Both Anna and Joe Nappi were born and bred in Italy, and they met in Boston's North End. They married, had a kid, and pursued the American Dream by creating a modest business that has since grown into a significant local success. Joe Nappi, who has worked as a butcher for most of his life, is able to pick only the finest meats for his particular creations, and Anna's handed down legendary recipes make for a culinary match made in heaven. Nappi's began as a butcher store and Italian market, gradually evolving into a sub and sandwich business. Nappi's opted to fully transform into a restaurant due to a shifting client base and increased demand for real home-cooked Italian cuisine.

Nappi's is well-known for its lack of a proper menu! Joe and Anna prepare their delectable and inventive meals using the freshest market meats, fish, poultry, veal, hog, and vegetables, resulting in a constantly changing menu with a number of constants. If all you've ever desired in life is to be welcomed into an Italian family's house and showered with food, you need to go to Nappi's as soon as possible. This Medford restaurant is known for having no menu and making excellent dishes based on your preferences and what they have on hand in the kitchen. This place is also BYOB and cash only, in keeping with its ultra-casual and cozy vibe.

Location: 370 Salem St, Medford, MA 02155

Website: www.nappirestaurant.com

Giulia, located between Porter and Harvard squares in Cambridge, first opened in late 2012 to high reviews for its superb pasta and kind friendliness. Chef-owner Michael Pagliarini and his wife Pamela Ralston pamper their guests with a warm welcome, friendly, professional service and killer pasta that are hand made by day on a custom-made table used to accommodate large groups at night.

The menu has lofty goals: to deliver authentic Italian cuisine with an emphasis on the ingredients, as many of which are sourced locally as possible. The basic, seasonal first dishes keep to the modest, elevated but authentic concept, each with a fillip to add intrigue (say, an orange-and-anchovy vinaigrette over grilled escarole and radicchio, $10, or thin, rich lardo draped above puffy, spongy small disks of warm semolina, $5). The sweets, which include creamy, fluffy handcrafted gelatos like hazelnut affogato with bits of chocolate shortbread and pistachio with cherry compote and pizzelle (both $6), reflect the same emotion.

Location: Lungotevere Dei Tebaldi 4/4A, Lungotevere dei Tebaldi 4 /4A - 00186 Rome

Website: www.giuliarestaurant.it

MIDA is an Italian-influenced neighborhood restaurant with a focus on wine and pleasant service in a relaxed atmosphere, and it is the first restaurant from brilliant up-and-comer Douglass Williams. Guests can expect a dining experience that highlights the highest quality ingredients through creativity, curiosity, and skill in the form of handmade pasta, bold, unique flavor combinations, and limitless passion and generosity at the South End spot, which is located at the corner of Mass Ave and Tremont Street.

MIDA's cuisine is built around a shared dining experience, rooted in Italian culinary heritage and seasoned by Chef Williams' vast travels. Every dish, from small appetizers (piccolo) to sweets (dolci), is built around four key culinary elements: charred, spicy, crunchy, and crispy. There are several handcrafted kinds of pasta to pick from, as well as family-style meals that are ideal for sharing.

While staying approachable and value-driven, the wine program aspires to introduce consumers to lesser-known world-class wineries. Northern Italian and French wines predominate, with a few Eastern European and local bottles thrown in for good measure. Three sparkling wines and four red and white wines are available by the glass, as well as a large range of Campari and 10 varieties of vermouth. The cocktails are focused yet inventive, and the beers are from Italy and New England, with six on tap and six available by the bottle. For underage visitors or abstainers, there are a variety of non-alcoholic beverages to choose from.

Location: 782 Tremont St, Boston, MA 02118

Website: www.midaboston.com

This laid-back neighborhood establishment, which has outlets in Needham and Waltham, is a must-visit for suburbanites. Sweet Basil's quirky design and a menu loaded with comforting yet elegant Italian-American staples, including sautéed eggplant parm and beef and sausage bolognese, are located on the outskirts of Boston. What's the nicest thing about this place? It's BYOB—just go to a liquor shop and pick up your favorite bottle of wine to pair with pasta before your reservation to avoid paying the astronomically high alcohol rates seen in most restaurants.

Sweet Basil is a great place to go for breakfast, brunch, lunch, or supper. The Zagat-rated restaurant serves inventive and expertly cooked cuisine crafted with the finest ingredients. All meats and dairy products are hormone-free and natural. The product is never frozen and is always fresh. There are always vegetarian choices available. You should allow yourself a cup of organic coffee for breakfast or after your meal. Catering services are accessible both on-site and off-site. Bridal/baby showers, birthdays, rehearsal dinners, anniversaries, baptisms, Christenings, communions, and other private gatherings are all welcome at Sweet Basil.

Location: 942 Great Plain Ave, Needham, MA 02492

Website: https://www.sweetbasilneedham.com

If you're looking for a fantastic Italian restaurant in Boston, you've come to the right place. Then you really must visit Coppa! This aperitivo-style restaurant in the South End serves nibbles, antipasti, pasta, pizzas, and a variety of cheeses.

All of Coppa Boston's meals are made with locally sourced, sustainable ingredients. Consider an excellent wine list and a few delectable cocktails, and you're sure to have a fantastic time! During the winter, you may relax in a warm dining area while your wood oven cooks excellent pizzas or grilled meats. During the summer, a small patio is available for seating. The custom of topping everything from pasta to pizzas with a farm-fresh egg was started by owners Ken Oringer and Jamie Bissonnette, both James Beard Award-winning chefs. The experience is enhanced with Italian-only wines and specialty beers, as well as knowledgeable staff.

Location: 253 Shawmut Ave, Boston, MA 02118

Website: www.coppaboston.com

Bar Mezzana is the type of ground-floor restaurant that every condo developer dreams of having as a sales tool—a venue that can genuinely increase property values while also serving the surrounding community and the entire city. It offers a bar with appetizers that are filling enough to create a meal for a reasonable price, generously portioned entrées and a dining area that seems safe, energetic, and open to people of all ages (if not many income levels). It's also assisting in the definition of a neighborhood that's just getting started: the enormous Ink Block development between Chinatown and the South End, which was mostly conceived by developers.

Bar Mezzana is gold-plated in ways other than real estate. He's blending Menton's skill and immaculate presentation with rustic Italian food that he appears to have intuitively comprehended, much as Barbara Lynch did at Galleria Italiana and subsequently No. 9. Desserts are mostly gelato-based and minimal, but pastry chef Christina Larson makes a beautifully crisp crostata dough, a cross between pie crust and shortbread—with crunchy sugar on top. It’s so good you won’t really care what the featured fruit is ($10).

Location: 360 Harrison Ave, Boston, MA 02118

Website: www.barmezzana.com

Pammy's provides a great dining experience unlike any other in the area, thanks to its unique New American cuisine. The newly restored restaurant boasts an excellent tiled fireplace, handcrafted leather banquettes, and hand-painted murals, among other design elements. Pammy's is an example of a successful collaboration between the architect, interior designer, builder, and client.

The amber glow of its globe lights and double-sided fireplace give this chic trattoria, located between Central and Harvard Squares, a slightly vintage atmosphere. The internationally-minded menu makes extensive use of Asian ingredients, frequently incorporating them into Italian preparations to produce brilliantly delicious fusion cuisine. At the classic communal table, savor handmade pasta such as the lumache with bolognese and gojuchang, and strike up a discussion with your eating companions. Their draft aperitivi, as well as its sultry cocktails, are not to be missed.

Location: 928 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139

Website: www.pammyscambridge.com

This is one of Boston's top pizza joints, and you should come here for that reason. The wood-fired Neapolitan pies have a delicious, chewy dough with just a hint of sear. Although there isn't much area inside the restaurant to enjoy them, they do have a side terrace that they try to make livable year-round with plastic tarps and space heaters.

Giant, thin slices of excellent soppressata (essentially one piece fills a whole slice), large garlic confit cloves, and lots of mozzarellas make up the Sopressata Pizza. Once you're done, your breath will kill vampires, but it'll be well worth it. With thinly sliced potatoes, bacon, mozzarella, and a soft egg, their new Uovo Pizza is essentially a Breakfast pizza. This is how you should start your day, far better than a McDonald's or Dunkin Donuts breakfast sandwich.

Location: 59 Williams St, Chelsea, MA 02150

Website: www.ciaopizzaandpasta.com

Getting a table at Contessa is one of the most difficult challenges in town. Contessa is a glittering rooftop destination at the Newbury Hotel, and it's the first Boston restaurant from NYC-based Major Food Group, whose portfolio includes Michelin-starred restaurants all around the world. The big buzz and stunning views through walls of windows may lure you in, but the fantastic and fine-tuned contemporary Italian cuisine—spicy lobster capellini, fancified pizzas (perhaps topped with littleneck clams or black truffle), and a signature Florentine-style steak for two—will keep you coming back. That is if you can get one of the sweltering seats.

Every day from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m., Contessa is open for dinner and bar service. Breakfast (croissants, panettone French toast, frittatas, etc.) will be available soon, as well as brunch and lunch.

Location: 3 Newbury St, Boston, MA 02116

Website: https://contessatrattoria.com

You're already familiar with the procedure: Eataly Boston will open at 4 p.m. on November 29 in Boston's Prudential Center (800 Boylston St.). It's a three-story Italian food playground that's part of a growing worldwide chain that started in Turin, Italy, about a decade ago. Retail, grab-and-go, casual eating, full-service dining, culinary workshops, and more options are available. You are welcome (and encouraged) to stroll around with a glass of wine in your hand.

Eataly's leadership team, which includes founder Oscar Farinetti, CEO Nicola Farinetti (Oscar's daughter), and partners Adam Saper, Alex Saper, Joe Bastianich, Lidia Bastianich, and Mario Batali, is certain that Eataly Boston will not be a carbon copy of Eataly New York or any other Eataly. It's packed with locally produced vegetables, dairy, and other items, and the layout is unlike anything you've seen before.

Eataly Boston is devoted to a theme that runs throughout the marketplace, and it is a celebration of the sea and New England's fisheries. The remarkable three-story space's architecture and layout are incredibly well-executed, with four separate restaurants in the centre of the main floor, surrounded by various Italian markets with great cheeses, wines, meats, seafood, olive oils, and, of course, plenty of pasta.

Location: 800 Boylston St, Boston, MA 02199

Website: https://www.eataly.com/us_en/stores/boston