Vinny T’s of Boston

Not stellar but at their low prices they don’t have to be.

I normally enjoy Vinny T’s but my last experience was quite disappointing.
I went for dinner with an old friend to celebrate my engagement. We were both super happy to see each other… too bad our waitress didn’t seem so happy to be around us. She read the specials off her notepad and said she didn’t know what was in a lot of the dishes because she new. She also pronounced half of the menu items wrong (and not just «I don’t have an Italian accent» wrong but «I might as well be reading this with my eyes closed» wrong”.
The food arrived quickly but my pasta primavera tasted like it had about a fistful of salt in it. I tried to mix it around in the sauce but I couldn’t get the salty taste to go away. Luckily, dessert went without a hitch.
We got the check and wanted to split. So my friend put in her share in cash and I was going to put my share on a debit card. 50 – 50. Well, she takes the payments and comes back about 5 minutes later and says… and I quote…“Um… I have no idea what you expect me to do with this” What??? I had to break things down to a 1^st grade level for her to understand what we wanted.
Although I’m sure I will eventually be back to Vinny T’s, I sure hope I don’t have this waitress. In fact, I hope she quit waitressing while she was ahead…

I ended up at this Vinny T’s tonight because there was horrendous traffic, it was getting to be dinner time, and it was right off the highway. I was really in the mood for Fuddruckers, but it was a good thing we opted to stop, because the traffic still hadn’t cleared by the time we were done dinner, and it took us almost an hour to get to that point of Route 1! Bah!
The place was pretty empty, and perhaps we should have taken that as a sign. I have been to these restaurants many times in the past, since they had just opened as Vinny Testa’s, and when they had good food. I figured not much had changed, even though it had been a couple of years since our last visit.
We were seated in a booth and they brought us some most delicious warm focaccia with their standard roasted garlic head in olive oil. It was really good. But the good pretty much ended there.
The waiter — who was not particularly friendly or interested in waiting on us — brought over my iced tea, and I was totally disappointed that since our last visit, they switched over to ICED TEA FROM THE FOUNTAIN MACHINE! They used to have freshly brewed iced tea, but that has apparently gone by the wayside. Boo.
I ordered the cheese ravioli and the mister ordered the farfalle primavera; neither was impressive. They used to have really good ravioli — they were round and filled to the brim with lots of delicious cheesy goodness. These were sad looking little squares, and there weren’t even that many of them. I was still hungry when I was done with them. Boo again. The farfalle was mediocre. Each of the dishes cost $ 14, which was way too much for what they were.
The waiter ignored our empty drink glasses for a while, and then he very swiftly took my dish away from me while I was still eating the remaining sauce.
This was not a satisfying dining experience at all. I wish there hadn’t been traffic so we could have gone to Fuddruckers as planned.

They give you large portions — you can’t finish. However, there is too much garlic being used. In fact, you can smell it in the parking lot outside of the mall. I mean the air surrounding Vinny T’s reeks of garlic. If I were ever being chased or hunted by a vampire, I would only need to be living outside of this restaurant for protection.
What ever happened to bringing out subtle flavors to make a memorable and flavorful meal to delight the senses? Instead, your sense of smell is soon rendered useless within 100 feet of this restaurant — not to mention your poor taste buds — and anyone who comes near you the next three days!

Homemade Lasagna is wicked good. I can’t not order it each time I go. I have had other plates there, and have tried some bites from those I go with, and it’s all really good. They give you this amazing bread before dinner that comes with some olive oil that was cooked in the oven with a whole garlic that was cut somewhat in half. For the most part, the service is great. I’ve had some slow servers there from time to time, which is why this place doesn’t get a 5… but it’s that close.

Started out doubtful. We were seated by the hostess, and it was a good 15 minutes be’fore our waiter came to take our drink order. We asked him about the famiglia size, and he said it was just a bigger portion. We ordered th eggplant/​chicken parm famiglia sized, and also the chicken and brocolli alfredo, thinking the 2 of us could mix and match. We have enough food to last the week!!! I wish he had mentioned the famiglia size was enough to feed a small army. He was very responsive with drinks, checked up on us frequently, and was very friendly. We gave him almost a 25% tip, which was quite impressive seeing as how bad he
started out… he really turned himself around!!!
Oh, and their bread rocks. Yum.

These places used to be called Vinny Testes until they changed the name. They should have changed the menu and the staff. This is a chain restaurant only in New England that serves up some of the most disgusting Itialian food that I have ever eaten. The place has that chain restaurant feel with very poor service having an attitude (not my fault they are working there) and in this particular location having some scary clientle. The ambiance in tis place is rowdy and dirty and the tables were sticky and the place is a mess. The menu is a scattered collection of terrible Itialian dishes tasting like bad cafeteria food and serving up some outrageous huge portions at mid range prices. In the end you feel like you just ate canned spaghetti with no flavor meat sauce. Skip this bad chain, I am quite sure they are all the same. I won’t step back into one of these ever again!

If im not at the Vinny T’s in Boston, I’m at the Vinny T’s in Danvers. Same great food, good service (I think the Boston one has better service) never the less, GREAT PASTA. Large portions as always, enough food to put you in asleep after you’re done eating.

i’m more of a non-​chain fan, but i’ve consistently had great food and drinks at vinny t’s, at more than just this location. i know this isn’t some «authentic little italian place», but i think this is as close to proper italian cooking that you’re ever going to get, especially in a mall or a chain. very excellent.
the beers are always super cold and come in large sizes. i swear the best sam adams summer ale i’ve had came from vinny t’s. the sangria is great, too.
the bread is phenomenal. i’m a sucker for roasted garlic. come kiss me, you’ll see. the salads are delicious. the salad menu at lunch differs from that of the dinner menu, but both have great options. i was sort of bummed on a sunday afternoon that i could only pick from the dinner salads, as they have this great salad with angel hair pasta and a ton of rad vegetables and lemon, but i ended up getting something super delicious anyway. the portions are large enough so that when you DO get a salad, you leave stuffed.
the antipasto plates are good. the pasta is great. i’ve thoroughly enjoyed the pizza. the chicken piccata is unreal. the warm tomato salad is so hardcore flavorful that it was almost too much by the end. the menu is very consistent and very delicious. i have vegetarian friends that are in love with this place, so even though there’s a lot of meat on the menu, it’s a very universal restaurant. oh, and the dessert is FANTASTIC.
my only complaint is that, anytime i sit away from the section with all the windows during the day, my service seems to not be great. at the bar i get great service with lots of suggestions. in the windows section i always have someone super friendly and properly attentive. in the more dining-​related area, i tend to get lackluster, inattentive service and tend to not be as comfortable. this is probably just coincidental, as it’s happened any time i’ve gone during a lunch time, but it’s odd that it’s happened more than once.
conversely, i’ve had AMAZING service in the non-​windows area on a saturday night. the waiter we had was out of control wonderful, catered to us fantastically, was super friendly and fun, had an amazing sense of humor, and even helped my boyfriend get a side order of stuffed peppers even though they weren’t on the menu. i wish i knew his name. such a great experience.
all in all, i am thoroughly pleased with vinny t’s. it’s great for groups, families, or even dates.

I can’t believe I have to admit this, but I’m a mall Italian restaurant fan. I really like Vinny T’s. More than anything, I like the tiramisu and the penne a la vodka. Add in the bread, and it’s all good. The warm tomato salad is A+ too.
I don’t care about the huge portions, I’m won over by the consistently tasty dishes.

I give five stars to their Sangria and their Gargenzola Apple Salad.

I’m not Amanda’s BFF. or even F. She’s not my brother’s girlfriend. I’m not related to her or anything. But seriously? She’s the best waitress. EVER. Forget Vinny T’s for a sec (the portions are huge. blah blah blah. let’s focus on the service).
Ask for Amanda* (well this was actually a few months ago so I don’t know if she’s still there). She has the greatest knack for timing. After finishing off the awesome onion bread, my stomach made that «that was good but it’s not enough» noise and just then Amanda came over with my chicken parm. She sensed that I was one of those adults that needed a bib despite my attempt to keep clean and she placed several napkins on the table. In the middle of the meal, I remember looking at my water glass after taking a huge gulp thinking. «Wow. maybe that gulp should have been smaller to correctly proportionalize (yeah I said it) the time it would take a waiter to come and fill my glass with water and the amount of bites that would need a beverage before then». Anyway, before I could finish the thought. she was there. Basically. we never asked for anything. she just knew. She. Just. Knew.
Just saying. I really want to do the toast at her employee of the month ceremony. Does Vinny T’s have that? Is that weird?

First off, I have and I will judge a place on the quality of the bread they serve. Here, it’s a delicious onion bread served with a roasted whole garlic head. DIVINE. I could eat it all by myself, I swear.
Secondly, everything there I’ve had has been very good – and I love the fact that I can order a half-​house-​salad for 4 bucks and still be filled. Their normal chicken salad was really, really good as well, and that served me for another meal. I’m not a fan of their fried mozzarella, but other than that… it’s all good. Plus, it’s not too pricey for the quality you’re getting, and even when our party stayed wicked late one night (read: pregnant cleaning people around who probably should not have been inhaling chemicals) no one so much as looked menacingly in our general direction. Push your way through the loitering teens outside the door, and it’s a good time.

I have had good experiences at the Boston location but not at the Lexington and Danvers locations. First, the salads are not worth ordering as the dressings have no flavor. At the time I went to the Lexington location, I was given a choice of Caesar or Creamy Italian dressing. I chose the latter. It tasted like watered down sour cream. So then I asked for another salad with the Caesar dressing — I couldn’t tell the difference.
I have had good experiences with the veal and eggplant parmesans though in Boston.
So recently I went to the Danvers location. The sausages and meatballs were very mild and the red sauce was too sweet. The calamari was Rhode Island style (yum!), but the breading was crusted on thick making it very greasy. What made it worse was the butter sauce that was put on top. Seriously, after something is deep fried, does it really need butter? I wll give it a plus for friendly service and especially that the complimentary focaccia is served with a whole roasted garlic to spread.

If I was rating on food alone, I would probably give Vinny T’s four stars for a dish I really like, the scrod limone. However, we had amazing service last night. Here’s what happened: My parents told me that I was on my own for dinner. Realizing I had a $ 10 off coupon and being the poor person that I am, I was like «Hey, I’ll get take out from Vinny’s». As I pull into the parking lot, I notice a car that’s similar to my dad’s ahead of me. So I follow it, get close enough to realize it was Daddy’s vehicle and park beside it. Turns out, the parental units were on their way to Vinny’s also and now wanted my company. Never one to turn down free food, I accepted. I told the hostess the story & asked if I could just eat my food with them. She said of course, but then came to the table a few minutes later to tell me that they had decided to start my meal over so it would get cold/​dried out (I had fish). How nice was that? We were really impressed. Good job, Vinny’s!