Arturo's Ristorante — Restaurant in Westborough

Amazing staff, food, experience and environment! My Fiancée and I had the pleasure to dine at this establishment quite a few times in the past. We live in Marlborough MA, and are a huge fan of the Phantom gourmet. We saw the restaurant on the show and had to try it out. That was 2 years ago. It was an amazing pleasure. We have been back a few times and every time everything was on point from the service to the food.

This year we wanted to go here for Valentine’s Day. I quickly made a reservation on open table on January 22nd. I know it stated booths are limited on this day but I asked if we could get a booth seat anyway. We were so excited. I get a call on Valentine’s Day from a very nice lady (I forgot her name) she stated that unfortunately there are no booths available because you just made the reservation last night. I was a little taken back and asked how was this possible? I made the reservation a while ago on open table, not last night. She apologized up and down. As the conversation ended I hung up the phone confused. I looked up my reservations and noticed I booked it January 22nd. I called the restaurant again and got the same hostess lady. I said I am just confused was it open tables fault that they sent you a notification the day of or last night? I really did book this on January 22nd. She explained a few things in an awesome way and stated next time book it on open table and call the restaurant too to guarantee you get a booth seat. I said no problem thanks again for the explanation and look forward for tonight. She again was very nice.

Our reservations were at 6:45pm. We headed to the restaurant and were a little late do to a traffic jam from an accident on the way there. (Everyone was ok.) We called the restaurant to state we were going to be 10-15 mins late and Dominic answered the phone. He said no worries we will have a table for you. I will leave a note in our system. We got there and there were a lot of people waiting for a seat. The restaurant smelled amazing and was very busy. We saw the nice host lady and got seated in a booth right away. I was impressed. Not only that but the manager Dan came over to our booth. He shook my hand introduced himself. He apologized up and down for the mix up about the booth tables. He said I was right and it was a little mix up on their end. I thought it was a nice touch.

Our waiter was also amazing. His name is John. He told us the specials and got us our drinks and bread right away. We order the antipasti and main entrees. We really enjoyed his great smile and he was very professional. We enjoyed about 2 hours in the restaurant and everyone was so nice. We got the blueberry cheesecake dessert and it came with 2 shots of Moscato wine! At the end he gave us 2 roses which I though was an amazing touch (It was Valentine’s day).

If you’re looking for a good quality place to go with a loved one or even family try this place. It has amazing good quality food, amazing professional personal service...

In a word: Pretentious.

I'm fairly certain this is one of the more expensive restaurants in the area. But IMO, they don't live up to that.

I tried Arturo's years ago and found them to be pretentious but mediocre at best. Some time having past since then, I decided to try them again. Wishful thinking on my part.

When we arrived they seemed pretty busy (which, at the end of our dinner, puzzled me.) I ordered a diet coke, which came to me completely flat. I asked the waiter to take it back. He told me he'd try a different spout in the restaurant, but if it was also flat, "...there's nothing I can do about it." Sure enough, it was just as flat as the first. Basically water with diet coke syrup mixed in (yuck). Soda is supposed to be carbonated. The takeaway message was "we don't really care enough to address it." I tried the water and it tasted terrible (just tap water served in a bottle to look fancy?) I finally ended up ordering a bottled beer, knowing they couldn't mess that up as long as it was cold.

This being an "Italian" restaurant, I was looking forward to some nice Italian bread with a good crust. Nope. Slices of sourdough bread with soft crusts. Everybody likes sourdough bread, right?

My daughter ordered arancini for an appetizer. They were just OK (not up to the pricing, IMO).

On to the entrees. We had to use our phones to look at menus. I swiped through a few screens, looking for something "safe" (i.e., easy to make). All the photos exuded pretentiousness, with the food "artistically" arranged. The place just didn't live up to that façade. I opted for the Veal Piccata which was shown as having a broccoli side. When it arrived, the side was sweet potato, which I do not like at all. I figured they must be out of broccoli, so kept my mouth shut. But my wife spoke up, after which someone brought me a dish of broccoli. So why the switch? In retrospect, I found that to be a bit unprofessional...if you're going to make me order my entrée by looking at a picture, then give me what's in the picture. Had the picture shown sweet potatoes I would have passed, or at least asked for a substitute ahead of time.

My wife ordered the chicken parmesan. My judge of an Italian restaurant is the taste of their pasta sauce. Arturo's' sauce was the typical fail: it tasted like warmed-up crushed tomatoes with some spices thrown in. Basically, not cooked long enough. I grew up in an Italian family and learned that good sauce must be cooked for hours. Their sauce tasted like it was cooked for 30 minutes.

Thankfully, my piccata was fairly decent, albeit quite salty. (I realize that piccata tends to be salty due to the capers, but this was over the top.)

Overall, at this price point, I was disappointed. My piccata saved me from giving them one star. Maybe if I just give them another...

As usual we had a very delicious dinner at Arturo’s. But tonight my friend and I were made to feel unimportant as guests by Diana (hostess) and Jenna (manager). We were so annoyed that we both wished that we could have gone someplace else. Which is too bad because Arturo’s is one of our favorites. I’ve been coming to Arturo’s for decades and have had functions here and they have never come across as pretentious as they did tonight.

When my friend and I were shown to our table, it was a table for 4 but was set up for 2. The 2 chairs were placed across from each other. It was obvious that our table was “squeezed” in. Instead of sitting across from my friend while we caught up, I moved my chair to the side of the table that is next to her. Because I notice that our table was set for two, after our waitress Tess (who was great) took our drinks and appetizer order, I mentioned to her that if anything I will only need a chair for a third person to join us when he was done with dinner with his friends. I told Tess that he would be done eating and that he may not show up until later when our dinner is over. If anything he may order a drink or dessert. After that request our table was visited first by Diana (the hostess) and then Jenna (restaurant manager) both letting us know that our table was set for 2 and that they may not be able to accommodate a 3rd person. She said if they put a chair in the spot across from my friend other guests would feel tight. Not caring that our table for 4 is only allowed to seat 2 because of all the other tables they squeezed in around us. I explained to Jenna that where she didn’t want to put a chair for the third person was where my chair was until I moved it. Looking annoyed and without saying anything, Jenna, pulled a chair from an empty table into that spot. I’m not sure why a request to replace a chair needed the hostess and the restaurant manager to resolve? Why were we made to feel like we’re asking for something that’s unreasonable. This should have been a nice dinner that became an experience that left a bad taste on good food.

We had the Arugula Pizza as our appetizer. For dinner I had their fish special I which was baked cod en cocotte with tomato, artichoke, spinach, fontina cheese, herb parmesan crumbs, garlic and white wine. Served with Basil pesto mashed potatoes and julienne mixed vegetables. The portion was generous and flavor was light and delicious. I did asked for this dish to be served without the herb Parmesan crumbs. My friend ordered veal piccata. She said her dinner was very good as well and would recommend it to anyone who likes piccata. For dessert I had their carrot cake and my friend had their limoncello cake. Arturo’s serves Harney...