Basta Pasta Trattoria

Great Italian food in Central Square. A very friendly and casual place to eat.

An A-​ok little pasta/​pizza/​sandwich shop in Cambridgeport. Prices are good but not cheap and food is good but not amazing. My favorite dish from Basta Pasta is the risotto. Though the rice could be a bit firmer, overall the taste is quite good. I also think that their pizza crust is great, though I’ve yet to find toppings that I love. I’ve had fine pastas from there, but nothing that I feel like I would struggle to make at least as well at home.
Overall a good neighborhood restaurant for a lunch or easy dinner. Glad I’ve been, but not rushing back either.

Great neighborhood option. The pasta is reliably good and the pizzas are far better than other local options. When we have friends over for pizza/​pasta, this is our main go-​to location.

Eating at Basta Pasta felt like eating in Italy. The staff was all Italian. The television was playing an Italian soccer game. The pasta was authentic homemade and al dente. This place is truly a hidden gem.
My husband ordered the chicken parmasean sandwich and I ordered the chicken piccata with fussili pasta. The chicken parm sandwich was enormous. The bread was crunchy but had a soft inside and the tomato sauce was sweet. SO YUMMY! My chicken piccata pasta was off the chain. The pasta was long and cooked al dente. The pasta sauce tasted of butter, wine, lemons and mushrooms. The capers had tartness.
The service was great. The prices were affordable. The shop itself is small but dainty. It is clean and air conditioned and has a bathroom available. There is also tap water for customers to take.
We will definitely be back here to try more delicious Italian deliciousness!

I can only speak for the few things we ordered, but y’all, the fusilli is actually chewy here. Like, it actually tastes like someone kneaded it fresh, in house, instead of boiling dried pasta. We got it with the stuffed eggplant, and the whole thing was hearty, warming, and just what we needed on a cold, overcast, Cambridge weeknight. The sauteed calamari was broth-​y and well seasoned. I thought the smashed olives were a great touch — they didn’t mesh too well with the otherwise pedestrian flavors in the dish, and that kept the dish interesting. We got the spicy sausage pizza too. Good, but nothing to write home about. All in all, it’s a cozy place to have a simple, unbothered dinner :)

My expectations were met. I had a delicious chicken marsala and I tried their arancini. It is a pizza and pasta shop with higher quality for a dine in/​to go shop. Highly recommend.

Honestly I was really excited to try this place after seeing great reviews. Been dying for an awesome Italian spot and door dash app delivers!
Food is warm and the pasta tastes great but my Veal which is supposed to be tender and soft is burnt and dry. Pretty big disappointment considering I paid $ 20 for the meal alone (with the homemade pasta up charge).
I’m not even eating the veal but I’m so hungry. Thankfully I got it with pasta.

Awesome little hole in the wall place for homemade pasta. You order at the counter and have to fight for a table because it is so bustling at dinner fine on a weekend– but it’s totally worth it! Definitely spring for the homemade pasta– it is amazingly fresh. I had a shrimp dish with a spicy tomato sauce that was out of this world. The prices are extremely reasonable especially considering the large portion sizes! The pizzas and appetizers also looked amazing — can’t wait to come back and try!

This is one of the things that I miss the most about Boston since I moved away. EVERY SINGLE MEAL that I had here was phenomenal and I ate here at least once a week for almost a year.
Their house made pasta, when available, is a must. All of the items on their regular menu are great — their Bolognese, especially. That said, their daily specials are the heart of this restaurant — surprisingly high-​end, creative, incredible, and mind blowing meals every time. I ate things here that I don’t even like and would never order anywhere else and LOVED them. The kicker is that you’re getting some of the best food in the Boston area for ridiculously good prices.
The only negative things I could say about Basta Pasta (I’m really reaching here though) are that it looks like any neighborhood pizza joint (so the food doesn’t really match the ambiance) and that their beverage selection was a bit small (canned sodas mostly) but you can BYOB and the food is so good that your eyes will be rolling back into your head throughout the entire meal. (NOTE: I haven’t been to Basta Pasta in 5 years, so some things may have changed since then).

Small and busy Take-​away place with 10 tables — self service. I had good sauted calamari and the pasta with fresh clams was ok. For my personal opinion it is too expensive.

this place is a cute looking hole in the wall that serves bomb Italian food! their prices are a little expensive for it not exactly being a restaurant but on the contrary the proportions are very good in size and make for excellent leftovers.
I even asked if they could make my cheese ravioli in a white sauce instead of red and they happily did so. Overall, very pleased with this place.

Food: 3.5÷5.0
Service: 2.5÷5.0
Value: 3.0÷5.0
Décor: 2.5÷5.0
Overall: 3.0÷5.0
Basta Pasta offers reasonably tasty and cooked to order basic Italian dishes at a moderate price that’s fine for a quick meal or takeout but not at all for a special occasion. You order and pick up at the counter, and there are a few tables that in aggregate seat something like 25 – 30 people. I would liken this to a more local version of Bertuccis.

Came here with a friend and loved it. Small and cozy atmosphere, Came at 7pm on a Tues night and the place was mostly empty with free street parking after 6pm right outside but the place quickly filled up.
I got the chicken cacciatore with homemade fusilli and it was very good. The portions are definitely filling. I usually eat 3000+ calories/​day and just ran 6 miles, but I had enough leftovers to supplement lunch the next day. Its a pretty carb heavy dish with a few slices of chicken and green peppers for $ 16 but that’s what I expect with any pasta dish.
Overall a great, authentic, local favorite to catch up with a friend and enjoy a tasty meal.

3.5 stars… We came here on a somewhat busy Saturday night and the restaurant was one of the only places open within a few blocks. This little restaurant is a little old and may need some renovations. The owner must not have been present because service was fine. The menu is quite small, but they have everything that a decent Italian restaurant has. You do NOT have to pick up your entrees from the counter; all tables were waited on. The food all came out at the same time (some were slightly cold when they arrived). Prices were surprisingly cheap for the area. We started off with a simple Caesar that was fresh and crisp. We also tried their arancini, which were very good, especially with the melted cheese. We had their spaghetti and meatballs, which were slightly dry, although the dish itself was great. Their chicken parm was also great, but it’s a neighborhood establishment, not a high quality restaurant. I did enjoy this Italian place, but there are a few elements that could be tweaked.

Haven’t been here for almost two years, still love it! Good pasta and huge portion! The employees are super friendly !

I went with the Chicken Marsala. That is my go-​to dish when trying a new Italian restaurant.
The chicken was dry and the Radiatore was under cooked.
I was hoping for something really great but this was not it.

Goods:
The restaurant is cozy and nice. Employees are friendly.
Not so goods:
Our pasta was cold. My impression was that the pasta was cooked before and was quickly microwaved before being served. The sauce was O.K. nothing close to a homemade style pasta sauce.

THE MOST AWFUL DINING EXPERIENCE. So how it works here is you order what you want at the cash register and pay right then before you get your food. And when the food is ready they’ll call your order and you come up and grab your plate off the counter. It’s a seat yourself type of place.
I arrived with my family right before the dinner rush began. The owner and a friendly young man were working the two cash registers. The owner happened to ring me up. The owner was also expediting the dishes out onto the counter and calling out the orders. And if you didn’t get to the counter in 1.37 secs when he called out your order (mind you this is a really small place) he would literally yell at you in front of everyone for being too slow. This poor man with his whole family sitting next to us got berated by the owner for not instantaneously teleporting to the counter in time. «LISTEN TO YOUR ORDERS PEOPLE!» «YOU’RE HOLDING EVERYONE UP!» «COME ON, LISTEN!» Damn, do I need to be Usain Bolt in order to not be screamed at tonight?
Ohhhoho that’s not even the worst part. They got my order wrong because I ordered chicken alfredo with linguini and he handed me chicken alfredo with penne and broccoli. So I told the owner very politely that this wasn’t my food. And he tried to blame me for not saying I didn’t order correctly. Da fuq I know what I ordered! After insisting several times that I knew what I ordered and it was not that tree-​ridden monstrosity, still being very polite, he STILL would not take the plate back and make what I ordered. Instead he tried to push me to eat it!
«Well… It’s practically the same thing. You can just eat around the broccoli because I mean… It’ll take awhile to make what you want.»
REALLY??? Are you really trying to force me to eat something I did not ask or pay for?! This man clearly has no clue on what customer service is. At this point I was appalled and furious. I put the plate back down on the counter and told him straight up I wasn’t going to eat what I didn’t order. He finally chose to make what I ordered.
As for the food itself… Mediocre. Although I did try my mom’s eggplant parmesan and it was pretty good. What ruined the food was the pasta itself. I understand what al dente is, but this was clearly undercooked. I don’t know if they were rushing the pasta since the place was getting kinda packed at this time but it was not good. And their homemade fusilli may have been homemade but definitely wasn’t fresh. Pretty sure they make it way in advance and refrigerate/​freeze it so they tasted like they came from a box anyways.
So if you are desperate enough for Italian food, at least take it to go or get it delivered so you don’t have to bare the owner’s attitude.

Good food and decent service, both of which have experienced a recent decline.
I usually grab a pasta dish or salad for lunch and the occasional dinner here. The salads are of decent proportion and ratio with (mostly) fresh veggies and some pretty great home-​made dressings. Chef’s salad is my favorite, it comes with rolled up cold cuts.
They hold to a 10 dollar minimum for charge cards and urge you to buy a 2 liter soda to break that threshold.

My go to place for takeout. Pretty much everything here is solid!
The dishes we usually order:
— Buffalo Chicken Pizza. It tastes even better when you reheat it in the oven.
— Bolognese
— Chicken Parmesan
— Meatball Sub
— Arancini Balls — amaze-​balls.
Risotto is decent, but can sometimes have a bit too much butter.
But overall, feel free to try anything on the menu. Have never been dissapointed.

I make lots of and am obsessed with pasta so I wouldn’t call myself a casual pasta eater, just to preface. Ordered takeout here on a lazy Sunday night, which I never do with pasta but was feeling brave.
Brave because it’s obvious that takeout pasta = carry-​over cooking = mushy pasta, ew. Held out hope anyway that peeps who do pasta would know to undercook to account for that… but not the case.
Got the puttanesca with linguine and meatballs pomodoro with the homemade wheat radiatore. Both pastas were far past al dente despite picking them up promptly and opening them right away. The wheat radiatore was especially soft (probably exacerbated by it being fresh pasta), could eat it without chewing. The meatballs were just edible, slightly burned on the bottom and not much flavor.
The puttanesca was boldly flavored on the plus side, I appreciated that. However I will say it was a bit overly chunky, you could easily make out all the components in the sauce, including chunks of anchovy and sliced onions. I prefer the anchovies melted into the sauce, I ended up picking them out because while I like their flavor it was over powering when you got a whole chunk. The onions just seemed out of the place.
On another plus side presentation was nice. If I were to order again I would maybe try just ordering a sauce with no pasta and cooking my own at home.

I ended up here on a sunday night while walking from my hotel. The place I knew and liked was closed to we wandered until we saw this little place which was still open.
They had only 2 people eating in but a bunch of take out orders going on. My friend ordered in front of me, paid, and sat down. I then walked up and was blatantly ignored. I waited, and waited, and waited while they messed around with takeout orders. They took phone orders. Dealt with a delivery service. Meanwhile every order had a problem. I don’t know but it was a good 7+ minutes before he took my order.
My friend got his food and I waited as expected since my order went in late. They never called me up to get my food. After 10 minutes went up front and realized my food was sitting there entire time. Then the guy argued with me if I had ordered a salad. Which I did. I would think they have a record of what I just ordered, but thats not how things work at Basta Pasta.
Got back to the hotel. My friend and I had ordered «Chicken Parm Panini» on different bread options. Neither came on what we had ordered.
My «greek» salad came with balsamic dressing and a tortilla which I suppose was in place of a pita.
Overall this visit was a disaster. I don’t know if this is the norm. there but I had a terrible experience. I gave 2 star because the actual food was decent, or I was starving.
To sum it up, it seems like some foreigners came along and bought the place and are trying to keep the menu but don’t know italian cuisine. The guys in the kitchen were yelling and fighting and the front counter guy was overwhelmed. The place was nice enough. The menu looked good. Not a well run restaurant though.

Basta Pasta’s totally underrated and should get more attention as a local pasta joint (particularly where good, affordable Italian is lacking in Cambridge). My go-​to dish is the Baked, Stuffed Eggplant Pasta — and pro tip: spring for the homemade fusilli! It might not look like a fancy place when you walk by, but it’s amazing pasta for the price and portion!

I think Basta Pasta is great for getting a pasta fix, but not necessarily for having an astounding meal, or service. The food was yummy but the way they put your orders out, one at a time with lots of time in between, makes it awkward. When everyone is eating at different times and then one is stuck without food for awhile it can be weird.
Minimal service but above average pasta. I would stop in again but much prefer the other places nearby.

I’m willing to part with some quality or nice presentation in order to pay less money, but I was seriously disappointed with my meal here.
Actually, my shrimp fra diavolo (I went on a Friday) was ok. The sauce was strangely watery and did not cling to the pasta, but was decently flavorful.
My friend’s «risotto» was not good. It was not risotto, hence the quotation marks. It was rice with a bunch of liquid ladled on top. This is not how you make risotto!!! Flavor-​wise, it was ok. However, the color was really off putting: a strange purple from the calamari with bits of basil floating about.
We also ordered a salad, the ingredients of which were not fresh. The chicken on top was especially dry.
I may return for the pizza, but I’m generally wary of the pasta dishes there.

Went in for lunch.
Ordered calamari app, arancini, shrimp fra diavolo, shrimp Alfredo, and calamari risotto. Risotto was somewhat soggy. Alfredo had some partially cooked mushrooms, and fra diavolo was perfect. Calamari app was delicious, but seeing the bill come to $ 68 and change was a bit of a surprise. Even for 3 people it’s a little much for a place without waitstaff.
Still, the effort is there, and the flavors are present. Will give it a shot again in the future

My local pizza/​pasta joint is excellent for fresh tasting meals and quick turnaround.
Pizza options are great and feel free to play around with ingredients. Pasta is also made fresh and always taste great.
Great for easy pick up. Also very friendly staff.

I really like the food here but sometimes the service isn’t the best. Ordered a garlic bread and there was absolutely no garlic on the bread in stead of making it over for free like it should have been since it was made wrong I had to pay… And I only had one piece or the burnt bread.

I had dinner last night, May 3, with my brother. I’ve lived in Cambridgeport/​Riverside for nearly 20 years and have never been here! We chose spicy buffalo boneless chicken and cheesy garlic bread for appetizers. I had wheat radiatore chicken gorgonzola with walnuts in a white wine cream sauce and he had chicken ziti and broccoli with alfredo sauce.
I give Basta Pasta ⁴⁄₅ stars. 5 stars for food: great portions and amazing taste. 3 stars for service: cashier screwed up my order and didn’t add dessert, the table we sat at was never cleaned (had a bunch of bread crumbs) and there’s a $ 10 credit card minimum (I’m opposed to minimums as a matter of principle).
Definitely coming here again!

The chicken marsala was impeccable. Garlic breads as an appetizer is also highly recommended.
Staff is very warm and friendly. Went there for a friends birthday party and they were very accommodating and brought over our friends cake with lit candles (we forgot to bring candles!).

Loved it! Tight space, and definitely risky to try go on a weekend night and get table (alot of people seemed to get take out — smart idea!). Service was a little slow but I think it’s because they were very busy. Didn’t try the pizza but would be excited to go back to try it.
Tried the chicken marsala and the seafood fra diavlo, both with fusilli and both were really impressive! Portions are huge, bigger than the north end I think. And makes the prices quite reasonable. The chicken marsala was great — not too creamy, not too much wine, but so tasty and delicious. Very generous portions of chicken (and shrimp in the fra diavlo). Pasta was cooked just right as well. The seafood fra diavlo was meant to be a little spicy (not too much at all). Preferred the chicken dish to the shrimp one — I think it was more special. But both were still really good.

I lived a 8 minute walk away from this place but it took me 3 years to find it! It’s very casual and has some solid food. As a New Yorker, I’ve always been pretty disappointed by the pizza I’ve found in Boston, but the pizza here is pretty good — very fresh! thin crust, good sauce, and quite large!
Their pasta is also very good! I asked for the shrimp fra diavolo without the shrimp (I know… what’s a vegetarian to do when everyone raves about the fra diavolo sauce??). The sauce was really good, and I got the homemade fusilli — would definitely recommend! The only thing was that they still charged me the $ 17 for the shrimp fra diavolo even though I wasn’t getting the shrimp… that was a turnoff.
Overall, definitely high quality, unassuming food.