Bliss

Recommends

Mitri 1.

Joined 1 year ago

WONDERFUL SURPRISE. My party was greeted by two very attractive yound ladies..That answered questions by one of the guests.They seem to knoow their stuff. This was the best experince I have ever had in Philadelphia it was great from start to finish

Doesn't Recommend

kewlottaviano

Joined 3 years ago

i wont be back. used to be good. i live a block away and the stupid hostess has to ask the manager if i can be seated or not. i guess hours do not matter. conversationa t the bar, conversation in the kitchen all that should be behind closed doors. i hope this place closes for the mgmt and poor staff are complete idiots.

Doesn't Recommend

mysandytoes

Joined 6 years ago

This used to be one of our favorites..... Bliss used to be one of our favorite restaurants, the food was good, the service was outstanding and the place was always packed. However, it seems that as time has gone on the standards have seroiusly slipped. Our most recent visit to Bliss will definitely be our last.

We dined at about 6pm on a Thursday evening, and when we arrived there was no one there to seat us, we waited for about ten mins before we just wandered into the dining room, where there was only one table seated. We then stood in the middle of the dining room for about five mins while the bartender and waitress finished their conversation. Eventually the waitress wandered over and tossed us some menus on a table. When she finally came back to take our order she couldn't answer any questions about the menu.

So on to the food...the dinner rolls served which at one time came hot and soft were cold and stale to the point where I couldn't bite through it. We got the crab gnocci appetizer which we used to love but as mentioned in a prevoius review seems to have been changed to bottled sauce. Also the crab is almost nonexistent, perhaps to save money...however there's plenty of shell to pull out of your mouth and place on the side of your plate. My fiance ordered the filet oscar done rare, and I had the chilean sea bass. His filet came out so over done I would have classified it as very well, verging on charred. When we told the waitress and showed her she look puzzled and asked what she should do about it, we had to suggest she take it back and they make another. Now we can hear the full blown argument in the kitchen about whether it's overdone or if we're "just a couple of a**holes". Nice. What came out was not a cut of filet but what looked like maybe strip steak, but at least it was cooked ok. I then turned over my sea bass to find a charred side, but didn't want to get called any more names so I just picked the ok parts off and ate that.

During all of this the one other table leaves and four of the bartenders friends come in and sit at the bar and they're getting louder and louder. Then the bartender shouts to them "Hey, you guys want to hear some Lionel Richie??" And suddenly the nice quiet music that was playing is stopped and Lionel comes BLARING through the speakers. I like Lionel and all but this was so loud we couldn't have a conversation over the speakers and the raucous singing of the bartender's friends.

In short, this place is a Kitchen Nightmares episode waiting to happed!

Recommends

Prizz

Joined 4 years ago

Consistently wonderful. My fiance and I have been to Bliss three times now and each time has been a pleasant and enjoyable experience. The food is always delicious, especially the pear salad with vanilla-ish dressing, mozzarella pizza, and desserts! They also have a good wine list and are rarely overly-crowded.

Doesn't Recommend

MannytheReviewer

Joined 5 years ago

Worst meal ever!!!. I have been living in Center City Philadelphia for over 10 years and this is easily the WORST dinner experience I have ever had.

We had reservations for 8pm on a Saturday. When we walked in the restaurant was less than half full - and stayed that way through the evening. An empty restaurant on a Saturday evening should have been a clear sign as to how terrible it was. We ordered drinks - they were OK. We ordered the gnocchi appetizer, which tasted like it had store bought bottled sauce on it. Then I had the lamb - I've never had anything that dry and tough. They gave me a steak knife after they saw me struggling to cut it with the knife in my place setting. It was still too tough to cut easily. My friend ordered mahi mahi. The waiter (not the one who took our order) set it down saying "Here's your swordfish". My friend said, "No, I ordered mahi mahi." The waiter said, "Oh yea, that's what I meant". So my friend started eating even though it didn't look or taste like mahi mahi. About 10 minutes later the waiter came by with another plate and said "Oh! Here's your dish" and picked up my friend's dish (MID-BITE!!) and replaced it with another one. No apologies for the mixup. Then the next day I got an email from Open Table claiming I never showed up for my reservation which means Bliss did not record it. That place is a MESS -- I would advise people to stay far far far away!!

Recommends

OneL

Joined 5 years ago

pre-theater dinner. a few friends and i ate at bliss before attending a theater production on broad street. i ordered a shaved fennel salad for my first course and a duck breast entree. both were excellent. the rest of my party seemed to enjoy their meals very much as well.we will definitely eat here again.

Doesn't Recommend

diningout92

Joined 5 years ago

Used to be a favorite, not anymore. We went to Bliss for dinner last night before seeing a play in one of the local theaters. We go out to eat in Philadelphia quite often and this restaurant used to be one of our favorites. After we were seated, it took our waiter about 15 minutes to bring our drinks over to the table after taking the order. While our drinks sat at the bar waiting to brought to the table, our waiter chatted with the other staff and starting lighting candles around the restaurant. When he finally appeared with the drinks, we mentioned that we were attending a play at 7:30 and needed to make sure we finished our meal in time to get to the play before it started (at the time it was 6:00 pm). After another delay, the waiter came over to take our order. He struggled to remember the specials. Our dinner was unremarkable. The food tasted average and was not what we were used to from Bliss. Our dessert (Creme Brulee) was buttery tasting and very thick. This could be because there was a very thin layer of the dessert in the dish to begin with and I think this caused the custard's consistency and taste to change. Despite informing the waiter of the time issue, we still had to track him down to get the bill. We ended up leaving the restaurant with minutes to spare. Bliss used to be a favorite Philadelphia restaurant but is seems as though the ownership may have changed recently. The wait staff seems new and the menu is not up to previous standards. We will not be returning.

Doesn't Recommend

ardmore

Joined 5 years ago

Lovely setting, over priced, lame service.. My wife and I had dinner here after the Flower Show in March. Food was good, very high quality, very small portions. We were seated right next to the door with a very significant draft at our backs, that's what you get for making a reservation on open table. The able was small and off balance. Waitress (Margo?) had almost no personality. After our tiny meal was served no one bothered to see how our meals were. When our table was cleared no one asked how the meal was, just an impersonal "can I get you anything else". As a former professional waiter I can overlook a lot of shortcomings at a restaurant, but not service. There are plenty other restaurants in the City that I would rather spend my money.

Recommends

msbnyc

Joined 7 years ago

Very pleasant, enjoyable experience. Visiting Philadelphia from NYC last weekend, I stopped in here on Friday night with a friend and we did not have reservations. We got a booth right off the bat, no problem. The waitstaff was friendly, pleasant and professional. The food was delicious--one of the best salmon dishes I'd had in a long time. My friend had the veal dish and enjoyed that very much. Appetizers of spring rolls and a three cheese pizza were also very good--especially the three cheese pizza. We shared a bottle of red and lingered with that well past when we were done with our meal and no one was rushing us out at all. The atmosphere is quite pleasant and although we sat downstairs, they do have an upstairs mezzanine which looks cozy. They do play music, but it was unobtrusive. Atmosphere very nice, food very nice and service very nice. I'd go back!

Doesn't Recommend

phillylondongirl

Joined 6 years ago

Worst customer service and overpriced restaurant in Philadelphia. This has to be the worst restaurant experience I have ever had in Philadelphia. During a recent brief trip home to Philadelphia from London fr the holidays, I visited Bliss with my older sister and 70 year old mother. We had specifically reserved a booth a week prior, as the seating is more comfortable for my mother who nows walks with a cane due to extensive surgery. We were assured this would be fine. However when we arrived we were told- that they were "sorry but we had to be put at regular table in the center of the restaurant because the owners precious children were coming and wanted the booth." What happened to "the customer comes first." There were no apologies offered. After finally taking our non requested reserve seats- we were handled very rudely by the waiter who when we told him that we had a show in an hour and half time- he said "well we do not rush our meals". From the taste of the food they probably do not care about the quality of the food they serve either. I ordered the egg rolls as a first course (12$) they were both cold and stale and when I pointed this out to the waiter he shrugged his shoulders. Both my dining partners were equally dissappointed with their fare. It appears to me that Mr Martorella has let his ego get the better of his product. To top it off his precious family did not end up showing up at the restaurant until over an hour into our dinner.

After spending the past 6 years in London- I have become quite familiar with horrible food and poor customer service and unfortunately Bliss gives them a run for their money in both these departments. .