Cantina Italiana
Restaurants in Boston, MA
Restaurants • Italian Restaurants
Restaurants in Boston, MA
Restaurants • Italian Restaurants
346 Hanover St.,
Boston ,
MA
02113
UNITED STATES
617-723-4577
Based on 20 reviews
617-723-4577
Not bad at all but nothing special
I went here for Valentine's Day with my girlfriend expecting something completely different. Their website makes the restaurant out to be a very romantic restaurant. It wasn't necessarily a bad place to eat however it is not that romantic and actually the seating and the number board on the wall almost remind me of a fancy cafeteria setting.
617-723-4577
Best Restaurant in The North End
Yummmmm...the thought of Cantina Italiana makes my mouth water! I tried this restaurant during one of my first Boston trips (I now live here year round). Anyway, I was looking for something average. I...
617-723-4577
I love their gnocchi!
This restaurant is excellent. While it can take a little bit to get an order the food is well worth the wait and well... i love love their gnocchi!! the staff are very friendly and add to the dining experience!
617-723-4577
Old School should teach New School
This is not where you take someone looking for the trendy new thing. This is where you take the person who will only eat old school italian, but you also want something good. The food is good, the prices are reasonable, the service is as friendly as it gets. Cantina is what the North End is all about - but don't waste your time on the desserts.
617-723-4577
Traditional Italian
Very good traditional fare here. The place is known for its red sauce, and that is well warranted. It is a lot like Mother Anna's with similar menu selections and prices. It is right on Hanover St., so it makes for a great walk after dinner. Great spot for hitting that craving of a traditional Italian meal. Pretty crowded, but owner pays each table a visit.
617-723-4577
Impressive
I went here to celebrate my birthday. The host was wonderful. Atmosphere impeccable. However, it took a while for the waiters to serve us. The bread could have been a little warmer. The calamari for appetizers was not fried, much to our disappointment. It was decent- it was sauteed and topped with a red sauce. The chicken and broccoli with ziti is good.
617-723-4577
A good experience
I was fairly impressed with the food and service of Cantina Italiana. The veal parm. had a lot of kick and flavor to it and was very tender. The waiter was polite and knowledgable, and the overall atmosphere had a good feel. There wasn't much unique about the place, but it was better than a lot of other North End restaurants I've tried, so I would consider going back.
617-723-4577
Not "nokies"!
617-723-4577
Bad experience with Waitstaff
I went to the Cantina to celebrate my birthday. What a disappointment! When asked about wines the waiter did not know what he was talking about so pointed to the highest priced wine. When ordering our dinners he asked he we wanted a "SIDE"" Of pasta but conviently forgot to ask which size we wanted (neither of which were listed on the menu). When the side came it was about what we expected but when the bill came we found out that the SIDE OF PASTA was as much as our VEAL DINNERS! We asked the manager about the side of pasta who did take it off the bill.when the waiter came back over to give us our new bill he did nothing to even acknowledge that he had made a mistake. No apology, NOTHING! He didn't even look at us but slammed the bill down and walked away.
617-723-4577
All around greatness@!
Cantina Italiana is a great place for dinner. I've gone on many occasions with friends and also with my husband and have yet to have a bad experience. The hostess(es) have always been pleasant, the wait staff has always been very efficient and the food is always top notch. On top of all this, I think the prices are most reasonable for the atmosphere. Also, it is great because it is one of the few places with a reasonable valet service.
617-723-4577
Not recommended for families
This restaurant offers good food in small overpriced portions. Unlike most restaurants in the North End (which are generally overpriced compared to their peers outside of Boston), they do not offer pasta as an accompaniment to the meal but as as an ala carte. The waiter was indifferent to the fact that we came with a family and it seemed clear that this was not their preferred clientele. There are much better deals with larger, more reasonably priced portions in family friendly settings in the North End.
617-723-4577
Poor Service, Average Food
We went on a Saturday night and made reservations earlier in the day for 8:30pm. When making the reservation, I told the manager that we had a 10:30 show to attend and he said that shouldn't be a problem. We ended up waiting an hour for a table and not sitting till 9:30pm. They kept giving us the same line that we were the next table. If they had told us the truth, I would have gone elsewhere to eat. Not all was bad, the appetizers and the waitor were very good. The main course dishes were average and overpriced. Their are much better places in the North End for food than this one. I would recommend going elsewhere.
617-723-4577
Good Food but a Little "Buggy"
I have been goign here for a few years now, and the food has alwasy been outstanding. The last and final time i went there was with my oarents visting from CT. As we were sitting in a booth my mother noticed a cockroach!! commign out of the gap. We are all very disgusted. My father then tapped the wall with his hand in attempt to scare it back into the wall.. 3! more came out!
617-723-4577
Don't be fooled by the tacky neon side outside! The food is excellent!
I actually found out about Cantina Italiana on Citysearch and decided to give it a try despite having some negative reviews. I am so happy that I went. My boyfriend and I regularly went to Cantina while we lived in Boston and make sure that we go there whenever we are back in Boston visiting. The lobster ravioli, fresh mozzarella, and fried calamari appetizers are all excellent. The bomboloti pasta with spicy sausage and goat cheese is a unique variation on the traditional baked ziti and I get it every time! They also have some great seafood dishes with scallops and shrimp. Anyone who knows Italian food can really appreciate the great food. And don't be fooled by the "small" portions - I thought the plate looked small but the food is so rich that you'll find it difficult to finish and end up taking it home. Also really nice is that they serve fresh bread with a different olive oil each night - flavored olive oils from spicy peppers to simple garlic. The only thing that I have ever had that I did not enjoy was the cannoli, but that was because I was expecting sugar cream, not traditional Italian-ricotta style.
617-723-4577
Awesome homemade pasta
We went to Cantina Italiana last weekend because we'd never been there before and were hosting some out-of-town guests. We were all pleasantly surprised by how good the food is at this restaurant. The homemade pasta is excellent, including the fusilli. Our service was sporadic, but it was very busy.
617-723-4577
Below Average Quality, Overpriced
I have been to this Restaurant 3 times, the first 2 times the food was good but the last experience was one of the worst I have had in any restaurant, rude waiter and terrible food. While the food was good the first 2 times, it is still overpriced. Not every restaurant in the north end has good Italian food, this one may vary on the day, you may have a good experience in one day and a bad one on another, but regardless, it is overpriced, you can get cheaper/better quality Italian food in a local restaurant or even Carrabbas.
617-723-4577
North End disaster
We made a reservation for 8:30 on Saturday night and were still waiting for a table by 9:15. Other patrons near the bar were annoyed with the wait when they made reservations as the hostess and manager sat other walk-ins. When I told the hostess to take off our reservation she rolled her eye's at me.
617-723-4577
Average Food, High Prices
Just moved up from New Orleans. Expected more, but I guess I'm spoiled. (New Yorker too). The place was as authentic as you can get, complete with live accordian music, but we had the cold antipasto, gnocci and rissotto procini. The rissotto was dry, and the gnocci's sauce was flat and uninspired..
617-723-4577
COULD BE THE BEST DINER I HAVE EVER HAD!!!!
Amazing from the service to the desert I don't think it could have got much better. This restaurant is reasonably priced with a great wine list. I would recommend this to anyone who likes magnificent Italian food. The last meal I had that was this good was in Italy... Cantina has a real home time feel with all the detail to fine cooking..... The staff was amazingly helpful and prompt. The manager was generally concerned about our experience and it clearly rubbed off on her staff. I think her name was Tricia (Cute too). It was nice to enjoy a great meal with great service for a change.
617-723-4577
Disappointing and Dirty
We were visiting Boston and were looking for a good Italian meal for lunch. We were very disappointed in Cantina Italiana. Our waiter was very cold and rude. He barely smiled or said a polite word. The food was equally disappointing. Our bread tasted like stale grocery store bread. My husband's pasta and sausage dish was just a step above Chef Boy-ar-dee and my chicken and pasta in a white wine sauce was not much better than something I throw together on a busy week night. The bathroom was filthy, especially for such a pricey restaurant. I have seen cleaner bathrooms in Denny's, Overall, this was not worth the money and left us with a bad taste. There were so many other restaurants in the area that we wish we had made a different choice. We are really not picky diners and are usually quite satisfied with restaurants, but this was the exception for us.Worldwide > United States > Boston, MA > Restaurants