This is one of the restaurants on my Boston Bucket List. I really wanted to take my friend from HK here since she was visiting for a only few days. It is one of the best restaurants in Boston so I was really excited to try it.
Giacomo's is in North End. We arrived roughly around 6pm on a Tuesday night. A small line of about five people had formed. I was worried because I heard that the line is notoriously long since they don't take reservations. I guess because of the cold and the fact that it was election night kept most people away. Lucky for us!
The interior is cozy and small. Brick walls, art-deco fixtures. I like the fact that they had an open kitchen.
I made my friend promise not to eat without me until I came back from the bathroom. First, being Asian, we had to take pictures of our food. We took so many pictures that our food became cold. It certainly would have tasted better had we eaten the food piping hot.
The fried calamari was good though I wish it was more crispy. I was surprised by how tangy and spicy it was. Red hot peppers were also dipped in batter and deep fried.
Next came the butternut squash ravioli. The diced asparagus was cooked really well. It was tender. I could barely taste the butternut squash filling of the ravioli. The ravioli was overpowered by the richness of the sauce.
The dish that I was disappointed with the most was the seafood linguine. While the seafood was cooked well, I did not like the overall composition of the dish. I also felt the portions were too generous. While I'm not one to complain about more bang for your buck, the excessive pasta detracted from the dish. After spoonfuls of pasta and more pasta, I quickly became sick of it. The sauce was too thick and creamy. The lobster sauce coupled with lobster was a bit too much.
While Giacomo's is definitely affordable for some quality Italian food, I wouldn't go so far as to call it the best Italian food in Boston.
