Mr Martino's Trattoria

Can't believe this place has been around for 30 years and I only recently found out about it! The Martino ladies open their doors once or twice a month. Follow them on instagram to find out when and be sure to turn on your alerts because they get booked FAST. If you don't know where to look, Mr. Martino's can be easy to miss. It's very unassuming on the outside but once you walk in, it feels like stepping into somewhere in old Europe. One of my friends said it felt like Hogwarts! It's cozy and quaint and just so inviting. Mrs. Martino cooks everything herself and you can tell. The menu is simple, but it's all delicious. It's good, wholesome home-cooked Italian food- the type of food that feels like a hug from a grandma. We ordered the mushroom and polenta, broccoli rabe, and baked ricotta with sausage for apps. For entrees we got the cheese tortellini and sausage, spinach lasagna, and pasta with zucchini and basil. We couldn't agree on what was our favorite since it was all so delicious. For dessert we got the chocolate pudding, lemon tart, genoise cake, and tiramisu. The lemon tart was the stand out here- it was so fresh and full of flavor. The chocolate pudding for me was a close second. The only one we weren't huge fans of was the tiramisu- the ladyfingers felt a bit dry and it wasn't super flavorful. Because Mrs. Martino is single-handedly cooking for the entire restaurant, this is very much a slow dining experience. We were seated at 8pm and left around 11pm so the entire meal took about 3 hours. Some people may not be okay with this, but we had a really wonderful time. The slow pace gave us time to enjoy the food, the wine, the company- it was very reminiscent of a dining out experience in Europe. I'd love to come back here if I'm lucky enough to snag another reservation.

Mr. Martino's is a magical place and there are not many places like this in Philadelphia. While it is not permanently open, or permanently closed, Maria and the Martino Girls currently open one or two weekends a month on a pop up basis. To stay in the loop, you'll have to follow them on Instagram and keep an eye out on their page (or set up post notifications) to see which upcoming dates they'll be open. Once they announce the dates, they post a number you can call to make a reservation over the phone. Maria manages all of this herself, so be patient.Once you've gotten yourself a table, the rest is easy. Remember that it is a BYOB and cash only. It's not far from a wine and spirits, a bottle shop, and an acme that sells beer and wine. Plan to bring anywhere from $40-70 per person, depending on how hungry you are and how generous of a tipper you'd like to be.Some of my menu favorites include the special octopus, the veal tortelloni, the chicken entree, and every single appetizer. This is a place where you can taste the love in the food. Do not expect a quick in and out type of meal. Take your time, bring lots of wine, and enjoy the atmosphere and company of good friends. Oh, and don't forget to order a lemon tart for dessert!

First - HUGE thanks to Amazing Yelper and Former CM Gabriella W for her review, which intrigued me. I followed the Insta, turned on notifications, frantically dialed a few times and finally scored a reservation for yesterday, Sunday, at 4 PM. It just so happened to be two days after my dear Aunt's birthday, which seemed somehow to be perfect in an unplanned way. Also, my other Aunt, who joined us, dined here many years ago, attesting to this place's pedigree as old-school Italian. My dear cousin joined as well.4 PM by the way is both a) fantastic for a woman who insists she's 38 - I'm 56, so yeah, reverse that and age doesn't matter anyhow. I am mindful though that time is more precious than diamonds. B) It's their first seating, which meant no time for the kitchen to be backed up for the night. ADVICE: If you reserve at 4 PM DO NOT PANIC if at 3:50 PM the restaurant still has the security gates down. They roll them up promptly at 4. The atmosphere I swear could be a movie set. Beautiful tables, low lights, brown and beige, photographs, it could have been a dining scene from The Godfather. I felt transported to the past, completely separate from the present day in a wonderful way. Background music - Italian instrumental, traditional. The lighting IS low, and it takes a moment for your eyes to adjust. My one Aunt whipped out her cell phone flashlight to examine the menu a couple of times. Modern times. Menu was definitely old-school - I mean really old school - Italian. This place was serving broccoli rabe before it got a publicist and became hip. Starters were two arugula salads and a white bean soup. I had the soup, which was heavy on the fennel and featured both small beans and tiny pasta shells. It was nice, unexpected, clean taste. Dinner - I chose cheese tortelloni with tomato sauce and roasted italian sausage. The others had - spinach lasagna (my cousin), roasted balsamic chicken leg & thigh with veggies (one Aunt) and a special - spinach ravioli in a bell pepper sauce. All were lovely. The pastas all had thin, delicate shells, nothing chewy or sticky about them. The bell pepper sauce was really interesting, bright, sweet, not cloying, very fresh taste. Spinach lasagna - super delicate, nice balance in the spinach, not overly heavy taste, sauce complimented rather than coated. Balsamic chicken fall off the bone tender, savory. Cheese tortelloni - again complimentary sauce, not chewy at all, very delicate. Sausage had a savory taste with a good dose of fennel, not "sweet" or "hot" Italian, just the Italian sausage I had as a kid. We all 4 were members of the clean plate club. Dessert - one had the chocolate pudding, one had the tart, two of us had the genoese sponge with strawberry compote and cream - basically a fancy strawberry shortcake with a smooth cream vs. whipped fluffy cream. The genoese was the only slightly soft spot, the sponge was heavier than I expected, but still quite lovely. Chocolate pudding was rich and smooth. Tart was a little soft but not so much that it fell apart, clearly homemade. Plates here are modest, filling but not over-filling. This is the thing about good, particularly homemade pasta: A little goes a long way, it fills you up faster than you'd think. Service was nicely paced, unobtrusive. Expect even at the 4 PM sitting to be there for 1.5 - 2 hours. This is a leisurely meal, allowing your palate to clear and your senses to experience the food fully. Pacing was good - you do order your appetizer & entree at the same time, however they are served at perfect intervals. Servers were friendly, patient, professional and attentive without being obtrusive. Cash only, BYOB, you will drink your wine or whatever in small water glasses, which is exactly how my family had wine when I was little. Four of us spent $210 with tip. I thought wine glasses were ... strange ... if it wasn't a fancy party. Wine, beer, whatever was in the same what you'd now call "juice glass" as the water was. Last Pro tip: Free parking on East Passyunk Avenue on Sundays. If you're not an expert parallel parker take transit, an Uber, pray you're lucky at the city owned lot next to the restaurant or pay to park a few blocks away and walk. Parking in this part of South Philly is not for sissies. I loved it, and would go again in a heartbeat.

I am very sorry to say that I was looking forward to eat here for years. When I finally got a reservation I had high hopes. Now let me start by saying that I know this is family run and there's only one person on the kitchen. I'm super super understanding because I mainly dine at mom and pop restaurants and I knew it would be a wait. Salad took one hour. It was arugula and Parmesan. Come on! Every dish took an hour and they were dishes that you'd think are made ahead of time such as lasagna and pasta with pesto. Super simple! Pesto shouldve been prepared ahead of time and so is the lasagna. But ah, I wish it was worth the wait. Even if we didn't wait and it was STILL so bland and boring. Not an ounce of character in any dish. It felt like it was made for hospital patients. And trust me, I am not picky AT ALL. Actually, this may be a good meal for a very picky eater who hates flavor. The experience was so disappointing.

Came here as an unexpected backup to where my friend wanted to go originally. That place was closed for construction and we had to change plans. My friend mentioned Mr. Martino's and he actually was confused as he thought it really was a different longer-opened facility. However, we hit a home run with Mr. Martino's Trattoria. The sign says 25th anniversary, but the waitress actually said it's been 27 and just about 28 years...they just never changed the banner!Owned by a husband and wife (who does all the scratch cooking on a 6-burner stove), MM is a darkened lovely BYOB with eclectic decor and somewhat uncomfortable chairs. It's only the wife cooking so she keeps busy making sure the meals are paced beautifully for all the patrons in the dining area which seats about 35 or so? We were not aware of the BYOB but there is a bottle shop a couple of doors down so thankfully we were able to be seated on a Friday night without a reservation and left and came back with a nice bottle of chilled white.I had the portobello mushroom special with polenta, and my friend had an arugula salad. Wonderful start and just enough dipping with the bread provided with olive oil mixed with sun dried tomatoes. Polenta was made cake-like in density and tasted so good. Entree for me was tortellini with sausage and friend had polenta with sausage. The gravy was seeped in meat for flavor and was so good. Sausage comes from a local shop nearby, and also was just awesome. Pasta was not heavy with the gravy and the serving sizes were just enough to be full...but still room for desert!Friend was pleased with his homemade tiramisu and I had an outstanding lemon tart. We both had some espresso and macchiato. What a great meal!Service was very friendly and helpful with everything. I'm glad we came in a little after 5:30 when it was very quiet and empty because it filled up quickly and grew in volume. The husband/owner was more than happy to make the rounds with customers.I'd absolutely come back. Parking is a bitch in South Philly. We were lucky and got in the PPA lot somewhat nearby for $3 for 3 hours. We used 2.$90 including tax and tip for two. CASH ONLY! $20 for wine at the bottle shop a couple of doors down.

The husband/wife operation behind Mr. Martino's, with the friendly Mr. Martino running the front of house while Mrs. Martino singlehandedly cooks everything in the kitchen, is inspiring and makes me want to give this charming spot 5 stars. Their wonderful service, provided by a small, but knowledgeable and friendly staff has me thinking this should be 5 stars, as well. That said, with so many 5-star reviews, I think it's okay for me to leave my emotions aside and really focus on the food, which really just didn't hit the highs of the expectations I had going in.I had the baked ricotta with asparagus & vinaigrette, which was okay. 2 thin slices of baked ricotta and some pretty ordinary asparagus. Despite being bathed in a tasty house vinaigrette, it wasn't really a memorable start, unfortunately. The highlight of my meal was definitely the octopus special, served over beans. This was flavorful, and the octopus was perfectly-cooked and tender. The dish had a very smoked paprika flavor profile, which was reminiscent of Galician-style octopus. Swap the beans with potatoes and you'd basically be there. Wonderful.Things were really looking up when the veal tortelloni arrived, which kind of left me confused, and brought be back down. The dish delivered HIGH highs, but mixed with a lot of average valleys in between. I enjoyed the old fashioned chicken & dumpling-like thickness of the fresh pasta, and the veal was really REALLY delicious, but the pasta-to-veal ratio heavily favored the pasta. With excellent pasta, it might not have been so disappointing if the veal hadn't been so standout. Once I had a bite with the veal in it, suddenly I started desperately wanting more, but alas, the next 2 or 3 bites would be lacking those flavors. With only a few tortellonis to eat, this search & rescue mission was over far too quickly. Sure, the texture of the pasta was awesome, but a thick pasta like theirs almost BEGS for a heavy hand of filling. If the pasta wasn't, I certainly was! This dish would've been worth rushing back for. With house-made pastas like this, it very well could've been an unfortunate situation of my 4-5 tortellonis being duds, but they were mostly duds, nonetheless. The sauce was pretty faint on the gorgonzola flavors, which is ideal for those who maybe avoid those flavors, but I think just a bit more of that gorgonzola bite could've made the veal-less bites more pleasing. As it were, bites without veal became mostly country dumpling in simple tomato sauce.Desserts also were a mixed bag. The lemon tart was excellent! The flaky dough will fly across the table if you try to cut through it with a fork, but if you just pick it up and attack it like a piece of pizza, it works a bit better. Sure, you'll look a bit ridiculous and come off as selfish in a group ("you're not going to share that?!?), but it's advisable...and delicious! The tiramisu wasn't as successful. Also made in-house (like everything else) the lady fingers they made had a bit too much chew to them. Personally, I like my tiramisu to have a nice structure and the right balance of moisture soaked into the lady fingers, which this particular dish provides. The issue was the lady fingers, though. When you attack tiramisu, you expect the fork to move with an almost soothingly-effortless motion as you cut through, with the texture in your mouth being just a smooth. The lady fingers just had a noticably-tough outside, which fought back a bit, both in cutting and chewing. I generally don't want to have to really chew my tiramisu, but this one certainly required it. Flavors were exactly what I look for, though. Like my veal tortelloni, it's close, but just not...quite...there. Painfully close, really.Overall, the atmosphere was unique, and the staff and owners were wonderful. The menu isn't adventurous, but there's a homestyle charm that makes the more traditional offerings fit perfectly. The pacing of the dishes was perfect, too, despite one person being on the hook for serving a very busy dining room. Seriously impressive. I simply left underwhelmed by all but one of the dishes I tried. That said, I would definitely return. The highs show the potential, and I can see why some people would walk away very happy, but the inconsistencies of the food simply got in the way of an otherwise wonderful experience. In a city with and endless array of restaurants, it'll take some time to return, but we will be back. I'm optimistic that next time we'll likely have the 5-star experiences others have enjoyed!

Wow. My husband surprised me with a lovely romantic dinner here on Valentine's Day. From beginning to end we loved our experience. Our server, Terry, is just the sweetest girl, and Mark, the owner (who was also serving and busing) is a truly kind man who engaged us in conversation and came and brought out more bread for us after we had finished our meal because he joked that he didn't want to send back our plates (to his wife, the sole chef) with any leftover sauce.The food was delightful. Between two people, we split the veal tortelloni; spinach ravioli with the special red bell peppers sauce; and the spaghetti calamari, plum tomatoes, and baby arugula. Flavor was great, and the pasta in each had a great al dente texture. A few things I didn't love, but are not stopping me from giving 5 stars: - I wish our bread came out warm - It was a little too dim for my liking - It was extremely packed and getting in and out of my seat (in the corner of the restaurant) was difficultHowever, I think this little place is quite the charming restaurant for an evening out, and I'm so grateful we had the chance to dine on Valentine's Day--especially given it is open only Fri-Sun!

Cozy Italian spot! Dimmed lighting and tight seating make it for an intimate dinner/date night. There are lots of wood finishing and antiques, which give it an old century vibe. Don't be in a rush - food took some time to get but it was worth it (would just suggest bringing 2 bottles of wine). Menu featured more traditional Italian dishes - somewhat limiting with mainly pasta options, but it was all delicious! Service was great, very informative and willing to make accommodations/recommendations. Definitely get the strawberry cake dessert!

Awesome find! No frills, no fancy gimmicks, just good food and great atmosphere. The restaurant is small and feels like you entered a small town in Italy. We ordered the mushroom appetizer, octopus, sausage, and veal ravioli- everything was fantastic, fresh and tasted like your grandmother is making you a home cooked meal. It's BYO and you will wait a bit for your meal, but it's totally worth it. We will definitely be going back and would definitely recommend!

Great little place only open once a month or so. Everyone who works there is so friendly. The food is good comfort Italian. It's also byob