Paradiso Ristorante

Delicious neighborhood spot for elevated Italian dishes with a family red sauce vibe. Cozy, comfy, classy, and affordable. Perfect for birthdays, anniversaries, or any other time.

Really want to like this place, and have given it a couple of tries, but the food is just awful — at least the fish is. I’ve had halibut and sea bass and both were so overcooked they were pretty much inedible. While I love a good seer, these were nearly eviscerated. The spinach was a dry, overcooked, under seasoned mess. Likewise for the roasted potatoes — which is actually pretty difficult to do to any potato. My wife had the grilled shrimp. That too was nearly inedible. Again, way overcooked, and the glaze/​sauce was both cloyingly sweet and salty.
Maybe we should try the pasta, but looking around the room/​bar, it just doesn’t look all that appealing. A lot of slightly oversized portions of overcooked, less than mediocre plates barely resembling real Italian food. Frankly, it all just looks tired, uninspired and poorly prepared — with no «love».
Service was sufficient, but had we been given the specials menu when handed the wine list, we would have ordered one from said specials list. We ended up having two glasses each, which would have been $ 12 more. A simple thing you just can’t miss as a server.
Again, we want to like this place and add to our rotation, but with other places in the area like Firenze and Adriatic in Salem and Casa Mia in Marblehead making high quality, real Italian food with excellent Italian wines (as another reviewer stated) the time, cost and calories just aren’t worth it.
All that said, it seems like it wouldn’t take much to make it so much better. We’ll give it some time and hold out hope that some tweaks and changes will be made and maybe give it a try again in the future.

My husband is always searching for restaurants that will beat our favorite place in Peabody, Unfortunately this place looked promising but fell short in so many areas. The wait staff was outstanding. however the food was marginal. My husband ordered pasta bolognese and I ordered fusili with shrimp. My meal was tasteless and the bolognese was bland… It was so loud inside that we could barely hear each other talking.
I can’t give it another chance because when you know that the food is so much better somewhere else you don’t want to waste time or calories!

This is a neighborhood gem. Good size, well appointed, and lively bar that fills up very quickly with the older 50+ crowd from Swampscott. Bartenders are attentive, martini’s are well made and reasonably priced. Food is good; I ordered baked haddock that was served with salad, sauted broccoli rabe and a few fingerling potatoes. Fish was very fresh – just right sized portions– and it was prepared with just a sprinkle of cracker topping, which I appreciate. Pricepoint is more than fair at $ 22. There are 2 things that stand out to me as weak points. The bread is that hard tuscan bread that just doesn’t appeal to a lot of people. Would love to see them offer more high end wines.

The BEST chicken parm in the Boston area hands down. They pound the chicken breast and its lightly breaded with a delicious homemade red sauce and a side of homemade fusilli. I’ve never been disappointed by the food.

The food was unique and very well prepared. Drinks were awesome and Kim the bartender was fantastic. This is great hidden gem and highly recommend the trip.

Excellent food, great chicken and veal, they need to update their wine menu, they should offer nicer wines, that is my big complaint, people that work there are nice.

I have lived on the North Shore for almost 20 years, but I have never gone to this restaurant until last night! For a neighborhood Italian joint, 10 minutes from my house… I am excited! The service was very attentive and responsive. Having grown up in NY, there is a level of neighborhood Italian food that I have not been able to find here. There are restaurants that try to catch it here– but frankly– the food is not good. I had the mussels as an appetizer. They are prepared with tomato sauce and cannellini beans. The mussels were fresh, sauce was good… not sure about what the beans did for this dish. They didn’t add or detract. House salad was fine– no iceberg, bad tomato, New England fare. The entrée was veal tartuffo. It was prepared with a cream deduction and black truffles. The veal pounded VERY THIN… OMG…just like my friend’s mothers made it in NY! I loved every reminiscent bite. Dessert– cannoli… perfect…crispy outside, light filling with a little bit of a citrus taste which was really well balanced. Overall– YAY… we have a new Italian place. I will say for a neighborhood restaurant it was a tad pricey… over $ 100 for two of us without tip and no wine.

Great ristorante! If you love Italian food, nice family homey atmosphere, very
& my husband loved it. I had — Rissoto with shrimps, scallops& lobster meat in white sause and my husband had Fussilli– excellent, yammy food!!!

Since I was from out of town, I went here based upon previous Unilocal reviews. I was disappointed with my experience. They honored our reservations on time. The bread with dipping oil came out fast. The bread was fresh and the dipping oil was tasty. The variety of bread was nice as well. It went down hill from there. The service was very slow. Our poor waitress had to many other tables including some large parties. Not my fault they didn’t have enough staff but we suffered because of it. It took a long time to see our waitress and she was apologetic. We ordered the cod puttanesca, the pescatore which was pasta with seafood in a spicy lobster sauce, and the rigatoni in a meat sauce. The salads that came with the meal were basic. The puttanesca dish was not spicy and very bland. It also was very soupy. Isn’t a puttanesca dish spicy? My pasta with seafood dish didn’t have any spice at all. There was a generous portion of fish in the meal. The rigatoni dish was fine. The portions were a good size. I couldn’t give this three stars because it wasn’t «A –OK»

Have been coming to Paradiso for the past couple of years and always order the same thing: ravioli. My hubby orders veal parmigiana with fusilli. We hadn’t been since the remodel and decided to stop in for a quick dinner. Renovations were made and the lounge is now larger. We got our bread and were aghast that the hot rolls of days passed were replaced with cold sliced Italian bread. Needless to say we were afraid what would come out of the kitchen if the new bread was any indication. We were, however, pleasantly surprised as the same high quality homemade food was served. Nothing like home made pasta and sauce with crispy flat veal parmigiana as a compliment.
Good was fabulous but the new bread is not pleasing!

Recently renovated — done beautifully. Unfortunately the bar and waitstaff on Monday nights do not reflect the environment. Went back in on Thursday for dinner at the bar and the A team was awesome! Food was good and the service top notch.

2 words: CHICKEN PARM
Had no idea the food at this place was so good. The chicken parm and side of homemade pasta is dynamite. Can’t wait to have the leftovers for lunch tomorrow and I don’t eat leftovers.
Cozy place with fun bar atmosphere.

Very pleasantly surprised. Didn’t know what to expect since I haven’t heard much about it. Great quiet and down to earth atmosphere, good food and service, prices were definitely reasonable. I’d go back again for a date or with family.

My husband and I go to The Paradiso periodically and when we do, we always have a great time. I must say, we sit on the bar side so the hubby has access to TV and it’s fun just enjoying the lively atmosphere. The bartenders are phenomenal, Kim, especially. She keeps us smiling and is so friendly, outgoing and makes the BEST martinis around. I’m telling you, you will NOT find a better martini and I’ve tried martinis all around Swampscott and surrounding areas and by far, Kim’s are THE BEST! The food is fabulous and portions are huge. I highly recommend this place to anyone. A must try! Sit at the bar and ask for Kim!

For the price, are you kidding? This place rocks. Homemade pasta, GREAT bartenders. Nice variety of traditional Italian, seafood, veal and chicken. Only ding is the steak. Never seems fresh, tends to be overcooked. Otherwise, perfect.

I absolutely love Paradiso, the food is amazing, the staff are amazing, I can without a doubt say this is one of the top 5 Italian restaurants in the North Shore.
I have been eating at Paradiso for about 3 years now; I was introduced to it by my uncle and aunt. The food here is absolutely amazing, I was told by one of the bar tenders that the owner uses all of his mothers family recipes and she grew up in Italy. I have never had a bad meal here. I judge an Italian restaurant on whether they know how to make Alla Matriciana, this place even has it on there menu, a dish that only true Italians typically know how to make. The drinks here are very good, the martinis will knock you on you azz, and they have a good wine list as well.
The staff are all very friendly and knowledgeable, and the bartenders are all amazing to talk too. I defiantly think if you haven’t eaten here and live North of Boston, you should get over to try this place, you will not be disappointed.

i have had decent dinners at Paradiso in the past but last Friday evening while dining with friends, the roof of my mouth was cut after biting into my salad. I pulled a sliver of glass from my mouth! Shocking! Our waitress called the owner, Connie who came to the table and barely apologized. she said they buy bagged lettuce so it could not have been their fault and do not allow glass in the kitchen. I do not call that an apology! it was an excuse! By the way, on the way out i saw the kitchen staff drinking from a glass in the kitchen. She did not charge for my dinner only but that was not nearly enough to compensate for a cut palate. I suggest Connie at least investigate, comp a glass of wine, maybe offer a dessert… I do not recommend Paradiso.

No matter what i order, the food is delicious. They also make the best apple martini around. Service is also very good. I go few times a month, it’s so good.

I’ll make this short and sweet. We visit this eatery on occasion. Took a friend last night in from Germany. We dined at the bar and as always the service was great…
Our entrees spectacular.