Trattoria Il Panino — Restaurant in Boston

2 1/2 stars

The one glaring weak spot in my recent Boston adventure was this place - we found out after the fact from a BU alum that the North End is super overrated, but by then the damage had been done. After the Celtics trounced the Warriors a few Sundays ago, my top-tier chum who literally went to the school of hospitality and I wandered over to this neighborhood to get some dinner. We both got super West Village vibes from the area, which was pleasant. We'd had one specific place in mind that we knew was going to be enormously popular, but predictably had a line out the door with at least a half an hour wait. Since some people were getting cranky, it wasn't an option on this particular day. Enter Trattoria Il Panino, which got the nod because we happened to walk by and it wasn't too crowded or too empty (both potential warning signs).

The biggest issue with this restaurant was the bar, more specifically its length. It was extremely long, and at one point I actually made a concerted effort to lean over to see its end, and couldn't. It may very well have gone from the very front of the restaurant to the back, or close to it. That in and of itself isn't a bad thing, but if you don't have adequate manpower to oversee it, attentive service is going to be an issue and was.

There were definitely some actual tables to sit at, but we opted to sit at the bar to eat, which in my experience almost always guarantees better service. The bartender was fairly attentive to begin with, and we were able to order our drinks/food promptly. Several apps were split, including calamari, meatballs and fried zucchini. The meatballs were the highlight of the meal - super tender and flavorful. If i recall, they were cited on the menu as "Mom's Meatballs," and as one of "Mom's Best." It was hard to argue. I honestly don't recall much about the calamari, but my attention was understandably focused on the meatballs and obligatory warm bread that showed up around the same time. I'd never had fried zucchini before, but wasn't crazy about it; my texture-based palate didn't like the consistency of the actual zucchini interior, but taste-wise I had no issues.

For my entree, I got the Gnocchi Alla Sorrentina, which was decent but I've honestly had better. I would have preferred that the mozzarella (or whatever cheese they chose) be distributed throughout the plate versus a few small chunks. I barely tasted it, even in the bites where I intentionally had one or two of the chunks involved. The gnocchi itself was a good time; I'm always down for potato dumplings. It was a decent portion and I ended up finishing it two days later for lunch.

The service absolutely cratered after we received our main dishes, which was a shame because everything else would have kept this as a fairly positive experience or close enough to one. That insanely long bar was a problem for the staff, and we noticed quite a few times that the two bartenders they had for it (they needed at least three) would end up clustered on one end, which left 75% of the bar without anyone nearby to assist. It was bizarre that with a bar that size they wouldn't have just had the bartenders split the halves to try to cover as much space as possible. I'm also wondering now in hindsight if part of the issue was the lighting. You can tell from my mediocre pictures that the restaurant was really dark, verging on nightclub territory. I can't help but wonder if the bartenders literally couldn't see some of the customers' faces (or more specifically their attempts at eye contact) as they scurried back and forth. I'm sure the extremely dim lighting was a conscious atmospheric choice on an early Sunday evening, but given that we're both really good at getting attention - both in bars and out - and couldn't do it? Legitimate question.

There are a TON of Italian restaurants in this neighborhood. If we're back in the area, we're doing more research for other options and/or standing in line at the popular restaurant (Neptune Oyster) to see if it...

We went in August. We were exhausted from walking the Freedom trail all day and were looking for someplace to eat in Little Italy. Every place we went to was not taking walk-ins. We went on OpenTable and decided on this place after looking at some reviews and available times. The upstairs was PACKED. but then we discovered there was a whole downstairs area. I didn't smell urine like some reviews state. I have a pretty sensitive nose and would have turned right around. But it was just as packed downstairs too. There were nice bottles on the wall but chairs were backed right up against them. And they were using those bottles because I saw them take a few off the wall to serve. There was a diner sitting in the back with her long hair wrapping around the bottles behind her. Um..yuck.

We ordered an appetizer with Ricotta. This is not my favorite thing to eat but my husband liked it (not loved).

Then our entrees came. Apparently it is their thing to serve their pastas in a frying pan. I thought it would be cute. It was not. If I want to eat out of a frying pan, I can do that at home (but don't, um WHY?) I ordered the pesto and hubbie had the carbonara. His was tasty enough (even though it was not a large portion - I mean - how cheap is pasta??) My pesto was absolutely awful. It was dry and tasteless. There was no garlic in it. I kept trying to get the attention of our server and no one was coming by. A random server came by and I asked for cheese. I thought maybe some would make it better, absolutely not. When the server finally came by to ask if I wanted to box up my food, I said no because it wasn't very good. The server said I should have told them sooner and they could have brought out something else. I advised I tried to get their attention and they told me it was busy.. and sorry... and that was it. No discount, free something, nothing. I have never been so disappointed in a meal. So lesson learned, eat upstairs only and eat something not served in a frying pan...if you decide to eat here at all. There are TONS of...

1 food: the food was mediocre at best. My friend and I had high hopes considering so many people recommended them on tik tok but we got two pasta dishes (each 25 dollars mind you) and were surprised at how much flavor they lacked. The appetizer bread was horrid and so dry as well as they didn't even give us balsamic. My friend got caicio a Pepe And it straight up tasted like they dumped pepper in it, no cheese flavor or garlic. As for mine, they advertised as spicy yet it clearly was not. So the food was not great.

2 service: the service at the host stand was good, nice girls. However on the other hand when we sat down at the table (which was in the middle of the floor) and had anything but good service. We greeted the person who gave us water and they did not even smile or give us the time of day, just felt like we were treated like two young stupid girls. As well as our waiter never coming around to check on us and asked what we wanted the first time after a brief hello. We ordered and the food came out in 3 minutes which felt extremely rushed, like they wanted us to be out of there in fifteen minutes. Then halfway through our meal someone finally comes over to see if we wanted Parmesan cheese grated onto our pasta yet we had already eaten most of it. Our waiter probably said five words to us the entire night and overall was not a good time at all. All the staff treated us like we were two little girls that shouldn't have respect when we treated them nicely. Still even tipped 20% because we are servers ourselves.

3 ambiance: the place is not super fancy, and very very dimmed lighting which was OK. But the table we were sat at was right in the middle of a cramped dining room area which felt very claustrophobic and unsettling.

Overall don't recommend the overpriced food as well as bad service. You'd have more fun at Olive Garden, take it from two nineteen year old girls who were excited to have a nice...