Arcenia’s Cucina Rustica

One of the best meals we’ve had in a long time. The food was incredible. We started with the fried calamari. It was fresh, lightly battered with just the right amount of spice & a light marinara sauce I had the Chicken Francese w/​homemade fusilli — very tender, incredible flavor. My husband had the Chicken Marsala w/​the same pasta & he thoroughly enjoyed it. They have a nice wine selection & the dessert was amazing. At the recommendation of Tony we tries the panna cotta and the cannoli, both made by his wife & served w/​fresh berries. A wonderful addition to Woburn Center & we can’t wait to go back!

Amazing Italian restaurant run by a very nice family. Looking forward to coming back!

This gem of a restaurant has become one of our favorite places to eat. You cant help but love the owners, Tony and Arcenia, and their son, Sabino, who bend over backwards to make sure you are well taken care of and very well fed! We love the pizza, Chicken Valdostano, Fettucine Bolognese, Chicken Limone, the meatballs, arancini, fried calamari, Chicken Marsala… I could go on and on. We even had a private family Christmas party here and there was not one complaint in the house!!! That’s a small miracle! Don’t hesitate. Just go. You’ll be very happy you did.

This restaurant really needs separate reviews — one for service and reliability and another for the food. The bad news first — if you have after dinner plans, this is not the place for you. We had a Saturday night reservation for 7:45 and arrived a few minutes early. We were greeted effusively by the owner — complete with hugs — and he then asked us to go to the bar as all the tables were full. It’s a very small restaurant; clearly we would not be seated anytime soon. Actually, that’s an understatement; we were not seated until 9:45! They kept apologizing and ultimately comped us with a glass of wine, a caprese appetizer and a cannoli dessert. Kudos for their compensation, we appreciated it, but for me it just doesn’t make up for a 2 hour wait. After being seated at 9:45, we did not receive dinner until 10:20. The young son who waited on us was a sweetheart, but all the apologies in the world don’t compensate for such extraordinary delays. I had been there once before on a weeknight with friends from work, and had no such problem, so this was a shock. The food is quite good and the prices are reasonable, but it’s certainly not worth a ²¹⁄₂ hour wait. Forgive the pun — this experience left a bad taste in my mouth. It gets three stars only for the food and no stars for the poor management. So here’s my advice — go early in the week and you’ll be fine, but never, never, never go on a Saturday.

My husband and I stopped here for the first time tonight and I suspect that we shall be back quite often! Our entrees were sizeable portions, tasty, and had really good homemade pasta. The panacotta made for a well balanced finish to our meal, moist and delightfully wobbly. Service was great too!

Really amazing place to eat. Typical friendly Italian family restaurant feel. Delicious food. Very warm host and servers. Genuinely interested in serving the best food.
Had the lobster ravioli for dinner. Absolutely splendid.
Highly recommend the Pannacotta. A must try place.
Bring your family here for some nice good and good times.

Went to dinner on a Friday night. Food and service were excellent. I will definitely go back again.

I found this restaurant through Open Table. They were able to take a reservation for our large group of 8 on a Friday night, just two days before. Although the service was slow (they did not take our food orders for about 45 minutes), the food was fantastic! The chicken limoncello was truly one of the best meals I have ever had! Everyone enjoyed their food and practically licked their plates. Thank you for a great meal!

It all started out with a rumble in our tummies and a trip to Woburn center. We went with our options open and our eyes peeled for a place that would satisfy our hunger. That’s where we went wrong.
Since it was Saturday night things were busy, no big deal — we were fine to wait a bit. However, a three hour sub-​optimal dining experience was not, as it turns out, worth the wait. The restaurant was busy and short staffed. We were told it just the father and son working, but after hearing the story a few times it started to sound like a daily line the restaurant feeds people instead of a rare excuse.
We sat for a full hour with empty beers and water glasses without as much as a fly by stop in by a waiter to see if we were okay or needed another drink. They did, to their credit, bring a complementary tomato mozz appetizer, but really a fresh beer or glass of water would have been nice. A flaw to this nice deed was they served the appetizer with the tomato sticker still on the tomato, which, not going to lie is a little off putting. The bread basket was good when you were able to find the rare, non-​charred piece of bread.
After about 2 hours at the restaurant the appetizer we ordered arrived. The fried artichoke was good, but it wasn’t fried really. For entrees we ordered a basic pizza and 2 orders of pollo a la vodka. About four seconds after the artichoke arrived, the pizza arrived and the owner tried to force feed it to all of us while we waited for our two pasta dishes. Eventually the pasta came out, but they were clearly two different dishes — one sauce was watery pink and the other was a thicker red sauce. The thicker red sauce was kind of offensive to your tongue and was described as something that tasted of the earth (aka dirt). The pink sauce was kind garlic water. We also came to the conclusion that our pasta was cooked in artichoke water because there was a weird lingering artichoke taste in both dishes that clashed with the mystery sauces… but clearly the overcooked noodles had fully absorbed the flavor of the artichoke.
The restaurant offered no apology for the service, never checked in and the food just wasn’t good. We kind of thought that they would take something off the bill, but that didn’t happen.
All in all, it’s a good thing we all have a sense of humor and laughed at the absurd dining experience we had. Needless to say, we won’t be returning.

Sorry, that arancini was pretty awful. And the service was slow. Great location though.

We came here based on a Unilocal review for our anniversary dinner. Little did we know that this would be some of the best homemade Italian food we would ever have. The homemade pasta was incredible, the bruschetta was to die for, and the service was spectacular. If you’re looking for a family-​owned Italian restaurant, I would HIGHLY recommend it. Five stars, hands down.

AHHHH!!! Sabino was the best waiter ever! He took the time to remember all of our names (36 of us). Our large family love love loved this place and will hopefully have the man power to get the whole family back for another go around.
Thanks Sabino and family!!!
Ciao!

I feel bad cause its a mom & pop place and they’re cute and nice but it’s too expensive for the food quality. I would pay $ 12 – 14 for a pasta dish here but the average is probably $ 19 – 20 and is not high enough quality to justify that.
They have the fake Parmesan powder stuff and the bread doesn’t come with olive oil. The bread was called Focaccia but I’m pretty sure it was pizza dough with no toppings (it was decent though). All this would be fine if it was only $ 12 – 14 a plate.
I think if you go between 4−6pm all dishes are $ 12 (which is kind of suspect to me.) It’s probably the way to go but I don’t want to have to go to dinner that early.
Maybe if they didn’t pay for all of these fake 5 star Unilocal reviews they could charge less for their pasta.

Dinner was absolutely wonderful! The wait was a little long for our food, however the staff took care of us and communicated the wait ahead of time. They felt so bad they even gave us a free appetizer for the wait. Great food, service and wine! We will be back!

Went here with my family last night, though we’ve been many times before because we love it so much! The food is amazing (though I will admit, it takes a little longer to get than most places) but everything is super fresh and portioned out correctly, which I like because it can be so easy to overeat when dining out. They used to be BYOB, but they now have wine and beer too.
The husband and two sons run the front of the house, and the wife does all the cooking. They are hardcore Italian too, so you know you’re getting the real deal and not just microwaved frozen crap. They make you feel at home when you are there, chatting you up and making sure everything is awesome.
I recommend this place to anyone who likes awesome food at great prices.

Food was amazing, chicken parm and chicken piccata was sooo yummy!!! Great atmosphere, warm fresh focaccia bread they give when your seated is amazing. Highly recommend this place for good Italian food

My husband and I tried this restaurant last night with our son and a friend. My son is gluten intolerant and his friend is allergic to tree nuts and peanuts. The restaurant was not crowded however this did not deter us with it being a Tuesday night in the middle the summer in a suburb. The service was attentive and accommodating. No allergen issues at all. And most importantly the food was really good!
They were very accommodating and spot on with special requests such as substituting pasta for steamed broccoli or the limon chicken sauce gluten free with no mushrooms or capers. We love supporting small family businesses and food that is fresh and tasty makes that goal much easier! We will definitely be back!

My wife and I had dinner here this evening and we will most certainly be back. The personal connection we felt with Tony set the tone for a fine evening. The food was quite special. I had the scampi, which was perfectly seasoned and presented. My wife had the Chicken Valdostano, which she said was delicate and satisfying. The amount of food was ideal, the foccaccia was a treat, and we felt completely relaxed and at ease throughout the meal.

My husband & I dined here last night. This was our first visit. Apparently they just joined Opentable and that’s how I found this restaurant. So glad they did because we would never have known this hidden gem. What a wonderful place this is! We love the fact that the whole family was there. Tony, the owner, greeted us and spent time with us before we left. His wife was hidden in the kitchen cooking delicious meals one after another. His eldest son, Sabino, was the most gracious and wonderful waiter.
The food… oh my God, what a real treat to have eaten here! Tony’s wife is truly the most amazing chef! We started by sharing their appetizer special which was baked mozzarella wrapped around prosciutto on top of long stemmed artichokes accompanied with Italian greens and balsamic vinaigrette. And for entrees, we both ordered Frutti Di Mare. Mine was in the white sauce and my husband had his in red sauce with a little spice to it. Our plates were covered in all kinds of seafood (good amount of lobster, large shrimps, mussels, clams, and calamari) and seasoned just perfectly. Instead of the linguine that came with it, we substituted ours with their in-​house fettuccine. Highly recommend doing that. Unlike most of the restaurants on Opentable, you will leave with a very full AND happy stomach. They also have a wine list and we had a bottle of really good Montepulciano.
We can’t wait to go back. Everything about this place is A++++! It is located in downtown Woburn and there is a huge, free parking lot across the street that is so convenient.

Was there 4 – 5 months ago and this place completely turned around. It’s not a «takeout food» place anymore. Their food was always good, but now they have a legit dinner menu that you would expect from a sit down restaurant. Great portions. The owners are true Italians and make you feel part of the family. and its BYOB. Dessert was great too. Will DEFINITELY go back. Very affordable.