I’m taking a short trip up there, and always liked walking around that area - any recommendations for Italian restaurants with decent wine lists?
Neptune Oyster
Pomodoro (no web site). NOT Pasta e Pomodoro; just Pomodoro, on Hanover. Next door is Daily Catch (www.dailycatch.com), which does Sicilian-themed seafood. Better wine at Pomodoro (I remember nothing about wine at Daily Catch). I believe cash only at both places.
Neptune Oyster has a marvelous wine list.
The menu didn’t look very Italian, Ron. But the next time I ask for a seafood restaurant in Boston, I’ll keep it in mind ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
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It is Italian (Sicilian) seafood.
Ron, you’d never know that as an out-of-towner looking at the menu (or the reviews on their website, for that matter) - the main thing the reviews seem to focus on is the raw bar.
Neptune Oyster isn’t exactly Italian, but it isn’t exactly not Italian either. It’s one of the few North End restaurants I’m comfortable recommending (I wrote a “how to” on Neptune in one of these threads, specifically strategies for dealing with the wait).
I love the North End for Salumeria Italiano (just off Hanover), and Bricco Panetteria/Bricco Salumeria and Pasta Shop (both down the same alley off Hanover). But I don’t recommend Bricco Restaurant.
Prezza has a good wine list and service, but inconsistent food. Mamma Maria has a decent list but bottles come to the table shockingly warm. The food at Mamma Maria is more consistent than Prezza but also a bit more traditional (possibly boring). It’s like that French place that still features canard a l’orange, but I’ve found their osso bucco and rabbit to be consistently good.
Honestly, Boston’s quite good for Italian-American food; not so much for Italian food. My current favorite Italian restaurants are Ribelle (Brookline) and Erbaluce (Bay Village). Both are unusual and not to all tastes, to be sure. Ribelle has an excellent wine program, especially if you’re into off-the-beaten track bottles, and is headed by one of our best home town chefs (apprenticed with David Chang and also spent time at Del Posto).
I ended up hitting Pomodoro on Monday and Trattoria il Panino on Tuesday - both meals were very good. I think my wife had clams and linguini both nights, and on Tuesday, I had an “all meat” dish with sausage, meat ball, brasciola and short ribs in a ragu that was deelish. I liked il Panino’s by the glass wine list a little better than Pomodoro’s, although Pomodoro was more convenient to Mike’s & Modern for our obligatory dessert cannoli .
Cantina has a signed photo of Bruno Sammartino on the wall.
If you know Modern’s cannoli, I’m not sure how you could mention Mike’s in the same sentence!!
Thanks for the review - especially on Pomodoro, which I’ve heard about. I know I’m late with the recommendation, but if you like nothern Rhone wine’s, Prezza has a very impressive wine list, and good food too. But if I’m splurging on wine, I just go to Troquet.
Three young Colombianas with knives behind the raw bar at Neptune’s Oyster, which guy is it that has a knife fetish around here?