Bertucci’s

Upon visiting friends on a tight schedule, we had to eat somewhere near the hospital to accommodate an impending night shift. Bertucci’s is pleasantly located nearby. I wish our hospital had an establishment like this within close walking vicinity!
There was one other party of two people in the restaurant. Yet, the service and food prep was so slow, we almost had to leave to make the above stated shift (I mean like 20 minutes to take the order slow). The salads were overdressed, but the salmon (came with one of the salads) was large and well cooked. My friend also enjoyed his chicken dish that came with an overabundance of pasta noodles.
Overall, tasty and fast for a place next to the hospital. That being said, while a large leap above hospital food — it certainly would not be a place I need to go back to again as a visitor.

We went with my family to Bertucci’s while visiting Harvard. We ordered two large pizzas for 5 pizzas. What I thought might not be enough ended up being MORE than enough! These pizzas were BIG! And they were also very tasty. We got the cheese pizza and the mozzarella with sausage pizza (can’t remember the name) but both were well cooked and tasty. The mozzarella was very good (very «fresh»). Our bill didn’t go over $ 40 dollar (feeding 5 people for less than 50 $ is not an easy task) and we had Plenty of food for this price. The service was good. I would definitely go back if I am around this area again.

Maybe I was really hungry when I came here, but I loved this place.

Hit or miss.
I’ve been to this place several times, and while the food is delicious, it isn’t consistently so. I would recommend dining here earlier in the evening for two reasons: 1) to beat the lines (at primetime, expect a 15 – 30 minute wait), and 2) food is prepared better in the earlier rounds.
Also, be sure to ask for fresh rolls (otherwise, you might be in for a surprise with stone hard bread!).
One of the better places in Harvard Square.

This place is great! Their bread is amazing, but there is more to this place. We usually order pizza from here which seems like the best option around Harvard Square (take that Otto’s) though nothing particularly superb. On my last visit, however, wanting to celebrate the end of my finals I ordered a chicken parma — boy it was amazing! First of all, the size of the portion is huge — enough for one person to have a great meal and even take leftovers to go. Second, the taste was great — probably the best chicken parma I had in a while and trust me that’s something I order often. It was Saturday night so the service was a bit slow, but hey — you can only expect so much when you are in a very very busy restaurant on the busiest time of the week. The waiters, however, were very courteous — so not sure where the complaints are coming from.

Their bread is amazing!!! Bread with olive oil and a little bit of pepper, just wonderful! Best appetizer I’ve ever had! I’m still dreaming about it!
I didn’t try the italian food, though, I had a steak with potatoes that was simply delicious! Really, really good! The meat was perfectly cooked!

The bread and the olive oil dip is great, so is the sangria (white) and the ravioli with lobster.
For appetizers, we tried the grilled vegetable and the shrimp. Both were good.

When you work in Harvard Square, you have myriad choices when grabbing a quick lunch with co-​workers. For some reason (maybe because chains have a tough reputation these days), Bertucci’s never really enters the discussion. But last week, as we were walking by and growing shorter on time, we popped in.
In six words: Good food, good service, good time.
The customary salad and rolls didn’t disappoint. The dressing may have been a bit heavy on the salad, but the fresh, hot rolls and dipping sauce were delicious. We ordered a mix of pastas, chicken parmesan, and sandwiches, and everyone nodded their heads in approval (and maybe a little surprise?) at the taste. And the waiter was quick, attentive, and friendly.
Our group of five left happy, full, and pleasantly surprised. So, from now on, when the lunch discussion starts, Bertucci’s will be on the list …

Olive Garden quality.

Thought I was not super hungry when I came, my friends were just the opposite. Ordering a large pizza, they both engulfed at least three, while I took the smallest slice. But besides satisfying that initial hunger, there was not much more to the pizza. The sausage was a mix of mysterious meat. The cheese was of not very high quality, and the dough was like dough I could get at Trader Joes for a fraction of the price.
The pizza was super greasy, super super greasy. Grease that’s uncalled for; grease that did not make the pizza taste more delicious. The grease was there to clog arteries and nothing else. The grease carried over to the vegetables, but at least those have some nutritional content.
Ugghh take me to Upper Crust instead. Better and cheaper pizza. The only thing is that you cannot see the brick oven. Or would you have to endure the bright lights in this very unromantic unsuccessful imitation of an Italian restaurant.
I wasted so much napkin trying to dab oil off my food. There goes a night of not saving the ecosystem. Sorry.

I wasn’t super impressed with this place. If you’re in Harvard Square visiting, don’t waste your time at a chain like this. There are so many awesome restaurants in that area.
No good seating for groups.
Very predictable but a safe bet if that’s what you need.

The overall experience was decent. The food wasn’t as good as I was expecting (my childhood memories have deceived me again) and the bread was honestly the highlight of my meal. For a chain, it’s decent. For a general restaurant in the square, its sub par. If my friends didn’t want to go here, I never would’ve given this place a second glance.
The service ranged from negligent to intentionally ignorant. Our server came maybe three times to the table, for the drinks, food, and the check. Nothing in between. We did see him get snappy with a rude customer, which was hilarious. After deciding we liked him despite the lack of service, we left a good tip and left, vowing to never return again.

A+ for the friendly service. This place was hopping on the night I was there and yet all of the staff were on point. I ordered a cold IPA and soon enough a basket of bread — steaming hot from the oven — arrived in the middle of the table. I could just sit there and eat those all night! I tried an individual margherita pizza. It came fresh and hot to the table.
I don’t think you could go wrong by ordering the pizzas here.

Not bad for a basic meal. I love the bread and the olive oil dip. Servers were friendly.
But $ 16 for mediocre, watery pasta? Bleh. The food left much to be desired. The Taste of Bertucci gives you a nice trio of dishes plus soup… the chicken parm, rigatoni, and the fettucine. All mediocre. i also could barely finish it! It was massive! Nonetheless the quality was just decent. The bisque that I had on the side was overly salty.
Overall this is a decent place to satisfy an Italian craving. We didn’t have to wait and the menu offerings were decent. Nonetheless, I wouldn’t call this a nice place to take a date or a good place to get real Italian. Definitely too expensive given the quality.

Came here with a group of 5 for lunch on a Friday. We got in right before the wave of people came so we didn’t have much of a wait.
Everyone was pretty happy with their food. I ordered A Taste of Bertucci which included 3 different dishes combined into one giant one. I personally can’t eat that much past.. .and it looked a lot daintier on the menu, which is why I ordered it. But when the plate came, oh man, it was 2x what I expected it to be. But hey, that’s great, more food for me for leftover.
My entrée comes with a choice between soup or salad. What I didn’t know was that the entire table also gets a table sized bowl of salad. So it was a good thing I went for the soup. I’d recommend asking so you won’t be stuck with two of the same salad. As for my soup, I went for the shrimp and corn bisque. Delicious. :)
Entrée was around $ 15. After tax and tips, $ 19. Not too bad considering I have enough for maybe 3 more meals as my leftover.

Seems like there’s a few of these around. Not bad Italian food. Slow service on busy nights, but that’s expected I suppose.
Fresh bread rolls are pretty good. Had a lasagna dish and the brick oven does provide rustic aroma to their foods.

Went for dinner for the first time yesterday. Reminded me of Olive Garden, but a little bit better. I had the eggplant parma, which was roasted eggplant, layered with tomato sauce poured over it, and mozzarella broiled on top. Hella not what I was expecting — the eggplant wasn’t breaded (and I can’t remember whether it said so on the menu or not) and the dish was slapped together individually. The salad that came with it was okay, and the pasta on the side was just preboiled pasta that they poured sauce over. Bleh. It was not bad tasting, but certainly disappointing.
My dinner companion had the steak and chicken combo. The asparagus hadn’t been trimmed enough so it was tough, and the medium rare steak was medium well.
Sooo not a good dining experience as far as food goes — steak overdone, rolls burned, mozzarella burned, asparagus tough.
The only saving grace of this place is that we had outdoor seating on a really nice day (which is why we came) and the rolls that weren’t burned were to die for.
Last but not least, they should have told us that there is no alcohol served on the patio cuz my dinner companion was going to get sangria and couldn’t.

This Bertucci’s location is tricky.
We had planned to go to the Border Café until we saw the line outside and decided we were too hungry to wait. So we started walking around for something else and as we walked under one awning I saw «Brick Oven Pizzeria» on the window. I turned to my friend and said «how about a brick oven pizzeria?» She agreed and we went in. I tried to get a look at a menu posted up near the door as we went in. I didn’t get a good look at it but I had a feeling I had seen that menu before. We were quickly seated and at the same time we looked at them menus that were handed to us, up at each other, then around the restaurant and finally back at each other with a look that said «we’ve been had».
It was a typical Bertucci’s experience: the rolls were hot, the pizza was average, and the entrée that I ordered was sub-​par.

Before I became a bit more of a «foody» in San Francisco, Bertucci’s was one of my favorite college restaurants. I came here with family, groups of friends, and even on a date or two. The prices are incredibly reasonable for yummy food. The dinner rolls are AMAZING and a lot of the pasta and pizza dishes are really good too.
The atmosphere is nice though Bertucci’s can get really busy around dinner time. It tends to be a bit quieter around lunch time though some of their portions are pretty big for a lunch!

Chain restaurant, needed a quick place to eat and get out of the rainy weather. A cute coffeeshop café was nearby, I should go there next time I’m in the area.
Our waitress was prompt and took our order quickly. My friend and I weren’t hungry, but we knew we should eat so we split a lunch option. The waitress brought out complimentary hot rolls with a plate of olive oil, then the free iceberg lettuce salad that came with the lunch option. Our main course, cheese ravioli arrived shortly thereafter. That ravioli was just $ 8, but they charged $ 2 for ice tea! TWO DOLLARS?!? I have got to get used to the higher cost of living here.