DESPARATELY seeking GREAT restaurant (Italian pref) nr Boston

 Not much of a view, but an EXCELLENT restaurant for food and
 atmosphere: Il Panino's in Malden.
 They also have a takeout place in Cambridge if you want a taste of
 their food, and they have another restaurant in the North End which I
 haven't sampled so can't judge, but I HIGHLY recommend the Malden location.

Someone wrote:

: Davio's in the Sonesta Hotel in Cambridge has quite nice food and is on : the Charles River.  Not too many Italian restaurants have views. : There's a place called Rosalie's in Marblehead that's supposed to be : good and may be on the ocean.  Not too helpful, am I?

Unfortunately, Rosalie's is not on the ocean, not even in Old Town proper.  The Sunday Globe had a review of a new branch of Il Pannino that has opened in Marblehead.  While this location is not on the ocean, it is a short walk to Crocker Park which has outstanding views of the harbor and Marblehead Neck.

 Elisabeth R. wrote:

 >Not much of a view, but an EXCELLENT restaurant for food and
 >atmosphere: Il Panino's in Malden.
 >They also have a takeout place in Cambridge if you want a taste of
 >their food, and they have another restaurant in the North End which I
 >haven't sampled so can't judge, but I HIGHLY recommend the Malden location.

 I second the motion, and *strongly* recommend the one in the North End.
 There isn't much of a view in there either, but the food is *excellent*,
 the atmosphere is great, and the service is wonderful, friendly and
 cheerful. I had the pleasure of living in the North End for a year and
 sampled most of the restaurants repeatedly, and Il Panino takes the cake.

 Mamma Maria is also very good (in a different price league, too), but I'll
 take the food at IP any day of the week and twice on sunday.

 -Ivan
 ----
 Ivan Cavero Belaunde ([email removed])

 I can absolutely recommend Doms in the North End.  Whenever I want
 outstanding Italian food, that's where I go.  It's pricey, but they
 have a wonderful menu, lots of interesting specials, and the food has
 always been fantastic.  I have had complaints about the service a few
 times, but since I've been going there for at least 15 years, (since
 the days of their old location) that's not saying much.

 Has anyone mentioned TOSCANO on Charles Street (Boston)?  Wonderful
 restaurant

 Someone wrote:
  > I can absolutely recommend Doms in the North End.

 I do feel obligated to report a bad experience at Dom's the last
 time I was there (in April, and you'll see why I'm waiting before
 going back).  I was with a group of five people, and we had made
 reservations.  We ordered promptly, but service was quite slow
 (it often is at Dom's), and so we waited quite a while before
 getting any food.  After we had finished our main courses, but
 before eating dessert, Dom Jr. came over to us very
 apologetically and told us that he needed the table for another
 party.

 We moved, though in retrospect we should have just left and left
 a tiny tip; we ended up crammed into a tiny table upstairs, near
 the bar, and getting coffee took them forever.  They did give us
 the coffee for free, but charged for the desserts.

 I will agree that the food is very fine, but eating there on a
 busy night can be the entire entertainment for the evening; we
 were there over three hours.--Rob

 Jennifer J. wrote:

 >Try Michela's in Cambridge.  I was there about a year ago and it was
 >really great!  The chef there (Jody Adams is her name I think) changes

 That would be a little difficult since Michela's closed several
 months ago (around the autumn of 1994, I think).  Michela Larson and
 Jody Adams decided to move to a (much) better location, and have
 opened Rialto in the Charles Hotel in Harvard Square.  Rialto is
 reportedly more expensive than Michela's was, and doesn't have
 the same Italian focus (a wider focus--more Mediterranean, I think).
 Rialto got a rave review in the Boston Globe a few months ago (4
 stars out of 4).

 In the space formerly occupied by Michela's (One Athenaeum St.,
 Cambridge), Stan Frankenthaler has opened Salamander, an excellent
 (but expensive) restaurant with a focus on grilled foods.  They also
 are reputed to have great not-so-expensive sandwiches and salads
 during weekday lunches (I haven't had lunch there, but I can believe it).

 Jennifer J. wrote:

 > Try Michela's in Cambridge.  I was there about a year ago and it was
 > really great!  The chef there (Jody Adams is her name I think) changes

 If you mean the Michela's that was in the lobby of what was Thinking
 Machines building ( am I living in the past or is it just life?). It is
 certainly not there anymore.  In its' place is a restaurant called
 Salamander's.  Had a not very good meal there with very indifferent service
 about a month ago.  I was disappointed as I had heard that it might be
 good.  The most annoying thing to me was waiting almost 15 minutes for a
 waiter to come round, after they handed out the menus, at which point I
 practically had to insist that I wanted to order a drink.  Having arrived
 with my wife and mother-in-law I was in pretty desperate need.  In the end
 we never ordered a bottle of wine because no one every asked (or showed us
 a list)!

 Sorry, did not mean to review the restaurant but as I sit here I can
 remember just how aggravating that evening was.  My wife noticed that her
 menu and her mother's menu were not the same.  When she mentioned this to
 the waitress, the waitress replied " no, you must be mistaken".  After the
 waitress examined the menus she just walked off, with the menus, muttering.
 Towards the end of the meal, about 9:30, my wife noticed our waitress along
 with several other staff eating dinner at the bar (about 20 feet away).
 Maybe this accounts for the distracted nature of the service, they were
 waiting for their meal to come up.  And it was not just our waiter, but
 also the "greeter", the person who seated us, and the person who brought me
 the drink.

 NB - I did not like the food either.

 The next night we went to the Rialto (in the Charles hotel), a completely
 different story. Recommended.

 Mark K. Mondol
 [email removed]

 Mark M. wrote:

 >Salamander's.  Had a not very good meal there with very indifferent service
 >about a month ago.  I was disappointed as I had heard that it might be
 >good.  The most annoying thing to me was waiting almost 15 minutes for a

 That's too bad.  My wife and I had a great meal there around 3 weeks
 ago.  The service was very good--the waitress was quite attentive, as
 was the busperson who filled water glasses (it was quite hot that day,
 so I was very thirsty).  The waitress patiently answered my wife's
 questions about the ingredients in several menu items, gave us enough
 time to think, and arrived promptly when it was time to order.  We
 were given a wine list right away (a good deal is the "tasting portions"
 of wine by the glass--1/2 price of a regular glass, so you can try
 different wines with different courses without getting sloshed).

 The decor was quite nice (I like both the atrium and the restaurant
 proper--although they are quite different).  There was also adequate
 space between tables, something you don't often find in Boston (even
 at expensive places like Olives).

 The food was excellent.  The complementary bread basket had some
 very good, and somewhat unusual breads (3 different kinds), including
 a rather good sweet dark bread.  I started with a spicy grilled beef salad,
 which featured perfectly cooked, tender beef on a bed of mixed greens,
 as well as some hot cherry peppers.  The salad had an Asian-inspired
 dressing which complimented it quite well (and wasn't too acidic, so
 the whole dish went quite well with the glass of pinot noir I had
 ordered).  My wife had the house salad, which was a bed of greens
 (but different than the ones I had), along with several small items
 which (we were told) change every day--a potato salad, cold spicy
 green beans, and something else I can't remember.

 For entrees, my wife had grilled chicken, which was tender and tasted
 wonderful (I can't remember what came with it).  I had grilled tuna
 (extremely rare--they call it sashimi-grilled-tuna if you ask--i.e.
 grilled on the outside, but raw in the middle), which came on an Indian
 flatbread with a curried vegetable spread.  The garnishes were beets and
 a salad of greens--again, the salad and dressing were both distinct
 from the other salads we had previously.  I was a bit disappointed
 with the tuna--I thought the vegetables or tuna could have used
 more spicing, especially since they were advertised as spicy (strange
 note: the items we ordered which were not described as spicy were
 spicier than those which were).  However, the tuna was top quality,
 and everything tasted good (just not as spicy as I, an admitted
 fan of bold flavors, would have liked).

 Although I had a lot of salad (my choice, as it was listed on the
 menu on both items I ordered), the salads were all (including my
 wife's) different enough that they held my interest--a mark of a
 good kitchen which pays attention to details, IMHO.  This directly
 contrasts with our recent experience at another area restaurant,
 Cafe Eurosia.  While the food there was very good, they had used
 some of the same sauces in my wife's appetizer, her main course
 and my entree, and she got a little tired of them.

 We shared a dessert, and I can't remember what it was (should
 have written this up much sooner), except that it was chocolate
 and excellent.  It was good enough that my wife, who had said
 that she was "too full," but might have "one bite" if I ordered
 something, ended up fighting me off for (at least) an equal share.

 On the whole, service was slower than in many other Boston places,
 but it was slow "relaxing" rather than slow "annoying."  We didn't
 feel like they were rushing to turn tables (which I find unpleasant,
 but very common), but whenever we wanted something (including the
 bill), it turned up promptly.  In fact, the only real negative of
 the evening was the effect on my wallet.

 It sounds like you may have been a little predisposed to have a
 bad evening (comment about the mother-in-law), but there is really
 no excuse for the service you describe.  All I can say is that our
 experience was compeletely different--and we were there on a Saturday
 night, which is often the worst time and day.  I should mention that
 out of two couples we know who have gone to Salamander recently, one
 had a great time and the other had a negative experience.  Perhaps
 the restaurant is inconsistent?  Or maybe it is one of those love
 it or hate it kinds of places?  Anyhow, we loved it: great-tasting,
 creative food, decent wine list (even by the glass), nice atmosphere,
 and good service (in our experience).  Kind of expensive, though.

 Marcel

 I second the Rialto recommendation. Jody Adams is a *wonderful* cook--big,
 full flavors, simple presentations. The new menu is more pan-Mediterranean
 than pure Italian, though.  I also recommend Terramia in the North End,
 which is a little less expensive, less fancy, and slightly more
 traditional (not a red-sauce joint, though, by any stretch of the
 imagination). The chef is from Salerno and does great things with seafood
 (his swordfish is heaven).
     Also in the North End is Alloro, a tiny bare-bones spot which was just
 taken over by an incredibly talented, innovative young chef, Marc Orfaly>.
 It's like having him cook dinner for you personally.  Not fancy at all,
 but outstanding food and very personal service. Then there's the Tuscan
 Grilll in Waltham, also excellent, pricy. Or Sage, in the North End...
 Brucie Harvey
 [email removed]