Appetito

This restaurant has sadly closed. It was the place to go in both Newton and the South End. Packed every single night of the week for years. I’ve been going to the one in Newton every few years and every time it was worse than the last time. Let this be a lesson to restaurant owner, keep the quality of the food and service up or people will not come anymore. Kiss of death was when they started taking Groupon. So sad. Many, many great memories at Appetitos.

Don’t buy the Groupon. I called a million times to make a reservation and no answer.
I think they went out of business. I informed Groupon.

I honestly don’t even know where to start with Appetito… my inlaws had a Groupon, so they invited us to dine with them before a hockey game. We arrived just past 6pm and ordered two beers and two glasses of wine. Our waitress went behind the bar and then loudly proclaimed that she couldnt find her wine key and thus could not open the beer (it was a Longtrail). Ever prepared, bf and I both have keychain bottle openers so that crisis was averted.
After securing our drinks, we ordered two appetizers, the mussels and the antipasto. Everything seemed fine until our waitress came flying into the restaurant from outside and started loudly telling her colleague about a confrontation she’d just had with the owner of the nail salon next door. As she filled up our water, she apologized for being jittery and then went on the regale us with neighborhood gossip involving a lit cigarette and a basement fire and possible retaliation. What in the ever-​loving hell?! It’s a small Itialian restaurant and all, but this is Newton, not New Jersey!
Our apps came out and I cut up what looked suspiciously like bruschetta. MIL and I both commented that it didn’t look like antipasto, but the men reminded us we’d been told it wasn’t like «regular» antipasti so we went with it… until our waitress reappeared with a plate of pasta with chicken and veg on top and said, «you guys ordered bruschetta?» Huh?! Apparently we’d been delivered the wrong app, but thankfully it was no big deal. She put down the antipasto salad and the men snagged her and ordered two more beers — and were then promptly informed that there was not a single beer left in the place but a case of Sam Winter bottles. Uh… ok.
There was a significant timelapse between our apps being cleared and our entrees being served which, after reading the reviews, wasn’t surprising. The food came out and was actually ok for the most part; two chicken parms, a mushroom lasagna and chicken cutlets with artichoke hearts are tough to screw up. I do have to note, though, that the vegetables in my chicken dish were almost raw. If I wanted crunchy carrots and raw summer squash, I’d order a salad. We were crunched for time so ordered dessert to go – 2 slices of generic, store-​bought cheesecake.
This is where it gets particularly good: after watching my FIL count out the cash for the bill (along with an overly generous tip, in my opinion, given the whole «haha fire!» incident), we left the restaurant to go to the game. A block down the street, we hear, ‘HEY! WAIT” and turn to see our waitress sprinting toward us – IN THE RAIN — with a wad of cash in her hands. «You didn’t tip me!» wasn’t really what I was expecting, but those are the exact words that came out of her mouth. My FIL proceeded to tell her that he most certainly did leave a tip, and over $ 20 at that. She proceeded to wave his money in his face while we just stood there with our jaws dropped. At that point, we were getting soaked, so rather than argue with her he just gave her money while she tried to convince him that she «really isn’t like that but…» and tried to get his cell phone number «in case the money turned up somewhere.» WHAT?!
Even with the appetizer snafu, the lack of beer, the undercooked vegetables and the generic dessert, I probably would have given Appetito two stars because the food itself was fine for the most part. The whole «chasing us down the street to demand a gratuity that is actually a reward for good service» bit, however, can’t be justified. If you’re looking for Italian food, head to the North End or, I dunno, even Bertucci’s. Steer clear of Appetito.

What the reviews here say is all true. Overpriced, mediocre food, strange service (our waitress looked like she was on speed… talking all over the place, dropping stuff, not being able to stand still while talking to us, jittery — it even made me anxious!).
The Groupon isn’t even worth it. The portions were kind of measly and for our «dessert» the only option was some store-​bought tasting pumpkin pie that was falling apart as she brought it out. Gross!

Worse Italian restaurant I’ve ever been to… Environment… tense. Service… terrible. Food?.. yet to be seen since we’ve been waiting for it for an hour… They are also completely out of bread and calamari.
This is actually the worst service I’ve ever experienced. I know other reviews mentioned they were short staffed, but tonight there are only 8 tables and two waitresses. That should be more than enough to handle.
Oh wait! One of the waitresses dropped a dish and yelled «sh*t.» Great way to silence a restaurant and exactly what you should say next to a table of children… This is a mess…
1 hr 15 minutes in and we’ve been told our dinner is coming up next 4 times and the table behind us is contemplating walking out…
1 hr 30 minutes in and dinner is served! My dish of 4 ravioli’s is looking sad. My friends penne is looking even worse. The pasta is falling apart and she found a 2 inch piece of uncooked carrot mixed in… Six bites in to the «dry aged» steak and 3 of them have been inedible due to gristle. At least the flavor is decent.
2 hrs later and we’re waiting on our check. The waitress just said that they only have pumpkin pie for dessert, very Italian… Store bought I assume, just like my stop and shop ravioli’s.
The saving grace is we used a Groupon, and I can only hope everyone here did as well.
To wrap it up, I quote the lady behind me, «get me out of here before I start to cry.»

I live in Newton Center, and tried this restaurant first time with a guest. Service was not good the restaurant and the waitresses are definitely not kid friendly. the ambiance was OK but not great.
I rank a good Italian restaurant always with the olive oil and bread along with the food they serve. Olive oil served to the table was no better than machinery lubricant as well as bread was not good. Obviously the prices against this service and quality of food were too high.

I really prayed that this restaurant was not as bad as the other reviews portrayed it as, but it was. I am pretty sure the manager/​owner stopped caring about this restaurant and is running it into the ground.
I was excited to try Appetito since I have always heard good things about it. I was drooling when I checked out the menu online, and it clearly said that they have a honey roasted duck with mashed potatoes, which I was 100% going to get.
When I walked into the restaurant they had a picture of the roasted duck leg as well with an award next to it and it looked so good.
The hostess seemed high. She slowly walked us to our table, and then lit a candle in front of us, which wasn’t a huge deal but I was surprised they didn’t just do it beforehand considering the restaurant was pretty empty and they weren’t that busy. She handed us two sticky/​old menus. I noticed that they had gotten rid of the duck leg on the menu, which is deceiving considering that they had it listed online.
Before we started ordering our waitress came over dressed in jeans and a regular shirt. She told us she had just gotten to work and would be right back because she needed to change since she just got there. I felt like that was weird but I didn’t mind that much. I ordered a diet coke and when the waitress came over, she informed me that they were out of straws… HOW does a restaurant run of straws? The restaurant is also located ONE block away from Walgreens, so I do not know why they did not just go and pick some up.
Previous reviews also said that this restaurant gives you a good spread for the bread at the beginning. Instead, we just got some stale bread and plain butter. Also not a huge deal breaker considering it was free, but I was disappointed by not getting the yummy «spread.»
For our appetizer we ordered the mozzarella/​tomato/​basil/​proscuitto dish. When it came out, it looked like a flimsy attempt at a dish with ONE basil leaf on top. It was pathetic. The tomato slices were so sloppy it looked like a ten-​year old had cut them. The dish was decent, but it just looked like food I could have easily made myself for $ 2, and I don’t know why it was the most expensive appetizer on the menu (normally $ 11). Even my boyfriend who rarely complains looked at it and was like «umm…»
For entrees, I ordered the pasta with linguine, basil cream sauce, sautéed chicken, broccoli rabe, and mushrooms. My boyfriend got the trout. While we were waiting, another waitress told the couple next to us that they were out of pumpkin pie. She said that the owner had gone out to the market to pick up more ingredients/​supplies but was not sure what time he would be back. It seemed like a bizarre excuse. The couple asked if they could just get $ 7.95 taken off of their bill. Instead of just doing that, the waitress said she could not and wrote them a voucher to come back next time for dessert. I would’ve been annoyed if I were them because I would not have wanted to come back just for dessert.
The entrees came out and my pasta was good. I find it hard to mess up pasta though and since I’m not Italian, I am usually satisfied with most pasta dishes. My boyfriend’s trout was horrendous though. It tasted very dry. His mashed potatoes were also very bland. Meanwhile as we are munching through dinner, the table next to us ordered a salad and the waitress came over and said «Sorry we are out of asparagus.» At that point I looked at my boyfriend and went, «Jeez… are they out of EVERYTHING?»
Finally for dessert, the waitress tells us the choices are a warm chocolate pudding cake, or cheesecake. We ordered the pudding cake. Of course, 5 minutes later, our waitress comes back and says, «I’m sorry we actually don’t have the pudding cake, but we do have apple pie, cheesecake, or pumpkin pie.» SERIOUSLY? 20 minutes ago they didn’t have pumpkin pie and now they do? It was so obvious that they had bought these desserts from the market. We went for the cheesecake and when it came out, our suspicions were proven when the dessert DID taste like a store bought cake. 100%.
To make matters worse, their credit card machine was not working. Luckily my boyfriend had cash on him.
Also, the other waitress seemed nice to her tables, BUT every time she walked by our table I heard her SIGH loudly like she was so irritated. It made me very uncomfortable.
SO, overall, despite my pasta being good, Appetito was a terrible experience. HOW on Earth do they run a restaurant when they are out of everything? No straws, no asparagus, no dessert, no duck leg, no working credit card machine… This place needs to CLOSE immediately. What waste of space.

I have no idea how this place stays open; everyone used groupons and nothing was good. As others have pointed out, you should be prepared to wait, and wait, and then wait some more. The restaurant was clearly understaffed (there were two waitresses for the entire place), and as a result there were set tables that went unused while new comers waited. I will say that the staff that was working was very apologetic and straightforward about their limitations.
The food was bland and unremarkable. Sauces were watery and salt and pepper were lacking. The «house dip» was not at all appetizing, and the «fresh bread» tasted like Pepperidge Farm. My girlfriend’s chicken had been frozen, and consequently tasted gross (weird and crunchy in the middle, you know it if you’ve had it) and my seafood was supposed to be in a spicy marinara, but I think they just put a little bit of pepper in whatever jar of Ragu they were using.
Save your time and money and go elsewhere. There’s nothing here worth experiencing. The second star is only because nothing was downright offensive.

Be prepared to wait forever. But actually.
We came here with a groupon. If we didn’t, I would give Appetito a one star review. We ordered chicken, which came with zucchini, artichoke and squash, and a rack of lamb. Food was meh, definitely not worth the $$ or the wait.

I think 2 stars is fitting for a place like this. The service was very sub par, food took forever, and our waitress was a bit all over the place.
When the food did come, the appetizer that we got was supposed to be a pan fried calamari, but it was absolutely deep fried and taste quite bland. I ordered the steak which was extremely underwhelming for being the most expensive item on the menu. I think strolling over to Shaw’s and grilling something up yourself would’ve been suffice and would have cost about ¼ of the price. Oh well I will not be back here again. You win some, you lose some.

Came here with a Groupon, which seems to be how everyone else comes. They don’t take reservations, but the wait wasn’t bad when we got there. We got drinks at the bar, but they were running low on some of the higher end vodkas (Ketel One and one other brand). By running low, I mean not enough to make one martini.
The host was very nice, and was making jokes throughout the evening. He checked in on us several times.
The food was nothing special, but definitely not worth the price without the Groupon. The décor seemed a little run down. It wasn’t bad, but looked like it had seen its share of wear and tear.

I’ve driven by this place hundred’s of times and finally decided to give it a shot. The fact that there are rotting pumpkins in the display case when you walk in, and Halloween was 4 months ago, should have been a huge sign to cut our losses and find another place, but my friend and I decided to give it at least a chance.
I’m sad to say, our gut instincts were right. We waited for a table to be cleared, even though there were tables available. It seemed like the waitstaff were all over the place, it seemed like no one was in charge making sure tables were cleared, the bathrooms were clean etc… When we left, the waitress at the hostess stand didn’t even look up when we said good night.
Our waitress was nice but totally clueless. She couldn’t tell me what type of squash was being served even after I gave her options (butternut, spaghetti, acorn). She couldn’t remember the specials and didn’t know the prices of items.
The complementary bread served was nothing special. My friend was so disgusted with the quality of it he asked them to take it away. I ordered the branzini special and was pleasantly surprised, the fish was cooked well and tasty but the spinach was way too salty and the squash was burned. For $ 24.95, the quality should have been much better.
The décor is a little beat up, knicks in the paint, chipped tiles, the plastic on the menu was cracked and on mine, melted, you can tell this restaurant has been there for a while. It would be nice if they took a few hours and cleaned it, maybe give it a little sprucing up. Perhaps this place was good at one time, but it just felt like it was old and a little rundown. I certainly won’t be returning.
Dine at your own risk.

Whoa, whoa. Okay now. Listen, this place wasn’t good. But it wasn’t the disaster that every review under this one seems to have thought it was.
The service was actually really good. Our waitress was very attentive and very friendly. Overhearing almost every table around us, I know that most of the people in the restaurant tonight were using a GroupOn, and the staff was very positive and didn’t seem frustrated about that at all.
Our food wasn’t terrible. If you want good Italian, you definitely shouldn’t head to Newton Centre for Appetito. But yeah, the sauce was watery, the pasta was definitely overcooked. I’ve had worse, though.
I wouldn’t go back and I wouldn’t recommend it but I also think the reviews below are a little too harsh. It certainly wasn’t like walking into hell.

Been there before but don’t go often mainly due to the wait, which means the food is good!
During the snow storm on Saturday I thought it was a good time to take my sweetie for a nice dinner… we hit it just right. there were people, but we were seated right away. Service was very good, our waitress had great recommendations and did not pressure us time-​wise. We actually showed up with a Groupon this time which could’ve made them less «enthusiastic», but they were great. Remember, the restaurant only gets half of what the Groupon cost, so they’re losing big $.
We ended up both getting specials as well as wine, so we paid a little more than the groupon covered. Portions were generous, the food was fresh and delicious… we took the chocolate pudding cake dessert home which I ate last night. I would’ve thought it would suck a couple days later but was blown away by it. I can only say good things about this place every time I’ve eaten there.
The only drawback is it’s on the small side, so when it gets busy, service may get a little slower, but you don’t go to a restaurant like this to rush. You go to sit back, enjoy your wine, enjoy your food and enjoy the people that you’re with. One of those neighborhood gems!
Please go.
What I have learned about most (not all) negative reviews, especially for people going to a restaurant for the first time is, you may not get it right the first time. I’ve been to places where I’ve had so-​so food on one occasion and had something great the next time out. and Unilocal reviews are kinda bogus. Yes, there are some legitimate bad ones, but the majority you see are the negative ones. Unilocal randomly removes ones that the computer deems suspicious. Like 5 stars… you’ll often see a lot of the one stars, but not the five stars so look at the «filtered reviews» to get a full perspective.
I’m a musician and a promoter, I do a lot of work with restaurants but have no relationship with this one. It’s just a nice place to go, again and again.

The Nightmare at Appetito: Myself, husband and 2 friends had a groupon and decided to check it out, despite the not so good reviews. How bad can it be? Well, upon arriving, we stood in the very small entryway with about 10 other waiting customers. No one came to great us or even tell us it would be a 5−10−15−45 minute wait. We waited 45 minutes to be seated. There were only 3 waitresses and a very slow bartender working. No host, busboy or management to be seen.
We finally get seated and it took 15 minutes to get a cocktail. We stopped our server to place our entire order because we were seeing where this was going. Appetizers came, shrimp was cold and rubbery and Carpaccio was bland. 40 minutes later the food came. I had the pasta special, which was pasta, chicken and sausage. I could tell it sat in the pass for a LONG time. It was hard, dried out and cold. My husband got the salmon which was way too fishy and cold. My friend ordered a veal shank and they brought him a pork chop and when he brought it to the servers attention, she took it to the back, came back out and said «the chef says this is veal» and my friend had to argue with her for 5 minutes until she brought out an actual veal shank.
Getting cocktails was a real treat. Besides the long wait, we had to take our empty glasses to the bar for her to reuse, without washing and fill them up again. Seriously?
We were supposed to get 2 desserts with the groupon, but they only had 1 chocolate cake left and we had to split that, but not before waiting 15 minutes for silverware to actually eat it. It was no lava cake, no oozey center, stale on the outside.
We were at this «eatery» for a total of 3 hours. I wish I could give it a half a star, only for the waitresses, who were clearly trying hard but noticeably inexperienced. Upon leaving, I did notice a gentleman speaking with the servers who seemed to be the manager. Nice of him to come out of hiding when the restaurant was almost empty. If they decided to offer a groupon, better preparation should have been made. We will never, ever be visiting this place again.

I always look at Unilocal reviews before buying any sort of coupon deal, but somehow, for this restaurant, I did not. big mistake. HUGE.
But, I paid for it, so I figured I may as well get my free food out of it. Reading the reviews beforehand gave me serious anxiety about going, to the point that I debated just throwing away the groupon (for one app, two entrees, one dessert).
The one star will be given because of the spread that came with the bread to start. It was delicious.
All the other reviews about the calamari are correct: it is AWFUL. my boyfriend and I got it mostly to see if it was that bad… It was. At this point our dinner turned into a farce. A few bites in to the calamari I thought I might throw it up, and it became very tough to get down. Don’t get it.
For my entrée I played it safe and got the bolognese (low risk meal, hard to screw up too badly). Wasn’t terrible, but wasn’t good. I mostly just ate the plain pasta out of it.
BF got the angus special with shrimp and mashed potatoes. His steak was actually cooked medium rare but it just didn’t taste it. Very chewy, very hard to swallow. His shrimp tasted frozen as they were also very chewy and hard… weird. Mashed potatoes were cold. He tried to force me to have a bite and I couldn’t eat more than a lick. Just awful.
For dessert we got the tiramisu a la mode. The best part was the ice cream. The tiramisu was terrible! It had a strange aftertaste, a little sour almost. I love tiramisu and I ate only a few bites.
When we were seated our waitress (who seemed very nice) brought us our menus, and a minute later another waitress comes in and tells her «this is my table.» Super awkward. Our new waitress made me… Uncomfortable. She kept screwing up the specials, which I’m sure isn’t the easiest thing to do, but it was just uncomfortable. She also was kind of… Twitchy. Again, not her fault, it was just weird. AND she recommended the calamari. Why?!
To conclude: just don’t come here. Unless they get a Kitchen Nightmares makeover!

I went to this place for lunch, and I had the Linguine Frutti di Mare. DELICIOUS. It’s not the best I’ve had but, the ingredients were definitely fresh and the spiciness to it was just perfect.
Dish presentation: elegant and beautiful. My friend had a chicken salad and it was also delicious, she mentioned how fresh the chicken tasted.
Decoration: this place is sort of small but it makes people feel comfortable right away. I think this place would make a cute date, I imagine it with dim lights at night and at their tables-​for-​two, it would be, perfect.
I’m not giving it 5 stars because, the waitress practically poured water in my friend’s shoes while pouring water in her glass and didn’t even apologize. Not sure if she noticed or not but, that’s something they must definitely care for, when serving food.
I’d definitely go back to this place and you should visit, but make sure you hide your expensive shoes, I will! ;-)

This was honestly the worst meal I have ever had. Do NOT go here; ramen is better.
When my boyfriend and I arrived, the restaurant was half empty, yet we waited 10 minutes while the 3 blond waitresses (who looked stoned and probably in high school) cleaned a table, even though there was plenty of seating throughout the restaurant.
I am Italian American and have also lived in Italy off and on throughout the years. 1) This is not Italian food, and 2) The food is disgusting. I wanted to walk out (even with a Groupon for $ 50) after we received the bread plate– it was so bad I regretted even just wasting my time at this awful place.
— The bread came with a weird undersalted, bland hummus (HUMMUS at an Italian restaurant???). Since the table had no olive oil (ridiculous, considering this is an «Italian» restaurant), we had to ask the confused waitress. The waitress gave us a bottle of a watery, greenish fluid which was apparently olive oil. I have NEVER tasted olive oil like this, and I seriously question if it truly was olive oil— it was disgusting.
— The Piadina Contadina was essentially a green salad with disgusting dressing and burnt bread. The bread was so badly burnt and smoky we couldn’t eat it (and I had been dreaming of ANY carbs for days, so it had to truly be appalling for me not to devour it).
— The bruschetta was NOT bruchetta. The bread was burned and smoky. The tomatoes were cooked (bruschetta tomatoes are never cooked, they are always freshly diced tomatoes— in no country or region do they serve COOKED tomatoes on bruschetta). It in no way resembled bruschetta. It was burnt bread with cooked tomatoes.
The rest of the meal was disgusting. I cannot believe that the owner of this restaurant can sleep at night serving such disgusting, «gringo» Italian good. It is an insult to Italian cooking and the customers who frequent this restaurant. The Olive Garden is more authentic than this hellhole.

Let me start by saying I would actually rate Appetito a 2.5.
I am very defiant. I saw the reviews of other Unilocalers, and wanted to prove them wrong. Based on the menu/​website/​sign, I wanted to give this place a chance and really like it. However, Unilocal — you win again.
Atmosphere is severely lacking. Everything is old and dingy. The menus, tabletops, chairs, etc all need work. Just not a good way to set the scene. Our table was kind of dirty when we sat down. Service is fine, all of the waitresses and hostesses were very nice. It’s not fine dining hospitality, but more «homey» style.
As mentioned, the bread and dip are great. Probably the best thing we had. We ordered an asparagus salad to start and that was pretty good. Most of our food was «pretty good» as well. The pasta was a bit overcooked, though. Although they offer a very wide array of options and lots of specials, nothing was worth writing home about.
I’ll try it again but only because I’m moving to the neighborhood and I have another Groupon to spend. Otherwise, I probably wouldn’t be back — especially at the normal prices.

Soft fresh bread served with a tasty hummus type dip. Yum!
They had a fish special and a pasta special which they recited to us without a stumble. I just wish that waiters would make it a habit to state the price along with the dish descriptions instead of making me ask.
Entrees tend to be priced between the mid teens and the mid twenties. Portions are not generous, but flavors are good, pastas al dente, and veggies not overcooked. We were pleased with the Tortigiloni con pollo $ 15.95 tube pasta, sauteed chicken, sundried cranberries, fresh spinach, brandy cream sauce and the Brandelli $ 17.95 Ribbon fettucine pasta, prosciutto, chicken, mushrooms, roasted garlic, braised escarole, roma tomatoes in a marsala cream sauce. The Anitro $ 19.95 slow roasted honey glazed duck, fresh apple, cherry, balsamic sauce with fresh basil, herb mashed potatoes and a little squirt of peach mango purée was a leg and some breast with flavorful fruit topped mashed spud and a decent portion of pretty plain sliced zucchini.
Another habit I could do without is the waiter writing in the tip on the receipt. I know I used a coupon, but I also know that I should be tipping on the pre-​coupon price. When they do that, I give them what they ask and leave it at that, even though I probably would have given them more if they had left it up to me.
Note — they accept credit cards… except for Discover.