Paolo’s Trattoria

Very rude hostess. I ordered pickup and was given the wrong food. When I called after getting home for a refund she, nor the manager could take the time to discuss the issue. After promising a call back, which I never received, I called again and was told they were too busy. She was bothered we were even having the conversation.
I was finally told I would get a credit.
This was the second time I received the wrong food at this restaurant.
Additionally, there were bones in the chicken that were not visible, creating a choking hazard.

Wow.
It’s been a while since a dining establishment really punched me in the face with big terrific flavours.
This quite frankly was one of the best meals I’ve had this year.
They don’t have a huge selection on the menu, but what they do, they do very well indeed.
The restaurant itself is clean, quaint and classy without going over the top.
It has a very warm, inviting character. It’s a perfect place for either dinner with the family or a date night. It’s located on the main drag in Charlestown, so one should anticipate some parking challenges.
For entrée’s we had the spinach salad, Veal Milanese and Tagliatelle alla Bolognese.
All three were very tasty. The spinach salad was dressed just right and great flavour.
The pancetta and blue cheese really pushed it over the top. The veal was served with
roasted eggplant and a cream risotto. It was best piece of veal that I ever had;
flavourful with a nice crispy finish. The tagliatella was cooked perfectly with
a terrific meat sauce. Wow.
The service was terrific. Our waitress was warm, knowledgeable and quite
frankly really nice. The kitchen was definitely firing on all cylinders
as our meals came out very quickly.
I honestly can’t think of a week point or a negative thing to say about Paolo’s.
I’m going with a 4 on the rating, but it really is a very high 4.
(I’m really trying to save my 5’s)
Thank you sir, may I have another?
I will be back.

So, I guess I was expecting more than I should have and what I saw on previous Reviews. I gave 3 stars mostly for the atmosphere and some friendly staff but def NOT the food.
We received complimentary bread and olive oil, it wasn’t really flavored at all. The bread was cold but soft and tasted good, nothing special. We started out with the regular salad with a balsamic vinaigrette, it was a pretty good size, def enough for 2 people to share. I ordered the veal Milanese and my friend ordered the chicken broccoli ziti, they were both BLAND, really really bland. We both asked for parm cheese, salt, pepper and chili flakes to HELP our dishes get some Flavor. Once we added all of the spices it went from a 2 to a 3.
All in all, probably wouldn’t return. I was hopeful but it just didn’t make the cut.

A friendly neighborhood spot serving tasty Italian. Paolo’s is priced right and always friendly.

After a long day of errands, my boyfriend and I decided to order delivery for dinner. We live about an 8 minute walk from Paolos (embarrassingly enough, we should have picked it up) and we ordered the penne con pollo. 10 minutes later we have a piping hot delicious dish at our doorstep. TEN MINUTES! We were so overjoyed. The dish was awesome.
I’ve also been there to eat a few times and the ambiance is unbeatable. Such a romantic little quiet spot amidst the hustle and bustle of Main Street.
The Malbec is great, the pour is heavy too!
The bolognese pizza is as amazing as everyone says. Such a strange but tasty combo — I’ve gotten it twice!
The chicken broccoli penne is a solid choice if you want a safe option.
This has definitely become our favorite spot when we feel like staying local

Last night, myself and two of my friends dined at Paolo’s. While we often get delivery from Paolo’s (which, has the quickest delivery time in Charlestown!), dining in the restaurant is less frequent. I have always had great delivery experiences and last night just reminded us all of how lucky we are to have Paolo’s in Charlestown.
The restaurant was extremely busy, and our server, Lauren, handled the stress, heat, and customers with the highest level of professionalism at all times. We were so impressed with Lauren’s demeanor throughout our meal. Of course, we know she had support from the bartender and the kitchen staff were working incredibly hard to deliver quality meals under similar circumstances as well, but Lauren had to deal with all customers (and, from what I could tell, all customers were satisfied). I have never seen a server run around so much to ensure that all of her tables (in this case, the entire restaurant) got their meals in acceptable times, as well as continuing to provide exceptional service once the meals were delivered. Paolo’s was definitely short staffed on this hot, summer night but they handled it amazingly and, as always, provided delicious food as well.
We had a great experience and are so grateful to have such a great establishment in our neighborhood. A huge thank you to Lauren and everyone else who was working last night! We will definitely be back.

Awesome food awesome waitress fair price thank you Megan

Sneaky good value. A slight tick below North End taste but a way cheaper and without the hassle.

Cute and intimate Italian restaurant in Charlestown. I’ve dined-​in and done take-​out and enjoy their food and service. They also deliver to anywhere in Charlestown!

True brick oven pizza. Crust was outstanding as well as the caramelized onions. Staff was very attentive and the owner was extremely personable.
Definitely will return sometime soon to try the entrees.

Went again with my family.
Started with a fig mixed greens salad — great salad. They have a fig dressing, which is incredible.
Then I had the chicken bana stana, recommended by the waitress. Had chicken, mozzarella cheese, prosciutto, mushrooms, with small squares of sweet potatoes on the side. Overall, it was okay. Reheated it the next day and the chicken was quite rubbery — suggesting low quality. Sweet potatoes seemed a bit ripe, not that great.
We had a few bottles of wine, that were good.
I tried a piece of my sister’s Gina pizza — quite tasty. I’ve heard the pizzas are quite good — I’m definitely going to try one next time.
Waitress was great — always like the staff

Their pizza is amazing!!! The eggplant on top was thin and GRILLED-​Thank you for not breading! All our food came out hot and everyone loved their food. Reasonable prices for the portion and quality of food. It is small inside so it might take some accommodating if you’re coming with a large group. I would deff come again.

Having lived in Charlestown for many years, and having visited Paulo’s many times…
The food is always excellent and the wine choices are pretty decent. However, after the recent remodel, the ambiance feels colder and too modern. Part of why we liked going to Paulo’s is because of the warm, cozy, romantic feel it provided. Try and bring some of that back if you can! The neighborhood «mom and pop» thing is such a big part of the appeal. :-)

When you order delivery and they don’t bring you plastic-​ware and you are staying in a hotel? Fail. Glad I didn’t order soup. But the pizza wasn’t bad and the dessert, well, it sat there waiting for a spoon.

Went to this place to try some Charlestown eats on groupon… The service was pretty good… I wish the food was better. Will not be coming back as the food is below average, and I don’t live close by enough to go out of the way for this one…

I am an Italian from New York and have lived in MA /​Boston for the last 17 years. Bottom line, it know good Italian food especially pizza. I give this restaurant five stars. I definitely recommend the
Gina Pizza… Phenomenal.

Came here for the first time and was very disappointed. I wanted to like it so badly, The restaurant itself had a charm to it, the dim lighting was cozy, and waitstaff was incredibly nice.
Unfortunately, the food was not up to par. The bread and olive oil we started off with was bland and dry, there was no flavor in the oil, despite there being some sort of black pepper and salt in it. We ordered the garlic bread and meatballs, which was the same bread we were given in the beginning, so no need to comment there. Meatballs were average, covered in a tomato sauce that resembled canned tomatoes. Then came the entrees, scallops risotto and lobster ravioli. I have to say, the best part of the meal were the scallops, they were a decent size and cooked very well. Sadly, it goes downhill from there, the risotto was undercooked and had a grainy texture. The raviolis had a mushy lobster filling, but the redeeming factor were the larger pieces of lobster in the sauce, but the sauce itself was not that great either.
All in all, friendly waitstaff, not so great food, maybe one day I’ll give their pizzas a try, or just grab a drink at their bar. I’m sorry Paolo’s, but you’ve let me down.

Paolo’s has the feel of a fancy place; a nice, dimly candle-​lit storefront space looking out on a busy street. And sure enough, there are plenty of couples out for a Nice Dinner. But at the same time, there’s friends out for a post-​work drink and food, families out with kids… and me and the girl taking her little sister (in the big brother/​big sister sense) out to dinner after a soccer game (lost, barely got to play, lame). There was bread and olive oil, which was good, and i thought the pizza was very tasty, too. Decent toppings, good, light sauce, your typical solid New England-​y wood-​fired crust. We ordered too much, and i was tempted to keep going, because, you know, pizza.
Better still, though to send the kid home with a box of some darn good leftovers.

I am shocked (and quite frankly, appalled) that Paolo’s has such a high rating. Based on the rating, I expected great things. Based on the prices, I expected even greater things. I was met with neither.
The Penne Con Pollo did indeed have medallions of chicken with asparagus, mushrooms, sweet onions, sun-​dried tomatoes, pesto cream sauce, penne pasta; however, those items should be listed in reverse order because it was almost entirely flavorless penne and very, very little of everything else. I am almost positive they cooked none of it themselves and just dumped it all together.
The Melanzana pizza was a huge disappointment. The dough was likely store bought frozen mozzarella pizza and then just tossed some eggplant and ricotta on. Possibly the worst pizza I’ve had in a really long time.
There are two things to come to Paolo’s for if you truly insist. The service was friendly and great. And the bread. Whatever store they buy their bread from (because they sure don’t seem to make anything themselves) is doing a good job with their bread.

I was surprised and disappointed with Paolo’s. I see that there are many great reviews on Unilocal and other sites. However I can’t recommend it. The only reason I didn’t rate it lower was because the service was very good.
However when entering the dining area and seeing (as a result of the sunlight) that every glass on every table has soap residue, I am already wary. We were seated at a lovely table. However there is clearly a problem with flies that has not been resolved. Throughout our meal, flies were swirling around us with one landing in my husband’s water glass. My husband’s knife had green residue (maybe from a salad) on it. A bad start and we have not yet experienced the food.
The bread was incredibly disappointing. I can’t imagine it is made in the restaurant. Whatever the flavor was did not match up with the oil and spices provided with the bread. The food was mediocre at best. There was nothing notable about it. My husband commented that it may be that the food is from Cisco and doctored up in some way.
When I did ask for freshly grated parmesan cheese, I was given a dish with what appeared to be cheese from a Kraft container. Even at Bertucci’s a person can request and get freshly grated parmesan cheese.
Don’t make a special trip to Paolo’s. You can walk over the bridge to the North End and find better options.