Marc T.
Yelp
This is all about the restaurant, not the pizzeria. Angelo's is not the best Italian restaurant I've been to, but it's not the worst either. It's an "OK" Italian restaurant, that's why I'm giving it a 3star review. This also isn't the first time I've been there. I went back in mid November. At least I tried to eat there. Was with friends who lived in the area running around on a Saturday doing errands and one of them said they remember Angelo's from years back and we should go. Called to make 5pm reservations and was told the restaurant was closed for a private after funeral party and would open at 5.30. Fine. Left my name and arrived at 5.30. The funeral party was in full swing and we were told our table would be ready shortly and had to wait outside. (It's mid November, remember?) A little after 6, we were let inside. Well, the party surely wasn't over; 30+ people who had been drinking since early afternoon were not done. After pushing our way thru that crowd at the bar, finally got to a table. It was so noisy that none of us could hear each other. We left before ordering.
That was then.
Last night with other friends up from NYC for a family event staying at a nearby Marriott, picked Angelo's to give it another try. Beautiful dining room; this is non-stuffy, white tablecloth, linen napkins operation here.
Bella the hostess was great and got us to our table right away. Kendra our server was superb! Friendly, cheerful, helpful. Unfortunately, I don't think the front of the house gets enough support from the back of the house. The wine menu is interactive; Kendra left a tablet with all the wine options for us to select from. We did. She came back ten minutes later to say they didn't have the wine we selected. (If it's a digital menu, shouldn't out of stock options be removed?) We switched to cocktails for before dinner. 2 martini's and we had a funny conversation with her about how one of my friend wanted a non alcoholic old fashioned but really sweet. Kendra said 'no problem, our bartender can do anything!"
Ten minutes later, she came back and then said the bartender couldn't think of how to make it without the alcohol. Fine. "Just a regular Old Fashion, but really sweet, please." Then one martini comes out. wait. wait. wait. The Old Fashion comes out; standard fare. Not sweeter than usual like asked for. Asked for a bit of simple syrup on the side to add in. wait. wait. wait. Then the 2nd martini comes out. wait. wait. wait.
So, two of the friends who were at the table work in the industry. One is an operations manager for a 3 restaurant business in Manhattan, and the other is a chef for a place in Brooklyn. They both turned to the rest at the table and just said: "understaffed". Got it.
As I said at the beginning, the 3 star rating is because this is not the best, nor the worst Italian food I've ever had. My linguine with clam sauce was really good; tasty clam sauce with just the right amount of garlic. The pappardella pasta was fresh and tasty. But you should kinda expect that for $38, right? The haddock dish was also very good. When it came to desert time, we ordered two tiramisu's. Ten minutes later Kendra came back to say they don't have tiramisu tonight. (here again, our friends from the industry looked at the table and said: "It didn't come out right when they made it". OK. Fine. How about telling that to the table when you take the order? Again, not Kendra's fault if the back of the house isn't going to tell the front of the house what's going on.
So, bottom line? I've finally been there, I don't need to go back. But, if you're traveling up and down RT28 north of Boston and looking for Italian food where dinner for four is going to cost you upwards of $275, give Angelo's a try.