Twist on Angell

Wow, I am really surprised to see bad reviews of this place. I have been 3 times so far and each visit was spot-​on.
We went for the gluten free menu, which is great. They have pizza, pasta, fish, steak, and a decent starters menu. I usually get a pizza when I go here since good GF pizza is hard to come by. Their crusts are thin, Italian style and they have a great selection of toppings. My SIL had the (non-​GF) loaded potato pizza, which sounds bizarre but apparently tastes heavenly. Friends have had a variety of dishes from the menu and all enjoyed them.
Whether it’s just my husband and me, or going as a larger group, we’ve always received prompt, friendly, and efficient service. The food is always hot, is served in good time, and the staff are attentive without hovering. The only downside is the price, which is a little high, but it’s worth it if you want a good gluten free dinner that won’t disappoint your non-​GF friends/​family.
The location is pretty decent for parking (they don’t have their own lot but there’s usually plenty of spaces on the street) and the restaurant itself is clean and attractive, though it’s in the basement of the building so there is pretty much no natural light. That’s great at night when they use low, soft lighting and candles on the tables for a romantic ambiance, but at lunch time it can seem a little dim in there.
Overall, I definitely recommend it.

Great place to go if you have a gluten allergy. They have many options that don’t skimp on the taste!
Great bar, great service, and a really nice atmosphere.
The menu is a bit small and I find myself reading it over and over again thinking I missed something, but what they do have is really good, and I have always been happy with my food and portions.
Personally I would give it 4 stars, but since they are so attentive to the needs of the gluten-​free community, it gets a 5 star rating since my girlfriend and I know how hard it is to find good gluten-​free food when we go to eat out.

Avoid this place at all costs. This place is a step down from your local Applebee’s. It’s kind of like putting lipstick on a pig, really. This could be the worst restaurant on the East Side. The food is bland, unimaginative, and REALLY salty. The drinks are pretty good, but can take forever to get.
The staff can’t be blamed unless they are creating the menu, cooking in the back, and then running out to serve it to you, so I place blame on the Owners and kitchen staff.

The ONLY reason this place even gets a 2^nd star is because the food is OK. SERVICE IS HORRIBLE. I went there a couple months ago for a friend’s birthday and it took about 2 hours for us to get our food. When I asked to speak to a manager the waitress argued with me that it was only technically an hour… I wondered if she even heard what she just said. ONLY AN HOUR? That is way too long for a week night and especially if the place is empty. This was the second time I had been there with the dinner taking a an epic amount of time. I think this place is on a very fast track to shutting down… I wouldn’t spend another $ 1 there. If you are ok with waiting 2 hrs for an OK meal feel free to stop by.

I had been here for a number of times. I hit the bar here a couple of times after work and the sangria and specialty drinks are pretty good. One time we were given a free carrot cake dessert. When I came here for dinner, we ordered the cheese plate and it was SO large I took half of it home. We split the paella and it was very filling. I was satisfied with the meal and my waiter was attentive. Check out the awesome bathroom!

Against my better judgement I went back to Twist — I was craving gluten-​free pizza and I know they offer it. It was definitely better this time, and it’s now back on list of places I will go with people when they are dying for Italian food.
I encouraged my friend to order pasta with a regular (not creamy) sauce, and he didn’t complain of excessive grease. The gluten free buffalo wings were mediocre, but the mashed potato pizza was to die for, I will be going back just for that! The service was friendly but still not speedy — it took a relatively long time to get our food despite the few other patrons.

Food and service are nothing to write home about. Forget the ambiance, this place is in the basement of an apartment complex.

This place is sooooo gross. Like somebody mentioned above… they are desperately trying to be different. Everybody prefers Red Stripe only a block away, which is sad, because they aren’t even that great. Twist’s «to-​go» is hideous, and they ALWAYS mess up my order. Above all it is extremely over-​priced. I once found a bug and a piece of hair in the SAME DISH… and they didn’t even take it off the bill. I hope they go under soon so a better restaurant can replace them.

I ate here last Saturday, and I live in the neighborhood and had a groupon. The place was packed full at 7 PM on a Saturday, and the noise level was really high. It was hard to hear the conversation between me and my guest over the din.
As others have mentioned, the service was slow. Not rude, just slow. It took over 35 minutes for the entrees to come out, the drinks were slow to arrive, and we never received any bread. I was willing to look past that, but the dinners were underwhelming. I had the green eggs and ham and he had the scallops and risotto. They were OK — not terrible, but just not that exciting either.
The highlight of the meal was definitely the carrot cake we had for dessert, although it was a little heavy on the ice cream. It needed more cake for the ice cream/​cake ratio. It was an OK dinner and I was happy with the final bill since we used a groupon, but I’m not sure I’ll be back anytime soon to pay full price.

Recently went in on a Sunday night when the place was half full. This seemed to be too much for the wait staff, though. It took 20 minutes to place a drink and entrée order. After waiting another 20 minutes, our server apologized for the delay in our food and gave us bread which was half cold. The hearts of palm salad wasn’t very good. Overall, poor service, poor food. The people were nice, and the atmosphere wasn’t bad, but I won’t be returning. There are better places nearby.

The walk inside made me think I was in for a treat. I used a groupon, so I had the dinner half off if I spent 40 dollars, if not I would be very upset. The app was a Moroccan platter which consisted of veggies, pita bread, tzaziki sauce (super watery) and some hummus. The app was the best part, which isn’t saying much.
The entre’s were nothing to write home about. I got the «angell pillows» which is pumpkin ravioli’s (not homemade but from venda ravioli on atwells ave), peas, chicken (tasted like frozen chicken) which came cut up into cubes, crushed walnuts and some overly sweet sauce. The ravioli was good, because it was from venda, but I mean cmon make your own! The dish was way too sweet, and almost made me feel sick. 99% of the time I wrap it up and eat lunch tomorrow, not the case here I left the rest for the garbage.
My wife got the fried rice which was rice swimming in overly sweet hoisin sauce and had a few rubbery shrimp. The dish was so sweet she could not finish either. Fried rice should be dryer and seperated from the «sauce». This was rice swimming in sugar sauce. The flavor was good, but WAY too sweet, bleh. It was like am Asian sugar risotto.
Also, the service was abominable. They had no idea how to use the groupon I purchased and didn’t offer to refill my empty water at ANY point during the meal. I finished the water during the app and had to borrow my wifes water to wash down the sticky sweet goop we ate.
I wouldn’t ever go back here. Bleh. They are lucky I used a groupon and only spent 30 dollars for the night.

Been here twice in two months, and it was nice. Went with a group on valentines day and boyyyyy was it HOT in the place! The food is very good, good variety. You can get anything from pizza, meatloaf (which is really good) steak (Ive had better) and dessert we got the «bread pudding» not really a fan of that, but their other desserts are good. I ordered a margarita, and it tasted funny.
Good place to go and chill and eat. I do enjoy their food, the baked brie app is veryyy good! Making me crave it while im writing this!

Twist on Angell is located in Wayland square and I’ve walked by the long awning leading up to this place several times when I lived in the neighborhood but never thought to go in. We decided to finally go here for dinner the other night after searching Unilocal for «mashed potatoes». (What… Why is that weird? She wanted some mashed potatoes.)
First off, I’d like to suggest that Unilocal split «casual» into «hoodie and ripped jeans casual» (ex: Denny’s) and «polo and nice jeans casual». I’m very happy I took a second to think about where Twist is located (underneath a $ 1000+/mo apartment building) and change out of the first type of casual into the second before leaving my apartment.
The décor is a fancy/​trendy black, white, and red with a large, three-​sided bar in the center. We were seated at a pub table near the bar and I immediately began wishing they were open later. Twist has a great set up if you want to go out with a bunch of friends but I’m sure their limited hours deter many people looking to go out drinking for the night.
I ordered their pork tenderloin substituting the sweet potatoes for mashed and my friend got meatloaf with mashed potatoes. My pork came with a delicious sauce; some sort of apple bourbon flavor. She enjoyed her meatloaf but didn’t finish saying it was «too flavorful» (a complaint I’ll never understand). The mashed potatoes were a perfect consistency with a few small chunks and the skins included. We weren’t too stuffed and had seen someone getting what looked like a lava cake earlier so we got their «Ooey Gooey Chocolate Cake» for desert” Not quite as ooey, gooey, or cakey as the title would make you believe (the outside was more brownie like) but we were still scraping every last crumb off the place. The service was very good even as they got busier towards the end of our meal.
I’m very surprised I never stopped in here before but I’m very glad I have. I can see myself coming back here and I’ll definitely be checking out Waterplace downtown which is owned and operated by the same group as Twist.
Idea: What about a «paper napkin» or «cloth napkin» choice to help determine how casual or dressy a restaurant is? (Twist is all about the red cloth napkins)

Good food at moderate pricing
The layout is cozy and nice. I like the idea of walking down into a restaurant. It seems sketch because of the location– in an apartment building or office building– but a nice escape from the typical Providence restaurant scene.
The Baked Brie is delicious. The vegetarian fried rice with tofu was also quite yummy.

This place tries way too hard to offer something different and creative… they basically take simple menu items and throw on something wild like an avacado or an artichoke heart and call it «twisted» whatever.
The service wasn’t so great… restaurants and menu choices like this are a dime a dozen in the boston area. Hopefully they got a new head chef, and the old one got a job at Friendly’s

Spot on definition of «OK». Located in the basement of looming brownstone «Wayland Manor» Twist on Angell is the typical «New American», sort-​of-​chic eatery. With a menu featuring tapas, starters, soups, salads, sandwhiches, small entrees, large entress… the menu is fucking War and Peace. But, it is ok. The food, service, ambiance, drink list, all «ok».
They do have some of the best Nachos I have ever had, which may seem weird for this kind of restaurant, but they are really good. They earned the third star on their own. The Heineken was tooth hurting cold, as it should be. Other than that, average at best.
The Twisted Calamari was over-​battered and very sweet, when I was expecting some kick. The Thai Toss salad was presented interestingly, with the actual salad being served in a Chinese take out box, with the satay skewers poking from the top. It was ok, but the salad itself was quite soggy, and the rice noodles and wasabi peas seemed more of a decoration than an ingredient in the dish. Flavors were fine, but non-​descript.
Our server was friendly, and this place would be fun with a large group
because they are apparently rarely full and have a huge seating area. However, this is a classic example of a place trying to do too many things, while doing none of them exceptionally well.
*Id love to see some outdoor seating on the lawn area. It would serve the place well*

I love Twist! They have excellent pizzas… I too, love the ball park pizza. Their appetizers are good as well. I’ve been several times and have been recommended great meals from the waitstaff.
I enjoy the décor– very contemporary looking, but nice all the same. The bar is usually pretty busy.
They have excellent martinis! I would recommend getting the wayland wave or the pomegranate martini. If you like martinis, definitely order one from there.
I have been to Twist several times, and have gotten a great meal each time I’ve gone!

Twist is a great place for a decent priced dinner in Providence. The décor is a little blah, but the menu is quite interesting. I love the turkey burger. My friend swears by the ballpark pizza.
One caveat: I heard that the executive chef who started Twist left to start Waterplace Restaurant. I’m not sure who the new chef is or how good he/​she is at making these weird dishes.

I’ve been countless time. This Twist is pretty solid. I tried an appetizer I would normally have avoided, Mustard-​Beer Battered Chicken Skewers. Lightly fried and served with a sweet apricot dipping sauce, YUM! The Baked Brie is out of this world and so is the hummus. There’s a zesty Warm Shrimp Artichoke and Jalapeño fondue. You can have quite a feast on the appetizers without ordering a dinner. There are a host of other delicious offerings at this Twist. (I’m not so sure about the other Twist restaurants.) Burgers — love the Irish Pub burger, pasta, salads, pizzas, sandwiches, and more. I’m a fan of the Pinelli Marra restaurants here in RI so my next stop will be Waterplace.
The scenery is pleasant: black, white, and a bit of red. Very contemporary. It can become quite noisy even if the restaurant is only half full. On Friday and Saturday nights, you can get in quite easily before 7:30. The place may fill up around 8, but quickly empties out.
At the bar: The bartenders, in terms of personality, aren’t all that fun. However, they make up for it with the super mixed drinks. There is usually a drink special on Fri and Sat.

This place has come a long way since my first visit a year or so ago. The menu is varied and interesting, while managing to include some classics, like Penne ala Vodka and the like.
People seem to really enjoy their pizzas. While they are good, I don’t really love ‘designer pizza’. If I had to pick a fave, it’d be the eggplant.
The tuna carpaccio was a little skimpy on tuna, and had a cucumber granita that would’ve been more successful if it hadn’t shot across the plate and onto the table when I tried to get a piece of it.
Thick and hearty steak came with my new fave– spinach mashed potatoes. Garlic mashed are something I associate with Applebee’s, not a place where the adventurous go to dine. Dining companion had scallops on top of some sort of risotto, very yummy. They were encrusted with pink peppercorns, much less biting than the usual black ones.
We had Baked Alaska for dessert. So fascinating. So many textures and flavors! 9But not too many, so as to overwhelm the palate). The meringue was more marshmallow than what you’d find on a pie. But it was a yummy ending to a good meal.
Service was attentive and timely. If you’re in Wayland Square, this is a must.
UPDATE:
Things are still good here. Except for the bartender who actually told me to «wait a minute» because he wanted to watch the last minute of a baseball game. I might’ve been slightly sympathetic if it were the World Series, but what really killed me was that he actually said «wait a minute,» acknowledging that baseball was more important than a paying customer (who would’ve tipped well).