Published August 10, 2022

After exploring The North End, we stopped by Faneuil Hall Marketplace for smoothies. While the market had many food-court style options, I wanted an indoor sit-down lunch. We decided to go back up to Hanover Street and explore the Italian restaurants in the North End.

Most restaurants framed their menu outside the entrance of the restaurant, which was helpful to decide where to eat. Since it was mid-afternoon, the outdoor patios were filled with customers seeking relief from the summer sun.

My breakfast from Tatte Bakery & Cafe burned off a while ago with all of our walking. I thought our best option was to share a light appetizer and have pasta for lunch. After reading many menus to make our decision, we eventually settled on Al Dente Ristorante.

Al Dente Ristorante | Interior

The outdoor patio for Al Dente was packed. We wanted to cool off in the AC, so we opted to eat inside.

The restaurant’s interior felt warm and cozy. Warm orange lights hung from a decorative ceiling. The walls and chairs were brown and dark wood. The stone table tops were already set with cloth napkins, silverware, and drinking glasses.

Al Dente Menu

We sat at a two-top table against the right-hand wall. A waitress brought us menus and ice water.

The front of the laminated menu listed the recognition Al Dente had received from publications. I felt like this was a positive sign that we chose a good spot for lunch.

A teenage daughter with her parents ate in silence to our left as they played on their phones. An older couple sat at the two-top table behind us. An elderly waitress went back and forth between the kitchen and outdoor patios. It wasn’t long before our appetizer arrived.

Appetizer

Shrimp Grand Marnier | $16.95

Ironically, we ordered the first item on the menu for our appetizer. Since it was so hot outside, we wanted an appetizer that was light and refreshing.

We ordered the Shrimp Grand Marnier, which is something I have never had nor heard of before. A narrow plate of four battered shrimp arrived, bathed in a syrupy style glaze. We each took two shrimp, which were fairly large due to the battered exterior.

The shrimp were divine. The batter was light and reminded me of the airy taste of tempura. The batter was not eggy (thank god), which was my concern when I saw the texture.

The shrimp themselves were tender and meaty. They were cooked perfectly. The star of the dish was the orange liqueur glaze. It was bright and refreshing. I don’t think I’ve ever had an orange-glaze sauce with shrimp before. This seemed like a natural pairing that I couldn’t believe I’ve never had it before.

This appetizer was easily a 10/10. We ate the whole appetizer and used our bread basket to dip up the rest of the orange liqueur glaze.

Lunch Entree

For a restaurant named “Al Dente” I knew I would order pasta for lunch. Plus, we still planned to have an early dinner, so I didn’t want to fill up too much on lunch. We both decided to select a pasta dish.

Pesto Fusilli | $23.00

Al Dente had a large selection of pasta dishes. You selected your sauce and then the type of pasta you wanted.

I knew right away that I would get the pesto sauce. Normally, my go-to pasta is angel hair. Al Dente offered penne, linguine, fettuccine and fresh pasta like gnocchi, fusilli, tortellini, ravioli, or rigatoni. I wanted to try the fresh pasta, so I selected fusilli.

I expected my pasta to have more of the spiral fusilli shape to better hold onto the sauce. In either case, this pasta was fresh and tasty and arrived in a large bowl. Our waitress grated fresh parmesan cheese on top of our dishes, which I loved.

My pesto sauce was tasty, but a little thinner than I expected it to be. I added some extra salt and pepper to my dish.

I prefer my pasta dishes to be saucy, so I didn’t mind the ratio of sauce to pasta. I actually dipped the leftover bread from the bread basket into my pesto sauce, so it worked out well.

Linguine Primavera | $20.95

My boyfriend also had a large portion of pasta loaded with veggies. His linguine primavera came with squash, broccoli, mushrooms, peppers, and more.

My boyfriend enjoyed his dish and said the primavera sauce was good for a light summertime dish.

While I was curious about Al Dente’s desserts, I knew we weren’t too far from a famous North End bakery, so we decided to pay for our meal and go elsewhere for dessert.

My Recommendations

I would give our visit to Al Dente Ristorante a 7/10 for the following:

• Decor and Design

  • Al Dente Ristorante was a warm and cozy Italian restaurant. The decor and branding was casual Italian with warm hardwood paneling, brick, wine bottles, and big front windows. Al Dente offers a variety of classic Italian dishes, a good wine selection, with large portions at fair prices, which is great for large groups. By the time we paid for our check, two tables of 10+ people took over the dining room.

• Service

  • Our waitress was personable and friendly. She kept our drinks filled, shared conversation about our lunch selections, and was overall pleasant, even when the restaurant became busy with larger tables. The waitresses working the outside patio hustled back and forth between the kitchen and also supported the set up of the interior tables for the large parties.

• Food

  • By far, the shrimp appetizer is what made our meal at Al Dente impressive. My pasta dish was large and filling, and my boyfriend’s pasta entree was perfect for summer. I wish we could’ve tried Al Dente again, especially to see their desserts or specials, but overall we had a great lunch.

Dessert

Down the road at the intersection of Salem Street and Prince Street sat Bova’s Bakery. Bova’s is a 24-hour bakery — which I thought was amazing — and well-known in the North End. I was excited to visit it.

Bova’s is across the street from this beautiful, flatiron style building

Bova’s sat across the street in a curved storefront next to Monica’s Mercato. Both storefronts were beautifully decorated and busy with customers.

We entered Bova’s and squeezed past a line of people checking out nearest the doorway. The longest pastry case was to the left. Iron racks of packaged cookies stacked to the right nearest the front window. Closest to that was a display of cookies and biscotti.

Some customers came into the bakery just to take pictures in front of the pastry case, which I thought was a bit odd. A mother and her two young sons did this before leaving, not ordering anything.

I knew if I was going to try any dessert in the North End, it was going to be a cannoli. Bova’s had rows of flavors and shells. Luckily there was no one behind us, so I browsed the flavors, debating what I wanted to try.

A churro flavored and tiramisu cannoli caught my eye, but in the end, I went with a traditional plain cannoli. It was $5.00 (if I remember correctly), and the lone man behind the counter packaged it in a sleeve for me to go.

You know I had to take a picture of the cannoli in front of the store’s sign.

The cannoli was a standard size with glorious fresh filling. The shell was softer than I would’ve preferred, but since Bova’s probably experiences a high volume of tourists during the day, it wouldn’t be possible to fill them to order in order to keep the shell crunchy.

My boyfriend was full from lunch, so I had the cannoli all to myself. It was delicious. I loved the fresh and creamy cannoli filling. I personally prefer the filling without chocolate chips, so this was the perfect treat to have for dessert.

If our accommodations were closer to Bova’s I would definitely pop in there for breakfast and dessert throughout our stay in Boston. I highly recommend you stop in to visit if you’re exploring the North End.

What’s Your Favorite North End Restaurant?

Have you been to Al Dente or Bova’s before? Do you have a favorite restaurant or bakery in the North End? Leave a comment below and tell me about it!

In the meantime, stay tuned for my dinner review of our first full day in Boston!