements were preserved even though the interior was refurbished. If not for our dog, we would have loved to sit inside.We were one of two tables that opted to sit out on the patio. I liked that this patio was gated and appreciate that the Divine Lorraine/Cicala even bothered to have a gated patio for outside seating. This is one of the nicest and rarest enclosed outdoor seating in Philly, except for the fact that you've got swarms of obnoxiously loud dirt bikes and ATVs going up and down Broad Street making it pretty much impossible to enjoy your meal. Most of the time, I was covering our dog's ears from the loud noise and barely able to enjoy everything that Cicala had to offer. Maybe next time we can sit inside. We started our dinner with a couple of drinks. The 808 Upsure St cocktail I had was fantastic, very smooth and well-crafted. My husband enjoyed his glass of Casali di Bibbiano. The cocktails offerings and wine selection at Cicala are truly impressive. While waiting for our food to arrive, we devoured the bread basket, which was delicious. I have to say, the antipasti were quite disappointing. We had the beef tartar and the yellowfin tuna crudo, both of which were not executed well despite the freshness of the ingredients, and only tasted okay.For our pasta course, I had the handkerchief style pasta with braised lamb shoulder ragu, which was beautifully made, while my husband had the hand pulled single strand pasta with lightly spiced Calabrese pork ragu. Both were flavorful and delicious. Cicala's house-made pasta gets an 'A'. For dessert, we shared the Babamisu. Also very good. Service was overall great. Even though we were seated outside, the staff checked on us several times during our meal and made sure we were not neglected. I do feel bad about Cicala's location. If not for the sound pollution, I could imagine the outdoor dining experience to be much better. Next time though, we'll definitely be sure to sit inside.

Came for a birthday dinner, never returning. Sat at the bar and had a lovely time (two men bartending were so friendly and gave us great service) but once we were sat for the actual dinner we had terrible service. Our waitress barely came, she didn't even come when our food arrived. We all had to shuffle our plates around because they placed them all wrong. Don't think I saw her smile once, she just did not want to be there and made it pretty obvious. Waters weren't being refilled when needed, honestly we just weren't being wait on considering they had plenty staff and not a full house. Not sure if it had to do with the fact that we were a young group but we were a quiet bunch. Asked to speak to a manager and he definitely did not care. Pretty place, has an all gender bathroom (very interesting). Upset that for a "nice" restaurant this was the service.