Pazzo Ristorante & Bar

Bummer! Just read they closed. Number disconnected Loved the patio. RIP.
Pazzo in Boston’s Back Bay Has Apparently Closed
An Italian and Mediterranean restaurant in the Back Bay of Boston that opened about two years ago has apparently shut its doors.
According to Adam’s Hospitality and Tourism Industry Blog, Pazzo on Newbury Street has closed. The article mentions that the space will be taken over by a Japanese restaurant, though no other information on this is currently available.
Pazzo, which first opened in May of 2009, had two floors of dining and bars as well as an outdoor patio area that looked out at Newbury Street. Items on the menu included pizza and pasta, as well as dishes such as beef carpaccio, tuna tartare, grilled salmon, braised short ribs, veal picatta, and braciola.
The person behind the now-​closed Pazzo also operates Bacco on Salem Street in the North End, and is going to be opening a new Mediterranean spot called Deco on Washington Street in Somerville.
The address for Pazzo was: Pazzo, 269 Newbury Street, Boston, MA, 2 116.

Had a groupon for this place so a friend and I stopped by for dinner. The food was fine, bread was average and service was on the sluggish side. Conclusion? Pretty forgettable.

Here with a group of 6 as per recommendation from the Sheraton’s Concierge. Where as the décor was perhaps a bit romantic for a group of rower’s and their parents/​coaches, I thought the food was excellent. The service wasn’t anything to get excited about but the entire group left happy and full.
I was a bit tentative about ordering the Salmon, however it was great. Well cooked, and the lemon risotto was excellent.

Came here with some friends while I was back in Boston for the holidays. So much has changed in Boston. All the great book stores on Newbury are gone. Only to be replaced with chain stores… How sad. What happened to Avenue Victor Hugo… Such a great book store: now it’s Diesel…
At least there is something tasty and refined on Newbury. Pazzo is a great place. Terrific atmosphere and décor.
I had the Chianti Braised short ribs with gorgonzola gnocchi. It was really great. The service was fairly good. Better than most places on Newbury.
I highly recommend this restaurant.
I also saw they were having a great deal on Kupoz. Check out this link

Came here with a group of friends from out of town. I made a reservation and our table was ready for us. The place was not at all busy on a Friday night at 7, which worried me some, especially for a Newbury St. restaurant. The food was great; we all got an assortment of entrees, and shared the appetizers. The caprese salad was a surprise, as the usually chilly mozzarella was replaced by fried mozzarella. Yum.
The service was a bit slow and it took quite a while for our entrees to arrive, but after a few bottles of wine, it was a manageable pace as we got lost in trying to balance talking and eating.
This would probably be my go-​to restaurant when some other places that I want to try are booked.

Kinda confusing when you walk up the stairs because there’s two doors (?) and no real obvious signs of which to open (one on the left it turns out).
I’m giving Pazzo 4 stars only because the food and drinks were fabulous and the ambiance and décor were delightful and absolutely zero stars for service.
The servers were awkward and rarely present and when one was we should have given him the order for everything we would’ve ordered the rest of the night because it took atleast 20min every time we asked for something. It didnt seem that busy and we were right near the bar, I couldve gotten up and grabbed it/​made the drinks myself. When they would finally arrive they were very good, strong enough and cocktails not too fruity, except the mango purée martini thing was like straight juice but besides that the rest were good.
The fig goat cheese and caramelized onion pizza was AMAZING and perfect size on thin crispy flatbread. The salmon was cooked perfectly and well seasoned and the brocoli rabe it was served with was addicting (couldve been all the butter but still delicious). My friend had the veal saltimbocca and I assumed it was great because it was gone within minutes lol. The warm spinach salad was also very tasty and great for sharing.
The bread was good once it finally arrived, after our second drink. They put too much balsamic vinegar with the oil for dipping which was kind of a bummer.
So if you’re not in a rush to go anywhere and dont mind sitting and enjoying the scenery and food and drinks when they finally do arrive, Pazzo is a good choice. Possibly sit at the small bar next time then there would be NO excuse for drinks not coming on time and I could avoid the awkward, slow as molasses service.

I want to first say that I give restaurants a LOT of leeway during Restaurant Week. I get the feeling however, that this trip to Pazzo would’ve sucked regardless of what week long specials were occurring.
We were a group of 8 on a Friday night at 8:30. Yes, the group was a little larger than normal for a weekend, but we had a reservation at a later than normal time and have successfully managed this size outing at other restaurants at this time/​day of the week with no problem (See: Grotto. Mmm… Grotto. Anyway.).
We were seated upstairs. There were 2 other tables of people. We sat and waited. Those two tables left. We sat and waited. Finally someone had to go and see if we had a waiter. The person who showed up a few minutes later said «so, I guess I’m your waiter.»
Some people put in drink orders, I stupidly asked for a wine list. We sat and waited.
Some finally brought bread, which was good because people were ready to gnaw off their arms. I asked the bread guy for the wine list which he nicely brought. We sat and waited.
Again, we’re the only occupied table up there.
We finally get drinks. Our order is taken. We sat and waited. A ridiculous amount of time later we get food.
The food would’ve had to be incredible for me not to mind the atrocious service. It wasn’t. It was «meh» at best. In fact, when I received my entrée, it was freezing cold. But given that it was closing in on 10:30, I didn’t feel it necessary to bring it to the attention of a server who clearly couldn’t have possibly cared any less.
When we go to a place during Restaurant Week 9 times out of 10, we return during regular business with friends. This will not be happening with Pazzo. We will not be returning with friends, for drinks, for apps or for casual conversation with the bartender, who seemed lovely. Pazzo took what should have been an opportunity to gain 8 new patrons and their friends and turned it into a miserable night out for 8 people to complain about. Thanks for nothing Pazzo!

All I have to say is, I should have listened to Unilocal.
The atmosphere and location of this place are great. The food is pretty good, too. But what overshadowed EVERYTHING was the terrible, terrible, unexcusably bad service.
After being sat, it took our waiter about 15 minutes to acknowledge we were there. At which point he asked, «do you want something to drink?» And ran off with our beverage orders as I tried to ask him a question about appetizers. The drinks took another 15 minutes and our waiter just seemed to not want to talk to us at any point. To ask him about anything was an inconvenience, and we had to specially request the bread that I heard so much about… which he didn’t even bring the dip for.
The table next to us had to ask for bread as well, and only when he had brought the check did he remember and ask them if they still wanted it…
I used to be a server. I have sympathy for someone who’s having a bad day, or trying their best. But this guy was NOT. The restaurant was NOT that busy. There was simply no excuse. Both our table and the one next to us complained, and received a somewhat apathetic apology from the manager.
Like I said, the food was OK but I won’t be back. Except maybe for some $ 5 apps at the bar, but even that is not likely…

This place is all hype & not worth going to. Save yourself the money because it’s not worth it. There is nothing special about this place, it’s just expensive & the portions are way small. The food was just mediocre, we ended up w/​like 3 different servers which didn’t make sense to me either.

As a two star rating says «Meh– I’ve experience better.» And I have, much better.
With a Groupon in hand, my boyfriend and I came here on a Friday night at 7:00 pm thinking we would not have any luck getting a table but were surprisingly seated right away. I should have realized this was a hint…
Décor was fine, service was fine, the overall vibe was decent. We ordered calamari as an appetizer, and it has fried cherry peppers and capers in it, which I thought was a nice touch; it was a pretty good app. I was ready to give this place 3 – 4 stars before our entrees arrived. They took quite a while to get to us, and when my spicy linguine with clams was placed in front of me I almost died. There were probably 8 bites of pasta and about 6 – 8 clams. It was TINY! My boyfriend ordered a chicken and broccoli pasta and that was the same way– probably ¼ of a chicken breast, 6 pieces of broccoli and ¾ cups of pasta.
Now, I understand trying to be a fine dining establishment, but holy crap… this is the first time I have ever left a restaurant and was still hungry. Especially with Italian food. Don’t you people know that pasta is the cheapest thing on the planet. Jesus, load my plate up please– I am paying $ 22 for this!!! When I eat Italian, I am used to going home with tons of leftovers, but no way this time. It looked like I had licked my plate because I devoured the entire thing.
What a disappointment. Save yourself $ 30 per person (not including booze) and go somewhere else. I would never recommend this place to anyone. Yikes.

Spring has finally hit Boston, it was a gorgeous Friday and I needed to eat alfresco. So Pazzo it was. The wait, we were told, was 40 minutes. No matter, there’s an awesome bookstore right next door and lucky us, a table opened up in 20 minutes. (I love when restaurants under promise and over deliver!)
Service was a bit haphazard, but friendly. The gourmet pizza was excellent a ndlarge, the scallops, swoon-​worthy. I’ll be back.

We came here on a Friday night during Restaurant Week. We made a reservation so they would know we were coming and so that we didn’t have to wait. There were only 3 of us.
I was surprised at how loud it was inside. Not only was all of the sound bouncing of the walls, but the music was pretty loud as well. It was honestly hard to hear my mother talking/​screaming across the small table. The tables were also super packed into the restaurant and in order to leave to use the restroom, we had to pull the table completely off the booth part in order to fit through.
On top of that, there must have been some wait staff that called in sick that night because our service was beyond SLOW. While we were seated right away, there was a lot of waiting going on between ordering and all of the meals. It wasn’t like our waiter was just standing around either — he was running from table to table and it was hard to get his attention because he was so distracted. We sat for a good 3 hour dinner and I was absolutely starving (in a bad way) by the time that my entrée came. There were a number of tables around us who had asked to speak with the manager (we were not one of them). Our waiter was very nice and did apologize at the end of the meal for the slowness.
The food was good, but nothing that I couldn’t get at any other Italian restaurant in Boston. Pazzo will not be on the top of my list of places to come back to, but I’d consider giving it another try maybe on a less busy night.

Average. Unremarkable fare and the portions are pretty small, especially for an Italian place. I enjoyed my pizza, which was more flatbread style than a typical Naepolitan pizza, but wasn’t really hit by it. My pasta — wild boar ragu — was not too great. As noted, the portion was small and the flavor wasn’t really good, and there was something strange about it, kind of a note of cinnamon which felt out of place.
The friends and company was spectacular, as was the service, and I’m tempted to 3 star it for those reasons, but these dishes at these prices (that pasta I had was $ 19) just didn’t really measure up. They could easily accommodate a party of 8 on Newbury in a Saturday at 7:00PM which was a plus, though.

The pizza was pretty good I suppose — not the best I’ve ever had. I had the calamari and was not extremely impressed but extremely hungry so I think any food in my stomach at that time was considered delicious.
What really had me giving 2 stars was the service. We sat at the bar and had a snotball of a bartender who was quite possibly one of the most inattentive bartenders I have ever experienced. The place was not even that busy and we still got the could shoulder as we sat and had to flag down the hostess for food questions. The bartender never scanned the bar for any patrons who may have been interested in ordering and after 20 minutes of being ready to order with about 10 – 12 people sitting at the bar, we finally got her attention despite her coming a mere foot to us — checking some wine glasses and walking away as we all looked at her eagerly awaiting our moment to order. Not only that, she just seemed like a grump. She barely asked us how our food was, if we’d like any more and even pulled my friend’s plate away as she was still chewing her food. I have to say, this place (the service mostly) did not impress me much.

Pazzo is a place I never would have chosen to go myself… besides the fact that you’ll rarely find me dining on Newbury because most places’ food doesn’t live up to the hype/​popularity, if I’m going Italian, I’m either going top notch with somewhere like Grotto, or I’m cooking myself, I really dislike spending my money on a substandard Italian meal. But a friend was in town and we needed a table of 14 for a Saturday night, and Pazzo was available, and so it went.
The good: We were seated and accommodated no problem even when one more joined our party, downstairs all by ourselves. The hostesses were very pleasant and gracious, the waitstaff extremely attentive (I believe the term used was ‘hovering’, which actually was a bit much sometimes), and there seems to be something of a food sommelier there-​? I think it was one of the hostesses, but she was excellent, telling us all about the menu/​specials and sharing her favorites and helping us each decide what we wanted. It seems they have $ 5 apps at the bar all the time, and those at our table who got the arancini as a starter thought they were divine. The warm white bean dip and bread was yummy, and the presentation of all our food was very artistic and colorful (it *looked* tasty at least), and each entrée had a large amount of food (no apps necessary).
The bad: the entrees. Not good. Not one single person at the table actually liked what they got (and it was a range of items, we were all over the map), a few of us actively disliking or even hating their meals (shortrib people were not pleased). I had the scallops, and while they weren’t the worst scallops I’ve ever had, they were not very good either– major disappointment. I did enjoy the sweet potato gnudi it was served with though, nice flavor on that (it also came with some asparagus spears), but even those were very much on the salty side (my entire plate was ridiculously salty). Additionally, one of us thinks she got food poisoning after eating the salmon (she had to go straight home after dinner). Plus it’s Newbury, the prices are high ($ 18 – 24 for entrees), so you better believe if I’m dropping that much cash it better be fricken delicious (hello Ten Tables, Oleana), and Pazzo just fell wayyyyy short.
They tried really hard (staffers) and were so accommodating and pleasant, so extra points for that, but the food was just not good. Not worth the hype for dinner, I recommend coming here for the $ 5 apps and some drinks and that’s it.

The grilled pork was just as entirely perfect as expected.
Battered, fried artichokes may be my new favorite thing ever, and I could happily drown in the garlic mashed potatoes. These were special garlic mashed potatoes, and I have loved a lot of garlic mashed potatoes. I’d leave any other garlic mashed potatoes on the planet high and dry, if I was ever committed to some and had to abandon them to get more of these.
The hot hummus-​variant with sourdough bread was also excellent. The crust was flaky/​crunchy, instead of rubbery/​chewy, which doesn’t happen often in Boston. At least IME.
The roast duck, however, was a disappointment. I’m sure if you like soggy duck… which is somehow what I always end up with in the way of duck when I order it anywhere other than German or Chinese,* so apparently this is just something I should get used to and stop ordering the damn duck, but I was hoping it would be otherwise.
*Or *perhaps* they should call it something else, such as pan– or oven-​stewed or –boiled… but wth do I know, I’m not a chef. I just have certain expectations as to how I am supposed to feel about roast duck.
At least it wasn’t greasy, and I am expecting it will taste better for lunch tomorrow, which was half the reason I ordered it, so that’s ok, in the end. But part of me still wishes I’d ordered the wild boar bolognese.
My food was also served lukewarm even though the restaurant was practically empty, but I was too hungry to complain. It only really bothered me when it came to the pears. They would have been much better hot.
The risotto was inhaled — while the slightly oversteamed vegetables in it were shunned — like porridge, but better. — I was surprised by the similarity to porridge, but liked it. But I didn’t even try the mushrooms as I was sure they were rubbery. I think they added the extras too soon. Nit picked.
Also, the cappuccino was ok, but the coffee was significantly better. I would add one star if not for the fact that the two came to the price of an entrée. If you’re going to overcharge that much for beans, I’d better hallucinate Europe.
Our exit was oddly like a troop inspection, filing past each employee in turn along the narrow hall, in a line, out the door. At least they all seem happy and well fed.

My asparagus risotto was delicious. My friends got pesto salmon which didn’t look too shabby and wild boar bolognese which was interesting.
Nice outdoor seating and friendly staff.
Good wine recommendation from the waitress was an added bonus.

After I treated myself to a little Spa Day on a Saturday Afternoon (yes, that needs to be capitalized). I decided that I needed something to eat. It was too late for breakfast and almost too late for lunch. I had a craving for something savory or maybe something sweet. I saw the word «Pazzo» and I have no idea what it means, but it beckoned me to look at their menu. They were serving brunch, I’m not a brunch kinda gal because for some reason the idea of brunch annoys me.
But, I saw for 9 bucks I could have some brioche french toast with warm blueberry maple syrup AND bacon! SIGN. ME. UP. I was led to a table by the young little hostess and sat outside on a gorgeous Saturday afternoon. I had an orange juice and a pleasant server who granted me my wish for brioche french toast. It came out about 15 – 20 minutes and I was thinking that it would be cold since it seemed like a long time. Oh. No. It was so hot that they even served it on the griddle it was cooked in. I poured the warm blueberry syrup on and it started sizzling! I hungrily wolfed, er, ever so delicately and ladylike had a small piece. OUCH! I burned the roof of my mouth!
But, it was so worth it. I’d definitely recommend Pazzo for brunch. I actually had a pleasant experience.
The water tasted really tappy and I gotta dock a star for that. Boston tap water normally does not taste bad, but this one did.
Try out Pazzo.

Yum and Yummer!
What a pleasant surprise to the neighborhood. Never thought I’d get a taste of true, yesteryear North End in the Backbay. Its bright, airy ambience goes well in hand with its delish menu.
They’re still new, from what I understand, so probably still trying to work out some of the kinks in setting the perfect menu for the Backbay, as well as perfecting service. But a great jump start so far.
Roasted Garlic Pizza… ’nuff said. Blows away any other attempt at said recipe in this town. Gnocci is tasty, albeit a bit too small in portion (at least from my experienced at lunch). Mozzarella is yum-​tastic as well (don’t know why naysayers say it’s a miss… maybe a bad day perhaps?).
Finished with their flourless chocolate cake, served molten melted, just the way I like it on first dates, as I get to watch girls lick every syrupy morsel from their lips… indicating things to possibly come later that evening… but I digress… (but what a visual, ey?).
Definately going to come back again.

Checked this place out because I saw exclusively 5 star reviews on Unilocal before ⁵⁄₂₄ (other people that share my point of view seemed to have reviewed Pazzo since then). I consider this to be one of the few times Unilocal really let me down. Here’s the quick and dirty:
–impressed with the outdoor seating
–good service
–Bruschetta was really good (I’m a huge fan of Sicilian Tuna)
–Mozzarella App (Mozzarella Cheese «al Minuto») — weak Mozzarella, would not order again
–Asparagus Risotto — ok, but the three overcooked small scallops weren’t impressive for a $ 21 dish
–Last thing we had was some overcooked salmon
I wish them luck since everyone seemed nice and the service was good — just wasn’t impressed with the food.