Armani Cafe

This is a place to go if you want to be seen, but it mostly stops there. Of the two meals I ate (and tasted), one was pretty good. The other was average. When the bill came, you would have expected both to be amazing. There appeared to be A LOT of posers here with fake Gucci bags. Come on! I won’t say the food was horrible b/​c it was not! But mostly, you are paying for a name here. If you’re really about the food and atmosphere, you can find both somewhere else. If you’re about being «seen» with your fake bag and spending a lot of money, then you should come here.
(I must say the wait staff was amazing)

This café is classy and has an elegant atmosphere. It’s great to take your friends for an afternoon on Newbury Street.
I especially like their pasta dishes. The thin spaghetti is actually pretty tasty.
Valet is super convenient, considering that the restaurant is in the middle of Newbury Street.

I went to the Armani Café on a Thursday night and had the exact type of experience you might expect from a pretentious Newbury café named after Armani. The food is expensive and not worth the price. The setting is awesome, being right on the street, providing ample people watching opportunities. The service was acceptable, judged by the fact that my water glass never went dry. All in all, I would suggest the Armani Café when you have some out of towners you need to entertain, but might head towards somewhere with a better menu on an average night.

Are you a man who likes his nipples to be as visible through his shirt as possible? Well park the ferrari out front Hans, and make sure you linger by it long enough for people to see you.

Eh… only come here if you want to have a fun night of mocking pretentious BU kids (you know who you are). Here you will see huge sunglasses (maybe even at night), greasy hair, huge Gucci bags and Tiffany bracelets.
If you’re going to eat here, the upstairs is far more romantic than the downstairs patio. The two items I always got were the arugula salad and flatbread pizza. Dessert is pretty good too (chocolate box cake… and yes, you can eat the box). Servers are beautiful, but equally as pretentious as guests. Oh geez…

«My bagel has a first name, it’s Ehy Arrr Emm Enn EEie Eye»… «My bagel has a second name it’s FRIGGIN PRETENTIOUS!»
I crack up everytime I walk by here. It’s like the wanna be rolex and lamborgini crowd sitting out side with the one dude that can afford it and has such a complex that it makes him feel good to park it out front. Granted, if I had a Ferrari or Lambo, I’d probably sleep in it and demand curb side service on Newbury St so I’d never have to leave it, but you’re also talking about one of the biggest car nuts onthe planet (me).
I’ve only eatten at Armani once, it was decent, but nothing great. It was worth it for the experience, I’ve never laughed harder at some of the cheese balls and glamour girls around here. It’s sad how many people will eat, drink, buy, play, sleep with, covet, or envy anything with a label. A name will never substitute value and good quality.
With all that said… You’re options for out door seating on Newbury is limited, the service is very good here, and the prices aren’t too obtrusive. If you’re sick of stephanie’s and want a good laugh– check out Armani.

LOVE the location, the décor, and sitting outside on a nice summers day. It’s overpriced but the food is pretty good and I just like getting desserts and drinks and occasionally one of their pizzas (they’re good!)

You couldn’t pay me to be seen at Armani Café.
Like another reviewer stated, if you live in the neighborhood, this place is such a joke.
Overpriced, attitude, tourist trap, wannabes, … the list goes on.
No thank you!

Armani café reminds me of lincoln drive in miami! You can sit outside, and enjoy a nice brunch, lunch, early dinner, champagne. Its a great place to sit and people watch. Its a good place to hit while you are shopping and want to relax. The crowd is primarily studenty and foreign. Its refreshing.

Eh… this isn’t anything special. I went for an early dinner on a Saturday night — not my choice, but my friend wanted to go because apparently they might be closing soon. The wait wasn’t bad, just about 20 minutes or so, but two tables opened up as we were about to be seated, a prime one in the window and one in the back, and the hostess gave the window table to the people behind us after they stepped in and gave her a hard time. Rawr… that’ll teach me not to be so easygoing and un-​pushy.
I was surprised at the relatively untrendy clientele, especially after reading some of the other reviews, but it may have been more touristy given the time of day. It definitely didn’t have the see-​and-​be-​seen atmosphere that I was expecting, and people were definitely not dressed to impress by any stretch of the imagination. The food was not bad. I had the shrimp and white bean salad, which was quite good but could easily be thrown together at home for much less money, and my friend had some salad with hearts of palm that she said was very good too. We stuck with Pellegrino, so no comment on the wine selection. However, they did commit the ultimate bread bowl pet peeve: three slices for two people. Why? Total slices of bread should always be evenly divisible by number of diners, in my humble opinion.
Anyway, I wasn’t exactly disappointed with the experience, but I am in no hurry to go back.

Clearly this is a place for people who cannot afford Armani clothes so they eat at the café instead, living vicariously through the shoppers that have to walk through them (if they are on the patio) to get into the store. The menu is lame, but that is typical of most Newbury Street restaurants where there is a captive audience of tourists and suburban people who don’t know that there are better food options nearby. The inside is suprisingly styleless for a place using the name of a famous designer. Overall, terrible and pretentious.

Wow, very strange reviews on this one. Armani café is TERRIBLE. The food is overpriced and not particularly good; the drinks are likewise ridiculously expensive and poorly made. The service is actually alright but the crowd is very bad, mainly young foreign students and tourists. The truth is that Armani Café is a bit of a running joke among those who live in the area. Though it has to be admitted that there are few decent choices on Newbury St, you can nonetheless do much better than Armani Café (Try the cute wine café Piatini, or go to Parish Café on Boylston).
As far as people watching is concerned… I guess if you enjoy watching wealthy 18 year old Turkish students from BU eat a salad this is the place for you!!!

Very fine dining. awesome italian influenced menu. excellent for coffee and desert or casual drinks in a classy atmosphere…
valet service is key and outside seating in the summer and fall is the best on Newbury
Dark .wooded.slick…smooth!
The tiramasu and cappucino are my fav’s

If you want to hang out with rich international college kids, in a preppy, shiny little restaurant, serving salads and some other not-​so-​special meat variations on small plates, some fairly good Italian wine, Armani is the place to go.
Well, having said that: I have been to this place several times during cold winter days as walking down Newbury, midway through I start wandering why I am not having a glass of wine to warm me up. Realizing that Armani is not that crowded, I rush in. The visit turns into a meal, with a bottle or two, with good friends, great conversations and after I am warmed up, I relax on the couches and think that Armani is actually not so bad.

Yikes! I’m a gonna give Armani Café FOUR STARS. cause it wasn’t that bad at all… really!
Being seen at a chi-​chi table at Armani Café was on my list of shit to do before I leave Boston, so I met up with Angel and we got a table center stage right on the side walk and saw they actually had a good lunch special (appetizer/​entrée/​desert for 20 bucks!) with reasonably priced wine (8/​glass). The food came quickly and I liked the pepper mill on the table. We both ordered the heirloom tomato and summer vegetable salad, which was flavourful. We split the risotto (the shrimp was a bit dry and overcooked and the risotto reminded me of Uncle Ben’s rice for some reason) and the ravioli with pesto cream sauce (YUM) and I got the flourless chocolate cake, which was kinda brownie like and very light and satisfying. The pinot I got was light and tasty and the sun was shining around our Armani café umbrellas just so… and I got to indulge in my vice of smoking at a restaurant since they cater more towards the European set.
The people watching was primo (esp. when brace-​teethed teen girls pulling out their recent Polo purchases squealed about maybe eating at Armani), the valet parking was a bit much, the bathroom stall I went to had no TP (not classy, bitches!)…but we got ourselves a lil chilled present and escaped to the park to drink it…
I actually enjoyed myself, and while it was a joke to go… I actually wouldn’t need my arm twisted terribly hard to sit outside there again… fo shame… fo shame…

Definitely not has good as everyone says. The food is not that good and its soo expensive. The only good thing about this is the location but there are so many other restaurants in newbury that are much better than this one.

I have to say that this is the only place I’ll agree to go on Newbury Street. If one were to score all the restaurants there on food quality, enjoyable atmosphere, price, and snob quotient (the latter two detracting from the first), Armani would certainly win in my book.
While I do marvel at many of the patrons, I always enjoy myself and the food here. I’ve found the service and food to be quite good. Thin crust pizzas and salads are excellent, as are pasta dishes. yesterday my friend and I shared a pizza and each got a salad – hearts of palm with arugula and arugula with pears, blue cheese, and walnuts. You can also enjoy the patio for the price of just dessert and a glass of wine.
Of course, perhaps if Boston had more legitimate restaurants with patios, Armani would be less of a destination – but it doesn’t. Armani has one of the nicest patios around, and, as opposed to the rest of Newbury Street (INQ, Croma, that means you), the food is actually good.
Perhaps avoiding this place because some of the patrons seem fancy makes you just as much of a snob. Either way, ignore the name and enjoy the food and patio this summer.

So if you’re waiting for your suit to be hemmed, then this is an alright place to wait it out. However if you’re just there to gnash, not so much. This is where the «pretty people» sit with dark sunglasses, stylish clothing, tiny dogs in large Gucci handbags, smoking cigarettes and secretly dissing the crowd that walks by. I’m not joking… I’ve found myself doing it too! The food is alright, the drinks are nothing special, the service is friendly but slow. They won’t apologize for the wait, as you are LUCKY to be on their patio. It’s Armani for goodness sakes; show some respect!

The only thing this place has got going for it is location and name (if that’s a positive thing). The staff is good looking but snobby and stupid. Snobby and stupid is a funny combination!
Food is uninspiring and the service is inexperienced. The hostess is an idiot. There was a huge line trying to put names down for seating and the hostess was talking to her friends for almost five minutes!
In all fairness… the bartender was very cool, while we were waiting he brought us water — we didn’t ask for it. Nice patio too.

The place to go if you want to see and be seen. Chances are good that if a movie or sports star is in town, you will see them here. The Italian food isn’t cheap, but you can find some entrees for around $ 15, and the food is good, and the outside seating on Newbury Street is a fun place to people watch. Wear something chic or you’ll feel dowdy.