Faccia a Faccia — Restaurant in Boston

I went here last night for a date night and as a lot of people complained about two things, overpriced and subpar food for TINY portions. We ordered 4 items, tuna tartare, lamb ribs, burrata and cacio y pepe.

The one that I liked the most was the burrata. It had different textures and I liked the prosciutto on top but it was really only 2 pieces. The part that I thought was odd was that it was served with ONE piece of bread for the whole dish. To make matters weirder, it was classified as a “small plate” or a tapas. Usually for a dish like that there’s like 3 or 4 pieces of bread on the table. We had to ask for another piece of bread. Again, weird but okay.

The cacio y pepe texture was odd, it was undercooked for sure but had a semi gummy texture/ taste as someone previously mentioned also. The tuna tartare came in these 3 little tea sandwich style things. It was fine but for $20 for basically 3 bites seemed odd. The lamb ribs were very tender but it had a LOT of inedible cartilage in the meat. It was also weirdly hard to cut which was odd. I’ve been to many tapas restaurants before and the dishes are usually mindful of “sharing plates” but this restaurant felt like it couldn’t decide what it was trying to be. Nothing felt exactly coherent to bring Italian food or even Italian-American food. It was a weird pile of confusing items that were too small.

The service was weird, there was this lady who was our server and had a sweet demeanour and came to our table 3 or 4 times throughout the meal to check in with us. However towards the end of our meal we had a different server take over who was cold and standoffish and felt like he was basically giving us the check before we even finished eating. Genuine question, is this considered “good” service because it felt extremely rude. Europeans would be appalled and horrified by him. It left a weird “taste” in my mouth that I...

A trendy and modern Italian spot that is great for romantic or casual outings.

Came here on a bustling Friday night. Despite making the reservation weeks in advance, we were seated at one of the tables nearby the reception. Throughout the meal, we were constantly surrounded by servers and people coming in, so it was a bit difficult to focus on our conversations. Nevertheless, apart from the rude reception hostess, the service was great, and our server did her best to make our dining experience as smooth as possible.

At Faccia Brutta, the dishes were meant for sharing and showcased Italian staples in inventive ways. Between the three of us, we shared ten plates, and some of the highlights included the ruby red prawns, foie gras torchon, razor clams, and the paccheri While no longer available, the prawns and the clams were excellent briny and savory bites to start off the meal. For the paccheri, its subtle flavors and ethereal textures did demand concentration to appreciate, and I really enjoyed the blend of the saffron and pine nuts combined with a delicate whiff of the ocean.

Even amid these highlights, there were some letdowns. Their signature caviar mozzarella sticks were presented with an interesting high-low aesthetics, but the ossetra caviar toppings didn’t do much to enhance their flavor. The wagyu tartare was gorgeous to behold, but its vivid aromatics from the toppings overshadowed the beef.

Overall, the culinary experience at Faccia Brutta was fascinating, and I would recommend them to anyone who is interested in...

We came in with high expectations given the reviews and lack of booking availability. By the time the server greeted us (over 15 minutes after we were seated) we had to discuss going somewhere else instead. We wish we had, but it was already 8:30 PM and we were hungry. We ordered two non alc drinks, oysters, "grandma" bread, a caesar salad, lamb ribs, and two pasta dishes after they said the servings were "tapas" sized. That would be generous, the portions were maybe sized for my cat.

The first issue was the service, it was awful. When "grandma's" bread came the waitress who looked like she ate grandma yelled "This isn't for you!" in my ear. It looked like Grandma died before making this bread...it was olive oil with a side of bread. The oysters were the highlight of the meal I guess, hard to mess up oysters. This may be a personal preference, but when I order a caesar salad, I like the lettuce to be cut and the stems removed. The lamb was a greasy, gamey bone-in mess. At least they didn't leave my dog out of the order. The pasta portion sizes were finally decent granted they were all $40 a plate, but the dishes were bland, mushy, glue-like aberration of noodles that made us wish they just used trader Joe's dried noodles instead.

The ambiance was lively, loud, and great for a Friday evening. It's a shame that the service and food was more representative of the ending of Requiem...