Cugini Manzone

Happen to go in for quick appetizers, etc. The appetizers were possibly the best
I have (we) ever had.
We actually went here thinking that it was the other Italian restaurant which is no longer here,
so we took a chance.
The server was awesome, quick… the entire place was friendly.
We are going back for sure… still craving their fabulous toasted bread.
5 stars, easily.

Don’t go there, this place is over priced
The food sucks, especially the manager
He was unprofessional of greeting his customer, never go back to this place,
0 stars for this dump,

Came in for lunch and had a really nice meal with a friend. The service was friendly. We ordered calamari, which was very good. My friend got a veggie sandwich that she didn’t love, but I got a meatball sandwich that was amazing. We also ordered lattes, which weren’t bad at all. The inside of the restaurant is cute. I would like to try this place for dinner soon, but I can definitely recommend it for a nice lunch.

The atmosphere is fantastic. The service was great. The food was just alright. My lady friend ordered the Penne Con Le Broccoli, which sounds fantastic, but ends up being some flavorless noodles with some broccoli and tomato. The garlic fries aren’t any extra cost than regular fries, so that’s a plus, although they are limp and have little garlic flavor at all, but they come with ketchup, so… yeah. I ordered a panini, which was great, and it came with a salad which was also flavorful, but overall, the meal experience/​taste did not live up to the $ 40 price tag. Too expensive for what they give you.

Awesome food and awesome service!!! We had the vegetarian pizza, ravioli, and a Caesar salad. Everything was delicious and the service was top notch! We will definitely be coming back!

My dining partner ordered the gnocchi with pesto, we also ordered the beet salad with gorgonzola ($ 11) to share and a gluten free pesto pizza. The pizza was good, the salad was not that great and he said he would never order the gnocchi again due to a texture issue. Decent, mediocre food, unfortunately overpriced for what it is.
Gluten free notes: I am grateful they offer gluten free. The pizza part of the menu can be gluten free (around 10 choices) and they have one kind of gluten free pasta. The gluten free pizza is made with a ready-​made pizza crust but is decent. The pesto pizza was really good and the oil from the pesto helped keep the gluten free crust moist.

Great Margherita pizza, great meatballs/​pasta, and decent wine menu. A nice simple place to enjoy lunch, which is when I ate, and also possibly dinner. They have a good pizza oven so I would recommend that. A nice safe choice for families, friends, or date to enjoy a simple meal. I’ve read some of the other negative reviews on here and am surprised. When we went the place wasn’t that packed so perhaps they were able to give more attention to the pizza rather than cooking a bunch of a large crowd. Either way my super picky Italian father enjoyed it, which is a miracle.

We came here for my mothers bday and had a lovely time! Our waiter, Christopher was fantastic! He was thoughtful, friendly and very accommodating. We had a party of 9 which included 2 toddlers and a baby. They didn’t have a kids menu but he said they could make kids portions of anything. Our kids are fussy so we asked if they could make spaghetti with alfredo sauce even though it wasn’t on the menu — the chef made it! I really appreciated that they were so kid friendly. With a city full of strollers, I think it’s really important.
Now for the food review: I ordered the kale salad, which was delicious, the calamari — it was fried perfectly, the fennel was a nice touch and the sauce was fantastic! My main course was the rigatoni alla calabrese — its was yummy. Everyone enjoyed their meals!
I would definitely recommend this place, if you’re looking for good italian place for kids. Also, its in a lovely area so great for walking around afterwards.

4 stars for food, 2 stars for service and 1 star for state of the bathrooms.
Le BF and I were wandering up and down College Avenue getting a bit hungry when all of a sudden a sign popped out at us. $ 10 margarita pizza! Best wood-​fired pizza on college avenue! Our hungry bellies and adventurous spirits were suckered inside where we took a window seat and ordered the pizza.
Pizza wasn’t bad at all. A little soggy but overall very flavorful. The service however, was no bueno. I’m not usually one to complain about service — I get there’s cultural differences sometimes and I lived in Europe for a year so don’t mind waiting too long. But when I already flag you down, ask for things, have to keep reminding you, and by then the pizza is almost cold because we really wanted parmesan on it, that’s whenI get kind of annoyed. Also waited about 20 minutes for the check. This was meant to be a quick drop in bite to eat and ended up taking way too long. And there were only like 5 other people in the restaurant at the time, so not really sure what people were doing back there.
Also, while walking out I saw another wood-​fired pizza two doors down ranked way higher on Unilocal.Sooo that kind of annoyed me that this place claimed to be better and lure in business against a place that has gotten better customer feedback.
Oh well. Probably won’t be back but my tummy was happy on Saturday.
Oh yeah the bathrooms. They smelled really terrible and there was water everywhere. I mean everywhere.

We stopped here because we were in the neighborhood with our toddler… Here’s my take: Caesar Salad was delicious! The pizza was OK, soft not crunchy. I ordered the Fettuccine with grilled prawns which sound great in description but arrived with burnt prawns which I sent back. Lots of recipe, little love.
So only 2 stars because if you are hungry go here. The soft pizza is good for children but this is not necessarily a culinary experience. Especially for $ 90.

I ate here a month or so ago, and subtweeted about how terrible the pizza was, but in my subtweet I said that I was going to resist posting a snotty Unilocal review — essentially because I thought they had the right to make such terrible food if that’s the way they wanted to run their business. But now every time I walk by, I feel the same sort of petty, bitter revulsion that I feel about Noah’s «Bagels». I think it’s uncool to write only negative reviews for Unilocal,but I’ve just written a glowing review of another business so surely I’ve earned a bit of spleen.
I had a pizza capricciosa. I’ve had many capricciose in Italy, and I don’t think it’s fully fair to hold a place of Cugini Manzone’s caliber to the full Italian standard. But this didn’t just fall short of that standard. It was really abominable. Unpleasant, chaotic, flavorless, bad crust, mistreated vegetal ingredients that must have wandered over from the salad station, topped with a blanket of odorless, flavorless polymers spun into a caseous viscosity.
You know how they say even when pizza is bad, it’s still pretty good? That saying can still be held to be true as long as you simply exclude this item from the category of pizza. I could always tell just from the look of this place that it wasn’t going to be good, but I took a chance on it just to get fully acquainted with Elmwood dining options, and to test whether my restaurant prejudices were still well-​calibrated. Unfortunately, if anything my calibration has gotten worse after this, because this experience was srsly a new low.

Cugini Manzone has a really great outdoor space in a breezeway off of College that’s perfect for strollers and dogs. When our friends showed up unexpected for lunch with their dog in tow, it seemed like the only option in the neighborhood despite some of the negatives reviews I had heard from friends.
Our friends ate their food politely while chatting until I complained that the pasta tasted like cardboard and the salad only had balsamic vinegar as opposed to a real dressing, and then everyone noted that the food was anywhere from innocuous to pretty horrible.
Coupled with high prices — ~$ 11+ for many salads that really are appetizer sized, ~$ 15 for personal sized pizzas, it’s no wonder that the place is empty nearly all the time. I just checked out prices at Southie which I think most would agree serves delicious, high quality food, and Cugini Manzone is a couple to a few dollars more expensive on nearly all fronts.
Definite pass on this restaurant.

We went for brunch/​lunch. Nice food. The caesar salad is sooo good, yom dressing. The calzone was delicious and even the bread alone.
Our waiter was a guy named Eric, really polite and attentive with our service.
The only thing is the restroom one to share.

I hate giving a bad review when the staff were so nice and welcoming. Let me say first that I did appreciate that.
HOWEVER, that cannot mask the subpar pasta I had! They should have written «BITTER Penne con Le Broccoli» because this was the most bitter pasta I’ve had in my life. I was not expecting this! Is pasta usually supposed to be bitter and I’ve just never had it?
The ingredients of this dish are not bitter, EXCEPT if the garlic is OVERCOOKED, it gives a distinctive bitter taste. In fact, that was the only flavor I could taste! It covered everything! It was bitter broccoli, bitter sundried tomatoes, bitter penne — bitter bitter bitter!
Recommendation: Don’t overcook the garlic. If need be, add the garlic toward the end so it still flavors the pasta (and quick nicely!) without being bitterly spit-​it-​out-​worthy. I can’t believe I spent $ 16 + tax (~$ 17.50) for this dish. I myself can make better tasting pasta, and I’m not even a cook!
Also, portions are surprisingly small. Compare it to Alameda’s «Linguini’s Pasta & Brew» which serves DELICIOUS pasta (for the same $ 16!) that serves twice the amount as this establishment!
I’m not sure why Linguini’s has a 3 star rating now, because Cugini Mazone’s pasta should be rated much much lower…
Hope they can correct their menu or their cooking.
Ciao

Don’t go here. At first we just felt ripped off, but then we got sick, too.
Servings are too large (with a price to match), but the food itself was bland and greasy, and even worse in the bathroom an hour or two later. Service is very basic and unpolished.

Wow! Amazing Caesar dressing! Fresh, crisp lettuce and crunchy croutons. What more could you ask for in a perfect Caesar? The Calzone was just as appealing. It was like a mushroom, spaghetti sauce snuggled in bread. The calzone had a nice outer crust with a soft inside, sprinkled with fresh Parmesan and toasted parsley. Yes, toasted. When I sliced it in half the aroma of tomato, olive oil and garlic instantly made my tastebuds wake up.
I rinsed it all down with a refreshing raspberry Italian soda. Two actually because they were so good. If the weather permits and there is space sit at a table in the secluded path-​way. Your dog will be happy you did. There are heaters above, so if you get chilly just ask to be warmed up! From there you can head towards College Blvd. and do some shopping to walk off your meal. Or head to the parking lot conveniently located at the rear of the restaurant.
Service here is very friendly and prompt. At no point did I have to search for a waiter while sitting outside. Though I did not check the inside of the restaurant I am sure it is nice too. There are two tables in front outside, so if you prefer to be front and center on College Blvd. that could be fun as well!

Decent food, decent service. The pizza is actually surprisingly good. Summer kitchen (a few doors down) is probably better quality but cheaper and a less formal atmosphere. This place has a decent amount of seating, a nice bar area, and TVs. The wait staff is always really good too. If they had better food I’d definitely give it a four star, but for me its just not that good.
My sister and I split a calzone once and the inside was a little cold. It was good with a large helping of toppings. Have been here twice thus far and may visit again.

Food was good. However, I used to come here when it was Filippos and I would enjoy there bottomless wine deals, the pasta penne and fettuccine was awesome! With the new owner, prices are a bit higher.

Nope.
Sometimes when I’m feeling indecisive I just go to a neighborhood and pick a place. There’s really nothing in Elmwood that gets me too excited, but it had been so long since I’d been there, I figured, just drive by. Then I saw this place. NEW! Italian! Let’s give it a try!
Bad idea. The clam linguini in «white wine sauce» was a joke. It was like noodles dumped in barely reduced wine with a few touches of olive oil. I sincerely could have done much better myself and that’s saying something. My friend’s dish was inedible. She took two bites and couldn’t keep eating. Something «tasted wrong.» So wrong she was nauseous for the rest of the night.
If you’re in the neighborhood looking for Italian, I’d suggest the Trattoria, which isn’t the most awesome place in the East Bay, but more than passable, especially compared to this place.

Even though I never got to try Filipos, I was excited when this place got around to opening — so exciting, I was there for dinner opening night! (And finally getting around to the review, lol)
On opening night, the restaurant filled up pretty quickly, and all the times I’ve passed by for dinner since, there has been a good number of diners.
My friend and I ordered:
+ canneloni — pretty meaty and saucy pasta dish; it was good but not spectacular.
+ margherita pizza — your typical basil, cheese, tomato combo on a thin crust. I’ve definitely had better crust on my margherita pizza, but it wasn’t terrible.
For the two of us, it was a good amount of food. We definitely still had room for dessert after though, so don’t expect to leave feeling bloated (at least without breaking your wallet).
Service was REALLY attentive, but my friend and I found it kind of awkward. They cleared our dishes like as soon as we picked up the last forkful. I wonder if this is still the case .
Overall, it’s a nice place to grab some italian on College. I think our bill was ~40, which is kind of average for the location, and it’s a pretty classy looking restaurant, so I guess you kind of pay for ambiance as well.
By the way, they’re open for lunch now!
And they’re really close to Ici’s :) which is always a nice bonus.