Tony & Elaine's — Restaurant in Boston

You would be forgiven if you walked past this restaurant and missed it. The North End of Boston seems to have unlimited Italian restaurants. This one , you really don’t want to miss. Food and service ( our server was Manuela) was top notch and excellent. I was very surprised at how tasty everything was. We started with the meatball appetizer along with the caprese salad. The meatballs were extremely tender (you could cut with your fork). The salad was plentiful and the complimentary fresh hot bread with olive oil was divine. The bread had a little bit of garlic and melted in your mouth. My husband had the boulenese pasta which he said was better than the three trips to bologna!!! I had never seen him rave about food before. The pasta was perfectly cooked and had “ the chew” which I adore. I ordered the Cece e peppi. It did not have too much pepper and had quite a creamy sauce. Truly delish and I ate every morsel with delight. I did notice that no salt or pepper was on the table only Parmesan cheese and hot pepper flakes. Those who felt the dishes were too bland could have added the parm and hot pepper flakes. Dessert is an assortment of cannolis. The tables are close together so you do have the opportunity for some unique conversations with other travelers and compare dishes if you desire. This restaurant has seating upstairs, downstairs as well as outside. Everyone working here really hustles from the servers to those clearing the table. I used my knife and fork on the apps so they were quickly replaced with my main dish. There really is a Tony as well as Elaine and they are there everyday. The price point is quite reasonable for the dishes. Next time I am going for the lasagna!!! The mozerella sticks looked next level…. Hmmm . Don’t give this a miss!!! I am def coming back and taking the train again from Newburyport . We have loads of restaurants in Portsmouth New Hampshire but I will always travel to Boston to eat at Tony and Elaine’s. You should...

I was beyond excited to visit this restaurant and I was sorely disappointed after all the positive reviews.

We were sat at what I can safely say is the worst seat in the house. There’s a table where there clearly shouldn’t be, and I was excited to take a cute birthday picture because I saw this restaurant had great aesthetics. Well not our table - see the picture featuring literal boxes. On top of that, we opted to sit inside in case it was too chilly out. Joke’s on us - they sat us directly under the air unit and it was frigid, which a table adjacent to us agreed with. We moved the table two feet over ourselves during the night (see picture) which just made the positioning even more awkward for foot traffic. There were plenty of other tables open and we saw another couple get a much better table 20 minutes after us - not sure what we had to do to get that type of service? Make a reservation 3 weeks in advance instead of 2?

The entire service wasn’t bad, but we were sat 5 minutes before a table beside us and were served coinciding to them. In general, that’s not a big deal but when our main course arrived to the table as the other table was already paying the bill, it became clear we weren’t a priority. What made it so terrible was how unpleasant the setting was - if we enjoyed the atmosphere we wouldn’t have noticed the discrepancy in food delivery. We were there for an hour and a half but scarfed our meal down in the last ten minutes just to end the night.

I will say, the food was good and better than some places, but also not the best we’ve had in the North End. The meatballs were outstanding - it was the only highlight of the visit. I had chicken Marsala that was enjoyable and my boyfriend had the lasagna. No complaints there, but food is not enough to make an establishment worth visiting. We do not plan to return soon, which is a letdown after MONTHS of waiting for the...

We chose this restaurant due to its good reviews. We were expecting light northern Italian fare and received Southern heavy dark red sauce spicy instead. The restaurant is very small and on 2 floors. The basement being one. The décor is rather Christmas tree ish with lights hanging on the walls.Using the word décor is an overstatement. We were looking for a family type quiet restaurant with good food but upon entering were not impressed. As we were both tired from walking all over Boston, we decided to stay and give the place a try. I ordered their Chicken Parm the reviews touted as excellent and my wife had the spaghetti and meatballs. The menu says fresh pasta and that may have been so but because they cooked thin spaghetti mixed with a square like fat fettuccine pasta, neither was cooked corectly... It was all kind of mushy. Their sause, more like grave, as the movie mafia italians call it, was dark red, acidic, salty and very spicy... So spicy in fact that I had to drink water after every bite. The 2 breasts of chicken were breaded and deep fried as expected, but a little to much. My wife's spaghetti had the exact same mix of spaghetti sizes, which is a no no ... and the same hot pepper spiced, salty, acidic dark sause... Her meat balls were mediocre, nothing to write home to mama about and the service was average.... It was not our type of food... some may like it... I was indisposed in the bathroom for an hour after we got home and I like spicy Mexican, chinese and Indian food. Some food you eat food at a restaurant and say... I would like to eat that again tomorrow and sometimes you think.... I dont want any of that type of food for a while... It wasn't our kind of italian... maybe...