Bocelli

A low-​key, no frills, Italian restaurant with dated décor circa 1972 and a lot of regulars who have been probably been dining here with their families since Bocelli first opened its doors. The restaurant is somewhat small, but offers adequate seating spread out over two levels. The lower level has a function room available by reservation for large parties. A small bar is located on the upper level and serves until 1am. We reserved a spot at Bocelli for our annual Christmas dinner with friends and they graciously accommodated our party of 12 by pushing a few tables together. The lower level definitely feels like a basement and is a bit stuffy, yet sort of cozy in a way. I think I would have preferred the upper level which is more open and allows for more space between tables. However, we had a TV right above our corner last night which made all the Celtics fans in our party very happy.
Italian food is not my top fave, but every once in a while I don’t mind a heaping plate of chicken or eggplant smothered in sauce and cheese. The menu here at Bocelli consists of classic Italian fare at average prices. Entrees include a variety of pastas, chicken dishes, seafood, salads, barbecue, and pizza. The appetizer menu offers eggplant rollatine, fried calamari, mussels, and much more. I was not in the mood for a heavy meal of red sauce and cheese last night so I opted for the chicken piccata with a lemon and caper sauce. I recently discovered I am absolutely wild about those mysterious little flower buds and purposely seek out any meal prepared with capers. My meal was decent, the chicken slightly overcooked, but I really enjoyed the sauce. The other members of our party seemed pleased with their meals as well.
Our waitress was patient with our large group as we waited for late members to arrive and asked her to snap several photos. She was pleasant and efficient at her job, however seemed a bit overwhelmed or perhaps under some stress. I had hoped for a server with some more enthusiasm as it would have added to the spirit of our fun night out.
We had some unexpected guests at our table last night we will refer to as the fruit flies. These pesty little critters kept appearing and circling around our food. This did not leave a good impression for me and I was a bit concerned about where they might be coming from. I believe Bocelli was most likely a shining star (or perhaps five shining stars) back in the day, but if it does not hold sentimental value or fond family memories for you there are many better options in the area.

Great pizza, fettuccini Alfredo, eggplant parm, veal Marsala, calamari, fresh bread… This place is a hole in the wall, family run place. Amazing food! Give it a try!

I love this kind of restaurant; unchanged for decades it has the basic lived in look. Tables was a bit wobbly but nothing that a paper napkin under the leg could not fix, chairs are old but comfortable and the bathrooms are a bit used.
Service: Excellent. Our waitress was a hustler.
Parking: Challenging but manageable.
Atmosphere: Lively vibe; very casual
Drinks: My only complaint; a bit thin on the pour
Food: Excellent. The egg plant rotini and shrimp scampi appetizers were delicious. The veal piccata with sauté spinach was terrific. Portions are wonderful; not the over powering sizes that will put 10 lbs. on you but decent manageable portions.
Price: Reasonable.

This Place is the best Italian food north of the north end. It’s a great neighborhood hang out to catch up w/​friends & watch a game @ the bar or bring your family in & eat @ a booth, or date night downstairs in a dimly lit room. My Favorite rom @ Bocelli’s is their banquet room in the back downstairs. It’s great for any gathering or time. Private Bar plenty of room I have had & been to many party’s down there & have never had a bad experience. It’s a FAMILY run place & they are the nicest close nit family in Medford next to mine. They know how to treat a guest they anticipate your every need & are very attentive. They food is on point. It’s good Italian as good as you’ll find in the North End. The pies… are awesome. Love their style pizza
Best in city I’ll put their pie against Regina’s any day & they have a special $ 7 for a cheese Monday –Friday that’s a Family dinner done w/​a simple call on my home from work. They have catered many parties for me never let me down. I’m telling you this is an awesome spot to have in your hood.

Five stars for their pizza! Love this little place. Looking forward to going back for other food. The margarita pizza is awesome, especially with the tomato sauce base.

This family-​run restaurant is a hole in the wall treasure! Great, authentic food and friendly staff. They have a full bar and can make any drink you want. The portions are large enough to share among two people. The clams casino and shrimp grand marnier are delicious appetizers. My parents got the mussels marinara and shrimp scampi — excellent dishes! I tried the stuffed calamari. It was so good that I would get it again. Make sure to save room for the dessert because the flan/​caramel custard is delicious!

Love this place. Great neighborhood spot. Excellent food, reasonably priced. Obviously family owned and operated.

Been to Bocelli a ton of times in the last few years and this place is great. Chicken parm is phenomenal and the tiramisu is top notch. Wait staff is also very friendly. Highly recommend!

Fantastic Italian-​American food you don’t have to go to the north end for! Try the antipasto and plain cheese pizza (ask for it «well done» for a nice crispy crust), which is some of the best around.
All the classic mains are great and come with generous portions, and the homemade pasta is to die for. Don’t forget a cannoli!

The food is authentic with great service to match. My first time dining here was Sunday we were waited on by a pretty woman named Jessica. She was extremely pleasant and helpful. After letting her know it was our first time she excitedly explained some of the best and popular dishes from the menu and mouthed off a list of delishously sounding specials they were featuring. She gave us plently of time to decide what we wanted for dinner which was nice since we wanted to relax, eat, and enjoy the experience.
After she delivered our appitizers, by the way the zuchinni flowers and eggplant rolatine are amazing! She took our order. I opted for one of the specials the Chicken Marcemino it was to die for. Chicken, Eggplant, Prosciutto, Fusilli which they make there she told us… Simply put perfection on a plate. Everyones meal looked amazing. After she cleared our table she brought over the dessert menu and kindly suggested some of her favorite’s and even more off the menu items. We were just to filled up on food and wine. I must say if you want an authentic italian experience and dont want to pay $ 35 for valet in the north end go to Bocelli’s it was SO good we came back for more last night. To our surprise Jessica was working and was able to wait on us again.
My only suggestion to this place… Hire more help like Jessica and ditch the old lady Bartender from Sunday she was not too happy or polite the young Mediterranean girl from Friday at the bar was far more friendly and professional.
Will I be coming back??? Without a doubt YES and you should go too!

This place is very «meh.» Not horrible, but not great.
Our server was fast and friendly but seemed to lack basics. For example, when you ask if we need clean app plates and we say yes, that implies you should take away the dirty ones too.
My chicken parm was «very OK» … not bad, not great. My fiancé was not a fan of her calamari dish.
The décor is old. The bathroom had a lot of words carved into the door and it felt like one you’d see in a dive bar.

Love this place! Excellent food, consistently superb. Great menu and service. I highly recommend the eggplant rollatini and their sauce is killer. Pizza deals during the week that can’t be beat and the garden salad is full of amazingness.

Don’t be fooled by first glance– outstandingly fresh food and friendly service. I can’t eat gluten but they let me sub my pasta for spinach without even giving me a funny look! Last Saturday there was tableside accordion kicking things up a notch. I suggest sangria or chianti while you are there. Yummy!

My girlfriend and her friend just recently moved to Medford and we were looking for a good place to eat after a long day of moving things into their apartment.
We were promptly seated when we walked in and the place was pretty dead for a monday night. The waitress we had was a bit snarky and had a bit of an attitude towards us when asking about the menu. We ordered our food, and was given a bread basket. I will say the waiteress was quite good at bringing us fresh bread to eat while we waited for our food.
10 minutes past and my girlfriend and her friends food came out nice and hot. My pizza though was delayed and I was alerted that there was two separate kitchens and my pizza would be out shortly. I ended up waiting 20 minutes for my food and awkwardly sat their while the others ate. Finally the pizza came out, after the others ate and the waitress was not sorry and all she said was «well here you go, better late then never…»
The pizza was okay and a bit generic. My girlfriend and her friend enjoyed their pasta dishes at least.
The place is just okay. The atmosphere is okay if not too dark and old. Would I go back here? Probably not, there seems to be better choices in medford for food.

It is a sad day in my house hold and the house holds of other family members after our experience here last weekend. First off we have been going here since this was DePasquale’s and have grown up in South Medford. Most of my family has grown up here. What was a staple in the neighborhood for good food, service and atmosphere has now changed. We are accustomed to always having private parties here be it post funerals, christenings, birthdays, or just big family dinner’s out. Nick and the crew have always done us right.
Recently we arrived for a birthday dinner. The place was not that busy for a Sunday. We all walk in and the first thing we see is a gentleman at the bar who was pretty much passed out at the bar. Why was he served that much I have no idea, this is a family restaurant and I have been in the bar scene for over 12+ years.
Next we sit down. Our Waitress was a train wreck. TRAIN WRECK. Maybe she was drinking with the guy at the bar I don’t know, maybe she was extremely tired, sick, on pain meds but what I can tell you is that she should not have been waitressing let alone working in her condition. From that point forward the night went straight to hell. We had to get up and goto the bar to order more drinks as we were forgotten, then one app was forgotten and never brought out and of course there was a missing dinner. We had a person with a allergy and all they could eat is plain pasta with Olive Oil and Garlic. Pretty simple. Well I guess not as by the time we all ate the meal was never brought out. After multiple complaints LOUDLY I may add it comes out and it was under cooked. We got excuses from its cooking, to they changed the water, to flat out blaming another waitress for canceling the order.
To top it all off when complaining to the waitress her snark little attitude sealed the deal. If I was not with a large party I would have walked right out on this table and the tab. I blame allot of people for this poor outing but Nick is usually good about making things right and he could of cared less until we got up and left and came over with Limoncello Sorry Nick but too little too late.

Great neighborhood family Italian joint if you’re looking for decent food on the cheap.
The bread and olives are delicious, so make sure to get plenty of those. Pastas are consistently very good and just the right texture. Try the meatballs as well, I think they were great. Pizza is a little greasy but also decent. Chicken parm is one of their specialties and they do it well. The salads (I usually get the antipasto) are usually covered in too much dressing, but the ingredients taste fresh which is a big plus.
Definitely a no-​frills, neighborhood place. Service is decent but inconsistent. Do not expect a quiet meal as there is always plenty of chatter among the patrons and staff. The restaurant itself is clearly not particularly new.
Try their cannolis as well; just as good as Mike’s Pastries with a fraction of the wait.

The bread is fresh and the olives have a kick to them, just like the waitresses. The food is delicious and the service just as much. And the décor us reminiscent of a homegrown Italian joint with a big town feel. These are just a few of the impressions this restaurant is likely to leave you with.
¹⁰⁄₁₀ would do again.

Wow, this place has really gone downhill. It seriously used to be my favorite restaurant in the world, I’ve been about a dozen times, but the service is just ungodly awful now. None of the waitresses (and, yes, they’re all female) know anything about the menu. Once, we had to ask three times to get a drink menu, and the waitress gave us crap for it, like «why do you want a drink menu?»
They don’t know how to serve or pour wine at all — a lot of wrestling around with the corkscrew, and a «glug glug glug» into the glass, like they were pouring milk or something. One hour wait, from the time you’ve been seated to the time the food arrives, is the norm. Orders are forgotten, food is served completely out of order (one member of the party is always awkwardly watching while everyone eats). On the last trip here (with my boyfriend’s very very Italian father), we watched the waitress stand next to a plate of food that had the last entrée to be delivered to our table, and flirt with one of the kitchen guys for five minutes, before picking the plate up and delivering it.
You can forget about water glasses being filled, or a new bread basket being brought to the table during your hour-​long wait.
We’ve always tipped very well, we’ve always been polite, we’ve never raised a fuss, but this is the last straw. I don’t know how they’re hiring waitresses, but they seriously need to start doing a better job of it.

Very happy I decided to come to Bocelli. My family was visiting from out of town and wanted Italian, and just having moved to Medford, I figured I would Unilocal it, and the reviews are correct! As an Italian American and a native New Yorker, I do like to think I know Italian food, and I can be a bit of a snob about it, but this place did not disappoint. When you first go inside, it seems kind of small– the dining areas we saw when we first walked in were both packed, one with a private party, but there is a huge downstairs area with a dining area and another banquet room, that was also filled with another private party! 2 private parties on a Thursday night!
Our waitress was very sweet and funny, and a great waitress. Made great recommendations. I just wish I remembered her name. We ordered calamari as an appetizer and it was great. I ordered the chicken parm and it was phenomenal. The cutlet was perfectly fried and not soggy and the cheese was perfectly crusted/​melty on top. My mom ordered a veal dish and said it was terrific. Everyone else at the table enjoyed their food. We all left very full.
It was great because it felt like a «real» Italian restaurant, if you know what I mean. Not a place trying to pass off some fancy, gourmet or fusion style dishes. This was authentic southern Italian food. Great meats and a great sauce can be hard to come by but Bocelli had it.

Italian food is not something I go out for, it’s easy to make at home so I don’t ever seek it out.
Bocelli was a pick for an after work dinner by a couple of my office ladies. What a cute place! It feels like going over your Italian grandmother’s house for Sunday dinner, no matter what day of the week it is. I had the Chicken Piccata and it did not disappoint.
One thing that deserves a special mention: BEST ESPRESSO MARTINI EVER, holy crap.