Coppa

This place gets ⁵⁄₅ easy. Went for tapas here during the last Snowmageddon. It’s usually impossible to get a seat without a reservation (or a hefty wait time). But yay, blizzard!
Ordered the pork pâté, oysters, marinated mushrooms, crostini misti and a margherita pizza. The pork pâté was melt-​in-​your-​mouth delicious and the accompaniment of fig and mustard was an excellent complement.
The uni/​avocado crostini was another highlight. An unexpected pairing that I found worked extremely well — the richness of the uni and avocado played well off each other and the ocean-​y flavor of the uni made for a delicious counterpoint to the more neutral avocado.
The margherita pizza was very good — best mozzarella I’ve had in a long time. The tomato sauce was just the right ratio of sauce/​crust. Also, being sensitive to basil, the substitution of arugula for basil was a good suggestion and well done.
Service was excellent, with the chefs behind the bar preparing the tapas doing a really good job of answering questions, providing insight and recommendations and their personal favorites. We learned how they make the little «pillows» that the oysters sit on when served. I will be back to try the stuff on the menu that I was too full to try.

Nice cozy place in the the south end neighborhood. I was lucky enough to find a 2 hour parking spot on the same street, parking is usually a bitch here. I suggest making a reservation because there is only about 15 small tables in a 200sqft area.
Service was attentively good. Dishes were creative with a fun twist. It’s mostly Italian tapas. The only two dishes I wasn’t impressed with was the squid ink pasta with marinara sauce that was absent of any ink flavor, but still not bad. The other was the octopus, which was soggy, either due to overcooking or it was frozen. Maybe this was intentional because some people may not like the natural rubbery texture of the octopus.

Nonetheless, I had a splendid time here and I will recommend it to anyone. I give 5 stars to management and customer service

Delicious!
For starters I’ve had the burrata, brussel sprouts, ceaser, olives, and pumpkin hummus. All good! Brussel sprouts my least favorite — there was a strange overpowering flavor.
For entrees I’ve had the grinder, rigatoni with veal, salted cod pizza, carbonara, and cavofiore pizza. The salted cod pizza was by far the best! It was so unexpected and amazing. The second best was the rigatoni — al dente and delicious. The cavfiore pizza was good but could have been cheesier. The carbonara was good as well, but I found it a bit heavy. Disclosure: I typically only enjoy the first few bites of any carbonara. They are almost always too heavy. The grinder was loaded so if your a meat lover you will definitely enjoy this.

I can’t believe it’s taken me so long to finally visit Coppa. This place is amazing. Dare I say it, I like the pasta at Coppa way more than I liked the pasta at Giulia.
The restaurant is pretty intimate as it’s a small space, but very cozy. Definitely make reservations beforehand to secure a spot. We were seated promptly for our 6:30PM reservation on Saturday night.
My boyfriend and I ordered the meatballs to start, then the half sized rigatoni, cavatelli, and the gnocchi. Our waiter went to put our order in and we debated whether we should up the half size to a full for the gnocchi. By the time we decided to change it to a full sized, our meatballs were already in front of us. The speed definitely impressed me, which is rare in Boston.
The meatballs were tender and a good way to start the meal. Of our three pasta dishes (two half sized and one full sized was perfect for the two of us), we enjoyed the rigatoni the most, followed by the gnocchi, and then the cavatelli. For me it’s a close call between the rigatoni and the gnocchi. I’ve never had gnocchi that’s ricotta-​filled and it made the texture much softer and the gnocchi itself more flavorful. I really loved that aspect of the dish.
We ended our meal with three of the lemon ricotta donuts, which were amazingly delicious. These took awhile to get out to us, but seeing how we received our actual meal and finished eating within 20 minutes (no joke), we didn’t mind relaxing and waiting a bit for the dessert.
Our bill turned out to be around $ 75 pre-​tip with the meatballs, three pasta dishes, and dessert. It was a bit of a treat for us, but definitely worth the money. I would love to come back again, but larger groups would allow you to try more dishes and cut down on the per person cost.
Coppa might have become my go-​to Italian restaurant!

Came here because of great reviews and because this place is the same owners as Toro. We didn’t have a prior reservation so had to wait about an hour (we just went to a local bar down a few blocks).
Food /​Drinks: We ordered the meatballs, the Spaghetti alla Carbonara, Italian Grinder (salami sandwich). The pasta definitely stood out relative to the other two items we ordered. The sandwich was just okay. Their drinks were just okay.
Service: We did not enjoy the service here. Not friendly at all… from the receptionist to the waitress. The receptionist was just rude and our waitress was short and unhelpful. She seemed like she had better things to do than to wait on us.
Ambience: This place does get packed and the restaurant itself is not that large. We ended up sitting at a high table facing the window.
Overall: We didn’t love our experience here at all. We weren’t blown away by the food by any means. There are other better places in Boston, for sure.

We dined at Coppa last night and walked in without a reservation. The host told us the wait would be ~45 min, which was fairly accurate. We waited close to the bar and were looking to grab a drink before our table was ready. It winded up taking us 30 minutes for the bartender to even acknowledge us. She was also very rude and sternly told us we were not allowed to sit at the bar when a couple got up before asking for our drink order (note: we did not step a foot toward the bar seats). At that point, we ordered a beer (sam seasonal) and the ginger julep cocktail (tasted similar to a mojito). The restaurant is pretty small so we definitely felt cramped waiting for drinks while holding our jackets.
Once we sat down, we were lucky enough to get a high table against the windowsill, which was a little more room then being directly next to another table (still on barstools though). We ordered 4 dishes to share since this is an italian tapas style place. Before the plates came out, there was bread and EVOO served — great oil, but cold bread.
The dishes we ordered are below:
Meatballs — 3 small ones served in a thick tomato sauce with pancetta; very tasty but a small portion
Crostini misti — 3 crostini with different accompaniments (pear/​ricotta/​honey; chicken liver pâté; avocado mousse); our favorite was the chicken liver pâté… the avocado mousse just tasted like guac on bread
Rigatoni con sugo — served in a bolognese-​like sauce; flavorful but nothing spectacular
Bone marrow pizza — first time I have seen a 7 slice pie; served with beef heart, bone marrow, and mozz (no sauce); definitely a unique and adventure dish, but a bit too salty; glad we tried it but would not order it again
We passed on dessert and a second round of drinks. Our waiter was very friendly and attentive.
Overall, decent food and may return with reservation only.

Whenever I have a family member or friend from out of town visiting the Hub, Coppa is one of the must-​eat places I either take them to or tell them to eat at.
The menu is built around seasonal items so there’s always something new and exciting to try. At the same time, there are culinary staples that stay on the menu regardless of the time of the year so there’s a sense of cozy comfort and familiarity if you’re not feeling too adventurous.
I took my sister to Coppa when she visited me last spring and she loved it. She’s a picky eater, so the fact that she responded so positively is a big feat! We ordered the duck prosciutto and crudo for appetizers and our entrée we had the uni carbonara… and well let me tell you about the uni carbonara.
Let me tell you.
Perfectly creamy and balanced with the salt of the pancetta, it was like I entered some sort of heaven where everything was delicious and nothing hurt (hahahaha, I crack myself up). Sometimes I even find myself dreaming about this dish like I’m a lovelorn maiden waiting for my knight to come back from war. It’s seriously that good!
And now that it’s back on the menu, I can’t wait to go back to get my hands on more of of this little plate of heaven.

Because of the famed Ken Oringer, location, and ratings on Unilocal,we were eager to try Coppa and set or standards high. We had done plenty of research and had our eyes set on their unique offerings.
We had made reservations about a week prior and noted that they only had a 9:30pm slot available on a Friday night for just us two people. We later received a call to confirm our reservations and inquired if there happened to be anything available earlier. The host told us there was an 830pm slot available and we took it workout hesitation.
On the day of, we arrived even earlier than 830 got seated shortly after. Coppa has a casual feel and because of its small space and popularity, it does feel slightly cramped. You are often seated elbow to elbow with the party next to you, but we didn’t mind.
Our waitress was also another highlight of our experience, who explained that the menu is tapas style, and encouraged a party of two to order about 4 – 5 things off the menu to feel full. She explained the menu well, made great recommendations, and was pleasant from start to finish.
When getting the chance to look over the menu, we were slightly disappointed to find that the selections have changed from what we saw on Unilocal.After taking a few of our waitress’ recommendations, we decided to order:
— Oysters escabeche with Iberico chorizo, $ 6
— Mussels $ 14
— Squid Ink Pasta, half portion. ~$ 14
— Agnello Arabbiato: wood-​oven roast lamb Porterhouse, pepperoncini, spaghetti squash, sundried tomato, $ 18
— A half Bone Marrow Pizza (White pizza, bone marrow, roasted beef heartand fresh horseradish) and half Melanzane Affumicato E Escarole Pizza (smoked eggplant, ricotta, escarole and fried garlic), $ 16
The oysters and the lamb dish were probably the best things we had all night. Oysters were nothing like I’ve had before with different flavors that complimented each other. The lamb and the sauce that accompanied it as well as the spaghetti squash were excellent. My only complaint here is that I wanted more of it!
The mussels were the biggest disappointment, which stated the downward spiral of stars on Unilocal.We started to eat and noted there were quite a few that were still sealed shut. We flagged the waitress down and asked if it was supposed to be like this, and she had to check with the kitchen. She came back explaining that it shouldn’t but didn’t offer a resolution at the time. We then tried to pry open the partially open mussels as well as the closed ones, which could easily cause you to break a nail or two. When we finally did get them open we noted that they weren’t cooked all the way through. We flagged the waitress down again, when she finally took the plate away and offered to bring out another. We declined and just decided to continue with our meal.
The squid ink pasta is forgettable. Nothing extraordinary. We then were awaiting the half/​half pizza when we were brought out two full size to make up for the mussel fiasco.
The pizza crust was slightly charred, giving a slightly unpleasant flavor. The better of the two is the eggplant/​escarole. I don’t understand the hype of bone marrow, and the flavors of cheese and horseradish made the pizza somewhat unpalatable. Because we had two whole pizzas, we ended up taking the rest to go.
We were initially going to order dessert but were disappointed to only find they had gelato, sorbet, and one option of sugared donuts.
Overall you could tell that the quality of ingredients were of top notch, however, the price point, the portion sizes and flavors didn’t quite add up to 4 – 5 stars. We paid, left disappointed, and probably won’t be back.

Coppa is a small-​plate style Italian restaurant in Boston. On many «top restaurant» lists of Boston, my friend wanted to try Coppa. Shawmut Avenue is a quiet street away from the main hustle and bustle of Boston. The area is beautiful and we sat outside to soak up all the surroundings.
*Note: The tables, inside and outside, are small and can only seat 2 guests*
That being said, my food was good, but not particularly stellar. I got one of the very few vegetarian dishes, the mushroom pizza called Cipollotto E Funghi ($ 16). We also got the pitcher of sangria for $ 30. It was strong. My friend got the Rigatoni Alla Bolognese ($ 26), which comes in two sizes. He got the larger one, but the food was not enough for him to get full. I thought the food was not worth the price tag.
The service is good and the servers are knowledgeable about their food. Remember to call for reservations — this place can get busy.
I had a nice time but the meal was far from memorable.