Ristorante Villa Francesca — Restaurant in Boston

A friend and I were trying to go to Neptune Oyster but the wait was 4 hours, so we looked on OpenTable and got a spot here on Friday night. We were seated immediately right by the door and the hostess station--totally fine for a last minute resi, we were just happy they could take us (however... they reported to OpenTable that we didn't arrive for our resi and we did, so that's kind of weird).

The tables are small--normal for the north end--but they do the trick and had nice cloth tablecloths. I just wish the (battery-operated) candle contraption hadn't been on the table, it didn't offer any light and took up space.The overhead lights were perfect. The table next to us put theirs on the floor.

We got 6 Island Creek Oysters to start, they arrived on this giant, bizarre boat full of ice. It literally took up the entire table. It was laughably odd. The oysters were good and were served with horseradish, cocktail sauce, lemon slices, bruschetta topping (!?), pesto (?!), and tabasco, no mignonette.

The bread for the table was great--a fruit and nut slice, pullman, focaccia... served with EVOO.

We split the house salad which had tomatoes, cucumbers, chickpeas and pickled onions over mesclun. It was good, although the dressing was on the sweet side and my friend is not a fan of sweet flavors--it wasn't an italian dressing. Maybe a sweet red vinaigrette or raspberry vinaigrette? We should have asked before ordering. It was also drowning in the dressing.

I got the penne alla norma and my friend got the seafood risotto. Hers was good (although she was ill later that night and that's the only thing we didn't share). My penne was cooked more than al dente; I prefer al dente. The flavor was nice, but the ricotta was more strained than I usually like in this dish--I like it to melt into the sauce, but it was denser and harder than the creamy ricotta I usually prefer so there were chunks of ricotta throughout. Big portion so I took half of it home.

Service was so/so. Our waitress was nice and professional, but slow. We waited forever and ended up ordering our whole dinner and drinks at the same time. And my cocktail was wrong although they fixed that quickly. Also, they really push the $$ water on you and show up to your table with bottles of sparkling and still water. We had to ask the hostess for the check at the end of the night. The courses arrived well timed, though.

Overall, I wouldn't go back. Tons of great options in the NE and this was just wasn't up to snuff. Out bill was $75pp...

My worst experience of 2014. Parked my car in a valet space in front of the restaurant in the pouring rain. No valet in sight. The hostess let me in the front door and I pointed out that my car was there and I was not bringing my coat inside. She sat me and my husband with our 10 friends. Decent meal. Came up and my car was missing! Hostess never looked for us for valet hook up. The City of Boston towed my car. No-one notified me that this was happening. 1:30 am, soaked to the bone, and $438 later (including cab fare, towing charges and Parking ticket) we finally got home. There were 3 possible police stations and no-one could tell me which one. Hostess played dumb but finally felt bad enough for me that she did give me Boston Valet phone number and owner did help narrow it down to 2 stations in about 45 minutes. Cab to Police to get a release, cab to EAST BOSTON to get to the tow company which was hard to find. Remember now -- we do not have our coats or umbrellas on December 6th in drenching rain -- we walked across the street twice and finally spotted it behind with only one unlit sign. SO I call the owner, Thomas Salmeron who contradicted himself in telling me what I should have done = 1. I should have given the key to the hostess and 2. The hostess cannot take car keys that it is up to me to wait for the valet who I never saw until after dinner when my car was already gone. Owner disavowed himself of any responsibility, showed no compassion or offered no consideration and then hung up on me. What a guy! What a restaurant! After going to Francesca's for 20 years, I will never go back and neither will my 10 friends. An absolute...

The absolute worst dining experiences I’ve ever had. I never leave bad reviews and have worked in the restaurant industry for years myself so can be understanding when things go wrong. The service was slow for weekday lunch service. We sat at our table for an hour between placing our order (a panini & gnocchi, relatively quick meals to make) watching tables nearby who arrived later get main courses. Not once during this time did our server check in on us. Finally at the hour mark I went to the bar to ask the bartender for a manager to let them know we had an unusual wait and needed to change our order to go as we had somewhere to be soon. Still after our server or the manager did not update us until 5 minutes later when the server said “it’s coming”. We were then handed a check for the meal before receiving our order. We paid and immediately left. Incredibly dissatisfied and disappointed by the staff. As someone who works in hospitality there were numerous chances to save this experience. Things can happen, sometimes a ticket can get lost or a a server can forget to ring in the order, we’ve all been there before. But not once did any staff member apologize, communicate what was happening, or make any effort to save the dining experience. If we wanted good take out, we would have placed a takeout order. There are plenty of amazing Italian restaurants in the North End with great service and experience. I’d suggest any of them before stepping...