Massimino's — Restaurant in Boston

If you want delicious, filling, quality, authentic Italian food Boston, then this is the place to go. Located in the North End area of Boston, there are many Italian places to choose from but this is a gem that not many people know of.

It’s a small place but that’s what gives it the charm. You’re talking with the tables next to you, the waiters are joking to you and about themselves and even throwing some jokes at you. The owners are out front beckoning in customers with a warm smile, a hand shake, and even a hug if they are familiar. The owners check on every table multiple times, but not in an annoying way, but because they really care want want to know if anything is wrong. The waiters are loud and funny, cracking jokes at every chance they can. The atmosphere here is like a small town neighborhood spot where everyone gets along and there are no strangers.

Now the food. First off, the bread and olive oil is so tasty. The bread is warm and the oil is seasoned to perfection. You could drink a bottle of it. For an appetizer, you must get the meatball. It’s about the size of a softball and smothered in red sauce(gravy). There is a side of burratta cheese as well that just oozes as it heats up. This meatball is about the most tender and juiciest piece of meat I’ve ever tasted.

For dinner, they always have special and, being in Boston, you can’t go wrong with the fresh seafood options. I went with the gnocchi baked with red sauce and covered with mozzarella. The gnocchi melts in your mouth and is busting with flavor from the sauce. My wife got a special, Tagliatelle pasta with special bolognese sauce and finished with a balsamic glaze. The meat in the sauce just falls apart in your mouth.

This is a unique Italian restaurant that rivals any of the high end Italian places. The atmosphere here alone is special and makes you feel welcomed. The food makes me want to hop on a plane and fly back to Boston just...

Seated in the basement which is super tight with metal chairs. Extremely loud and crowded down there so hard to hear anyone. Menu was dirty and the table was oily from the previous meal and no one cleaned up. There was a leak in the ceiling that was being held by a dirty towel and once in a while there was a drop of some type of liquid onto the table from it.

Oil with the bread was delicious but that was basically the only positive for me. The bruschetta was fresh but had no taste to it. I was so excited to try the Gnocchi but it tasted undercooked and had little to no flavour. I put a lot of the parmesan powder on it and it was a bit better. I had assumed it came with an alfredo sauce so I asked if we could get a bit of the sauce to put on it. The waitress came with some and we were charged $6 for it. The chicken parm was overcooked chicken and soggy crust with all the sauce on top. The side was a tiny bowl of Ziti with watery ragu sauce on it.

3 members of our party didn't mind their meals so that's why they get 2 stars.

We asked to order dessert hoping that it would be better and were told that because it was a busy night they were not serving dessert but you could get it to go. I said that our party had just spent almost $400 and to ask the manager. Waitress came back and said the manager said no dessert. So we ordered 3 more drinks and then they said we could order one dessert. Ridiculous.

Waitress was nice but and we were a boisterous party so, other than the fact that she over charged us for a few things (like 3 sodas instead of the 2 we had for our DD's at $3 per pop with no refills), I won't complain about her too much. We still gave her a nice tip.

For 6 of us with lots of booze and very mediocre food and service it came to $550. Would not recommend and...

The 1-star is gained only by the pleasantness of the staff. Everyone is always smiling, and the staff is kind, but no one is very competent, especially with things like food allergies and dietary restrictions.

We mentioned one party member was vegan. We were instructed to order dishes which listed all the cheese integral to them.

Every table is served bread and oil. The oil is awful. Like regular, made for cooking not tasting, NON extra virgin, olive oil. The kind that tastes like canola. :(

We ordered escarole. It was good but strange, like it was cooked in bacon instead of garlic.

We ordered spaghetti carbonara, which was doused in oil and lacking a taste profile. Had to be doused in parmigiano to be tolerable.

We ordered pasta e fagioli soup, i.e. pasta and beans soup. What arrived at the table was beans soup. They didn’t even notice that it lacked pasta!!! I sent it back to be made with pasta. They returned it to me not but one minute later with premade ditalini (bc ditalini take 5 mins to make) stirred in. It still tasted pretty awful, like salted canned tomatoes, with beans.

And the ENTIRE BASEMENT seating area had such a smell rotten fish smell I almost couldn’t sit at the table at the top of the stairs. I’m sorry but this place should be condemned!

Cooks aren’t Italian, staff isn’t Italian, food isn’t Italian. This restaurant belongs along an Alabama highway.

Only good thing they did was comp our soup. Did we mention that one pasta, one escarole appy, and two drinks was $70????The prices are unreal.

Go literally...