Very good Italian food. BYOB - great! Go early - no reseravtions & small. Would recommend.

I don't understand the good reviews. This pasta tasted like something out of a can. Crowded, unprofessional staff. I never post negative reviews, but I want to warn people that this place is not good. Shocking for the price. read more

Sweet Basil never fails to please. The only downside is the smallish size which means a wait for a table at dinnertime, but go for lunch and enjoy the same excellent food with no wait and a bit less cost. Everything I've ever eaten at SB has been excellent, usually generous portions and leftovers aplenty to enjoy. BYOB which makes dinner out very affordable. Love the place so much I bought the cookbook read more

I have been a customer of Daves since he opened Sweet Basil. The food has always been excellent till last night. We took out our favorite dishes as usual. WHen I got home the chicken dish was in a sea of thin liquid that had spilled out of the container into the bag and bread, not the usual thick sauce that comes with it. My veal with dates and mushrooms over pasta looked okay till I tried it. Not enough veal in the dish, one date and maybe one mushroom in total. The pasta was dried out and overcooked. Maybe Dave has hired a new chef and since he wasn't there on a Friday night, quality went down to rock bottom. I called the restaurant and complained and they prepared another two dishes, that weren't much better. It is time to move on. Dave's success may have gone to his head and attention to detail is no longer there. Peter G read more

Rose Mary Chicken is delicous! The pesto they serve before dinner is also great and somethimes fills me up before I even order. I only wish they accepted credit cards. read more

The food here is outstanding. I grew up in Needham and I love, love that we have a restaurant like Sweet Basil in town. There really is no other place like it in the area. Wonderful date place, the food is so delicious and comforting. I believe it is BYOB, so just keep that in mind. Love it here, really friendly staff too. Every person I have taken there has loved the food. read more

100% worth the wait. Sweet Basil is consistently busy with hour plus wait times. Wait the hour plus. The pesto spread and bread before the meal are excellent. Highly recommend their Greek Salad for a starter and for entree...my favorite is the Bolognese. The owner, Dave, told me it is his favorite. When you try it, you will soon learn why it is has remained on this menu from the opening of the restaurant. If you want something lighter than the Bolognese, try the Braised Veal (or Chicken) with port wine, mushrooms, and figs (their own twist on a Marsala). Excellent food! read more

AWESOME PLACE! What's not to love, been going there for years. Dave is a talented chef and a terrific host. Wait staff is friendly, smart, and funky. Food is to die for and always plenty of leftovers. Great prices. Go if you're hungry, love great food, and want to have fun. Don't go if your looking for a quiet table in an out of the way corner (unless you go for lunch). read more

Best restaurant in Needham. For lunch the chicken parm sub and the steak and cheese are outstanding!

Amazing! I've heard so many many of my friends and colleagues tell me over the years how wonderful this place was (and frankly, sad to say, I always thought it was a Thai restaurant) but pleasantly surprised it was not. Our appetizers, entrees, just so wonderful, staff, waitress, extremely friendly! We all live in Boston, with many places to choose from, but we will most certainly come back to this hidden gem. read more

This is my favorite lunch spot in the area. The lunch portions are HUGE and always delicious. The chicken parm sandwich is delicious and I always get the fish specials when they are available. Love the bread and pesto they serve before meals. All around a great restaurant! read more

Everything about this restaurant is great. The food is excellent, the staff is friendly and down-to-earth, and the prices are reasonable. This is my special go-to place. I love this place! read more

I'm not sure if its because I'm always a little tipsy from bringing my own bottle of wine or if its the consistency of the delicious pasta... or that I always end up sitting at the same table but this place is fantastic. The owner is almost always there to greet his guests. I always order the Bolognese. Let's just say I traveled to NY on Amtrak with a tray of Bolognese for a college friend who went to college in Boston with me. That's the type of experience and connection that Sweet Basil offers. read more

Best Italian rest I have eaten in my neighborhood. Recommend to any in a heart beat.

Great food and atmosphere, the staff is very welcoming to my family and I, never a bad experience when i dine at aweet basil.

I had the Bolognese over pappardelle pasta. The food was so hot I had to wait 10 minutes before I could eat it. The sauce was very salty. I realize that sausages can be salty, but this was overpowering.....I do not drink wine or beer so I did not bring something to drink with me . I was sure they would offer iced tea or soda or seltzer. Instead, they place a bottle of warm water on the table. I was so thirsty , probably from the salty sauce, and I would have loved a nice glass of ICED WATER !!!!!!! The best part of the dinner was the pesto and Italian bread...... read more

Great ambiance and friendly staff! I ordered the shrimp pasta and there was definitely too much garlic and too many spices, but overall good experience. read more

Nothing short of sensational. As soon as you walk in, you will feel immediately welcomed by amazing smells and very friendly staff. The music was a great mix including everything from James Taylor to AC/DC to hiphop. The BYOB aspect really opened a great door to customizing your meal. Then, there was the food - absolutely fantastic. The truffle infused warm goat cheese in the goat cheese and beet salad was amazing and the veal dish was something that I will not soon forget. I live in the lower Hudson valley, 3 hours away and I cannot wait to go back. Enjoy. read more

My wife and I have eaten here several times. It's really some of the best Italian food in the Boston area. The wait staff is always very pleasant and helpful. I like the fact that you can BYOB so you don't have to spend a fortune on wine. If you forget your wine, you can buy a bottle at the liquor store across the street. This restaurant is on the small side, however, and fills up quickly; so try to get there @ 6PM- 6:30 if you want to get seated in the first sitting. read more

Just had take out. First time since we moved back to area and must say...not good. Caesar salad: decent, Calimari was rubbery and over fried, and all pasta was super over cooked and oddly super yellow. Years ago this place was fresh and care seemed to go into the dishes...fast forward to today....low quality and at least for this meal, not much quality. read more

Fantastic italian cuisine, incredibly reasonable prices. Why hassle with the North End when you can enjoy Sweet Basil in Needham?

I dream about the pesto from Sweet Basil. I love their lunch specials and have made their chicken caccitore. So good!

what a wonderful, funky, delicious, artful restaurant. lovely wait staff. an unexpected pleasure for sleepy Needham! read more

Great pesto great BLT great people great atmosphere, but the pastas, especially the bolognese, are so salty and to be almost hard to eat. The salt overwhelms all the other flavors. I want to love this place, but I wonder how good some of the recipes are under all that salt. read more

This place has been in Needham for years - it used to be a 19 seat breakfast counter, now it is a 40 seat restaurant. Food is good, not amazing. - but (and this should be mentioned for those who read all the 5 star reviews and are coming a distance) this place is extremely, repeat extremely small and cramped and always overcrowded. Waiting up to an hour OUTSIDE for as table. If you want to go, pick an off night or an odd hour as the food does not compensate for the diminished dining experience. read more

Very good food. Even better now that Needham has wine stores nearby so you can BYOB. :)

It was a bit of a wait, but it was worth it. The pesto is amazing. The service is great, there is always a smile, they really know what customer service is about. read more

Just had a birthday dinner there. This is possibly the worst restaurant experience ever. Starting with need to bring your own alcohol, no desert menu and arrogant host. Bread and pesto were good, but the rest of the food did not impress me. This may be a OK place to have lunch, but please do not take your significant other for a special occasion. Would I come back? Absolutely not. read more

Awesome food and nice atmosphere, owner is terrific and staff are great. Love going here!

Poor, salty, inconsistent, expensive. This place definitely does not deserve the praise it regularly gets here.

A year ago I would have given this place 4 stars, but today I feel it deserves a 2 star rating. First, they have added so many more tables to the same small space that it is no longer a cozy little restaurant for quiet conversation. On top of that, the host seated my husband and I...a party of two, quiet 50 year olds, right next to a table with 2 mothers and 2 young children. The children were eating snack bags of pretzels (like you'd put in a school lunch bag) while the mothers drank their wine and ate their salads. Moms seemed to be enjoying their conversation while those of us around couldn't hear our own conversations because their table was so loud. Second, the wait staff (who are all exceptional hard workers pitching in wherever the need be) can barely get around all the tables. While we were there, one waitress got off balance and spilled mussel juice all over a customer and all over the floor. Several other people slipped and almost ended up on the floor with the juice. Not the waitress's fault...there is NOT enough space between tables. Third, we ordered the gnocchi with lobster appetizer and couldn't find much lobster. It was also very salty. Fourth, I ordered the striped bass dinner and was served salmon. Waiter apologized but at that point 2 huge parties of 8 and 7 were seated, and I felt so claustrophobic that I accepted the salmon, pushed it around the plate, and then just took it home. Normally I would say no big deal, but my husband and I were celebrating our Anniversary, and it was a very disappointing dinner. My recommendation is to the owner is to remove some of the tables to make it fair for your staff to do a better and safer job, and to make it more enjoyable for your customers. Or maybe...look into a bigger storefront or try to expand into the neighboring space. I for one (which I'm sure will not cut into their business at all) will not be coming back anytime soon, and most definitely will not waste another anniversary celebration in such an uncomfortable place. Busier does not make the food better nor the atmosphere more inviting....in fact at Sweet Basil it has done the reverse. read more

Strange business policies mar an otherwise good dining experience. They don't sell tea/coffee/dessert -- so they can turn over tables faster and get you out of there. You feel like you're getting the bum's rush, and they don't have an elegant way of informing you of this policy. Today I had lunch there, and they abruptly dropped off the bill after serving our entrees. When we said, "Wait, we'll be wanting coffee," the waitress said, "Sorry, we don't serve coffee. I dropped off the bill because we had nothing more to offer you." Boy, is that a true statement. They should have politely advised us at the beginning of the meal or clearly posted the policy, so it wouldn't be an unpleasant shock. Then they told us they don't take credit cards! Absolutely bizarre for a restaurant in this price range to not take plastic. They need a polite, cordial way of advising guests of these strange practices, or even better, behave like a normal restaurant -- serve coffee and take credit cards. I won't be going back. read more

The most memorable thing about Sweet Basil is the genuine friendliness of every person working there. The hostess was very nice when I came during prime time to get a table for 2. The 45 minute wait turned out to only be 30 minutes and we got seated at a table with prime view. This restaurant is cash only, BYOW (only a $5 cork fee), and has street parking only. The pesto served with the bread was amazing. I usually never eat the bread but it was worth eating with the pesto. We had a fried calamari appetizer that was served with a some-what spicy sauce. Not bad and large portion. We got the rosemary chicken (recommended by the waitress) and the bolognese. Both came out in large portions, with a lot of garlic and cheese. Rosemary chicken was very heavy, more than we are used to, but still good. Bolognese was okay - the pasta needed to be boiled at least 7 more minutes and more meat was needed. Waitress was knowledgeable about all dishes and was friendly throughout the meal. Would go back again to try different dishes. read more

love love love this place. everytime i come here, its always packed and theres a wait for at least an hour. but its well worth the wait. since they dont have a bar, they sometimes send us down the block to grab drinks while we wait, but in the summer, some might prefer having custard from the store next door. the only bummers are that they dont take reservations or credit cards, sometimes they're sweet enough to let us nibble on some appetizer extras while we wait. in fact, the first time i've been there and i was curious about how the mussels were, on the next order they took, they made a little extra (which was a lot, almost a full size portion) and let me sample it. that is how i fell in love: with the mussels, the service and the restaurant. its not really the free food that won me over (or maybe it is) but its more the attentive service and the amount of consideration the busy waitstaff puts in to give you a great dining experience. the inside is pretty crowded but cozy. it gets a bit loud but still is a decent date place because you can sit close to your date and whisper sweet nothings while sharing an amazing meal. no alcohol here, its byob with a $5 corking fee. love the idea of the flexibility and unpretentiousness of byob. also love the mussels. its an appetizer, but i swear, the broth is so good, i use so much bread to mop up the juices that i am stuffed by the time my entree gets to the table. you cant go wrong with their innovative rotating risottos. their daily specials always seems to cause a dilemma for me to chose between them and my favorites. the seafood diavolo is a staple for me. the rosemary chicken is very tasty, but a bit heavy. it might be a better idea to just share it if you dont have a tremendous appetite. once it goes in the fridge, you'll know how much evoo they use. my leftovers chills to a solid block, def not as appetizing as it was when it was steaming from the kitchen. read more

We visited Sweet Basil last Thursday night and it was excellent. Didn't have to wait for a table for two and our waitress was great. I'm allergic to nuts and I was so pleasantly surprised that their pesto is nut-free. I could be mistaken but I believe I didn't see any nuts on the menu. To start we shared the calamari and a Greek salad. Both dishes were huge. I'll order a Greek salad whenever I have the chance and this one was superb. The calamari was also delicious and not soggy at all. When we couldn't decide between the bolognese and the lamb shank our waitress recommended the lamb. When it came I couldn't believe how much food was on the table. Way more than enough for two! Even though my boyfriend grew up in Needham this was the first time at Sweet Basil for both of us and it was such a pleasant, low-key experience. Since it's BYOB we made it out of there with a $60 bill that felt like a steal. read more

The service was warm and friendly, if a little quirky, and the food was absolutely delicious. My only hesitation and the reason I didn't give this 5 stars is because the portion sizes were way too large. I had one of their soups to start and it could easily have been my entire meal. It came in a bowl that was the size of a tureen. Then, my pasta, a marvelous, garlicky confection of cream sauce, came in an even larger bowl. I did the best I could but I left more than half my dish in the bowl...Reheated pasta is never very good so I felt sad that so much went to waste. And then they didn't seem to have any dessert or coffee/tea (perhaps we weren't offered any because there was so much food already!). After the garlicky sauce, I could have used a little refreshing sorbet or even a bracing espresso with a biscotto, but no such luck. I'll go back because I thought the menu was creative, the dishes were well executed and the service was lovely but next time I may only order one course or split dishes with my fellow diners... read more

First time diner and I loved it. I live in Wakefield, but honestly I'd drive to Needham just to go to Sweet Basil. Food was fabulous. Bread and pesto is a nice touch. My friend had the chicken which was delicious and I got the pork chop which was divine. Perfectly cooked and possibly the best pork chop I've ever had. I gave it 4 stars because they don't take reservations, it was a bit noisy, and they don't serve coffee (or dessert). I love that it's BYOB. A group came in after us with their wine and the host set them up so they could enjoy their wine while they waited. Service was spot on from the time we arrived until we left. Host was calm and accommodating. I just don't understand why restaurants opt not to take reservations, especially when they don't have a bar or a spot to wait. Would definitely not go here in winter if I had to wait! But I don't want to take away from what was otherwise a very enjoyable dining experience. read more

great place -- cash only -- BYOB -- FANTASTIC FOOD -- long wait for dinner -- no wait for lunch usually