Absolutely delicious. We shared Arancini, I had the mare e month (lobster topped fillet served…read morewith mushroom and spinach risotto) and had amazing pistachio mousse for dessert. Friends ordered the salmon and mushroom ravioli and both really enjoyed their meals. Service was prompt, friendly and attentive. Not much to look at from outside nestled in a tight residential neighborhood with limited street parking but complimentary valet service. Going inside of the restaurant ,however, the space is much more upscale and very nice. Prices were what I would expect for an upscale menu of this quality with most entrees between $25 and $40. I look forward to returning!

Mare E Monti - Exceptional Authentic Italian & Seafood Pasta Spot in Worcester, MA…read more Mare E Monti is an exceptional Italian gem -- probably home to the best seafood pasta I've ever had. I was in town ahead of a half marathon near Hampton Beach on Sunday. After a long drive and a surprise call that my extended family was touring the East Coast nearby, we decided to meet halfway -- and Worcester made perfect sense. I booked a table for eight at 8 PM on Saturday. We miscounted our party, which led to about a 45-minute wait, but honestly, that just gave us more time to catch up. The interior strikes a lovely balance -- rustic yet modern, cozy yet romantic, and unmistakably Italian in feel. Starters We kicked off with two plates of Calamari Fritti -- classic native calamari, lightly fried and tossed with cherry peppers and a delicate butter sauce. Absolutely delicious; I had to restrain myself from finishing the whole plate. Complimentary garlic bread with olive oil was also served, and I stopped myself at 2-3 slices to save room for the race-fueling carbs to come. For salad, I chose the Insalata Casalinga -- crisp field greens, grape tomatoes, julienne carrots, cucumbers, red onion, and imported olives in a light vinaigrette. Simple, fresh, and highly recommended. The Main Event The real reason I chose Mare E Monti was simple: carb loading. I went with the Pasta con Cozze e Fagioli -- sautéed mussels in a garlic white wine sauce with diced tomatoes and cannellini beans, tossed with linguine. It was everything I'd hoped for: flavorful yet light, satisfying without being heavy. The mussels were tender, the beans added substance, and the pasta was perfectly cooked. Others at the table tried the Ravioli di Aragosta (lobster ravioli) on my recommendation. I snagged a bite -- and it was heavenly. Rich, delicate, and beautifully balanced. Final Thoughts Dinner here was the perfect pre-race meal -- nourishing without weighing me down. The atmosphere was warm and welcoming, the service attentive, and the food consistently excellent. Even parking was simple; I found easy street parking just around the corner (though valet is also available). Oh, and the next morning? I ran a personal best in my half marathon -- just over 1 hour and 20 minutes. I'd like to think the perfect plate of pasta helped fuel that finish. All in all, Mare E Monti is a must-visit for anyone craving authentic Italian cuisine and standout seafood pasta in the Worcester area. I'll absolutely be back next time I'm in Massachusetts. Last visited: October 4, 2025

Hands down one of the best places to eat in Worcester. You need to call for a spot and must get on…read morecall to do so. Freshly made pasta, great wine selection. Sparse, rotating menu that varies weekly. I think I couldn't make this at home--a test for a place being worth the bill--so it's worth the price. It certainly felt authentically Italian. Service was great. It's a tight ship but they make it work. Ambiance was energetic being around the public market but the food is good enough that you can dress up. Wonderful date night/foodie spot. A few bar seats so definitely a partner or friend at max. Not a place to bring kids as it's dine in. Teenagers can walk around of course if you're having a couples night.

I usually take reviews of Italian restaurants very lightly in Massachusetts because if you use a…read morelarge restaurant review site to find suggested Italian restaurants in most cities, Buca de Beppo and Olive Garden usually make their filthy little way into the top 10, eroding all my trust in that site. (... and humanity) Case in point, most of the Italian dishes being reviewed by diners in cities like Worcester as 'very authentic' are fairly foreign to actual restaurants in Italy. There is TRUE Italian food and American Italian food (classic 'red sauce' joints) I will never besmirch a good classic red sauce joint like Dan Tanas, Rao's or even some of the Federal Hill joints. There is a place in the culinary pantheon for amazing spaghetti meatballs and veal parm ... however 'authentic Italian' they are not. What we got at Pasta Mani is TRUE Italian. In fact, we ate here not more than 2 weeks after coming back from Italy and I can honestly say that we enjoyed our meal here (from a taste perspective) more than many of the restaurants in Italy we ate at. (One with a Michelin star!) This chef's philosophy here is one embraced in Italy ... simple, fresh, cooked with care. The reason tourists go to Italy and geek out over the food is because we've grown up eating Italian food here which is good ... but not made with the same level of passion. Eating a dish of spaghetti carbonara in Italy vs. the US is like listening to the Beatles for the first time on vinyl, in mono! It's hard to find a chef with the knowledge and respect for the ingredients that are displayed here. The servers are knowledgeable about the menu. She was not afraid to make recommendations. She knew the dish's ingredients as well as the chef ... and she was as friendly as could be. The accompanying beer and wines matched the menu perfectly and also were mostly Italian. The menu offers not a lot of choices ... but there is something for everyone. It's not heavy on meat ... but nor are menus in Italy. Maybe a reason why folks over there are not often over 6 feet tall or 200 lbs. vs. many Americans whose 4 major food groups are bacon, burgers, chicken nuggets and occasionally lobster rolls. We had the octopus, which was done perfectly ... the flavors were spot on and the chef clearly knew taste profiles as well as technique. Watermelon and octopus! Who knew? He did. We had the peach pesto cavatelli pasta and the pasta Amatricana with pancetta. Both were amazing ... the favors combined so effortlessly but perfectly. Red pepper flakes, pine nuts, grease from the bacon, tomatoes. It was all just so ... great! All the pasta was perfectly homemade ... and available for purchase as takeaway. Before we knew it, we were regrettably too full for dessert. The chef came out of the kitchen, where 80's and punk music was blasting, and you could watch the cooking happen, to greet us. He had worked in some of Seattle's better Italian restaurants and apparently learned a thing or two. If he had said he worked in Napoli, Sorrento or Rome for many years, we'd have believed it! The only thing we weren't in love with was the actual 'food hall' setup which felt a bit industrial for our liking. But, it was oddly cool and comfortable in a Momofuku type of way. This chef and his team deserve a restaurant. 5 seats and a chef's table are too small for the talent level. This was one of the best Italian meals I've had outside Italy or NYC. In Worcester, near a ballpark ... go figure. We also noticed that everything in the 'restaurant' was spotlessly clean ... and I mean spotless! We'll be back for sure. Places like this that don't serve a fried brick of chicken smothered in cream sauce and melted cheese and call it Italian are few and far between in Central Massachusetts. A great vibe, a great staff, a great meal! If ya know ... ya know.

Amazing restaurant, the chef hails directly from Florence and has extensive experience in cooking…read moreFlorentine cooking. His rabbit and wild boar pepperedelle are heavenly

An authentic Italian experience, briugh to Bloomberg NJ. Their selection of boar, rabbit and wines…read moreis exceptional. But ultimately, what truly won us iver is their world famous carbonara. And Garo is very friendly!

Great Italian Menu Quality dishes…read moreService is excellent and the restaurants vibe is also nice and relaxing. Perfect place to grab a bite.

Eh... just a quick update. Got an order of penne and meatballs to go and it was better than…read moreexpected. The meatballs this time around tasted good lol. Adding a star.

My husband and I were looking for somewhere new to eat, and since we don't really explore the…read moreWorcester area much (it's about 40 minutes from us), we figured why not give it a try. We looked up Italian restaurants and came across this place. The menu looked really good, so we decided to make reservations for 7 PM. When we arrived, we were seated within a few minutes. The hostess was great -- very polite and attentive. Our waitress came over pretty quickly and asked if we wanted to order drinks. Since it was our first time there, we wanted a little more time to look over the menu, so we asked her to come back. I will say there was a little more time than we would have liked before she came back. It seemed like she may have had tables in another section of the restaurant because we would see her disappear back and forth, so I completely understand that she was probably taking care of other tables. When she came back, I ordered a red sangria and asked her which chicken dish she would recommend. She suggested the chicken marsala, which is what I ended up ordering. My husband got the cioppino. We also ordered a soup and a salad. The sangria took a little while to come out, and it was served in more of a cocktail-style glass, which I thought was a little different. It honestly tasted more like red wine with fruit than a sangria and was a little dry for my taste. I mentioned it to our waitress and asked if she could add a little Sprite to it to make it more like a spritzer. She was so nice about it, immediately apologized, had it fixed and brought it back. She even said if I still didn't like it, she would get me something else, which I really appreciated. Adding the Sprite actually did the trick and made it much better. I probably wouldn't order it again, but it wasn't terrible. We were also waiting a bit for the bread. Our waitress had mentioned she was going to bring it over, but after some time passed, I asked about it and she quickly brought out two dinner rolls with a small container of oil. The oil was really good. The rolls themselves were pretty basic and nothing special. I ordered a cup of soup, but when it came out, it looked more like a bowl that was less than half full. That was probably the strangest part to me. I'm not sure if they were out of the smaller soup cups or if that's just how it's normally served, but the portion was definitely smaller than I expected. The soup itself was tasty, though. My husband's salad came out a few minutes later, which I thought was a little odd since my soup had already arrived. He likes extra dressing, so he asked for some, but since our waitress wasn't immediately back, we ended up asking one of the bussers for it. I do want to say that despite some of the timing issues, our waitress was incredibly sweet, friendly and accommodating. I really don't want the slower service to take away from that because she was genuinely great. I think she was just covering a larger area of the restaurant. The entrées definitely changed my overall opinion of the meal. The chicken marsala was delicious, and my husband's cioppino was out of this world. The portions were also huge! We had a 7 PM reservation and didn't leave until around 9:00-9:10, so the meal definitely took some time. If I were rating the restaurant just based on the drinks, starters and timing, I probably would have been around a 3-star experience. But the entrées really made up for it. The food was that good, and I would absolutely come back just to try some of the other dishes. Another huge plus is the free valet parking, which I thought was excellent, especially because parking in the area can be a pain. Overall, I'm glad we decided to try somewhere outside of our usual area. The service could have been a little quicker, but the food was definitely worth the wait. I'd come back and give some of the other dishes a try.

The food here was really good, and we were lucky enough to get a table right by the window, which…read morewas perfect for people-watching and taking in all the activity outside. I also had a great cocktail that I really enjoyed. The only downside was our waitress. She wasn't rude, but she just didn't seem very friendly or personable, and it honestly left me wondering if I'd done something wrong. Service can really make a difference in the overall experience. Overall, I'd still recommend Nuovo. The food and location make it worth visiting. I'd say it has a bit more of an older, quieter crowd, so if that's your vibe, you'll probably really enjoy it.

It had been a while since I came back to Shrewsbury Street in Worcester but here I was. It was…read morelunch and my son and I wanted pizza. I remember two of my children going to school out in Worcester and many visits to Volturno. Where else would I go in Worcester for pizza but here. We walk in to high ceilings, large windows and clean polished woodwork. Like a restaurant in a museum. The server Abby, was great. Attentive knowledgable and passionate about her restaurant. So- I wanted broccoli rabe and sausage sandwich. That was gone from the menu. Abby convinced me to try the Amatriciana pasta. It was amazing. Total shocker. It was as good as my favorite North End Spots. Why 5 stars- The excitement around the food creations. Quality and authentic Italy. The thing that caught me was the place still looked brand new. It wasn't a sign of a restaurant that had been there running out the course. This place was alive. I will be back.

once again! I never leave 2nd reviews... that's how good this place is!…read more this place is 10/10. food is fresh & delicious. love the ambiance, great service. we will be back!

I probably never would have found this place on my own, but I'm really glad I tried it!…read more One of my bosses is originally from Worcester, and her daughter was heading home for the weekend, so my boss asked her to stop at Vincent's and grab us some meatball sandwiches for lunch. She had been talking about how amazing their meatball sandwiches were, and since meatball sandwiches are basically my favorite food, I obviously had to try them. Before this, I had never heard of Vincent's. We looked it up and realized it's not really a traditional restaurant. It's a bar that serves food, and apparently their meatball sandwiches are a big thing. Another coworker of mine who is also from Worcester explained that this is a place people go to for drinks and food, and that they have some specific rules when it comes to ordering the sandwiches. When we called, we were told that they do takeout, but you can't actually place a takeout order over the phone. You have to go in and order it. I thought that was a little unusual, but my coworker said that's their normal practice. There is also a three-sandwich limit per person. My bosses daughter went in to order five for the office, so thankfully she had someone with her and they were able to order three each. Apparently, the three-sandwich limit is posted on one of their Google pictures, so I guess if you know, you know. I do wish they had a website or something that clearly explained the takeout process and ordering limits, because if you've never been there, you wouldn't necessarily know any of this. Now for the important part...the sandwich! My bosses daughter had about a 30-35 minute drive back to us, so I honestly expected the sandwich to be pretty cold by the time I got it. It was wrapped in foil, and somehow it was STILL warm when I opened it. I was actually surprised. And let me tell you...this was probably one of the best meatball sandwiches I've ever had. It's definitely different from your typical meatball sub. The meatballs are flat, and instead of a regular torpedo/sub roll, it comes on this thick Italian bread. I honestly didn't know what to expect, but I LOVED it. The combination of the bread and the meatballs was so good that I'm pretty sure I'm going to want my meatball sandwiches this way from now on. I can only imagine how good it would have been if I had eaten it fresh at the bar instead of 35 minutes later. So yes, I completely understand why my boss recommended this place. If I'm ever back in the Worcester area, I will absolutely be stopping at Vincent's. Just make sure you know the ordering rules before you go!

Great people Great prices…read more Great food Great music On of my favorite places to listen to live musicians

Easily the best of Shrewsbury St Warm bubbly staff…read more Great atmosphere inside as well as the patio. The food is perfection !

The food was good, the service is great! The pistachio cake that everyone raves about is no joke!…read moreThe restaurant itself is so cozy, really makes you feel like you're at home. My boyfriend also left his whole satchel there that contained his passport, wallet with credit cards and cash, etc. (all the important stuff) and when we came back for it, everything was still in there, untouched. We were so relieved and will forever be grateful for good people that still exist in this world. Thank you La Scala for such an all around great first experience here!

Alright. Updating my review because things are so different today…read more While they did cut out their included side salads years ago and portions aren't what they were 10 yrs ago, the food is solid and the service is above and beyond. It's back to being one of our favorites. Their entrees have not skyrocketed in price like other places - portions aren't what they used to be but still better than many other spots. And the food has a fresh, delicious taste. My perspective post-covid has definitely changed.

Love me some Dino's. Love their meatballs, their chicken parm, their pizza is amazing as well. To…read morestart the free bruschetta always hits the spot. I could eat that and a couple meatballs and be a happy camper. Love the dim lighting, the old feel and the service is always great.