Rigatoni’s Pasta & Grill

We had planned to go into the city for dinner, but the place we wanted to eat at really seemed like a rip-​off, so we left.
And then we went to Rigatoni’s. Best decision we’ve made in a long time.
We got there close to 9:00 p.m. We knew it was a BYOB, but we didn’t bring a B, so we settled for Diet Coke. The waitress was incredibly nice and it was sincere.
With it being late, we just ordered two tomato pies. Note: tomato pies are not pizza. We thought they’d just bring that out to us and that would be that.
No, we got breadsticks. And we got an endless bowl of salad. Now, while that sounds like something you can get at a certain chain restaurant, this was different. The breadsticks and salad were fresh and homemade. We were very surprised to get this since we just ordered tomato pies!
And the tomato pies were excellent. Fresh baked out of the oven and not reheated. Just the right amount for a late night.
They were closing up, but were in no rush to get us out the door. Free refills on soda. The waitress invited us to come back and try their great crabcakes. I am from Maryland and a crabcake snob. But I just might take her up on that offer next time I am in the area!

I love italian food but I am very critical about sauces. the sauce here reminds me of my grandmothers and I love it! This place is a hidden gem in Prospect Park. We got the crab pretzel appetizer and it was HUGE. 2 philly soft pretzels with crab dip on top. Making my mouth water right now. They also have breadsticks and salad they bring to the table that are delish. My boyfriend got the chicken park and it was high quality and the portion was giant. He took half of it home.

It’s Mother’s Day and oh how it pains me to write this review, because I really loved this place. My son said he was taking me out for dinner at the restaurant of my choice, which he assumed would be Anastasi’s because that used to be my favorite. I informed him that my new favorite is Rigatoni’s, so we reserved a table for 3 (my hubby came too). We arrived at 5:50 for our 6 o’clock reservation. There was pure chaos as soon as we walked through the door. A hostess who had no clue what was happening because, as she said, «I just starting working here». We were finally seated at 6:30, but as it turned out, getting seated was the easy part. Long story short, we eventually were brought out undercooked, doughy, drenched in oil bread sticks. About 15 minutes later someone took our drink orders, which arrived promptly. Someone else came to take our orders and hubby ordered single crabcake dinner, I ordered ciopinno, and our son ordered chicken parmesan. Mind you, all of this came from there special Mother’s day menu, which was quite limited. Oops! They had no chicken parmesan so he ordered chicken marsala instead. We asked for salad and baked breadsticks. Also ordered calamari for an appetizer.
My husband I frequent this restaurant, and have never experienced what we saw here tonight. It was as though it was opening night and am unexpected crowd showed up!
When our appetizer arrived, the dipping sauce has a string of cooked spaghetti in it! We were quickly given a replacement.
This place has excellent crabcakes and my husband usually cleans his plate. He picked over this food and did not finish the cold veggies and mashed potatoes. I even saw some lumps of crab meat uneaten on his plate. My son said his was ok. Oddly enough before our orders arrived, another waitress came out with what appeared to be the same paper menu I ordered from and asked me exactly what I ordered, to show it to her on the menu. I realized what she was showing me was different from the menu I had ordered from. What do you know… there were 2 sets of special menus printed up. No worries though, my meal arrived and it was tasty, although lukewarm.
By this time we all were just ready to leave, and I wanted to salvage what was left of my special day.
What was so disheartening about all of this was the woman who I have assumed to be the manager or owner went to each table asking how everything was, and when she got to us all she said was «happy mothers day».
The bill comes, the waitress said she want charging us for the sodas. I told her what she shouldn’t charge us for is the calamari with the spaghetti in the dipping sauce. Sure no problem she says. Then woman who I assumed was the head waitress came with out revised check. They took 50% off of the entire check, which was appreciated.
Mothers day happens every year, this is not new, and you should have been better prepared. Shame on you Rigatoni’s for ruining not just mine, but I am sure other moms who came to your restaurant on this day. I am not sure we will return. We are now in search of a new favorite restaurant.

I’m sitting here on mothers day waiting… and waiting… we made reservations for 6 pm and we didn’t get seated until 6:45. We placed our drink order and the waitress forgot to get drinks for our 1 and 2 year old. After the drink order was in and we ordered our dinner the wait for salad and bread is at 27 mins so far. Not sure I’ll ever come back here especially with 2 hungry toddlers I just don’t have the time.

I am so sad to have to write this poor review. We recently found this place about 3 months ago and have been there at least once per week since. We loved our previous meals, service, and atmosphere.
We just left there, on Friday May 6^th at 6:30pm. Awful… Just awful. So very sad. First, our server brought our salad out and then 2 MINUTES LATER (no exaggeration) brought out our entrees. She politely pushed our salad plates aside (as we took our first bite) and placed our entrees down in front of us. So much for salad :-(I have ordered the 6 cheese ravioli in the Rosa sauce 3 times previously. It was fantastic. This… Well… This wasn’t even the same dish. It was NOT the rosa sauce. Simply put… I’m not sure what I was served. There were raviolis on my plate and what appeared to be a white sauce with maybe a spoonful of red sauce on top? Not sure… But it most certainly wasn’t the rosa sauce I have ordered 3 times previously. My husbands clams and spaghetti was basically inedible. He said he has never had spaghetti like this it tasted like spaghetti with lemon water. ?! He found 5 clams. TOTAL.
No sooner did we start eating our disappointing meals she came back and gave us our check. We had been there for less than 15 minutes total. We had a full salad in front of us and 2 bad meals and a check. Just awful. We paid and left. We won’t be back.
Sincerely so sad… We loved this place until tonight.

This was a great decision. Looked for a place close to my hotel and saw the positive reviews. I’m on a pretty strict diet and they were very accomidating. Our waitress was helpful and attentive without disturbing us. My companion had the crab cakes special and could not stop talking about it. He had crab cakes the night before at an up-​scale national fish chain and this place put it to shame. Sadly I’m from out of town and may not make it back but I would love to when my diet restrictions would allow me to enjoy more of their great offerings.

A nice short review for a nice Italian restaurant.
I knew I would like this place the moment I walked in. Very casual, very clean and a fairly large crowd for an early Thursday dinner. The prices are extremely reasonable and the menu is easy on the eyes. This place has great food and doesn’t take itself too seriously. From what I have heard, the crab cakes here are out of this world. Although I decided to not order them, many surrounding tables did and if they are as good as they looked then I have something to look forward to.
Ah, how happy it makes me to get some GREAT bread to munch on while you wait for your dinner. It almost feels like Christmas morning seeing the waitress carrying it over when you didn’t expect anything before your entrée.
I decided on the Penne Carbonara. penne noodles tossed in a delicious creamy garlic sauce accompanied by crispy bacon bits and fresh mushrooms. I was seriously impressed. The serving was enormous so expect to have an entire meal of leftovers! Yet how I wished I got those crab cakes…
This place is a true diamond in the rough. Such a great atmosphere to pop in and grab a bite… truly looking forward to coming back.

Ok here’s the deal. BEST CRAB CAKES in Delco. Not shredded but juicy lumps of meat, with minimal filler. Really special. Fresh pasta, variety of good sauces. The vibe is more of a family place so don’t go here to propose to your girlfriend but definitely worth the occasional pop in. BYOB. They could mix the specials up some more, but overall a consistent pleaser.

The portions are HUGE! The décor is really nice reminds me of something you’d see in the city. I didn’t know they have been around for 4 years now wanted to try them and the 3 of us went. (mom, dad and son 13 years old) Food was really good my son and i shared the veal parm. and still had ½ of it to take home as leftovers. Then about 2 weeks later my husband & I went there for a date night it is b.y.o.b. so we brought a 6 pack. After the crab bowl as an app. I could barely eat my sampler. BRING YOUR APPETITE BC THE FOOD IS AWESOME !

Just got a take-​out last week. Had crabcakes (or COURSE) & CRAB FRIES. Had the crabcakes before — for some reason these were even BETTER! IT’S ALL CRAB! Was SO good! Have been hearing about «crab fries» for a long time. Never had them. Am totally hooked! No WONDER they’re such a big deal! These crab fries were AMAZING! Never had anything like them. Will most definitely go back for more of both & will also try other things on the menu. Yet ANOTHER great restaurant in my own backyard!

Went for mothers day, food was delicious, kids had eggplant parm., and ravioli, and i had the dish with grilled chicken n shrimp with alfredo noodles (i subbed penne pasta for alfredo) with diced tomatoes, etc. The salad was very good, they had a big round bowl of fresh grated parm. cheese too, breadsticks were kinda blah… waitress was very nice n attentive, but was very loud in there also, but all in all we’ll be back! good prices also good portion sizes as well.
Oh yes and if u are in a booth watch out, everytime the person behind me moved ah… i moved weird… lol…but fine…

Went for an early lunch on Friday. We had wings and onion rings and chicken fingers and crab dip and bruschetta and chocolate cake and tiramisu. Everything was SO good. The group raved over the wings, especially. The food was great, but the service was kind of weird. We were literally the only customers in the joint for over 20 minutes, but the next table to be seated got served before us. *huh?* Our waitress was attentive, though, and the food came quickly once the ball got rolling.
Went back for take-​out on Tuesday after work because it was just that good. Crab cake, baked potato, onions rings, wings, side salad, breadsticks. Again, SO good. The crab cake was a tiny bit chewy, like maybe it was a bit overcooked, but shellfish, right? And the wings had that very distinct hint of a taste that chicken gets when you reheat it after it’s been refrigerated. This time, though, I had EXCELLENT service from Sophie, whom I believe was one of the owners.

Good food, great crab cakes, too!
Fast and efficient service. Although there is a bar, they don’t serve alcohol.
A great location if you’re coming or going to the Airport. Only about 15 minutes from PHL.

I’ve been to Rigatoni’s four times in the span of as many years, so I feel pretty solid about this review. As I enjoy going out to dinner and this restaurant is about 5 minutes from my house, I think those statistics don’t bode well. The best word to describe this place — and also one of the worst words in the world of restaurants — is unreliable. People really hype this restaurant to be something OUTSTANDING when the truth of the matter is it’s one of the only Italian places in southeast Delco that isn’t a chain, so they have a really low benchmark to compare it to.
The only constant here is that it is BYOB. So if for some reason things go wrong — at least you can drink a bunch of your own wine.
The menu is pretty typical Italian… which is a part of what confuses me about the rave reviews. Your standard fare — chicken parm, lasagna, alfredo etc… cheese, cheese, fried cheese. Nothing out of the box. The food itself is pretty standard, too. They try dressing things up, calling their completely ordinary, premade, out-​of-​the-​freezer mozzarella sticks «Fried mozzarella.» The portions are huge and I think that thrills diners more than what they’re actually eating. Quantity wins over quality here. The food is also on the pricey sad for what you’re getting — Seven dollars for the aforementioned «fried mozzarella,» which should really be around five.
The crabcake IS pretty darn good. As other reviewers say, lump crab, little filler. I also had the crab pretzel once and was pretty happy. One crab cake will run you $ 19.00, though, with two sides. I ordered a mixed vegetable of yellow squash and zucchini and they were completely overdone, bland, and mushy. My second side was a baked potato that was only the size of a large Clementine orange, so I did feel a bit jipped.
Service? Also mediocre. Food takes longer to come out of the kitchen than most people are used to. This is nice sometimes, but if you’ve got a crowd, kids, or are just plain hungry, it can become frustrating. One waitress there is very cool, however some of the other staff is a bit short.
The WORST thing about this place is the noise level. If the noise level here is «Moderate,» then Ted Cruz is a «moderate» republican. There is not one single barrier in this restaurant to separate the space. It’s like one big cafeteria. If you go on a weekend evening, it will likely be quite full and sitting smack dab in the middle of that doesn’t afford much ambiance. Neither does the big screen t.v. they have in the middle of the dining room, but if that’s your thing then go for it.
In summation, if you expect something in the five star level like many Unilocalers have suggested, I think you will be disappointed. This restaurant is passable, little else.

Well the crab cakes were a nice size needs more seasonings if you ask me, the French fries was nasty how can u mess up fries? Carmelized apples delicious over all it was ok

My takeout meal which consisted 2 of the best crab cakes EVER, 14 oz. NY Strip cooked to perfection just as they state, baked sweet potato with roasted garlic, grilled veggies and a delicious cannoli! The staff and service were top flight and manager was so very sweet to take my order. I recommend this restaurant if you are ever in the Philadelphia area… thank you again for such a wonderful meal and experience.

If you ever read my first review of this place, you may notice that I’m giving them 4 stars instead of my previous 5 star review from three years ago.
It’s not necessarily that I think they deserve a downgrade. They’re still really good. I just think that my expectations of them are different now.
And on my second try of their crab cakes, along with the fact that I’ve recently had some of Baltimore’s finest crab cakes in the city itself, my tastes on crab cakes have recalibrated a bit.
These are excellent crab cakes. But I’m no longer thinking these are in the best realm of crab cake perfection. These have a little more filler in them than others I’ve had recently, although they have plenty of crab as well.
Call them very good, possibly great, but not the best I’ve ever had.
But for Delco, that’s still pretty damn good.

When to use a coupon, showed it to the waitress before ordering and when bill came management refused the coupon. For a party of 7 on a slow night the manager did not care about agreeing to cover what they agreed to prior to the meal.
Service for getting drinks was so slow that everyone ran out of something to drink. Repeated requests with almost no one in the Resturant still was really slow to respond.
Overall very disappointing for a special occasion.

First time trying this place. Wasn’t sure what to expect. As I walked inside, I was greeted by a friendly hostess and wonderful smells of food and good music (Sinatra). Seated right away. I was given choice of table or booth, which is nice, as I prefer booths.
Server was charming and friendly. I didn’t know it was a byob, did not see signs out front, glass of red would have been great. Next time.
Glad to find a nice Italian place locally. Had a great house salad and breadsticks (unlimited if you ask for more), eggplant parm over pasta and a cannoli. The eggplant parm was a huge portion, like the size of someone’s head. It was not the best eggplant parm I have ever had but the gravy was dark and very good and the pasta underneath was done perfectly. The eggplant was fried but parts were burnt. With all the cheese on top, it was too heavy — a little too much of everything. Salad was good as well as fresh, but I would have liked to have a choice of dressings (only option is Italian, I prefer blue cheese). Their italian dressing was good, subtle and just the right amount. Breadsticks were warm, tasty, right out of the oven and the cannoli was yummy.
Glad to find a place for Italian and seafood locally, the crab cakes are the talk of the town. It is a little pricey, but worth it if you enjoy the meal and save money by byob.
Entrees were between $ 12-​$ 26, seafood and specials were in the $ 18-​$ 26 range, there were pasta dishes around $ 12-​$ 18, lobster ravioli $ 19. Nice atmosphere, music not too loud and mellow chatting crowd. I look forward to going back to try some of their other dishes and enjoy a nice meal. The waiter told me they will be having specials on lobsters every Sunday night. I even saw some kind of frequent diner club on the menu, they definitely have a leg up on advertising — signs out front for crabs and a huge van with advertising all over it. Next time I will definitely try a crab cake. My next visit may be a 4 – 5 star.
Update: Tried it a second time. Enjoyed the atmosphere. Food was sort of thown on plate lots of it. I think they are focusing on quantity rather than quality. I’d rather my food was a smaller portion and be absolutely delicious. No one ate much and had tons to take home. It is a little priceyfor the specials and seafood dishes.
Also tried crab cakes at farmers market/​street market, just OK, not sure how they can claim to make the best around (maybe just Delco). Good but not that much flavor. Maybe they were around all day and not fresh. A little disappointed.

My wife and I have been talking about trying this place since they opened. We live in the area and remember when the space was vacant. Rigatoni’s is very proud of their crab cakes. It’s supposed to be the best crab cake in the area. I’ll go out on a limb and say it’s probably the best crab cake in Delaware County and maybe even in the entire Philadelphia region.
I ordered two crab cakes with mashed potatoes and the vegetable of the day, which was zucchini and squash. The crab cake is ½ pound. With the sides, I only had enough room for one crab cake. I would say the crab cake is about 95% crab meat or more. There is hardly any filler.
If it was not for the okay service, I would have given the overall experience a 5-​star rating. Upon entering, there was no hostess. An older lady in the bar area noticed we were standing at the hostess stand and said she would be right with us. We waited for about five minutes and a younger woman, who I assume was the hostess, took us to our table. Our waitress was fine, but once we were done with our meal and ready for dessert, it seemed like she disappeared on us because we didn’t see her for a good 15 minutes. I assumed she probably needed a bathroom break. When she finally came, we ordered dessert to go along with the bill.
The great thing about this place is that it is basically in my backyard, so when I have a taste for some of the best crab cakes I have ever tasted, I have somewhere to go and I don’t even need to get in the car. Since it is so close, we’ll probably order take out next time.