5 North Square

I’ve eaten here twice, and while the more recent experience wasn’t as bad as the first (which begs the question — why did I go back? Mob rule) you could do a lot better for your money.
The ambiance is actually quite nice, and it’s not like it’s wildly overpriced or anything. It’s just that kind of place you end up at sometimes: mediocre enough that there are plenty of tables available when all the other North End restaurants have an hour-​long wait. So… if you’re hungry, it’s there for you. But those tables are available for a reason.

I don’t know how new this place is but it has a few kinks to work out. The place filled up as we got there so that is a good sign. We started with some ok bread and overly balsamic vinegar olive oil dipping sauce. It was really bitter.
This restaurant has nothing unusual in terms of offerings for meals” basic apps, salads, pastas and meat dishes. I had the ravioli al forno and my friend had the chicken francais. My meal was small for the price I paid ($ 17) and it didn’t come with any side order. A salad would have been a nice addition. My friend was able to swap her side of pasta for a house salad.
Service was bad. Our waitress didn’t respond to requests (I asked for salt and never saw it). Waters were refilled but not as much as I would like it. The guy behind us got a lot of attention and we didn’t get much of any acknowledgement.
They do serve wine.
I’d probably go somewhere else next time

Made reservations for Sat night, highly recommended because as everyone knows — you don’t go anywhere in downtown Boston, on Sat night, during graduation season without reservations. Place looks beautiful, plenty of atmosphere with picturesque mediterranean oil paintings. Heard rumors restaurant is under new ownership. Ordered chicken parm, friend had penne carbonara. Food was delicious, the best chicken parm and sauce I’ve ever tasted, waitstaff very courteous and prompt. Can’t wait to go back, definitely one of my new favorite places.

I’ll start off to say, that I’m a bit biased. I’m not a huge fan of Italian food. I went here for the woman who LOVES it. Plus, we had a certificate from
.
It was pretty empty and cute. The staff was friendly and very good. I had some dietary restrictions and they helped me work past that.
So, I ordered a steak. They put some sort of sauce or marinade on it that I didn’t care for. My girl ended up eating most of it. Arghhh.

There is much better food to be had in the North End. Décor is kind of tacky and service was friendly but slow as molasses on a Saturday night. The tomatoes on my caprese salad were pale and mealy. Chicken masala was only ok.

i came to this restaurant in the north end for my roomie’s birthday. and wow. was i surprised.
location & price: their location is right at the corner and down the block of hanover. its a pretty handy location esp if you were looking to go to mike’s afterwards. their location looks over a square /​plaza hence the name. if you can get the table on the first floor overlooking the square, you are sitting in the seat that was filmed for a movie (although i am not quite sure which). the pricing of this place is pretty average for an italian place. nothing completely outrageous and nothing cheap to make the college student budget squeal with delight.
atmosphere: as far as the atmosphere goes, its a bit like bucca di beppo, but not nearly as overwhelming. you walk in and you will be a bit surprised to see it so small, but there is a second floor that has a bit more room and tables. the restaurant looks as if it were someone’s home (which i don’t doubt it was at one point) so it has a very comfy feel to it. i have only been at night and the lighting is always very dim. they play classical music quietly in the background so you can soak in the ambiance or talk with your friends.
taste: their chicken alfredo was a bit lacking in flavor, but nothing a bit of salt and pepper would take care of. but their tortellini or their primavera pasta is very good. i was happy to discover that their portions are very much in line with their pricing. but the bread that they serve before the entrees come out is not good. its basically a baguette of some sort, sliced, and just served. not warm at all. :\
service: if you go on a weekend, the service may be a bit slower, but nothing out of the ordinary. however, they will take cakes in the back and have it chilled.
so all in all, as some have previously stated, this is a good restaurant, but not fabulous. a snug little place right off of hanover, you can’t complain. however, there are better restaurants in the north end you could go to.

This is a good but not great restaurant tucked away in the North End. We arrived here at about 8:30 on a Friday night, and we needed to be down near the aquarium by 10. Luckily there was no wait and we were seated downstairs by a window. My meal was very good, Megan’s was just eh. Décor was regular cheesy Italian restaurant. Never saw the upstairs, but that sounds good.

Note — they told us they are closing starting today for renovations, and it will last about a month.
Because of the impending closing, we were the only ones in the restaurant. We got such great service! I ordered a beer, and the waitress poured it for me. Every time she walked back, and saw the glass was getting low, she poured more for me. I have never have a waitress do that, ever, and it was really nice that she was so attentive.
I had a four-​cheese pasta, and it was fantastic. Very mild, which I really enjoy. I can’t wait to go back after they re-​open.

As the boy and I wandered in last night, I really didn’t expect much. Five North Square’s décor looked similar to what my crazy old Italian aunt would do, if I had one. A bit gaudy but whatever. We were there for the food, not the décor. However things got worse as we waited for the staff to sit us down. The place was absolutely empty and we wanted to sit upstairs. The guy acted totally pissed off and despite there being no one else there, didn’t sit us by any of the window seats. Yeah, I could see this place was going downhill fast.
But luckily that all changed as soon as he disappeared. Once we sat, a server came over and filled our water glasses. He was very attentive and refilled them the whole night, so we never had a dry glass. And our waitress was so helpful and attentive as well. When the boy asked for no dairy due to allergies, she made sure everything was correct, and even offered us alternatives to the butter that came with the bread.
As for the food. Just wow. I ordered the eggplant parm. Honestly, I used to hate eggplant till the one day a friend decided to make me eggplant parm. It was so soft and delicious, and really no place has matched his. Until now. The eggplant was so soft you could cut into it with a fork. I think this may be the best non-​homemade eggplant parm I’ve eaten in my life. The boy ordered the steak but didn’t like it because it didn’t taste processed. But me? I loved it! The steak was so flavorful and tender that you probably could have used a non-​steak knife to cut into it. It was perfectly charred and rich tasting.
There are a lot of misses in the North End. Five North Square falls into a different category. You can’t go wrong with either the eggplant parm or the steak.

I went here with my wife and some friends. There were 7 of us all together. We were seated upstairs in a little nook overlooking the square. It was very cold that night and the draft on the first floor was pretty bad, so watch out if you are sat near the door.
Our waiter was fantastic. He had some European accent and was very charming, patient, and accommodating. It was a slow night that night, so I was glad to see the waiter use his availability to his advantage.
We ordered apps and wine and everything tasted great. We split a calamari and an eggplant parm app. The eggplant was really good. It was almost like a lasagna.
I had the carbonara which was done perfectly, and my wife got a shrimp pesto dish which was also great. I didn’t try any of the other dishes we ordered, but everyone was very happy. All the entrees came out hot and at the same time.
The food and service here was good, but not amazing. It was pretty standard Italian, done well. What takes this place from 4 to 5 stars for me was the price. Considering the location, the prices here are very good. I’ll certainly return here and recommend this place. I’d be interested to see what it is like when this place gets slammed. Doing it right when it is slow is a lot different than doing it right when things get really busy.

This small family owned third generation Italian DIAMOND is on my list as one of the restaurants I would take a plane to come eat at again. I sat at the famous table 30 and although it was with my sister, I couldn’t help but feel like it was such a special place — overlooking the country’s oldest square. The food will keep me coming back but the atmosphere and service will keep me intrigued each time I have the pleasure of returning.

We had lunch there on a Monday. It was one of the few places which didn’t have a long wait. I know why.
Tlocation is great. They do have an upstairs seating, but only use it for dinner. So for lunch, there is only about 10 tables. I had the 5 North Square dish with chicken — it was delish. My husband had shrimp scampi. It was flavorless and looked boring.
The service was bad. Our waiter looked like he had been there for about 60 years and was rude and unattentive. They do offer wine, but we never saw a wine list. I ordered a diet coke, it was flat and syrupy.
The food took a while to come out. It may have been because the chef was also the valet guy. I swear I saw him outside parking cars!
Our waiter went outside (front) to have smoke after our food came out and never washed his hand when he returned.

Went to 5 North Square because I needed last minute reservations for an anniversary dinner with the boy. This place was the most authentic Italian food I’ve ever had, complete with the family in the kitchen fighting. The cannoli, which I usually don’t like, came with the freshest piped cream and pistachios. It was delicious. I ordered the rigatoni with broccoli, and my date the carbonara. It was spectacular and pretty cheap for the location. The only complaint I had was the tight quarters. We really were squished in there, but the walk around the North End made up for it.

Tonight’s meal of tortellini with a creamy pesto sauce with luscious peas was very good. The service wasn’t perfect, but the view is nice. The wine was fine. I’ve eaten here numerous times and it’s consistently good. The food is very good and the view (especially from the bay windows) is great. The service is probably a 3 and the atmosphere is also in the three range.
A few years ago I had my graduation dinner here and it was great for our party of 20. Very accommodating.

It looked like a cute little place without a long wait so we gave it a whirl. I was quite surprised when we walked in and were greeted not with the usual North End Frank Sinatra album, but with the vocal delights of Olivia Newton John (???) I highly doubt the soundtracks of Xanadu and Chariots of Fire have ever been played so close together. Unfortunately, the music wasn’t loud enough to muffle the loud diner next to us.
The service was quick but not overly friendly. Seemed like they really wanted to leave because they stopped letting people in at 8:30.
The food was decent and the wine was kind of blah. I’ve had better, but I’ve also had a lot worse. One thing I can’t forgive was the bread they gave us. Stale grocery store Italian bread. I must have tasty carbohydrates! We didn’t even get any olive oil to dip it in.
One cool thing was that we could see the neighborhood ducks hanging out in front of Mama Maria’s from our table by the window.
And then we bumped into our server on the blue line on our way back to Revere. Small city.

Service very good, food good, and atmosphere okay.

Five North Square is located diagonally across the square from Mamma Maria’s, a block south of the mob scene on Hanover Street. George D’Amelio, the owner, greets you at the door. Pasta dishes average around $ 15, and they are ample and superb. The Chicken/​Veal Five North Square is my favorite, but if George’s wife is there making Eggplant Parmigiana (it’s not on the menu), that’s what to order.
My one misgiving is that you don’t feel encouraged to linger over your meal, but, hey… the restaurant needs to make money.
Table 30 (for 2) is great for anniversary dinners. Reservations suggested.

We dined here for our first North End restaurant experience almost 2 yrs ago. It proved to be a wonderful experience. We went during the holidays, in which they had decorated the restaurant with tiny little lights. We were seated upstairs, at a small table for two was felt very intimate, in a good way. The food, and service were great– we’d go back again.

Charming, romantic Italian Restaurant in the Historic North end of Boston. Sitting on the corner of a small square. Small ground floor and an upstairs. Lucked out and got the alcove window table to people watch. Had a 5:30 reservation on Saturday, perfect, only a couple of other couples then by 6pm, got busy.
Couldn’t find street parking to parked around .5 miles away at the government parking lot, was a nice, leisurely walk.
Drinks and bread and the meal came quickly. Ordered minestrone soup, which was so flavorful, Chicken Marsala was good and plenty with 5 pieces of chicken but a little dry, so the sauce was perfect with plenty of mushrooms, came with rigatone with red sauce, Shrimp margherita over lemon sauce with around 8 large shrimp and linguine, ice tea and chocolate cake. The cake wasn’t impressive other then moist. For two, came out to $ 51, what a deal and perfect amount of food.
The staff was a little slow with the drink refills and the bill but friendly. Would definitely go again.

This is a good restaurant. It fits into the cheesy mold of a North End pasta joint. Their claim to fame is «table 30» It’s overlooking the square and it is very cute. Nice for a date if you want the stereotypical «North End» feel. The food is good and the service was very nice.