Giacomo’s

Well to start the sangria was awful, it tasted as if salt was added instead of sugar if that was the intention so there’s that, but the food and service was satisfying.

Do NOT allow yourself to be HYPED by this place!!! Unfortunately, Giacomo’s was one of the more disappointing part of my Boston trip. (Which is funny, bc one of the reviews I read prior to my trip by Angeline K starts with «This had to be the most disappointing experience during my entire visit to Boston.») It honestly wasn’t even bad, but it was soooooo severely overhyped (i.e. «Boston must-​eat», «best meal of my life») that I left disappointed.
Pros: nice service, minus the hostess. who was eating in the back. Maybe we came during her dinner time though.
Cons: Not sure how I missed the CASH ONLY memo (I know — I didn’t read Unilocal too carefully. duh.), but luckily there’s a bofa ATM nearby. The bread they served was dry and flavorless. Definitely skip.
We tried:
–lobster ravioli: more cheesy on the inside than lobster-​y, I didn’t get much of a lobster taste tbh. Creamy sauce.
–scallops and shrimp pasta w/Giacomo’s sauce: good al dente linguine, average (definitely not generous) seafood portions. but the entire dish was huge due to the extra amounts of pasta
I recommend getting one of each dish and splitting it so that you don’t get too tired of the heavy cream of the lobster ravioli dish.
Sooo. for ~$ 40 for two dishes, it was great quality for the price. Delicious food, but definitely not life-​changing to me.

This place was just A-​ok. Stopped by here after a friend came to visit from out of town.
Of course we all just happen to be from California, where food is the absolute best and we’re allowed to be snobs about it. This place didn’t top my favorite place in cali which is C&O by the Santa Monica pier but it wasn’t as bad as Bucca Di Beppo if you know what I’m saying.
The appetizer was just plain bread with no butter or cheese. The bread was nice but I don’t think i really understood what I was putting in my mouth. I’m not sure why you’re an italian restaurant if you’re not serving garlic rolls.
I ordered the Frutti de capello or something like that, my friend got the Shrimp & Scallop and boyfriend the lemon Fettucini. To be honest I liked his the best since the noodles were actually HOMEMADE. The other two dishes we could tell the pasta was store bought or just not as fresh. It made the dish seem generic and not tasty.
The lemon fettucini, on the other hand was pretty tasty. I think, personally that it could have done better with some more seafood sauce a few shrimps thrown in but that’s just me. It did have asparagus which was pretty good.
So you can tell I didn’t like the fan favorite on here Frutti enough to order that again.
If you’re gonna order from here, I would ask them which ones have the homemade noodles.

We had a decent meal here. but 4 star it is not.
Their specialty/​house special is linguine with seafood. $ 16-​$ 20 per person. Choose either mussels, scallops, clams, shrimp or a combination of 2 or more. Then choose one of 4 or 5 sauces.
½ Lobster is an option as well at a premium price.
The seafood we had in the pasta was just ok. The shrimp and scallops were both overcooked, a bit of a disappointment.
Another criticism is the use of dried noodle in their «specialty» dishes that I just described above.
On the other hand, the lemon fettuccine featured fresh noodles, which was a step up, but still not close to great or amazing. I’ve had much better fresh noodles in the past.
Other notes. The bread served at the table at the beginning of the meal is very mediocre. The olive oil from the bottle tastes a bit old. The cheese shaker contained ordinary dry parmesan cheese, and the shaker lid was so caked with old cheese that it was impossible to shake any cheese out, the shaker itself was a bit grimy as well.
3 stars. Not amazing, just ok.

The pasta was surprising good! I’m not a big fan of Italian pasta actually. Although I think it’s good. But I prefer ramen. However this place was delightful! The special Giacomo lobster sauce adds array of flavors to the pasta, which is nicely absorbed into the juices. The liguini is not too hard or soft. And the flavors are just right.
I got the one with mussels clams and half lobster for 20 dollars and really enjoyed it. I would try something else next time just because the lobster was impossible to crack.
Oh they take reservation in this designation. Make sure you vook ahead of time since it gets extremely packed. We came here on a Tuesday night and had reservation so we didn’t wait; but my friend told me she waited for over 3 hours before on a Thursday… so be cautious

I like to keep it loosey goosey on trips. No reservations unless I know it’s absolutely necessary at a very popular or famous restaurant. I wanted Italian on my trip to Boston and instead of hopping back up to the North End, I opted for this highly reviewed place near the hotel. Bam! There was Italian and plenty of seafood dishes for my laaaaaady.
We walked in the cold rain roughly .2 miles to Giacomos. I walked into a crowded entrance. There wasn’t a host up front so I asked the crowd of there was a list. They assured me to just stand in front and the guy in the striped shirt would get me. After much standing around, he finally came after getting some other tables ready. I was quoted a 30 minute wait. I asked if the bar was open seating and it is not. Back to the cold! Thankfully someone hit a parked car near the restaurant so I at least had a show while waiting. I got to see Boston’s finest do their work.
Any way, an hour (double the original quote) passes by, hands frozen, I finally get a table. It’s very crowded here. We had two inches separating us from another table. We decided on some crab cakes as an appy. They were… crab cakes and nothing more special. We decided on the house special. It’s a two person dish with lobster, mussels, clams, shrimp, and calamari. They were out of lobster so we had them just toss in more of everything else. Served in their house Giacomo sauce, crab based tomato sauce, we were in awe at the size of this dish. It’s easily a three person dish. It was underwhelming. I felt very full very quickly because everything I ate just tasted like their mediocre sauce. It was also kind of liquidated in some parts of the dish. We tried spicing it up with red pepper flakes and even had them bring us Parmesan cheese. Nothing really helped get more than a few more bites down.
Maybe we did it wrong. The table next to us had some good looking dishes and there was definitely some great sounding stuff on the menu, but the overall experience wasn’t great enough to make me ever want to come back.
Another sore spot for me is that they only accept cash. It’s 2016 and they apparently can’t afford a square POS. I can however look past cash only of its posted clearly on your door which it isn’t. It’s only in small print on the bottoms of the menu. Thankful there’s an atm close. Our bill for two was $ 88. If it was more close to $ 20 or $ 30 for two people, I could understand. Yet to have $ 60+ bills and not accept credit cards is ludicrous and small minded.

**CASH ONLY!!**
This review is for my experience at both Giacomo’s.
We knew there was going to be a long wait for dinner. But we didn’t know it was due to the restaurant size. The location at North End does not take reservations unlike Back Bay that does take reservations. While waiting at North End for about an hour, we weren’t moving forward in line and it was inching towards closing… We figured let’s call the other location and see if we can get a reservation for 9:00. The lady I spoke with said 9:30 was the next available reservation and so we took it. We got there 9:30 and there was no table ready for us yet and we ended up waiting till 10:00 for our table…
We were seated and knew what we wanted. Rather than getting the dinner for two, we ordered both individual seafood pastas on the bottom of the pasta list. It ended up being the same thing just $ 20 cheaper! Eat smart! We also had two glasses of Chardonnay ($ 6 each) and a large Caesar salad ($ 10). It was in the spur of the moment that we craved a salad and it hit the spot. Great way to start your meal! We didn’t finish the salad because we wanted room for pasta.
The pastas came in about 30 mins and they were huge plates! Really large lobster pieces in shell and plenty mussels scallops and clams. The shrimp had us in another world because they were cooked so Al dente and were super sweet! This was our favorite. For our sauces we had the Giacomo sauce and Fra Diavolo. Although Giacomo sauce tasted good, it got boring after a few bites. Fra Diavolo on the other hand was more tangy and had a kick to it!
Overall, food was good and we didn’t encounter any bad customer service. Quite friendly staff actually. Would I come back again if I were in Boston? If there’s a long wait, most likely not.

Obsessed with this place — I think just in this month alone I was here three times!!! MY favorite dishes are:
1. Frutti Di Mare w/​my favorite spicy giacomo red sauce
2. Zuppa Di Pesce w/​off course their spicy giacomo red sauce
3. They also have this big seafood pasta dish for two; it’s technically for fourpeople and it’s AMAZING. (Again with their spicy house sauce)
The only criticism I have is for their service — their staff are somewhat rude; I mean I’ve been here allot and I’ve never had a waitress where I felt like they ever deserved the 20% tip we left them. Though when deep down you know how crappy the actual restaurant is paying them you sort of feel obligated as a human being to leave the 20% tip and the great food sort of makes up for it — I should just tip the kitchen next time!

We had a reservation for four for 8pm and so we didn’t have to wait in line. It’s a small cozy restaurant with dim lighting to set the mood and also making it harder for a good picture of my ravioli. They gave us a basket of bread as starters and instead of butter, there was a cup of cheese. I assume that the bread is actually to mop up the sauce in your pasta rather than to just eat on its own.
We ordered a large calamari as an appetizer to share and it was amazing. Crispy and crunchy and full of fried squid-​y goodness.
For my main entrée, I ordered the butternut squash ravioli. The cheese cream sauce was excellent. It was both creamy and cheesy. Each ravioli piece was huge and even though I only had about 8 pieces or so, it was very filling. There’s no cheese in the ravioli as far as I can tell since it seems to be just butternut squash inside the ravioli giving it that sweet taste with each bite. Along with the ravioli, there is also some tiny asparagus to remind me that I should eat some tiny vegetables.
This Italian restaurant is on the pricier end with most entrees at around $ 15+. The more seafood, the more costly. I had no seafood at all in my ravioli dish but it was still $ 15.

Although the food was great (not exceptional), the service, especially our waiter, was complete sh*t. And here’s why: I went to a cute bubble tea place in Quincy and decided to get a glass bottle of it for each of my friends at dinner. I surprised them once we got to Giacomo’s. I was aware that there might be an outside-​drink policy, but nobody said anything so I was like okay I guess it wouldn’t hurt to try a sip of this bubble tea that I’ve dying to try. Then 3 hours later, we got the bill and saw that there was a $ 27 «bar charge» to our bill. Promptly, we went up to ask what it was for and our waiter gave us attitude and was like «thats the charge for the drinks» and we were like «what drinks?» and here is what angers me the most:
The waiter proceeded to ask in a sarcastic tone with his eyebrows raised up and with a smirk, «you brought those drinks with you didn’t you? huh?» and ended with that.
I sat there in disbelief because that was the nastiest tone and nastiest facial expression I ever received from a waiter.
FIRST OF ALL, as our waiter, he should’ve informed us about charging us on the drinks that we BARELY drank when we first got there. Because he told us after and gave us so much attitude about it, it makes him seem so sketchy and seem to have hidden agendas.
SECOND OF ALL, as a waiter, he should have know better than to give attitude or any condescending manners to your customers. After all, we are the ones giving you business and tip (I hope he enjoyed that $ 3 tip btw).
THIRD OF ALL, he completely ruined the tone and the mood of the dinner for my two friends who were celebrating their birthdays here. No customers should have to experience that, especially at a restaurant like Giacomos.
The reason why I’m so anal about him informing us about extra charges is because the second I brought a cake to the hostess, she INFORMED us that there was going to be a $ 4 charge per person for the cake. I was like okay thanks for informing us because thats proper etiquette. I wouldn’t have minded the extra charges from my waiter if he informed us in the first place. $ 27 is a ridiculous price.
Other things: service is SUPER SLOW here. We made reservations for 6PM and didn’t get seated until 7PM. And then we ate from 7PM to 9PM. It took our crappy waiter 15 minutes before attending to us (some other waiter had to get our drink orders). Then another 15 minutes for our incompetent waiter to get our orders, which I had to repeat at least FOUR times that I wanted a SMALL caesar salad. Was he not paying attention or did he not understand English? Whichever it is, get your act together or just stop being a waiter before you piss more customers off.
Anyways, we waited another half hour before getting our food. After getting the food, we asked the waiter to bring the cake out, and then he proceeded to say «sorry we don’t sing happy birthday», but 10 minutes later, I saw another table singing happy birthday with their waiter. What the heck? Not like we cared about a stupid birthday song. But what the heck?
And then the whole fiasco with the extra «bar charge» came about. Throughout the whole night, I already had a hunch feeling that our waiter was condescending, but I decided to brush it off. But nope, I guess I was right. I could tell you that he is a 40 year old man with brown curly hair and an accent, but that does not matter to me.
I’m usually a generous tipper, no matter how mediocre the service was, but this service was ABSOLUTE CRAP and he did not deserve any tips whatsoever. $ 3 is already good enough.
On the one hand though, they have amazing caesar salads and the hostess is super friendly and made the one hour wait more bearable. To the crappy incompetent waiter: learn from your hostess.

We have been here a couple of times now and this location takes reservations. So keep that in mind. They also only take cash.
Foodwise, the calamari is always a good choice. We get that about everytime. We generally also get the half lobster pasta dish, but if the daily special sounds good I’ll also try that out. I have tried the pesto, but like the fra diavlo sauce the best, it is a bit spicy but not too much.

This location takes reservations!!! SAVED OUR LIVES! We had a group of 10 that wanted dinner on a Sunday, we had no hopes of trying Giacomo’s but this location popped up, thank you! We got there around 6pm and the place wasn’t packed. We were seated immediately and the servers were with us within minutes. As a table, we ordered the fried calamari and three orders of the «house special» with fra diavolo sauce. The fried calamari was perfect, fresh and crisp. We were saving our stomachs for the main course so we didn’t order any other appetizers. The main course was a huge plate of seafood (lobster, mussels, clams, scallops, shrimp) over linguine. The sauce was a little spicy but it complemented everything very well. The plate is perfect for 2 – 3 people — you’ll be very satisfied! We also ordered a bunch of different desserts — mostly the tiramisu, they were amazing!
I wonder how my pasta life would be in NYC now that I have had Giacomo’s. The only thing is they only take cash. I hope they change that soon.

I’ve been here twice, both with big groups and reservations and had great experiences both times.
Drinks: Red sangria is a great drink to start with– tastes more like wine than overly sweet which I love! They have bottles of house wine for $ 21, which is another slam dunk in the beverages area.
Food: fried calamari for appetizers! For entrees I’ve tried the Gnocchi with roasted red peppers and goat cheese which is really really good! Definitely a very filling dish. I’ve also had their Penne Amatriciana which I’m obsessed with! It has pancetta and eggplant and cheese and plum red tomatoes, ah seriously so good. I was underwhelmed by their signature seafood dishes, the scallop and shrimp linguine dish with Giacomo’s sauce was good, but I wasn’t that impressed with the linguine pasta.
Overall, great experience and food. Will definitely be back.

People have been raving about this particular restaurant to my friends and I when we decided that we wanted to explore Boston a bit. When they found out that we were planning to come to Boston after booking our tickets, even more people told us we needed to eat here at least once. Knowing that there was going to be a lot of people due to how popular this place was, I chose to make reservations here at the South Bay location (versus the location on Melrose) purely because of distance and also because they take reservations.
This particular location is pretty small when you look at the storefront from the outside (where it’s right next to Charlie’s Sandwich Shop), and when you walk in through the first door and into the second door (East Coast double door system due to the weather — snow & rain), you’re standing in awe at how packed everything is to each other for table and people, but still sends out a comfy vibe atmosphere. The hostess does not have her own podium here to save space, but instead has a little area to the corner behind the first table to your right when you enter for menus and a stool. The open kitchen complete with a small bar counter is towards the end at the back (as well as the unisex restroom) and back kitchen, while the front area boosts a nice and spacy outward bay window concept. The walls are decorated with Italian drawings and the dimly lit restaurant also add to the overall vibe of the place.
We arrived right on time for our reservations and were told that we needed to wait outside for a bit since they were cleaning our table for about 15 minutes, and was free to frequent the bar next door to them since they own both places. We opted to stand outside to wait for a bit and was seated within 5 minutes.
We got served Italian white bread with olive oil & balsamic vinegar, but also asked for a small bowl of parmesan cheese to give the bread more texture and flavor as well.
We ordered:
— Chicken Parmesan with penne with red sauce: Delicious and was completely polished off
— Pumpkin Tortellini: Delicious and also completely polished off
— Seafood Special of Penne Pasta (replacing the linguine standard) with red sauce and sautéed scallops: I would’ve cleaned this off but left a few penne pasta leftover to have room for dessert: D
Customer service was great here as they were quite attentive and always made sure our drinks were refilled. TIP: Cash only here guys so if you plan to eat here, make sure you have some cash on hand or at least everyone have enough to scrounge up for the bill! :)
Overall, the agreed upon consensus is that Giacomo’s Italian food was very different than the italian food we were use to eating back home in LA or anywhere else. The sauce for each dish was flavorful enough to bring the remainder of the dish to complement each other, but NOT enough to be so powerful that it overpowers the rest of the ingredients. I can certainly see why people are repeat loyal customers over the years.

We made a reservation for dinner on a Monday jsut to be safe because the place is usually very busy, but there was no need. We were seated immediately and there were plenty of empty tables. My girlfriend and I took a look at the menu and decided to try the house special pastas, which were different combinations of seafood with your choice of sauce. I order a clam and mussel with fra diavolo sauce and my girlfriend ordered the shrimp and scallops with fracomo’s sauce (a secret menu combination of fra diavolo and Giacomo’s sauces).
First of all, the portions are large. They give you a very generous amount of pasta and they do not skimp on the seafood. I felt like I was going to explode after eating all of my pasta (and eating some of my girlfriend’s), but I couldn’t stop myself. Second, the fracomo’s sauce was better than the fra diavolo (which was also by no means bad). I guess it depends on your preference, but the fracomo’s sauce was heartier and also had a good spiciness to it that I like with my pasta. The fra diavolo was good, but didn’t seem like anything that special. Third, my water glass was never empty. The waiter literally came and filled my glass after I had only taken 2 or 3 sips from it. Needless to say, the service is excellent, but was probably better because it wasn’t that busy when we were there.
There was only one slight disappointment. The clams in my pasta didn’t seem that fresh. The clams were stuck to the shell and didn’t come off cleanly like the mussels did, which makes me wonder if the clams had been frozen? But everything else made up for it, so I am still giving Giacomo’s 5 stars. I just wish I could order the better dish for once instead of my girlfriend…

Can’t believe it took me so long to come here. I’m already obsessed.
GET THE GARLIC BREAD. It’s literally an addiction, and I dare you to say you won’t consume it all.
Also, if you get a glass of wine, they are super generous. They pour you a «filled to the rim» glass of wine. You’ll get your $ 6 worth. If you want to pay for the full bottle (like we did), every bottle is $ 21.
I ordered the mussels and calamari in the fra diavolo sauce, which was delicious. I wished the calamari was fried or something, but the sauce was too good for me to even care. I tried my friends butternut squash ravioli (which was amazing), and my other friends got other delicious plates of food as well. Decent pricing, ranges from $ 15 – 20 per dish.
Overall! Great experience. This location allows for reservations, unlike the other ones I’ve heard. Really cute and intimate setting. And food is da bomb.

Giacomo’s is one of the most famous Italian institutions in Boston. Their original location is in the North End, but they have opened up a location in the South End that takes reservations (the one in the North End still does not, but people are willing to wait in line for hours to get in). I arrived quite early on a weekday evening, so the place was quite empty. The service was prompt and efficient. The space was a little small, and the tables were packed quite close together, but I didn’t feel like any of the other diners were getting into my personal space.
We decided to order the Zuppa di pesce, which is a massive dish meant for two people (although I think it could easily be eaten by 3 or 4), and includes shrimp, scallops, calamari, clams, museels, and lobster served over a huge bed of linguine ($ 55). You can choose the sauce: pesto, fra diavolo, red, giacomo, or scampi. We went for the giacomo sauce, which is the house special and a delicious red tomato-​based sauce. The food was classic Italian and done quite well, but it didn’t blow me away compared to other Italian places that I’ve been to. The scallops and shrimp were a little overcooked.
We definitely couldn’t finish, and took the rest to go. We were able to make another meal out of it for lunch the next day.

Don’t come here without a reservation unless you get arrive before 6:30 on a non-​Friday weeknight. The place is tiny and there is no real waiting area, so you can expect to wait outside in a long line if you don’t heed my advice!
I got the scallop and shrimp linguine with the fracomo sauce. The sauce and pasta were impeccable; the sauce was arguably the best I’ve ever had. The scallops and shrimp were both fairly overcooked, but still decent.
Portion sizes were very generous and they give a lot more seafood than you’d expect. Prices were also fair. By no means is this place cheap, but at the $ 15 – 20 per person price range, I wouldn’t consider this an «only for an anniversary dinner» spot.
Service is decent. I’m not sure if it’s because I read some of the Unilocal reviews about snooty staff before coming here, but I definitely got some of the pretentious «better than you» vibe from this place.
Nevertheless, this is somewhere you have to check out! I’ll definitely be coming back.

Cozy spot, with very filling, heavy, and classic Italian food. Tasty, but not as mind-​blowing as everyone makes this out to be.
All the tables are really close. And for some reason, everyone around us really wanted to lean over, look closely at our food, and ask us what we got. Not particularly intrusive, everyone was friendly and had great intentions, but I just personally wasn’t in the mood for that.
RESERVATIONS: it’s nice that this location takes reservations. I made a Friday night 7pm reservation for six a couple weeks in advance. The night of, they had no problem with me changing it to three people (and this was at about 6:45pm). Keep in mind they won’t seat you until your whole party shows up.
SERVICE: Friendly, quick-​paced, laid back.
THE FOOD (see my photos for additional info!):
HOUSE SEAFOOD SPECIALTIES
* Frutti di Mare (mussels, calamari, clams, scallops, & shrimp. With Fracomo’s — Fra Diavolo plus Giacomo’s — sauce. $ 20) — 4 stars
My favorite dish — that Fracomo’s sauce was divine! You get the kick of the Fra Diavolo and the thickness of the Giacomo’s. The linguine is just the right al dente texture, and you get tons of seafood.
PASTAS
* Gnocchi filled w/​Roasted Red Peppers & Goat Cheese (chicken, mushrooms, spinach, mascarpone, plum tomato. $ 18) — 4 stars
I’m really glad we got this and it was part of our 3 platters of shared pastas! The gnocchi itself is some of the best I’ve tried — each piece is huge and has this perfect fluffiness it. The goat cheese inside is perfect
* Butternut Squash Ravioli (diced asparagus, prosciutto, squash, mascarpone cream. $ 16) — 4 stars
A great sweet option, with a buttery, creamy sauce. The pasta is thin and soft, and the butternut squash filling is quite delicious. If I’d gotten this as my own dish, I know it would have been too heavy for me and a little lacking in variety. It was a great addition to our mix of dishes.

Pratos muito bem servidos e saborosos.
Experimentei um lagosta com massa ao molho vermelho + bechamel.
O ambiente é bem aconchegante, porem pequeno, 13 mesas, e o atendimento também é pouco demorado. É melhor chegar logo que abre.
O preço é bem em conta para o que servem.

I LOVE THIS RESTAURANT
not even because its delicious… i LOVE the hostess!
i had such a great time that i didnt even mind the wait.
Came here during memorial weekend and i believe on a friday/​saturday evening… called earlier to get a reservation for 3 and they said 9 was the earliest. figured we can see if we can do a walk in if we went there earlier cause we were getting hungry.
you can tell the hostess really wanted to seat the guests and she was phenomenal at being honest about the wait, constantly checking on us to ensure that she knew we were there and waiting and shes funny. it helped with the long wait time
we got seated and we knew already what we wanted since we looked at the menu (you should do that if you have to wait… helps speed up the process)
we ordered the
fried calamari
my friends got the squid ink pasta and the lemon chicken and tuna?
i got the house entrée linguine with shrimps & scallops with the giacomo sauce
fried calamari was good… breading wasnt super crispy but i got more out of the calamari and less breading, which is good right!
but we dont care about the appetizer… WE CARE ABOUT THE FOOD! THE MAIN COURSE, THE PURPOSE OF THIS MEAL! the pASTAaaaaa
i always liked my pasta a bit more saucier, so when my plate came… it was like … they knew me before i knew them!
it was very coated. not drenched and drowning in sauce but very coated… the shrimp was cooked right and the scallops were amazing… but the best part of my pasta… was the giacomo sauce. the red sauce with lobster essence infused…(i forgot the description) but it was delicious! tomatoey but not canned or ketchupy… but a bit peppery and hint of spice. omg im hungry now
cant go wrong with the house sauce… cant go wrong with this place. love it!