Elma is a small Italian restaurant built around a tight, seasonal-leaning menu. Dinner opens with plates like focaccia with rosemary and sea salt, stracciatella with melon and prosciutto, and bluefin with serrano and fingerling potato, then moves into pastas — spaghetti with guanciale and peas, lumache with ragu genovese and braised beef, gnudi with crab in vodka sauce — before landing on mains such as a chicken cutlet with pomodoro and mozzarella or a pork chop with cherry pepper and Castelvetrano olives. Dessert is a single double chocolate tart with olive oil and sea salt. Tables can also order the all-in option, a family-style run through a collection of the menu that ends with dessert.
The dining room is small and intimate, and regulars point to a chef-owner presence in the kitchen along with consistent cooking and service that holds up visit after visit. Elma has been part of The Infatuation's Philadelphia dining coverage.
The dining room is small and intimate, and regulars point to a chef-owner presence in the kitchen along with consistent cooking and service that holds up visit after visit. Elma has been part of The Infatuation's Philadelphia dining coverage.