After quite the day of walking in Boston and after having climbed the stairs of the Bunker Hill Memorial, something I don’t suggest unless you are prepared for winded-ness and sore legs, Jim and I decided to relax and get something to eat in the North End. Before coming to Boston several people had mentioned that we needed to spend some time in the North End, enjoying the Italian culture there and eating some Italian food.
After relaxing in Mike’s Pastry, eating a cannoli and drinking an iced coffee (heaven!), we consulted our new favorite travel companion…Yelp. Typing in “Italian restaurants” in the North End is like asking where to get fish in Seattle. Italian restaurants are on every street, every corner, and most of the time right next door to another Italian restaurant. However, hoping to find the restaurant with the most and best ratings we decided to give it a go. Right away a restaurant named Giacomo’s Ristorante came up. It had over one hundred fifty reviews and had five stars out of five. Sold!
Giacomo’s is located almost right across the street from Mike’s Pastry, at the corner of Hanover and Fleet Street. We headed toward the restaurant, opened the door, and were immediately greeted by an Italian man who asked us to wait outside at the end of the line. Apparently at Giacomo’s there is no wait list where you put in your name and state how many are in your party. You wait in line, right on the street outside until a table becomes available. We headed to the end of the line, where we were able to jealously glance at others in the restaurant, eating their pasta and drinking their wine. On the window of the restaurant were the different awards Giacomo’s had won and even a poster of Rachel Ray who happened to eat the pumpkin tortellini here.
We were surprisingly seated within twenty minutes. Giacomo’s is very tiny inside. In fact, we shared a table with another couple in an attempt to bring as many people into the restaurant as possible. At first I was afraid it would be awkward but it was actually just fine. Our waiter was a true Italian guy, as was the owner and the rest of the wait staff. I felt like we were in The Godfather listening to their accents and watching their mannerisms.
The salad and pasta dish we ordered were delicious, they had great wine, and the atmosphere was perfect. On trips we don’t usually eat at the same place twice in hopes of trying a variety of different things. However, we loved Giacomo’s so much we came back later that week, stood in the pouring rain with a long line of hard core Giacomo’s fans, and enjoyed another meal at this great North End, Boston restaurant.
Our favorite dish at Giacomo’s:
- The pumpkin tortellini. Rachel Ray would be proud!
Other restaurants with similar seating/wait list policies definitely worth trying out in Boston:
- Pizzeria Regina in the North End
- The Paramount in Beacon Hill
