Gran Gusto

we had great expectations going in for dinner only to be sadly disappointed. The staff was not courteous at all — we asked if they had any sweet wines on the menu — the waitress pointed to the menu and said «that is the wine list». we then asked for recommendations for vegetarian food and were treated to an eye roll! Never got a smile from any of the waitress who waited on us. The owner was there as well, he completely ignored our table !!

Antonio (the owner) is the best. All the ingredients are imported and everything tastes great. It’s the favorite restaurant of all recently immigrated Italian professionals. I have been more than 10 times and it’s always been consistently amazing.

The pizza is very authentic. The wine list is excellent — they have some really good selections. I love the grilled calamari! But less of a fan of their mozzarella appetizer…

I had high expectations for this place as it has high ratings on Unilocal and I am visiting Boston. The setup is nice here, and our bruschetta was absolutely wonderful, however, the manager was extremely disrespectful towards me. He never once acknowledged me except to ask me what I want, and never once recommended me the specials, but instead recommended my friend their daily special appetizer and main dish.
He then proceeded to tell us how much he enjoys interacting with customers, yet he never once recognized me as a customer. I felt EXTREMELY uncomfortable the whole dinner and I would never recommend this to someone. I saw him talkative with not only my friend, but everyone besides me. Is he racist against asians? I would have much rather had one of their waiters serve us.
And also, the pizza I ordered couldn’t stay in one piece. every time I picked it up, all of the items fell off, including the cheese because the dough was too thin. My friend also didn’t like her octopus special, but she felt too rude to leave her dinner and we took it home.
I will never return and am disappointed I had to waste a dinner at this restaurant on my trip with a terrible manager who proclaims how great he is and yet is the opposite.

We went here for New Year’s Eve (also our 7^th anniversary) dinner before a show. The atmosphere was surprising. The outside seems very business park-​esque, but inside, they’ve taken care to create a bistro setting with different rooms. There is a vibrant bar area, a ristorante section, and then a section with a wine ‘cellar’ that has a different feel altogether.
The food was great and the wine menu extensive. We had a prix fixe selection (reasonably priced at $ 55/​person) that included everything we could have wanted. I ate AMAZINGLY delicious calamari as a start, followed by truffled homemade pasta, and a third plate of roasted chicken. My husband ate a delicious steak and was very happy.
Staff was lovely. Lots of small kids in our early seating, and they paid attention to them and helped them feel like they were important parts of the meal, not just irritants to be ignored. The bartender came to our table to personally take our order. He didn’t get it quite right for the cocktail, but that’s because we ordered off menu. The rest of the staff were truly lovely and accommodating.
Important to note: free parking after six in the Danehey Park parking lot across the street.
This is truly a neighborhood gem. Worth a try, even in the crowded Camb-​erville restaurant scene.

Hi, it is my first review ever, because I’m so happy to know this place for three years. For this time I always had a great service and amazing food. Imaging, the stuff, working there, are Italians, all food’s ingredients are imported from Italian farmers and you can literally taste it (cheese, pasta, olive oil, salami and so on). Every time when I’m there, I feel like I’m a guest at Italian family house with home made food and everywhere Italian language, because beside working stuff, there are mostly Italians clients, which tells me a lot. I really recommend to everybody to know this place.
PS: I always thought that the excellent review is when somebody ask you to write, believe me, this time it is my impression forced me to do this:)

This pizza and Area Four are my two favorite pizzas in Boston Metro. I think this place is better!, however.
I’m astonished that this pizza place has been around for at least 8 years and I’m just now finding out about it! Even on Unilocal.Grand Gusto shows up at #28 on a query for «Cambridge Pizza.»
I had a Funghi Pizza since I don’t eat meat, and it was mesmerizing. That was the worlds best crust and nicely Charred.
The pizzas were baked in a hot wood (?) oven I suppose. It definitely was NOT a Conventional oven but an old fashioned one.

Tonight I will talk about the pizza and I will state it simple so there is no room for confusion. This is an authentic Italian pizza, with authentic Italian ingredients! Since I’m very happy with what I ate I will come again and I will tell you more at my next stop here!

Best pizza in Boston so far. The pizza tasted really good as well as the ingredients that were all originals. Finally a mozzarella that tastes like it. The only drawback is that the menu is short, but better a few good things than a long list of crap, isn’t it? I will definitively return.

The pizza here was very good, Neapolitan style.
Ambiance: warm, friendly, busting
Food: very good especially the pizza
Service: mixed. They greeted us, sat us and took our order in a very timely fashion. And they brought our food out in an appropriate amount of time. However, service got really slow when it came to lifting our plates or asking if we needed water, cheese, fresh pepper, our check, etc. in other words, great up till bringing out our food but then left us for dead.

Came here with a party of 13 people. Service was great and the food was great too. Very authentic Italian food in the area.

Just an excellent restaurant in every respect!
Came here with a party of 6 on a very busy Friday night after making an easy reservation the day before. Greeted by both the owner and the Maitre Luigi like old friends who they had missed greatly, we felt instantly warm at home with their hospitality even though the restaurant was packed.
We were seated in a wonderful nook by the wines and the atmosphere was one of people having a really enjoyable time in a relaxed and happy ambiance.
Luigi, who after living 30 years in Firenze knows his Tuscan wines, helped us choose some excellent proseccos and reds (Il Bruciatto was a big hit, ask him why it is called that). What was surprising was the price of the wines! Usually a good Italian restaurant doesn’t have many wines reasonably priced in the $ 30 – 60 range, but at Gran Gusto there was an abundance of choice in this price range and some really excellent wines too. Of course there were many more expensive ones as well for those who wanted to really splurge.
We tried a couple of the pizzas and a mixed anti pasto board to start and the pizza is the most authentic Neapolitan style pizza I have had in Boston. Very light airy thin and crispy charred crust with real tomato and buffalo mozzarella, just exquisite. The salumi were exceptional too, bursting with flavor rather than nitrates as at many lesser Italian establishments. Great olives and pecorino too, I could have been in Italy the quality was so good.
Then for the entrees we had an amazing spaghetti alla chitarra fatti in casa (home made) prepared table side in a wheel of gran padano, I haven’t had anything so good since I went to the best restaurant in Verona. This dish took me back there and was such a pleasant surprise.
We also had the Pappardelle with ½ a lobster ($ 22 seriously, with an actual half a lobster on the plate too and such a large portion, seriously good value for such an amazing restaurant) that was the very embodiment of Gran Gusto (great taste, both figuratively and literally). The other pasta dish tried was the pachetti which were as good as any I have every had before in Italy.
Per il secondo piatto abbiamo provato il angelo (the lamb) and it was heavenly, with also tried the branzino (fish) and it literally melted in our mouths while imparting such deliciousness that it bordered on the paradoxical. The perfectly cooked and seasoned manzo was accompanied by a risotto made with arborio rice that was so good that we would have been tempted to order a plate of that alone were we not all already so stuffed.
Just a wonderful seemlesss evening that you experience once in a long while when dining out with some frequency. Every note was hit with perfection and we finished the evening off with sambucca, a divine tiramisu, and limoncello.
I have been to many of the greats in the North End and not one holds a candle to this gem of a restaurant that will truly transport you back, in my case, to Italy for the evening. And it will do it for about half the price of lesser fare in the north end too.
Grazie mille Luigi per una serata favolosa, sei un grande e Gran Gusto e veramente eccezionale!

Food and beverages were both worthy of a four to five star review, but the hospitality and service were spectacularly unimpressive. The staff seemed overwhelmed and awkward. Our dirty plates from the appetizers sat in front of us much longer than they should have, we were never offered water, or even a second round of drinks, the pizza seemed to be perpetually «coming right out», and we nearly had to walk out to get our bill.
I definitely recommend the smoked mozzarella appetizer, and the cocktails were delicious, but the hard sell from the bartender was a bit off-​putting.

I’ve had grilled chicken and pizza .
First of all, pizza was Good! try one of this place’s pizza if you have a chance to come this place .
And a grilled chicken was okay. Because it wasn’t cooked at first and I had a couple of rare chicken meat which is gross. But after re-​cooked, it was a bit chewy … I like soft and juicy chicken anyway.
They didn’t feel sorry about that at all .
And toilet was out of the restaurant.

My husband and I went to Gran Gusto on a whim a few weeks ago. Although I had heard of this restaurant, I had no idea where it was and with good reason I suppose. It was tucked away on a little side street in the depths of Cambridge. Anyway, upon finding it (thanks Unilocal!) we parked easily and waited about five minutes for them to get a table together for us. We were served by (I will assume) the owner, who was very pleasant and animated, albeit somewhat distracted at times during his conversation with us.
The food was amazing. I ordered the margarita pizza and the Rughetta salad and my husband ordered the Chitarra which was a pasta «Gran Gusto style.» Apparently this means that they mix the pasta in a a bowl made out of Parmesan? It was supposed to be some sort of show, but because we sat outside, I guess it couldn’t be done. Regardless, it was delicious! The pasta was perfectly done with just enough bite and the dish was lightly dressed yet incredibly flavorful. They split both the salad and pasta portions for us which was a really nice touch. The salad had this lemon honey dressing that was light, refreshing and the perfect accompaniment to the delicate arugula. The pizza also had a chewy crust and what definitely tasted like a homemade fresh tomato sauce. It was the perfect amount of food and with two glasses of wine the price was beyond reasonable.
The ambiance was also pleasant. We were able to sit outside, although I imagine that was only because of the time that we arrived (9:30pm– which may have also accounted for the easy parking and better service?) The inside is kitchy and there is no doubt that you are in an Italian restaurant… until you walk to the bathroom and all of a sudden you’re in an office park? It’s a little weird, but overall definitely a place I would go again!

Its nice to know that a place like Gran Gusto is in our neighborhood. This mid-​range Italian restaurant has great pizza. The black truffle pizza with prosciutto was so tasty. There were plenty of pizza options and I’d recommend trying one. One negative was that my fiancé ordered a pasta dish, which was good, but the shrimp was slightly overcooked. This made me go back and forth between 3 – 4 stars, but went higher since the pizza was so good.
We went at a quiet time and the owner took our orders. He was very eager to please. There is also indoor and outdoor seating. I’d take family or friends to try Gran Gusto.

We’re moving in to the neighborhood, and this is one of the few restaurants within a very short walking distance, so we were excited to try it. And we loved it! We had the grilled calamari appetizer, which was not chewy and had a great balance between the char on the calamari, lemon, and saltiness. And I’ve never had a calamari dish with mushrooms, but it totally worked!
For dinner, we shared a pizza and the spaghetti alla puttanesca. We asked the owner, who was waiting on most of the tables, if he could do a pizza w/​no meat and no cheese, and he gave us some light, amusing, Italian ribbing, but totally delivered. You can really taste the quality of the crust, sauce, and the veggies. Thin crust over most of the pizza; soft, not crispy, with a nice fluffy (but not too much so) edge. Great flavor.
The spaghetti was also really good. They split the portion for us, which was a nice touch. They claim all of the pastas are made in house, so I look forward to sampling all of their varieties. The pasta was nicely cooked, as were the veggies. The dish was a little light on the sauce and was a little oilier than I would have liked, but it was delicious all the same.
BTW, the bread served before the meal was tasty, and the olive oil on the table actually tastes like olive oil.
We didn’t have the chance to sample the wine list and I don’t know much about Italian wines. They seem to have carafes priced quite fairly and a wide range of prices for bottles of wine.
We’ll definitely be going back. Neighborhood win!

Run, don’t walk to Gran Gusto. It is a neighborhood gem in every sense of the word. We have dined here maybe six times and have never been disappointed. I love Italian restaurants that build their menu around seafood and Gran Gusto does this well. There are TWO calamari appetizers, for example: grilled or fried. There are several pasta dishes featuring seafood, but my favorite is the Scialatelli which features homemade pasta tossed in a light garlic, white wine sauce with muscles, baby clams, calamari, and shrimp. Delicioso! Also excellent is the Hanger Steak, marinated and broiled as well as the daily specials on this occasion, the Dover Sole. Wines are attractively priced, too.
For a potentially less expensive alternative, Gran Gusto’s pizza selection is a terrific choice. The tomato pies are thin and nicely crusty with many attractive toppings.
For dessert, there is always the ubiquitous Tiramisu which is devilishly chocolatey, or the Ricotta Pie, or the Gelato.
Many customers were overhead speaking Italian (I am of that wonderful heritage), and the owners (brothers from Naples) are constantly keeping tabs on the kitchen and the customer happiness quotient.
Oh. Did I tell you about the bread? The amazing sour dough bread tastes like it just came out of the oven; You cannot ask for more in a restaurant. And yes the coffee (cappuccino was excellent too).

The food is AMAZING!!! Warm down to earth atmosphere too. The bartender came over several times to my companion and checked in with him about creating a drink for him. I had the Branzino which was melt in your mouth outstanding-​wow level! I had leftovers the next night and it was still SO GOOD SO GOOD! The only reason I wouldn’t give it 5 stars was the edge kind of goes into this mall – one quick fix would be to install some velvet curtains and it would feel so cozy and sensual all at once. Would def come back and can’t wait to see what they serve us next! Great experience – bravo! Dress in between dressy and casual – how about dressy casual?;)
We also shared grilled Calamari which was outstanding also.

Brought an out-​of-​towner here as part of light entertainment after a day of job interviews. The overall verdict: some definite charm/​pluses, some definite rough edges.
The good:
— Parking. This is huge in Cambridge, especially for people coming from out of town.
— Ambiance. Quiet and intimate. Great for conversation, and even though people did bring their kids, the noise level was reasonable.
— Food is mostly good. I enjoyed the squid ink linguine with mixed seafood (and concur that they do not skimp on the crab or lobster), and my dining companions had good things to say about a veal special and a baked fish. Tiramisu for dessert had a good coffee and rum kick.
— Wine list was reasonable, although the sommelier’s descriptions run a bit over. (My rule: if you need more than a line of adjectives to sell me a wine, there’s something wrong with it.)
The iffy:
— Service. We got that Neapolitan owner. Who, with three tables full, and us just chatting and sipping wine, informed us that we had to order immediately, and also order both apps and entrees at once, «because we will soon be very busy». Yeah. Right. Added maybe two more tables in the following hour.
— Not everything is well executed. The beef carpaccio fell flat; drowned in balsamic such that you could taste neither the meat nor the greens with it.
— Not the friendliest to vegetarians. Most everything had speck (ham) in it. Thankfully, the Muslim at our table was not particularly devout, or he’d have been hungry.
I’d seriously think about coming back. The location’s convenient for me and I did enjoy my dinner. I’m just not in any hurry, there’s plenty of other Italian options around.