The Best Italian Restaurants In Boston - Boston - The Infatuation

"We can’t believe we’re saying this about a restaurant in the North End, but The Red Fox is kind of sexy. The underground space (look for the handwritten “restaurant” sign and head down the stairs) hidden beneath a financial services office doesn’t feel like any other in the neighborhood. The dark, wood-paneled room is as sultry and louche as a Nick Cave song, so go with a date, slink into one of the clubby red booths, and order a drink from their martini- and Negroni-heavy cocktail menu, which is filled with genre-bending versions of the old standbys. The dinner menu is a murderer’s row of Italian classics with a few unexpected twists thrown in. Served with prosciutto and honey, the zeppole is closer to struffoli in texture than the globs of dough you get at the fair, and we could have eaten three orders. The mains don’t disappoint, either. Brisket stuffed into little pasta pillows in the cappelletti al ragu is near perfect, and the orecchiette manages to get more flavor out of pistachios than we thought possible." - tanya edwards, joel ang, dan secatore