Bertucci’s

This Bertucci’s is definitely a hit or miss. My family has had so many problems here I don’t know why we come back.
Story time: one night we had a reservation for about 10. We order our food and about 45 minutes later we still hadn’t received anything. No waiter was anywhere near us and nobody came to give us an update. After what seemed like years, a waiter finally came up to us to tell us our food was taking long because a group of 20 came in unannounced and the chefs were working on their food first. I don’t understand why everything was dropped for this group, but it was unappreciated. The manager did come over to apologize and we got a reduced bill, but situations like this are unacceptable to me and really rub me the wrong way.
In terms of the food, it’s bland. Needs major seasoning.

I just don’t get all the negative reviews. I went in on a Saturday evening at 7.30 — had great service, excellent food and no issues whatsoever… Sure it’s a chain, but don’t be haters, y’all. The convenience of being right AT the Alewife T station is a win-​win.

Two Stars for take out. Food is eh, but it’s convenient. They are crazy busy every time we try to pick up our order. ⁹⁄₁₀ times something is missing so make sure you check everything before you leave. We always have to wait an extra 10−15+mins AFTER they said the food would be ready and then another day and a half for someone to check you out. Pretty annoying.
One star for dining in. Service is not impressive whatsoever. The two times we dined in w/​friends we had horrible service. We thought the first time was a fluke so we gave it another shot and was even worse. Never again, Bertucci’s, never again.

I’ve been to this branch before and it was ok, but yesterday our overall experience was curiously bad. My husband was served the wrong beer, my neice’s minestrone soup was pink and appeared to have cream or ricotta in it. Worst of all, the chips that came with the guacamole had something red dripped on them… I was caught completely off guard by our server’s failure to solve the chip issue after we asked for new ones. I should have taken a photo. Later on this same server, in front of my kids, made smalltalk about what a pain it is to serve kids, and how nice it is when the paint nite crowds prevent more families with kids from getting seated. If he was actively trying to get us to never come back, it worked!

Reading through these reviews I’m thinking some of the other patrons have unreasonable expectations for a chain restaurant located in a train station. Who brings Italian visitors to a Bertucci’s at Alewife Station and expects them to give a rave review of the cuisine? Is this the best/​most unique dining experience that Boston/​Cambridge has to offer? No, but my family’s experience has been consistently good food at a reasonable price and decent wait-​staff including two waiters who remember us even though we can go more than a month between visits at times.

I have been to another Bertucci but the one near Alewife station is pretty bad. The service is really slow. I went there with my family on father’s day and the food wasn’t served until after 40 min. The waitress was nice and kept bringing bread and oil but by the time, the food arrived we were already full with bread. Our order was also messed up. The chicken scampi was too garlicky and lacked good flavor, the pizza was burnt on one side. The pizza order was also messed up. We ordered buschetta pizza but the order got mixed up and the waitress brought us peperroni pizza instead. Both pizzas
were burnt. Although they gave us an extra pizza for free but it didnt taste good.
I have been there twice and the service has been slow both time. I would not recommend if you’re in a hurry.

We loved this place, but today when we picked to sit outside, no service came while we were reading the menu over and again. I noticed that other tables had to go in to call for a waiter, which I also did, but still waiting… had to leave for summer shack next door.

Went to this Bertucci’s location with friends. I asked the waitress to check on options for me because I have a gluten and dairy allergy. I have previously eaten meat and veggies from other locations. The waitress said she would check with the manager. She came back and told me that there was nothing they could serve me… So we left.

There are so many better options than Bertucci’s. If you must order from here, I suggest not ordering online as it’s a painfully difficult process with lots of steps and errors. I wound up just calling instead of trying to order online. It’s 2015, shouldn’t this work? Anyways, the wait was average, about 30 minutes for a pickup order, which was OK. When I arrived, 35 minutes after calling, I was told it was just about out of the oven, and the hostess ran away to the kitchen frantically. It was approximately 20 minutes longer before a simple pizza came out for us and it had been awkwardly cut and was not completely cooked (rushed). My guess is she never sent the order when I called it in. What a mess. The pizza fell apart and was soggy in the center. Anyways, if you have the option, just go up the road to Za in Arlington! I’d rather give my money to a small business than a big corporate glutton anyways, even if Bertucci’s is based in Mass, the service is horrendously disorganized! If you’re looking for a good option in this neighborhood though, Summer Shack is great! not italian, but amazing seafood options!

Let’s be real here, it’s a subway Bertuccis at the alewife MBTA station. Alewife is a concrete monstrosity, so it does not play well to the aesthetics of this Bertuccis. It doesn’t help they just tack up these gaudy advertising banners all over the station that look silly. The inside of this place is clean though, but kind of boring. Just shades of red/​yellow and random pictures of «Italian countryside» I guess. I wouldn’t want to sit near the windows though, because your view would include all the people walking in and out of the Alewife station, each taking a second to make awkward eye contact with you.
My experience here was entertaining to say the least. I had just proposed to my girlfriend, and we, as well as some friends, wanted to stop by to grab a drink and some quick food on our way home. I mostly wanted to go because I wanted to see if it lived up to my jokes about it being a «train station» Bertuccis, and it did. When the waiter came over, one of our friends, who was so excited about our engagement, looked at the waiter and told him that it was a special night and that we had just got engaged. Albeit he wasn’t looking at us, as he was placing silverware down and staring at the table with his crazy eyes as if he was going to murder it, and my friends excited exclamation was met with several seconds of dead silence. He then just walked away and we laughed at the absurdity of what just happened. He came back to take our order and made a weird joke about an evil twin brother that none of us understood. The food, awful. Our friends got a crab cake which looked like someone had just mixed up some crab meat and mayo and slapped it on a plate with mixed greens. They also got a salad with some buffalo chicken on it (which took the server awhile to figure out what they wanted, I mean, just throw some buffalo tenders on the salad man good lord), and it looked pretty sad.
I mean, what do you expect from a train station Bertuccis? Oh yea, they have outdoor seating, so you can be even closer to all the people commuting from the station. Yay!

In general, I like Bertuccis and this one was good. Service was good (we had a new server who was nice even though we had to remind her to get us things. Food came out quickly and was good.

My bf and I enjoy the pizza margherita with prosciutto and balsamic glaze — when it’s made right. Very often the pizza comes out raw, or with a very small amount of prosciutto when we paid extra EXTRA $$ for a bigger amount. We could get a quarter pound at the local whole foods for what we pay, so it doesn’t make sense that we can’t get more than 1 slice on the whole pizza. The mozzarella portion is quite cheap as well. It’s not uncommon to grab a slice that has none whatsoever. Because of these big issues, my bf and I have stopped coming here very often as a result.

Unfortunately, I have to give this place only one star. I’ve been ordering delivery from this location faithfully for about a year or so and each time they’ve managed to get the order wrong or screw up in some other form. Within that time, I completed two surveys informing them of their errors and have spoken to three managers. That’s right… Not one. Not two. THREE! Each manager fed me the same BS offering discounts and gift cards and promising better service, but nothing changed. I don’t know how this place remains in business because it’s clear they do not care about retaining customers. I’m finally done with this place and taking my money elsewhere.

My fiancée and I have been to this particular Bertucci’s about 3 times over the past few months. I can’t say we have had great experiences, but I have always been a fan of the restaurant and wanted to believe this particular chain was just having a rough patch, as they are walking distance to us.
This final time, we were about to embark on our health pact so we decided to go to Bertucci’s for a good ol’ stuffing of decent food. Our server was extremely sweet, albeit a little slow to get our orders. We got our drinks with our appetizer.
Eventually, we got our meals (before the rolls! Sigh!) and they were cold in the middle. Our server was super sweet about it and returned them to be heated up, although the cook looked pissed.
Eventually, they were brought back and properly heated. Unfortunately, they were unappetizing. My fiancées baked tortellini was very bland and tasted like a microwaved weight watchers meal. The chicken even had fake grill marks on it.
My lasagna had no sauce, which is a total bummer. The meat was a bit more «chewy» than I’d prefer. Neither meal had taste, which I hate to say. We tried salt but it didn’t help.
We have had these types of experiences before, but every place deserves more than one chance. After four, though, it looks like we may go to another Bertucci’s that is farther away, just for a proper experience.
Again, I love Bertucci’s but I have yet to have a good experience in this particular restaurant in Alewife.

Went here for dinner with a friend who lives nearby because they say they are a gluten friendly restaurant. I have a gluten and dairy allergy, told this to my waitress in order to get help evaluating what my meal options were. She said she would go back to talk to someone, cook or manager, and she came back and told me that there was nothing I could eat! She told me that there was absolutely nothing! No accommodations could be made. And then turned to my friend and asked her what she wanted. Obviously we decided to leave, but I have NEVER been to a restaurant that couldn’t even make me a salad!

When you go some place with a group and you don’t pick the place and the person picking picks a chain restaurant like this, I think you immediately lower your expectations to somewhere like «Well, I hope it’s passable» and I guess, on that scale, Bertucci’s delivers. I had pizza and the crust was okay and the overall flavor was okay but that’s sort of the whole idea of this place. Passable. Okay but, with so much Italian food and pizza around here, totally forgettable and irrelevant.

In the 5 minutes that I’ve been sitting here with a blank review box, I’ve been racking my brain intensely for negatives of Bertucci’s (mostly to try and empathize with the other reviews which gave such ill ratings).
…Still thinking…
Yeah. Nothing.
Bertucci’s has been one of my top 3 restaurants *forever*. And I say this literally because I’ve lived 10 minutes away my whole life. My family loves this place. My friends love this place. There really isn’t an argument to give it fewer than 5 stars. Now let me tell you why. Get comfy, because I’m about to get nostalgic. And hungry.
Bertucci’s has redefined pizza for me. Sure, I’ll eat your $ 5 cheese pizza, or your thin crust fanciness, or your real man’s deep dish. But none of them compare to the way Bertucci’s pizza makes me feel. An expertly sized layer of tomato sauce separates perfectly melted cheese from the world’s softest and warmest dough. (Who knew warmest was a word?). Tender cuts of chicken embedded to the cheesy surface add not only flavor but a texture like no other. Bertucci’s unique lemon-​peppercorn sauce (in lieu of tomato sauce) has no close rivals with the right amount of tangy and creamy goodness. Or, on the lighter side you can get a salad on a pizza, drizzled with balsamic vinaigrette to make it light, but unquestionably flavorful. And all of this follows the opening act of their bread rolls, which induces mouth-​watering that would put Pavlov’s dogs to shame.
I’ve tried many of their pizzas. My favorites (over the years) being the Silano, Shrimp Bella Venezia, Something-​with-​caramelized-​onions-​whose-​name-​I-​forget, and the Verde. However, my mom loves the simple Margherita. Notably she scrapes off all of the tomato sauce (she can’t eat it for stomach acid reasons) and still loves it; a true testament to how good their bread and cheese is. I could go on forever, but I hope you can see how strongly I feel for their pizza.
At the same time, their entrees are equally delicious. With hefty serving sizes, Bertucci’s lasagna, ravioli, specialty pastas, chicken parm, what-​have-​you, are never a disappointment. I’m not usually a dweeb who takes special notice of how the food is prepared (i just care how it tastes) but I really do think the brick oven adds something.
I’ve had countless experiences here (literally), and I won’t pretend that they’ve never had a mis-​step. Once, they forgot about our pizza and it got a little too burnt. BUT, they made us a new one and gave us a dessert on the house to make up for it. This review is getting long so I’m going to wrap it up. But really, Bertucci’s is unmatched in my book.

Bland chicken parm that was probably frozen
Old lettuce
Stick to the pizza… or a better restaurant

I guess the Harvard sq. location closed down? So sad. I’ve been going there for years. It’s like the end of an era.
Moving on, I would suggest the lobster ravioli. It is so delicious. It comes with plenty of lobster meat (which can be saved and eaten with the hot rolls and butter). The cream sauce is heavenly. I also got the spinach salad– comes with thinly sliced granny smith apples, goat cheese & candied walnuts. I usually detest fruit and nuts in my foods/​salad, but this was very good accompanied with the pasta.
If you sign up online you get $ 10 off your order. I always prefer takeout, so this was a huge bonus. Overall very good quality food and friendly service. Pleasant way to end a relaxing weekend.
My bff used to work there. WHY?!

Bertucci’s is a chain but each location has subtle differences. This is our «home» Bertucci’s because it’s walking distance from our house and even delivers to us. I like this one a lot because it’s big enough to serve a variety of functions — stop for a drink mid-​commute when the T’s been a PITA, meet up with friends and know there’ll be a big enough table to seat everyone, or take the dog in the summer and sit out outside on the «patio».
I’ve also always had great service here. They’re not re-​inventing the wheel, here, but for my money it’s a good place.