Do I have to give this restaurant one star? I would give it zero stars if that were an option. I can't comment on the quality of the food because we didn't stay long enough to find out. That's how poor the service was. I am not usually one to write reviews on these sites, but I am so disgusted by my experience at Massimino's that I feel compelled to share it. Let me also add that we came here because Massamino's was highly recommended to me by a friend who said that "the eggplant parmasean is outstanding and the atmosphere and service is good." You can imagine how disappointed we were.
So here's our story: My date and I had a 6:00 pm reservation which we made three days ago, and when we arrived, the "hostess" (if you can call her that), hastily informed us that there would be a 30 minute wait. There were two other couples behind us who had made reservations as well and they were told the same thing. The hostess's explanation was that whoever took the reservation did not write it down and because there was a game in town, she didn't have enough seating. (Umm that is their problem, not ours)! She wasn't even apologetic. She just told us to "go down to the bar and get yourself a drink." When I told her that neither of us planned to order alcohol, she said "oh then you can't go down to the bar. They really wouldn't like that. You'll have to wait up here." Because the restaurant is in cramped quarters, there wasn't anywhere for us to wait, or sit down for that matter. About 10 minutes later, she led us downstairs to the bar area (presumably for a table?), but then left us standing there without seating us. When I asked one of the waitresses if she could be of assistance, she said something about needing to grab a check and then ran off.
Needless to say, my date and I were not impressed. I asked to speak to the manager and was told that he was not in tonight. Finally, my date told the hostess "There are plenty of other places that serve eggplant parmasean in the North End that will seat us." And we left. Had I been here on my own, I would have put up a bigger fuss, but because I didn't want to embarrass my date, I just decided to move on to greener pastures.
Clearly, Massimino's cares more about making a profit during a game night than honoring existing reservations. I don't care how good the food is. We are not giving these people our money. I was appalled by the rudeness of the staff, their lack of professionalism and the non-existent service.
For the record, we DID find a very nice restaurant with excellent eggplant parmesan and outstanding service about five minutes from Massimino's in the North End and they seated us immediately without a reservation... so it's nice to know that such places do exist.
Pros: None
Cons: Poor Service
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