Cantina Italiana

Fairly conventional North End Italian place, where checkered tablecloths wouldn’t be wholly out of place.
Very friendly and efficient server, who had excellent command of Italian inflection on top of an easily-​placed eastern Mass. speech pattern. She went back and forth between the two quite effortlessly, but still with humility.
Food was fine, if not quite special-​occasion worthy. Cozze were a bit on the scrawny side, but cheery cherry tomatoes enlivened the broth nicely, making for an overall satisfying rendition of the classic appetizer. Entrée of fusilli with broccoli rabe and sausage, again, lacked boldness. When done properly the natural bitterness of the green folds very well into a flavorful whole sausage link. But here everything was chopped up and swimming in the deep end of a pool of oil and garlic, robbing the dish of its potential for big flavors battling for supremacy on your palette. It was as though each were happy to settle for a tie.
Very well lit dining room, tables a bit on the cramped side. In sum, not much razzle-​dazzle in the playbook, but an awareness that with classic Italian cuisine there’s never going to be much of a downside.

Disappointing. Came in for a light lunch and their salads were just sad. Dripping wet and soggy, served with watered down vinegar dressing. Caprese was not good. Poor quality mozzarella and tomatoes. Maybe their hot food is better but don’t come in for anything light and fresh.

You won’t regret choosing Cantina Italiana for dinner while in the North End. This is by far our favorite restaurant. We’ve been coming for years and have never left disappointed. We were there last night for an early New Year’s dinner. The restaurant was bustling and the service was excellent, as always. My husband got the Tagliatelle with a side of sausage and I got the Pollo Abruzesse (chicken broccoli and ziti). Our food was absolutely delicious, again, as always. Over the years, we’ve gotten to know some of the excellent wait staff and two of our favorites are Lucy and Omar who help to make every visit an enjoyable and memorable experience. While the food is exceptional, it is also the personal touch and friendliness of their wait staff that makes any trip to Cantina feel like coming home to family.

I’m not exaggerating, this is exactly what happened last night. We showed up for a 6pm reservation last night with a party of 9. One of our guests was late looking for parking but made it clear to us to order so we didn’t have to wait. It was 40degrees outside and our table was under an air conditioner that was blasting directly at me on the table. When I mentioned that I was freezing all I got was an explanation that this is «…simply what we do at the restaurant.» I didn’t get an offer for them to turn it off or anything. I was literally freezing and uncomfortable the entire dinner.
We had zero attention from our waitress and didn’t get a drink order in until 6:15 (15mins after sitting down). We didn’t even get bread or anything. Being completely starved I asked if they had bread (I saw them on all other tables) and I got a foggy response from the waitress. We finally got our bread at 6:45pm. After dropping the bread, the waitress said «I just have to greet the new table behind you, I’ll do their drinks and then I’ll take your order.» She ended up doing the complete opposite. The table behind us that sat 20mins after we did, got their drink order, and food put in before us. This really pissed off our table because we were STARVING and the expectations that the waitress set was horribly wrong. I turned around to try and make eye contact with our waitress but she was clearly avoiding us.
Finally she comes by and takes our food order. 7:20, we’ve been sitting down for an hour and 20mins and our appetizers were already ice cold from sitting out for over 40mins and no one clearing out table. We also didn’t get an offer for more drinks either.
By 8pm, The table behind us was eating comfortably and our food was no where to be found. At this point we had enough and went to talk to the manager. We simply explained that we were sitting there for 2hrs, service has been beyond horrendous, and the table behind us that showed up 20mins after us got their food and we still haven’t even gotten ours yet. We were all starving. The manager sent over another waitress to help, as if it was really busy back there. It was busy. But every other table seemed to have good service, food and drinks in ample time, and attention, except for ours. Finally we got our food and I can’t tell you truthfully how it tasted because we were all starved to death and ate it so fast.
To make matters worse, the waitress came by after dropping our food and asked us if everything was ok. We told her about the service being horrible. And instead of saying it was wrong and she messed up, she blamed the member of our party who showed up later. (He showed up at 630 service was horrible the entire duration of our dinner even after he showed up.) this made me really upset because the member of our party started to feel bad because he thought everything was his fault. At this point I was really pissed off and interrupted the waitress to make a point to the gentleman at our table that just received blame for bad service. «This is NOT your fault. They are blaming you for their bad service» it was awkward but the waitress should’ve taken responsibility instead of blaming others for her horrible service.
I’ll give this place 1 star because the food seemed good but the service was so bad that we couldn’t recover from how disappointed we were in the overall experience. And the AC (in December) was blasting the entire time, I looked like an Eskimo after the dinner was over.
I get that north end is busy. Especially on a Saturday night. And we’re not asking for any special treatment. Just to be served as anyone else would when spending money and wanting to eat away from home with friends.
Overall the experience and the service was horrible. Borderline insulting. I will not be back.

The food was ok. The service was ok. We went in because we needed to eat after the Columbus Day Parade just out front of this restaurant. We enjoyed the Boston Italian accent from our server.

My aunt came to this place 5 years ago and we searched for it that’s how good it is!
Just walking in the streets of the North End you can smell the delicious scent of Italian food. I’m sure there are a few amazing places but this is our favorite! It a quaint romantic feel. You walk into a dimly lit bar then walk through to the dinning room lined with booths and linen table cloths.
For dinner I had the chicken Parmesan with penne. We were served bread with the best olive oil! Just like in Italy. When the food came the plate was massive! The chicken was thinly cut and breaded. The sauce, perfection! One of the best meals! I wish I could have taken leftovers since there was so much food but I had to leave room for dessert!
I saw the table next to us order tiramisu and knew I had to have it! The cream was so good! The lady fingers were not soggy but not impossible to bite through, just right!

Sorry fellas, but it was bad. Food is not delicious to the price, service is very bad in conversation especially. I’m in bad mood after that.

Very disappointed! I went there to have a dinner with my family. I brought my baby girl with me and I needed to change her diaper, however they DON’T HAVE DIAPER CHANGE STATIONS! how come a restaurant have an approved inspection without a diaper change station? WEIRD! I ordered a pasta aragoni (borbondeli) the name was something like that, it was $ 28 and was supposed to come with clams, scallops, lobster and shrimp! The pasta came just with lobster and shrimp!!! I just realized that when i left the restaurant and saw the other reviews on Unilocal!I will never come back to this restaurant again!

Delicious eggplant parm! The chicken parm looked great too. I had a delicious strawberry Bellini made with Prosecco and strawberry purée, I also tried the pineapple mojito which was great as well. Our server was wonderful, such a gentleman and very attentive without overdoing it. I would have to come back and try a couple more things in order to give it 5 stars, but I’m sure I’ll be back sooner rather than later!

lunch recently, we got a nice seat in the window with a good people view… the bar is wine beer and liqueurs so we ordered some different styles of drinks, expresso martini was very good and cantina martini interesting… we were invaded by a north end tour group that sort of separated us from the bar so our drinks and food had to be passed by some tour groupers that were sitting at the bar… actually the tour sounded pretty interesting… the mussels were ok as was the chicken parm, somewhat disaappointing for what we expected. Nice place, ok food.

This restaurant recommended by a local, makes it a best kept secret. Open on 1932 by a family from Avelline Italy. Wonderful food and ambience. Locally owned is a most visitTHE BEST TIRAMISU

We visited Cantina Italiana per recommendation of AAA Tourbook. Cantina Italiana offers authentic classic Italian cuisine. Some entrees make use of local favourite ingredients, such as Littleneck clams. The food we ordered tasted good. The overall impression of quality was solid if average. Unsurprisingly, they made a good red sauce. The food was a bit pricey to me, though it might be because the cost of living in Boston is quite high. Alternatively, Cantina Italiana may indeed be over priced. I can’t tell for sure, because I am not from local.
I don’t pay attention to reviewers who complained that the food was not contemporary. Cantina Italiana has been at a historic location since 1931. It makes sense that most customers, especially tourists, expect classic Italian food here. Let the new businesses on the block make up contemporary dishes.

Excellent… make reservations you will not be disappointed. Very fresh authentic Italian food at its best. Fantastic professional service.

I’ve been coming to Cantina Italiana for years now.
This has become one of our default standbys in the North End,
especially when going out with family from out of town. We’ve rarely
had to wait in line (which when you are dealing with family…)
The food.
It’s certainly not nouveau, experimental or trendy. But it is a solid/​consistent offering.
It is tasty, traditional, flavourful stick-​to-​your-​ribs Italian. There’s something on the menu that
will appease even the fussiest eaters (grandpas and little kids). I’m not Italian, but I imagine it’s
not far off from what someone’s Italian grandmother might make for a Sunday dinner.
The service is good. Waiters are knowledgeable of the menu, attentive and non-​intrusive. It also helps that they throw on the thick Italian accent which adds to the experience of the meal.
If you are looking for something more trendy, romantic or progressive menu wise; there are several good options close by.
If you are looking for good solid traditional Italian fare, then this is worth the price of admission.

Oddly, about the foremost reason my companion and I swung by Cantina Italiana was time. We were about to catch a plane to Portugal (the Azores to be specific), had about three hours before takeoff, and right within out immediate field of vision was Cantina Italiana. In hindsight, I am glad we did. Coming from the West Coast, great Italian restaurants aren’t easy to come by, especially in the Pacific Northwest.
I don’t remember the name of my dish, but the sauce was tomato-​based, the pasta homemade, and the protein a combination of all the high-​end stuff that comes out of the ocean – scallops, lobster, some whitefish. Although it was more than I should have eaten, letting something so delicious go untouched would have been criminal. Ditto for my companion’s wild mushroom risotto. Our dessert sampler was awesome.
Our waitress forgot to bring my amaretto, which wasn’t a big deal. But as I exited the restaurant she yelled for me to come back, and pushed a very generous shot in front of me, compliments of the house. Now that is service!
Just go.

My partner and I found this place while walking the Freedom Trail in Boston.
We wanted good Italian for lunch but many places charged the same price for lunch and dinner. This place had reasonable lunch prices and a charming atmosphere.
We arrived at 145pm on a Friday so there were only a handful of people seated.
We ordered the calamari appetizer and it was delicious. Fresh with good seasoning.
My partner ordered the chicken parmigiana and I had the pizzeta Quattro stagioni.
Both were excellent!
The best pizzas are made with farina from Italy and this tasted like it was made with that key ingredient. The crust was thin and crisp, the kind that results from a terra cotta oven.
Antonella was our server and was excellent!
A very pleasant lunch experience!!!

I recently moved to Boston and this was the first Italian restaurant I went to.
Food: Spaghetti allio Scoglio was decent. It was too watery, making it lack flavor. The cheese helped flavor it a little bit, but it still was just ok.
Service: Good. Frequently walked by to ask if we needed anything and never failed to fill our glasses of water.
There was nothing from dinner that wanted me want to come back here again. Would venture out to the other Italian restaurants in the North End.

The food was creative and delicious. I found the service to be spot on. The prices were reasonable. The ONLY reason I am giving this restaurant 4 stars is because of the noise level. I could not even hear my friend across the table talking. I don’t mind a busy restaurant, obviously, but the noise level was the equivalent of a packed bar at 1am. I have to say the tables felt private though, but if you’re looking for a romantic date restaurant this would not be it.

(October 24, 2014)
Bad. Bad Italian. With no flavor. Over priced.
Honestly, it was tough to find a place to eat in this part of Boston for lunch, and we sure did not pick a good one. We thought you cannot truly mess up pasta, but even the salt shaker on the table couldnt bring this pasta back to life. Service was awkward. Not sure if I would call this a tourist trap, but we felt trapped.
Not much more to review. Hoping it was a bad day and we caught them off guard… but I wont be going back to find out!

This place was one of very few restaurants in the North End still seating for Friday night dinner service. Need I say more?
The food was pretty unremarkable, which was sad because the prices were not (average price of $ 13 per appetizer, $ 20+ per entrée). We ordered three appetizers to share:
Crostini e Gamberi
Calamari Fritti
Meatballs
All three were quite bland. The calamari was not crispy and the vegetables that came with the crostini were a bit greasy. I have had better meatballs heating up frozen ones at home.
Our waiter attitude was also not very welcoming. I don’t think he smiled even once, and his tone of voice was quite curt. I have been to many restaurants around Boston, and this was one of my most negative experiences with a wait staff. Looking at other peoples’ reviews, it seems like this place has a pattern of being discourteous to customers.
Overall, nothing remarkable. There are better options in the area.