Maria's Trattoria — Restaurant in Braintree

It pains me to leave this review, because I was really looking forward to eating here based on many reviews, and I rarely write such a negative review. But out of the five items we ordered, only two tasted reasonable, and they were both pizzas.

I'd recommend sorting reviews by newest and seeing what people are saying since management changed in 2023.

I'm still left wildly confused because there are multiple reviews left just a few days ago with 5 star ratings, but our experience was nowhere close to that.

I'll start with the shining point of our Friday night experience: the young man who greeted us at the front door. He was professional, friendly, and gave thoughtful consideration on our seating, talking with us on how best to seat our toddler with a booster seat. Give him a raise!

The other good part was the pizza crust, which had a nice bit of chewiness that I enjoyed.

Otherwise, none of the dishes we had tasted right. Given how many other people give this place glowing five star reviews, I wonder if there was something wrong in the kitchen? Here's a rundown of what we had:

Red sangria: we both puckered our lips, since there was no taste beyond red wine on ice. No detectable fruit infusion, no sweetness. My friend's homemade sangria I had a few weeks ago was miles better than this cold, bitter red wine.

Complimentary bread: stale and bland.

Octopus appetizer: so soft it was overcooked. The sauce seemed bland and missing something - likely massively under seasoned.

Lamb ossobucco served with risotto: another very under seasoned dish, from meat to sauce. The cooking of the meat was good, but a bad sauce greatly diminishes the tender meat.

Kid's cheese pizza: a decent kid's pizza.

Full-size fig and prosciutto pizza: I liked the crust, and the toppings were presented attractively.

I really waffled between a 3 star and 2 star rating for this, but the overall experience was dragged down because we also waited quite awhile for our food (the appetizer was put on the table after our main courses already arrived, even though we asked for dishes to come as they were ready), and we had to track down our waitress to get our check. This was on a Friday night and there were multiple empty tables.

Like another review here says, the food tasted like an amateur trying to learn how to cook Italian food for the first time, and is still trying to learn how to cook in general. We'd like to give it another shot since so many people seem to like it, but I'd need to go with someone who could give me guidance on...

We recently had a grad party for my daughters in their upstairs function room. It was a big success!! The staff was amazing! The food was THE BEST! The room was comfortable and private with simple decor. They let my daughters create a play list for the mood they wanted. Everyone had a great time!

I would have given all 5 stars across the board, except for these two things:

First: The room had some water damage to an exposed beam on the roof which was peeling paint. It was right over the plates and near the food line, and it looked unsightly. I realize there's been a lot of rain and these things happen, but a number of things could have been done to avoid the potential of something falling and improve the look.

Second: When I ordered the food "for 40 people", they quoted me on 1 pan/tray of each item on the buffet line. I naturally expected the amount of food in each pan that I was quoted for would feed approx. 40 people. When the buffet line opened, i right away knew the amount of meatballs and chicken cutlet wasn't enough. Turned out to be enough for about 25-30 people. (Granted, they used enormous dinner plates and it smelled so good that people piled it on!!) I very quickly had to add quite a bit more food (and of course, cost, which was reasonable, but still extra), and some had to wait for it to come out.

Overall though, we were all having such a nice time, that none of these things took away from the event and all the wonderful memories we made! I WOULD DEFINITELY GO BACK. If you are having a function, I would just ask a bit more questions about the food quantities, but other than that, you can expect great service and the best homemade pasta dishes with delicious sauces and great service at a reasonable price!

Oh, and they did something else that was really sweet... Afterwards, when my daughters were going through the graduation gifts/envelopes, we found the staff at Maria's wrote a nice card to each of my daughters, congratulating them. That was very thoughtful. It was an extra step that showed that they value...

My best friend and I went there last night and we had enjoyed meals there in the past and for the most part the experience was good. Our server was Mandi and she was really good. My friend got the chicken parmesan and asked if she could have some eggplant in there as well and they were fine with that. I noticed that fettucine boscaiola was no longer on the menu and said that to Mandi so she suggested that she would ask if they would ask if they could serve that, and they were fine with that. My friend's dish tasted wonderful but the boscaiola was a little off though the mushrooms in it were wonderful. I got Galliano neat and my friend had two of the coco locos and we got dessert as well. Everything seemed fine but the bill was a bit steep at $144.45. When I looked at it my friend's coco locos were $23 each (for a two shot drink it seemed pricey but not unreasonably so.) My Galliano was listed as an Amaretto Disaronno but at $13 it did not seem unreasonable. I paid the bill via my bank card and left her just over 20% for a tip. We brought some leftovers home and today for lunch I reheated my fettucine boscaiola and noticed that it seemed like it was cemented to the plastic to go container they put it in. The liquid which was mostly fat was clear. When I rinsed the dish after, I filled the dish with cool water because they had shut our water off today to work on plumbing issues. I noticed that the fat floated to the surface and turned white which led me to believe that the sauce was made with lard, not butter. Perhaps that explained the off flavor of the dish. This dinner was on a Thursday evening and there was only one other couple in the place which seemed unusual because in the past when we've gone there it was almost always a full restaurant. The bar area was a bit loud but not crazy. I'm not certain we're going back there anytime soon as it was not as wonderful an experience as we had in the past though Mandi's service...