The North End

[Sue Doe-Nym]

Since I read on these forums that North End has great pizza, I decided to try it last night, and I wasn't that impressed. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great, and it was because of the sauce. It was very acidic, and I had indigestion all night. The dough was good, the cheese and toppings were good, the sauce brought it down. Our server was very friendly and attentive, and I'll go back; I think I'll try something that doesn't have that sauce, though.

[phoenix]

unfortunately i did not have the same result. Yes it was a friday night ( last night) in the summer but we stopped by around 615 and had a 10-15 minute wait which wasn't bad. We sat down , the waiter came over quickly took our drink order came back with the drinks and took our meal order. Now the problem it took 45 minutes to get our meal( yes it was relatively busy at that time but not full) . I had veal masala and wife had eggplant which both were good but not fantastic so still good. Then trying to get our bill was not easy as our waiter was covering a lot of tables. So given all the great restaurants in the area probably would not go certainly on a weekend . I know it is tough projecting volumn but between mid July and mid August assume the best.

[patman]

Short version:

Eh.

Long version:

Background: We went there when it first opened a few years ago, and the food was great even if it was noisy there. Then we had a couple of so-so meals, and one bad one, so we haven't been back since. After hearing some encouragement from a couple of folks recently, we went there for dinner tonight to see if they had returned to their first-opening quality.

We arrived around 6:20, and were seated immediately in the side without the bar. At that time it was about 1/4 full, surprising for that time on a Saturday night, let alone Labor Day weekend. (Then again, it seems not very crowded in general in the area this weekend.) Even that empty, it was still very noisy. Derringer's was noisy also, the shape of the room is the problem. They need to hang some banners from the ceiling or drape cloth on the walls or something to stop the sound from traveling so much...particularly with kids there.

The waitress came over promptly to deliver menus and take drink orders. The drinks arrived quickly, and we placed our food order. I ordered a special (sausage and broccolini ravioli with steamed veg in tomato cream sauce) and my wife ordered the eggplant parm. We both ordered the small house side salads with italian dressing.

Awkward moment #1: no water. To be fair, we didn't ask, but it wasn't offered either. I'm sure if I had asked I would have gotten some, but...seems like the waitress should have at least asked us. There weren't even any water glasses on the table. The drinks came quickly enough that it wasn't a big problem, but it was still odd.

The salads arrived in short order. They were very small, and had a bare minimum amount of dressing on them. In fact, I thought it was a mistake and there was *no* dressing on the salad until I got about 1/2 way through. Both salads had some brown lettuce in them, and mine had a chunk of the lettuce core in it. I wasn't impressed.

I have to say I was expecting some bread at some point, but...nothing appeared or was offered. Bread at an Italian restaurant seems like a given, so that was a disappointment. There were bread items listed on the menu, but nothing came along for free. The garlic knots that were there at the opening were not on the menu.

The waitress came by a few minutes after we finished the salads (aside from the brown bits) and collected the bowls. Overall, the waitress was very attentive throughout, and the pacing of the meal was good. There was a slight delay on my soda refill, but no big deal.

Awkward moment #2: The place settings consist of a fork and knife in a napkin roll. There was nothing more to the place settings, so...what do you do with your dirty fork? Presumably we needed them for the mains. There's no other place to put it, so you have to put it on the tabletop. This could have been solved with a) a side plate, b) two forks in the napkin roll, or c) a fork delivered with the salad.

The mains arrived shortly afterwards, and we dug in. My ravioli was good, it was different than the typical Italian restaurant fare, and had a nice spiciness to it. My wife described the eggplant parm as...inedible. There were 3 slices of eggplant on the plate. The bottom one was an early slice from the eggplant, so it had a hefty amount of skin on it. It was tough, and nearly impossible to cut with the knife and fork. Once that one was moved out of the way, the others were...just as bad. Not good at all.

The total for the two mains, two small house side salads, a glass of wine, and a soda was $41 before tip.

Great:
Prompt service, nice decor

Good:
Ravioli special

So-So:
Salads, no water offered, place settings

Bad:
Badly prepared eggplant, no bread, noisy room

I think it was about 2 years since our last visit, it'll be at least that long before our next one.

[NBR]

$41 for a glass of wine, egg plant and a pasta dish. I haven't been there and don't plan to go!