Let me start off by giving our waiter, Sam, 5 stars. He was incredibly kind and welcoming to myself and my friend. Now for the food. I really enjoyed the complimentary bread and the sauce mixture that it came with. My friend and I got the three-course lunch special. I got the ceasar salad, carbonara, and tiramisu. The Ceasar salad was incredible! Honestly it was the best part of the meal. The Carbonara was a bit salty. When I asked Sam to ask the waiter for extra sauce without salt, he kindly did. The tiramisu was great. read more

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We ordered from the PRESTO lunchtime 3 course meal menu ($18). We had a choice of salad, entree and dessert. We both went with the Insalata di Spinaci to start. Fresh baby Spinach leaves with carmelized onions, DELIGHTFUL candied Walnuts, SHARP Gorgonzola and a balsamic vinegarette dressing. Fresh grated Parmasan cheese and ground pepper on top. A good sized portion to get our greens for the day! For entrees, I chose the Gnocchi al Forno and my girlfriend chose the Risotto ai Gamberi. The Gnocchi had 4 cheeses and a tomato cream sauce. It was WONDERFUL, CHEESY GOODNESS. The Risotto had gulf shrimp and sun dried tomatoes. My girlfriend enjoyed it very much. For dessert, we both chose the Tiramisu and I ordered a double espresso ($5). The Tiramisu was LIGHT and CREAMY with the perfect sweetness to end an excellent meal. The espresso was like liquid lightning and really PERKED me up. Our server, Virginia, was courteous and efficient. Bathroom was IMMACULATE. I would eat here again should I ever return to Providence. Total for this SATISFYING meal for 2 was $44 after tax. OUTSTANDING VALUE! read more

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You must come here if you haven't already! The food is so tasty and the staff is so friendly. It's a gem in Federal Hill - it gets pretty packed around dinner time though, so I would make a reservation ahead of time. They have so many delicious and unique appetizers and their specials sound incredible as well. I wish I could have tried them all. Both my parents and I ordered fish dishes for our entree - I got salmon and my parents got sea bass - and we were both so pleased with how they came out. The presentation is great and the fish is so moist. The combination of flavors and textures in each dish is so well thought-out. I will definitely be bringing my friends back here! Great place for dates as well. read more

Massimo Restaurant - Salmone - Italian Near Me - Providence, Rhode Island

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Had a great evening at Massimo. Our waiter, Krye, was attentive and so pleasant. We began with the spinach salad, which was absolutely delicious and so large! Our dishes were filled with very fresh baby spinach, caramelized onion, Gorgonzola cheese, candied walnuts, and pancetta and finished with a Balsamic Vinaigrette dressing. We thoroughly enjoyed the olives, rolls, and focaccia bread with our salads. The entrees were also top-notch. Hubby was very pleased with the special, the pumpkin ravioli in a cream sauce with butternut squash. I ordered my favorite Massimo entree, the Short Rib gnocchi filled with a tender, slow-braised pulled short rib ragu and tossed with scrumptious potato dumplings. Quite a tasty dinner date! read more

Went for a dinner and the serve was great and really kind. The food was amazing and everyone loved what they got. I cannot speak to the drinks as we stuck with beer and wine but they had some great looking cocktails and a lot of wine choices. The inside of the restaurant was beautiful and had brick walls and a lot of art. Would definitely check out again!! read more

My family and I thought this was a great little Italian restaurant. We had the Brazino, lasagna, gnocchi, margarita pizza, potato cakes, roasted cauliflower and meatballs. Everything was great. Only thing better was the service. From the host to the manager to the our server. Excellent choice any day of the week. read more

This was our first time here. Was sat immediately. Ordered Calamari and little necks as an app. Salmon over pesto spaghetti for my main course. Fish was great, spaghetti was drenched in pesto. Wouldn't get it again. Dessert and service was great. read more

Massimo Restaurant - Salmon over Pesto Spaghetti - Italian Near Me - Providence, Rhode Island

I was really excited to try amassing but unfortunately it didn't meet my expectations. To start with the positives, I really liked the atmosphere of the restaurant and they provide valet parking. Definitely more of an upscale vibe. The evening I went also had an appetizer special consisting of prosciutto and burrata which was really good. It's hard to go wrong with meat and cheese! While I enjoyed my appetizer, my main dish was kind of lack luster. I got the carbonara and the pasta noodles themselves tasted like they came out of a box vs being made fresh. The noodles were clumped together in some areas which made the noodles very hard. The main issue I had with Massimo though had to do with disorganized service. We had about 3-4 different servers throughout the night which made the experience confusing and frustrating. As an example, we had someone in our party with a gluten allergy who asked for a gluten free menu each time a different server came to our table to ask if they could start us off with drinks, however it never came. After asking 3 servers and waiting, we gave up and pulled up the gluten free menu online. This happened with other things throughout the night as well such as getting our waters refilled, an extra fork, etc. where our requests weren't filled cause there wasn't a clear dedicated server. Also as an aside, one male server called me "sweetie" which I found kind of off-putting because I'm a grown woman and it wasn't very professional given the classy vibe of the restaurant. I would be open to giving Massimo another try but seriously hope they can address some of their issues. read more

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Excellent restaurant - used to go here when I visited Providence. The food is as good as it gets and the atmosphere is nice.

Wonderful service and we loved the super Tuscan wine we tried. Food was underwhelming and overpriced. Too much cream in everything, not authentic. The imported pistachio gelato is delicious! read more

I sadly didn't have a good experience at Massimo, a huge disappointment for a restaurant that have been given many accolades from Eater, Yelp, OpenTable, Google, and other online food media. After entering and confirming my reservation, the front-of-house just pointed me to the bar and didn't guide me to my seat. There was an empty seat near the end, which I went too. What I realized a minute in is that the staff didn't have my seat ready. No bar placemat for the plate, no napkin, and no silverware. It took the bar staff seven minutes to finally acknowledge me and finally give me a menu and a glass of water. Still no bar placemat, no napkin, and no silverware. At least the bartender was friendly. The bartender recommended the Polpette starter (House-Made Veal, Beef & Pork Meatballs, San Marzano Marinara, Narragansett Creamery Ricotta), and then Spaghettoni alla Carbonara (Guanciale, Raw Farm Eggs, Pecorino Romano, Crushed Black Pepper) for the main course. I took the recommendation. I ordered a cocktail, a blackberry bourbon drink with ginger beer. The flavor was decent and packed with bourbon, but the physical drinking experience was annoying. The blackberry was smashed, muddled, and settled on the bottom, and those blackberry pieces plugged the straw like the straw was passing a very difficult kidney stone. I ditched the straw at that point. For an Italian restaurant, I was expecting some bread to be served, since bread was not an item on the menu and saw some other patrons with bread. Bread never came. This is very weird for an Italian restaurant, especially when you'd want some bread to accompany some saucy dishes. The Polepette starter arrived, but my silverware and napkin never did. I politely asked the server for silverware and napkin. The server also asked if I wanted pepper and parmesan cheese for the dish. I said yes. The Polepette consist of three billiard-sized meatballs with a dollop of ricotta in the middle, surrounded in sauce. The server came back with pepper and the silverware wrapped in a napkin. I opened up the napkin, and it consist of only two forks. No spoon. No knife. The server never came back with the parmesan cheese. I had to flag another server to get the parmesan cheese and a knife. She came back, turning grating copious amount of cheese, clearly not knowing when was enough. I intervened before my meatballs were buried in cheese as if a New England Nor'easter devastated my plate. The Polepette were good, soft, and moist - but nothing really special compared to other decent Italian restaurants. The ricotta in the middle was cold and threw off the overall temperature of the dish. A lot of sauce remained, because I never got complementary bread. The Spaghettoni alla Carbonara came. And when they came, they didn't bother taking the finished Polepette dish. Anyways, I had better. The server who served the parmesan cheese for the Polepette checked in and asked if I wanted cheese on it. I'm not sure if there was sarcasm with that remark since I had to wave her down for the cheese for the Polepette, or she was completely clueless that the Spahettoni alla Carbonara was already garnished with cheese. It was also garnished with an extra raw egg yolk on top. And that's all it was, extra. The raw egg yolk garnish would make sense with something like a beef tartare, but on top of Spaghettoni alla Carbonara, in which the sauce is based from eggs? It became overkill. A raw egg yolk ruined the delicate emulsion of pasta water, egg yolks, cheese, pepper, and guanciale. The guanciale was definitely cooked through, but the dice on the guanciale could've been smaller so it would mix better within the spaghetti. But I will say the pasta was cooked al dente. And just like the starter, plenty of sauce remained. Complementary bread never came. Additionally, the bar placemat never came. God willing, I hope the wipe the counters constantly. But knowing the quality of the service, probably not. The experience just disappointing, that I didn't bother with dessert. I've had amazing, eye-weltering-with-happiness meals at Italian restaurants like NYC's Marea or Seattle's Spinasse. For the quality of the meal, Massimo feels like an upscale Olive Garden, and for service, I think Olive Garden probably has better service - they at least know to serve bread. read more

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The place is nice and the atmosphere is nice. The food is delicious, but the customer service I have much better. Will I come her again, nah! read more

Went here last weekend looking for an upscale Italian Restaurant and was honestly really disappointed. We were served the wrong appetizer, but when we finally got what we ordered (the mussels) they were delicious. We then went on to wait about an hour and fifteen minutes for our entrees which were cold when they arrived but still tasty. To add, we had a reservation for 8pm and the restaurant was not very busy at the time. We had to wait for the check for twenty minutes with our meals boxed up and sitting on the table while our server chatted. Not really sure what happened, maybe it was an off night for service, but definitely not what we expected. Hoping to try again for a more positive experience... read more

I would come back for the Linguine alle Vongolle. It was packed with flavor and an appropriate amount of clams. Before the entree, we ordered the calamari as an appetizer. It was cooked well, but I would suggest Massimo put more in there for the price. The wait staff was friendly and accommodated our group well despite there being an issue with one of our orders. read more

Not bad, not great. Just a typical red sauce restaurant. Average Federal HIll Italian restaurant. No complaints.

Amazing food amazing service and a great atmosphere! I'm a student at Rhode Island and I don't really get much time outside my classes but once I do I'm definitely going back to get dinner here! read more

We went for Valentine's Day and it was probably the worst experience we ever had. It took for ever to get service. I know it was Valentine's Day but being decreased capacity I would have thought the service would have been better. The drinks were ok. The food wasn't good at all. The Caesar salad was swimming in dressing and the chicken parmigiana was so over cooked as was the pasta. The pasta was so mushy I could have fed it to a baby. I had asked for extra cheese and it was like they put less cheese. read more

We were between 2 places to eat at as soon as we got in town and we decided on this place. It was a long drive for us, so all of us were starving, and could practically eat anything, except we couldn't eat the food here. The bread that they gave us to start with was good, and the salads and soup were good, but then it went downhill from there. For starters, the food took forever to get to the table. We were kind of on a tight timeline since we were going to a viewing right afterwards, so the slowness was only making us more anxious. So when the food finally came, we were excited, but soon, this turned to disappointment. I got the gnocchi, which was not that great (had waaaayyy too much cheese and too much of the same taste for such a huge portion), and the others at my table got chicken piccata (this person found it disgusting), a pizza (it was cold when it came out), and a pasta dish (this person didn't like the flavor). We also got dessert, which may have been one of the better things we got at this restaurant. On the bright side, the manager took off my dish and another person's dish since we hardly ate any of it. So at that moment we were feeling okay, until the chef who cooked the pizza came out. He basically argued with us, the customers, that he didn't burn the pizza, when it was obviously burned. You see, we sent back the pizza because it was cold, and then when they brought it back to the table, the crust was burned. Ask anyone at that time if the pizza was burned, and they would have agreed with us and not the chef. The fact that he had the guts to argue with us about it says something about this place. I would never go back and would definitely not recommend this place. If you're looking for a good Italian restaurant, go to the Old Canteen..that's where we should have gone. read more

We've dined at massimo many times, we went to celebrate a birthday. We had a party of 5 with a note that we also had an infant who would stay in a car seat and need an areas for a sling or booster to put her on. We were seated at a 4 top booth with a chair at the end for the 5th guest, no place for the baby. We asked if we could be moved to a larger booth that had a party that just left, and our sever said that should be fine but she would check with the manager. The manager came over and said there was no where else to place us. That table stayed empty for an hour, then a party of 5 was sat there. There was zero reason we couldn't have been placed there and I made the manager aware that I had made the note in my reservation about the car seat. Not at all the experience or accommodation I've come to expect at Massimo. read more

Been here for brunch and dinner. Each time, stellar! The Drag Brunch on Sundays is a blast. (Warning: Leave the kiddos at home. Though some jokes will go over their heads, some won't.) The Drag Queens are fun, personable, with just the right amount of outrageousness for Brunch, and the food's great - loved the French Toast, and I reeeeeally loved their coffee, too. Had more than a cup. Dinner has been consistently great. I've had the Pollo Piccata and the salmon dishes, both excellent. The service throughout is always engaging, friendly and full of recommendations. Great staff. Mangia, Mangia! read more

Massimo Restaurant - Brunch, 2nd floor - Italian Near Me - Providence, Rhode Island

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My chicken parm and and penne were mediocre at best. Drinks were good! My boyfriend got the sea bass and said it was excellent! The wait time was a little long but nothing too extreme. The waitress was nice. The atmosphere was pretty! read more

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Came here for lunch during restaurant week. They have a dining section and a bar which was recently opened about a year ago. Complementary valet parking is always a plus on federal hill. Got the farm salad with the white vinaigrette dressing which was good although a bit sweet for my liking. Also got the pollo al picante which was good as well, slightly lacking in flavors though. Apparently the lunch deal is present all through the week. They also have on monday nights a 3 course meal on monday nights for 50$ along with a bottle of house red/white. Happy hour is from 3 to 630p 7days/week for which i will return. Overall good experience, food was good though nothing to rave about as such. read more

Massimo Restaurant - Farm salad - Italian Near Me - Providence, Rhode Island

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This restaurant is amazing, authentic Italian cuisine absolutely delicious I highly recommend this restaurant, however, it is a little pricey, but worth it read more

Delicious meal and Sarah M was great! Thank you for great service and food!!! Atmosphere was wonderful and everyone was so nice and I will definitely come back no matter what. Thank you for a great experience and until next time!!! I was here on biz and I will definitely recommend to everyone I know. read more

My friends and I visited this place during our Rhode Trip and were walking past the store, when the aesthetic just really caught our eyes. It was a super cute setting that had both outdoor and indoor seating. They provided complimentary bread with a delicious tomato eggplant paste (not sure what it was called, but it was so unique and yummy). I ordered the Risotto ai Gamberi, which had grilled shrimp and sun-dried tomatoes in it. It was sooo tasty as the shrimp were perfectly grilled and seasoned, the risotto was nice and creamy and the tomatoes gave it a sweet kick. Overall, the staff were so friendly and provided excellent service!! read more

massimo is an excellent restaurant. well managed as well. I will continue returning here.

This is a popping place! Street parking is very limited, so we pulled up and got complimentary valet parking. Arrived a little early for our reservation, so we hung out at the bar and got a couple of drinks. I was craving good Italian pasta and this place did not disappoint. We ordered an order of calamari and the PIzzetta Fiico & Gorgonzola. Both were absolutely delicious. The calamari was light and perfectly fried. The pizzetta was the most delicious thing we had. The flavors with all the ingredients were amazing. We ordered the Spaghetti al Nero con Aragosta which we thought was a bit on the heavy end with the lobster cream, but had great flavor. The branzino was butterflied really nicely and was decently well-cooked. The parmigiano was good, but definitely not the best chicken parmesan we've had. The Fusilli con Polpette e Burrata was good, but I thought it was very watery. All the pasta you could taste was homemade. The sauces were definitely real ingredients. The tiramisu was delicious. Overall, a very solid place! read more

They have a full gluten-free menu, including pasta and delicious bread. Wine selection is nice. And never a wait.

If you're looking for a cozy spot and true, authentic Italian food, then this is your spot! While there aren't too many vegetarian options, this restaurant has enough to keep you more than satisfied and wanting more. read more

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Amazing staff, super friendly and helpful. The scallop risotto was delicious, rich in flavor and soft scallops cooked perfectly. I had the Linguine ai Frutti di Mare, I'm not a big seafood fan but this dish didn't taste anything special. Really plain tasting but the seafood was fresh. I just wouldn't recommend if you want a flavorful pasta. read more

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Excellent Sushi, delivered vinous, fresh, flavorful, beautiful presentation. Great service. Very clean restaurant.

This was a sad experience to say the least. I had high hopes. But nothing was good. I got the Duck Confit. It was too sweet. Sweet glaze with sweet ravioli, sweet sauce. Sweet on sweet on sweet, so it was not really edible. My husband told me not to say anything. I hate that. Because he got the Branzino and it was very under seasoned and bland like someone was making it for a nursing home. He didn't finish his either. There were children running around past our table multiple times and with Covid19 no one stopped them, not their parents not staff. We even asked to move from the first table upstairs they wanted to sit us at because it was in the corner physically touching the large group table next to it. If I were to sit there the loud man already touching and leaning on the chair would be touching me. So definitely no 6 foot guides were in place. They moved us downstairs after asking to a diffrent table yet... We booked a reservation online that said hightop table when we show up they don't even have any hightops in the restuarant at all. It was noisy, kids running past out table multiple times, and the food was awful I thought "maybe we should have gone across the street to the Old Canteen" We didn't want to eat the food and planned on going to federal taphouse, just to get some edible food because we were starving still and our date night was ruined. It was $85 for food we didn't eat and took 20 minutes to get the bill, we kept trying to flag down the waitress who was more concerned with the big table (who's kids were running around) then us trying to leave, and they didn't even ask when 90% of the food was still both on our plates and we were leaving if anything was wrong. This place wants to pose itself as fine dinning, but it definitely is not. read more

I was visiting Providence for the day and excited to try a highly rated place. Starting with the positive- my dish, the squid ink pasta with lobster was tasty. However, my partner got the wrong order and was given something else entirely. Since we had to wait for 30 minutes past our reservation time and needed to make it home tonight, we didn't bother returning the dish to the kitchen. The duck dish was too sweet. Seated right behind us were a couple that just couldn't seem to get their order right. The woman sent back her martini 3 times, bringing the manager and waiter to the table over and over again. She was on her third drink and was complaining that her freaking martini with 1/3 syrup in it was sweet, when it shouldn't be. Then her male companion complained that his steak was medium, not medium rare. This again brought the manager back. Both the waiter and manager tried to humor these two assholes at the expense of everyone else sitting near by - loudly trying to relate to these people while our water was unfilled and our bill was no where in sight. I think our waiter was too scared to come back because these two might start complaining about something else. I hope it was worth it to the establishment to desperately retain the kind of guests like those seated behind us. I would not recommend Massimo for a nice meal out, especially if you only have a single night in town. Or maybe if you keep complaining about everything you'll get some service and attention. read more

Massimo Restaurant - Squid ink pasta with lobster, mushroom and peas - Italian Near Me - Providence, Rhode Island

Went out to dinner here with my bf's family (they're Italian) and they gave the meal a thumbs up! We ordered a few pasta dishes and thoroughly enjoyed them. The shrimp risotto was indulgently creamy and the Fusilli con Polpette e Burrata was the clear favorite of the night! read more

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We went for Christmas Eve dinner, feast of the seven fishes. We had reservations but still had to wait more than 30 minutes and keep checking in. Other than that the night was fabulous. The waitress was so professional, attentive and sweet. The ambiance was beautiful and classic. Each course was better than the last and by far the best 7 fishes dinner we have had in RI. The bartender was so creative and drinks amazing. Love il massimo and will continue to make it our holiday tradition. read more

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I have eaten at the restaurant before and the experience was good so I decided to go back when I was in town. It was very disappointing from the time I walked in. I didn't have a reservation and was told that they could take me on a high top but it was reserved at6:30. I was planning on ordering appetizers and taking out the entree which I did. The waitress went over nothing about restaurant week and took our order. After the drinks came she didn't check up or acknowledge us. I had to ask the guy that took my drink away for another drink and all he said was that my waitress was bringing me one. She never brought another and had to ask someone else. It finally came 15 minutes later. The girl that gave me my takeout was very nice and had ask her for takeout boxes for my appetizers. She brought them immediately. Immediately after I got the takeout boxes the waitress gave me the check and was very quick to take my credit card. Restaurant's like this is not only about food but the service. Neither was acceptable for the price and will not go there next time in town. The calamari was good. The octopus was over done and chewy and the gnocchi was dry. I never post reviews but was so upset with the entire experience that I had to. And being how long I had at a table to eat started this experience and I was done 20 minutes earlier. I read more

Amazing!! 10/10 food was great, service was great and ambiance was perfect! Definitely will be coming back here read more

Massimo Restaurant - Artichokes - Italian Near Me - Providence, Rhode Island

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Really enjoyed my visit. Came here earlier today for lunch during Restaurant Week. Have read so many great reviews so was excited to come here. There wasn't much of a lunch rush so we got seated very quickly. I had come here only once when it was Mediterraneo and wasn't very impressed so had high hopes and I was not let down. The place is beautifully decorated and service was very friendly. I ordered a moscato and my bf got a red sangria and both were good. We were given bread with a basil butter - the butter was amazingly good, the only reason I agreed to a second serving. =) We started with the caprese salad and melanzane (fried eggplant). Everything tasted very fresh and the flavors were really good. The eggplant was absolutely delicious - I would get that again in a heartbeat, nicely fried but not greasy with a tasty balsamic reduction. I got the rigatoni with sausage and my bf got the pork belly grilled cheese. Rigatoni had a really good pink sauce and the sausage was quite flavorful - this is where the extra bread came in handy, soak up the sauce. The pork belly grilled cheese seemed a bit on the small side but was really good, I'm not a fan of slaw but the one that came with it was really good. Again everything just tasted so fresh and flavorful. We ended with gelato - I got chocolate and he got pistachio. Both were topped off with a mini cookie and were delicious. My original pick was salted caramel but they ran out the night before. Our waitress, Jennifer was awesome. Great attitude and very helpful. Can't wait to come back! read more

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The ambiance of the restaurant was a lot of fun. Enjoyed the restaurant week deal, thought it was a good value.

Wonderful night to stop by the restaurant on a Saturday night, sat outside and Alex was our waiter. Great job explaining the menu and making recommendations. We shared several appetizers and split an entree. Food was great. As well as the service will be back the The Hill again. Apps- braised pork belly with a fig jam served on polenta, charred octopus, burretta Dinner braised short rib gnocchi read more

Massimo Restaurant - Italian Near Me - Providence, Rhode Island

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