I decided to emphasize the fact that Giacomo's is a truly Italian-American restaurant in my title, just so people don't get confused and think they'll be eating an authentic Italian meal. There's a pretty big difference between true Italian food and the Americanized version of it. (which isn't all that suprising, you can say this of all cuisines). and Giacomo's does a really good job of putting out tasty Italian-American food.
So for those who don't know, Giacomo's is a pretty famous restaurant in Boston. They have two locations. One in the North End and the other in the South End on Columbus. Leah and I decided to have dinner at the South End location this past Monday. I've actually never been to the location in the North End, because I know that I'll never find parking and in addition, Giacomo's doesn't take reservations, so the North End location is famous for having a very long line. On the other hand, the South End location is less well known. Parking is still nearly impossible to find, and after circling a few times, Leah and I gave up and went for the improvised valet parking from Giacomo's and paid $10 for parking. (yes, that seems pretty expensive, but we split it, and you gotta factor in the temperature, around 25F, and the fact that we were both starving.)
On to dinner. We were lucky that there were a number of tables opening up when we arrived, so after a very brief wait, we were seated near the front window. The rest of the restaurant filled up pretty quickly afterwards. Now, the thing with Giacomo's being a famous Italian American restaurant in Boston is that it's crowded and very very loud. Plus people are, for some reason, super boisterous when they eat there. So it's not a place for quiet conversation. We were pretty quick in deciding what we wanted to order. I got a lemon fettucine with shrimp and scallops and leah got a fettucine with peas and prosciutto in a cream sauce. I actually would've picked the famous pumpkin ravioli, but I knew I was coming down with a cold, and wanted to avoid anything with dairy or cream (which is actually really hard to do at Giacomo's. I'd say 2/3 of the entrees featured cream or dairy).
So here's leah's dinner:
and here's mine:
I found mine pretty tasty, especially after i added some red pepper flakes, though it was a bit oily. the thing i like the most is the fact that the pasta is all handmade and you can really tell. Plus all the dishes are a rather large size. I think leah also enjoyed her entree, especially since she finished it all.
Service for our table was pretty crappy. It just seemed like our waiter was totally new and out of it. It was nearly impossible to track him down, and he didn't tell us what the specials were. (we overheard them being recited to a neighboring table. ) And i would've seriously considered the mushroom ravioli. Ah well, i guess it'll be something to try next time. Our food did come out pretty quickly, which was a good thing. We skipped dessert cause after glancing at the menu, I didn't truly find anything new or interesting.
All in all, we still had a pretty great dinner. The "valet" guy even saw us paying up and brought our car around for us. And even with the parking included, you can still have dinner for under $20- $25, which is pretty great deal in the South End. So if you're ever on Columbus and looking for a place to grab a hearty meal, definetly check out Giacomo's and have some yummy homemade pasta.
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