Tonino — Restaurant in Boston

Fabulous experience (if you know what you’re getting yourself into). My boyfriend and I came here for our anniversary dinner. We showed up right on time for our reservation and had to wait a few minutes to be seated (not a big deal). The restaurant is very small. The tables are quite close together and there is only one bathroom. However, the general atmosphere is lovely, very homey yet chic. They have a tiny waiting area, so we didn’t have to stand while our table was being readied. Our server was incredibly friendly and helpful! She was chatty without being too much. For food we got the pizza bianca with ricotta and hot honey. You should know the piazza bianca is just bread, if you don’t you might be disappointed. Nevertheless, it was DELICIOUS. The bread came out HOT. I don’t know why I loved this so much, but it meant that the first piece I ate was steaming and had to be handled with care and the last piece I ate was slightly warm. There was also definitely some garlic in the bread which tasted delicious with the ricotta and hot honey (I wouldn’t have expected it to, but all together it was soooo good). For our mains, I got the cappaletti and my boyfriend got a piece of pepperoni pizza and a special they had that night, pesto gnudi. Now the reason I only gave four stars for food: the portions are somewhat small. I didn’t mind this at all, because the cappelletti was so rich that I thought it was actually the perfect amount of food. The cheese inside is verrry slightly “stinky” (which I love), but even my boyfriend who doesn’t like stinky cheese at all and doesn’t like balsamic thought that the dish was delicious. I actually thought it could have used slightly more balsamic to offset the deep flavors of the rest of the dish. Furthermore, you should know what you’re getting when you come here. While the pesto was delicious, my boyfriend’s the kind of person who wants a heaping dish plate of delicious pesto pasta, not 8 perfectly crafted gnudi. To each is own. My boyfriend also didn’t care for the hot honey that they drizzled on the pepperoni pizza. You get two small squares of pizza in one order and for some reason my boyfriend got two corner pieces which had the most amount of bread and very little toppings. A bit disappointing. Finally, we were urged by our neighbors (again, the tables are very close) to get the tiramisu for dessert. We weren’t disappointed! It was hands down the BEST tiramisu I’ve ever had in my life (I grew up in nyc and have been to Italy multiple times so I’ve had my fair share of tiramisu). It was not at all too sweet, the chocolate powder didn’t make you gag when you take a bite but you definitely get a light chocolate flavor, it was not at all too heavy, and the coffee and alcohol flavors were present and perfect! I have already made another reservation for when my parents visit, and Tonino is now firmly one of my two favorite restaurants in Boston (the other being Gustazo Cuban kitchen and bar, which is much easier to get a reservation at too). If you’re ok with slightly smaller, full, rich dishes that are greatly balanced in flavor complexity, then I can’t recommend this...

The rumors were true. Best Italian restaurant in Boston.

Finally made my way here this past Saturday night. As expected, the reservation were extremely hard to get. When we arrived, a long line had already formed by the entrance, and it turns out the buzz wasn’t unwarranted - two bar seats are set aside for walk-ins, but with no waitlist in place, it’s first-come, first-served.

Tonino’s menu didn’t follow the traditional Italian playbook. No veal chops, meatballs, or even crispy calamari. Aside from a few seafood dishes like the clams and the anchovies, there weren’t a lot of protein options. Here, it was all about the simple dishes - pasta and pizza. The focus on the pasta’s texture and balance of flavors was especially memorable, and overall, it felt like Italian cuisine distilled to its purest, most artful form where very bite felt like a celebration of simplicity done exceptionally well.

Favorite Dishes: Pizza Bianca with Ricotta & Hot Honey, Bucatini, Panna Cotta

Every dish we tried was amazing. From the first few dishes, my favorite was the Pizza Bianca. Essentially a deconstructed pizza, it came with warm, pillowy bread meant for spreading with your choice of dip. What made it even better was its versatility. We ended up using the last few pieces to soak up the clam juice from Counterneck Clams. The basil they used had a strong fragrance which played beautifully with the briny clam flavors.

The Cappelletti, the most popular pasta on the menu, didn’t quite live up to the hype for me. The aged balsamic added a pleasant sweetness on the finish, but the Taleggio cheese felt a bit too overpowering. Wasn’t a bad dish by any means, but the balanced was tipped into overly salty territory.

Among the other pastas, our favorite was the bucatini. Instead of relying on a heavy sauce, this dish let two powerhouse ingredients - anchovy chili butter and bottarga (cured fish roe pouch) - do all the work. In other words, a pasta that didn’t lean on the usual tangy seafood flavors but instead delivered a beautifully restrained, deeply umami rich experience.

Most importantly, the Panna Cotta with basil sugar & apples. Easily the best dessert I’ve had in Boston. No description could truly do it justice, but here’s my best attempt: the panna cotta itself was exquisitely creamy and impossibly smooth, the kind that melts on your tongue. The finely diced apples added a crisp, refreshing contrast, while the basil sugar brought a delicate, herbaceous lift that made each bite effortlessly balanced. A masterpiece in simplicity and an...

Alright, let's get the big stuff out of the way:

Food - We had three different types of pizza for dinner. All were good, but the hot honey pepperoni was by far the best and the only one I'd really call memorable. I'd happily get it again. For dessert, we had tiramisu and cheesecake. The cheesecake was excellent, but the tiramisu was pretty dull and more like a pudding than anything else.

Service - Everyone was friendly and helpful. Overall a good experience on that front, with one exception that I'll get to in a bit.

Atmosphere - It's definitely cozy and bordering on cramped, but other than that it's a pleasant place to be. Overall, a good score, but if you're not into having others hear your dinner conversation, this might not be a great choice!

But why 3 stars when I gave every individual category a 4? Two reasons:

When we ordered pizza, our server tried to upsell us on pasta instead, with the explanation that "you can get the pizza as takeout, but you can only get the pasta when you sit down." She wasn't rude about it, but there was juuuust enough condescension to make us feel like we didn't have enough money to belong there. Is a lot of that down to my own personal complexes? Possibly. But while I can stomach having someone try to get me to add an item or two, I really, really don't like being told to swap the thing I came there to eat for something 4x more expensive.

The restaurant automatically charges a 5% Kitchen Appreciation Fee. I want to say right away that I have absolutely no problem with that. The kitchen staff deserves fair pay! What I do have a problem with, however, is the wording on the menu:

"A 5% Kitchen Appreciation Fee on the subtotal is added to every check to offset the rising wage disparity between front and back of house."

Hey, there's a rising wage disparity in the industry, and that sucks. But do you know who controls the wages of the front and back of house in your restaurant? You! The management is quite literally saying "we don't pay our kitchen staff enough, so please pay them for us." Unless, of course, I'm misinterpreting this, and that 5% surcharge is being donated to kitchen staff at OTHER restaurants.

Look, I don't know much about the of inner mechanisms of the restaurant industry, so maybe there's some immutable rule that prevents them from giving their kitchen staff more money. Even if that's true, they should really rewrite that sentence. Here's an idea: "A 5% Kitchen Appreciation Fee on the subtotal is added to every check because our kitchen staff is awesome and they...