Perla - Philadelphia

Food was great, but not a fan of okra. I really like this place though. Feels very family oriented with the food being shared family style and eating with your hands. Enjoyed it.Food: 4/5

We had the kamayan dinner, which was just fabulous. I cannot understand other reviews saying that the food was bland, but everyone has different tastes…I thought it was delicious, way more than enough for two people, and we thoroughly enjoyed it. The service was attentive but not intrusive, and I would recommend this restaurant to any of my friends, as long as they don’t mind eating with their hands. As far as cost, I feel you are absolutely getting what you pay for, and I’ve paid a lot more at many Philly restaurants for food that is not nearly as good.

The food is tasty, but it is really expensive for what you get. There is a LOT of rice, we all left with another full dinner in a box. I would have rather had less quantity of food and more variety, or maybe some more “premium” ingredients, because it felt like a bit of a scam. But again, the food is tasty and the experience of all eating together with your hands from the mountain of food is really great.

When I walked in Perla, I immediately noticed the warm, welcoming atmosphere. The restaurant was small and pretty. It was a cool one time experience of the traditional Philippino boodle fight with my friends, but I would never recommend this place to anyone I know. First of all, we had a reservation for our big group, but unfortunately some folks couldn’t make it. So the restaurant just decided to charge us extra, which wasn’t informed beforehand. Supposedly the restaurant was nice enough to knock down the up charge for 2 people, but each of us still ended up paying $92 each for some greasy, bland food. We even had to share the little cups of soy sauces and fish sauces with each other. However, the best items I’d say were the delicious milk buns and veggies. Everything else was so-so with basic ingredients (like ACME chicken and pompano fish). Auto tip charge was around 20%, which made it over $100 for mediocre service. The server wasn’t very attentive when he didn’t pour any water for some of us, despite the fact that they were sitting and eating for awhile. The place wasn’t that busy with only 2 groups dining in. Thanks for the first and last visit, Perla.

Ate here tonight with my in laws for a late Mother’s Day celebration and everything was fabulous. I loved that it was a fixed menu so you just sit down and all of the delicious food is brought to the table even dessert! The pork was my personal favorite and the garlic rice was so flavorful. We enjoyed every bite and our waitress was kind and attentive. We live just a few blocks away and have eaten at almost every restaurant on passyunk ave and this is easily in the top 5. Will be returning soon! Thank you for everything