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Ristorante Serena
- Nearest Transit:
-
Salem St @ Lebanon St (108, 411, 430)
Lebanon St @ Salem St (106)
Salem St @ Maplewood St (108, 411, 430)
- Hours:
Tue-Thu, Sun 4 pm - 9 pm
Fri-Sat 4 pm - 10 pm
- Attire:
- Casual
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Street, Private Lot
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Takes Reservations:
- Yes
- Delivery:
- No
- Take Away:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Wi-Fi:
- No
- Good For:
- Dinner
- Alcohol:
- Full Bar
- Noise Level:
- Average
- Ambience:
- Casual
- Has TV:
- Yes
- Caters:
- Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
17 reviews for Ristorante Serena
17 reviews in English
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Review from larry m.
Medford, MA
2/12/2012 1 Check-in Here
I finally made the trip over to Ristorante Serena for an early Valentine's Day dinner with the wife this past Saturday night. I read a lot of good things on Yelp and since it's only about 3 miles from my house I had to try it out. I will definitely become a regular here. The wait staff is extremely friendly and attentive. They all helped each other out when anyone else got too busy. Our wine and water glasses were never empty and they spaced out the courses perfectly.
Enough about the service....the food was excellent. I got the (creamy) mozzarella, tomato and prosciutto special. It was simple, delicious and the perfect way to start a meal.
For my main course, I got the Penne Montanara which is penne (big surprise!) in a vodka sauce with sausage, mushrooms, and cherry tomatoes. The sausage was perfectly cooked and the sauce was excellent. My wife got the carbonara had them substitute the pasta with their homemade fusilli. My wife is the queen of making menu changes and the waiter was more than willing to hook her up.
For dessert we split a homemade tiramisu. It was enormous! The coffee and filling were so fresh and it has a nice dusting of cocoa on top.
The wine list is pretty good for such a small place and very reasonably priced.
We made reservations for 6 o'clock (because we're getting old) and the place was hopping by 7 o'clock. When we left around 7:30 there was a small line forming.
This place is small and clearly a neighborhood gem so I highly recommend checking this out and making a reservation. -
Review from Tony R.
Dedham, MA
Updated - 5/11/2012
Yet another disastrous meal at Sarena . Took a friend there for dinner Thursday night and I was embarrassed on how bad the food was. Not sure what has happened to this place,but it's not good!!! The meat was dry, the wine had to go back,the apps tasted like they pull out of the frozen food section of stop and shop and through them in the microwave. The waiter was difficult to understand, so we needed to ask about special 3x times. Done with Sarena until it gets it act together. I've had dinner at Sarena 10x times over the few years it's been around and I remember how good it used to be.....it's too bad really.
2 Previous Reviews: Show all »
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12/2/2011
Inconsistent.....sometime s great, sometimes very disappointing. It would seem to me that some items… Read more »
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Review from Daniel R.
Revere, MA
2/28/2012
Great place. We went for my mother's birthday on a Sunday. We were seated very quickly and drinks were quickly on the table. I was overly full from a previous dinner, so I ordered Ravioli's. The sauce was great, and the ravioli were tasty. We also had the calamari, sausage brocolli rabbi and antipasto. Everything was great. Staff was friendly, tolerant of my 3 yr old nephew, and even gave us a complimentary lemoncello shot. Great time.
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Review from Julie G.
Boston, MA
1/30/2012
I love eating here! It's a small but brilliant little gem I never thought I could find in Malden. While agree that service may be a little on the slow side, I understand that is more of a slow-paced restaurant. The owner is the chef and works very hard to create the most beautiful and most delicious Italian dishes. This is authentic Italian, not Bertucci's "authentic Italian", but homemade with recipes passed down from family in Italy. I have always left satisfied. The price reflects the quality. Everything is fresh, only made once it has been ordered.
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Review from Brian S.
Malden, MA
Updated - 3/30/2012
The two things that held me back from giving 5 stars have been improved. Serena's has brought on a great new waiter who also is the pastry chef! We had an amazing panna cotta the other night that was made in-house.
1 Previous Review: Show all »
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2/9/2011
I love this place. I've eaten here maybe 20 times in the 3 years I've lived in Malden and the food… Read more »
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Review from Pearl T.
MMMM, Risotto Frutti di Mare! Chock-full of seafood in every single bite. Shrimp, mussels, clams, scallops, and calamari. The sauce was tomato-based, I think. The entire dish was heavenly! The bread was okay, not warmed, and nothing special. The atmosphere gets an A+, it was small, cozy, and dimly lit. I loved it. I really highly recommend the risotto, it was to die for! When it first came out it, it was steaming and I definitely burned my tongue with the first bite. Such a large portion. Worth every single penny!
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Review from Mark A.
Melrose, MA
9/8/2011
I read the reviews on here before going, and heeded the warnings to avoid weekends as the staff is ill-equipped to handle a full restaurant. I would have to say that regardless of the night, the staff isn't equipped to handle patrons...
My wife and I arrived on a Wednesday night just after 7pm. Only about 4 tables had patrons sitting at them. They had a table in the back corner, with a support beam extruding out to where the chair was. That table was one of the only ones needing to be cleared, and they decided to put us there. The most cramped table in the entire restaurant, when there were at least 8 other tables open. That set the mood for our evening.
Directly behind us there were 2 gentleman that were speaking Italian, rather loudly, the entire time. They liked to swear, one of the guys loudly dropped the f-bomb a couple times, in English. Well, apparently the table was important (maybe the owner, or a close friend of the owner). The chef came out to talk to them half a dozen times, and the waitress checked up on them regularly. Perhaps that's why our service was lacking... they were too focused on the table behind us?
After being seated, we looked over the menus and decided what we wanted. A woman came by to fill our water glasses, and I inquired about any dinner specials. She snapped at me telling me my waitress would provide those... OK, my bad. Several minutes later our waitress came by, upon request she shared the dinner specials of the evening and we placed our orders. My wife ordered a salad an asked for italian dressing. We're at an Italian restaurant... they didn't have italian dressing. All they had was vinaigrette; how peculiar!
The food came out in good time, and everything tasted fine. Our waitress had checked up on us about 2 minutes after the food was dropped off and didn't come back for some time after that. The bus-girl came to fill our water glasses and we asked for the check, since our waitress hadn't made it by in some time. She cleared the plates. 5 minutes later our waitress came by and we again asked for the check.
Summary:
Food - Good/Average
Ambiance - Local family restaurant. Disappointed with where they sat us
Service - Lacking. Only one waitress for the entire restaurant... -
Review from Roseann C.
Medford, MA
10/5/2010
I've dined there two times, with differing experiences. I will review my most recent which was this past Saturday night. The place was full and the staff seemed a little in the weeds. There is no host or hostess to greet you, so we stood there for a good 5 minutes before being ushered to our seats. So it's a small room, we *had* to have been seen before then, not to mention that my friends are two of the tallest people I know personally and there's no *way* they weren't spotted! We were a party of 4 with a reservation which we were about 5 minutes late for - oopsie. I'm sure that's somehow my fault. Once seated, it took some time to be approached to give our drink order (another 7 minutes or so), and once we gave that order, it became painfully clear that a hostess was not the only staff member they were missing. There is no bartender there, and one of the waiters? the busboy? made the drinks. Which were quite tasty, but took over 10 minutes to get to us. I was beginning to wish I ordered wine instead of a Pineapple Martini (but I loooooove Skyy Pineapple, so I *had* to). So, we've been here for 20 minutes already and are just getting our drinks. The busboy did serve us water, which I drank right away and was not refilled. Even when asked.
The waiter was apologetic, but seemed to shuffle the blame off onto the busboy, and I'm not certain that everything was that poor kid's fault. In any event, we ordered our food, appetizers came out within a reasonable time (I loved my tomato, gorgonzola salad, and wish I had some right now). My dining companions seemed to enjoy theirs as well. But then there was a huge lag before the entrees. Like more than a half an hour, which goes by even more slowly when the drinks are being made by Slowy McSlowerson. And still no water! They brought more bread though, which I know tickled one of my DCs. "You mean the bread started tickling him??" No - it's a figure of speech, sheesh! When the food did arrive, the pasta e fagiole I ordered seemed bland (my Mom used to make it with salt pork for a nice meaty, slightly smoky flavor). This one lacked seasoning so I had to put a fair amount of salt and cheese on it to make it palatable. My friend ordered the chicken broccoli and ziti but wanted the homemade fusili instead which they goofed on and forgot. They did realize their mistake, though, and offered a free dessert. My other dining companions seemed pleased with their food (one ordered a veal marsala that I did not try and the other - my favorite - ordered off the menu, actually, a request they were kind enough to accommodate - it was gnocchi caprese with pesto sauce instead of tomato sauce, and it was gooeyyummydelicious)!
This is not a good place to go to if you're "fungry" or will get cranky because you haven't eaten all day before showing up. At least not on the weekend. The weeknight experience I had with my favorite DC was quite different as the service wasn't scattered or slow. I'll go back there, because of the value and convenience ($150.00 before tip for 4 people, all of whom drank alcohol and got plenty of food), but perhaps not on a weekend, and perhaps not to order the pasta e fagiole again. They were friendly and I always like to go to a non-chain, small, family-owned place. -
Review from Kim R.
Billerica, MA
3/5/2011
Well this sure beats going to the North End! My boyfriend and I went here on a Wednesday night (2/16) to celebrate a late Valentines day, and this deffinately was impressive! We had a little bit of trouble finding the parking , but it's behind the restaurant and a couple of other buildings next to it. This restaurant isn't overly decorated, but very cute and cozy. The seats were spread out enough so we can enjoy our conversation, but not be completely ignored either. The bread that they serve you first is absolutely delicious! Make sure you ask for more!! This isn't that cheap Italian bread you can buy at market basket. This is fresh baked bread. The slices are a little bit small though but ask for more! We got the fried calamari to start and this was delicious. Perfectly cooked where it wasn't soggy or overdone. My boyfriend couldn't stop raving about it. My entree was one of the specials which was Pasta with porcini mushrooms with a light cream sauce drizzled with truffle oil. YUM! I could really taste the truffle oil which made it amazing! My boyfriend got Chicken stuffed with ham and mozzarella cheese with a some type of wine sauce. He thought it was a bit plain and didn't really like wine so that was his own fault ( he thought so too haha) For dessert we got a chocolate creme brulee. It was good but not my favorite because it tasted like fancy chocolate pudding. My boyfriend devoured it! It was still good just different than what I expect! Also the prices weren't horrible either because for 2 entree, and appetizer, and a dessert with a cup of milk came out to be $60 before tip. We got a http://restaurant.com coupon for $25 so it came out to be $35 before tip.
Overall: Would deffinately go back again!
Note: The service was a tad bit slow even on a Wednesday night where it wasn't busy. For us it wasn't a big deal since it wasn't that bad, but I noticed some reviews on here talking about going on a weekend night and service being slow. GO DURING THE WEEK! -
Review from Mike D.
North Reading, MA
4/12/2009
This charming little Italian restaurant in Malden's Maplewood Square is still somewhat of an undiscovered gem. The quality of food is high and the service is always first rate. Tasteful quiet music adds to the comfortable ambience. My favorite appetizer is the grilled calamari in spicy tomato sauce...delicious. Their chef's salad is a wonderful mix of greens, olives, crispy bacon, roasted tomatoes, etc.
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Review from Leah F.
Stoneham, MA
10/26/2010
I absolutely love this restaurant. Fine Italian dining in the middle of Malden. Prices reflect the quality of the food - nothing is cheap, but its all delicious. I've only been during the week or early on the weekend, so I don't know if it gets busy during the weekends - One thing to be aware of, they are closed on Mondays. This is our favorite go to date night place - small, romantic atmosphere, friendly waitstaff and most importantly, great tasting and great quality food. Must try!
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Review from Doris W.
10/11/2009
This is more of a 3.5 star review.
Came here tonight for an early birthday dinner. My boyfriend lives down the street from this restaurant so it was about time we visited this restaurant. I do think the restaurant is pricey for the location (Who'd ever think to go to Maplewood Sq. for fine Italian dining?) but it's quite a gem. The atmosphere is cozy which is very nice for an intimate evening out.
Service was great. I started with a glass of white zinfandel which cost $5.50. That's cheap and I got a full glass. Quite a steal! For appetizers I got the Stracciatella (chicken broth, egg, spinach, and tortellini pasta) which was very yummy even though it was bland. Did that make any sense at all? Anyway, my boyfriend got the Caprese salad pyramid which was a pyramid of caprese salad with prosciuitto. It was very refreshing. For entrees, I got the lasagna and the bf got the Risotto Con Pollo e Funghi (risotto with chicken breast & assorted mushrooms in a cream sauce). The lasagna was good but it was too heavy for me. I think it was the cheese. The risotto was very good. The bf and I agreed that personally, we'd prefer risotto without chicken or meat in general for him. It wasn't bad that the chicken was there but we would've been happy without it. I ate most of his dish! For dessert we got the Coppa Pistachio which was a custard gelato with pistachio gelato topped with chocolate sauce and pistachio biscotti or something like that? I can't remember. The dessert was pre-made so the toppings weren't great and the pistachio gelato was the green-dyed kind. Not a fan of that. We probably should've gotten the chef's special (ricotta pie) but we both love pistachio.
Despite the heavy lasagna and blegh dessert, I'd like to come back to try the other items on the menu. They all sound delicious, especially the pizzas. -
Review from Katie D.
Malden, MA
3/19/2011
Ristorante Serena is a stone's throw from my house and I LOVE this restaurant. The food is fresh and prepared very well. The decor is an under-stated atmosphere but cozy with Italian artwork and low lights. The dishes are inspired and being a lover of seafood (especially scallops) you cannot go wrong with the menu here. I most recently had the Fusilli Al Diavolo - spicy and perfect. I usually have a glass of Merlot but have had other mixed drinks which are high class - special shout out to the cosmos. When the restaurant is hopping the service can slow down but that doesn't bother me because it's still very reasonable and I love when a small Mom and Pop neighborhood restaurant is getting some love.
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Review from Peter A.
Stoneham, MA
3/14/2011
Friday night, eating dinner with my family, I ordered Cheese pizza with 1 topping (onions). Apparently, the waiter stopped listening half way through, because he brought out a plain cheese pizza. I wasn't too upset (I declined his offer to bring out onions on the side - it's just not the same) until I bit into the pizza. It was completely bland and flavorless. Recommendation to the waitstaff: repeat orders back to the customers to confirm you heard what they ordered. Other than a terrible entree, no major complaints. Green salad was fresh, but small and a ripoff at a price of $5.
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Review from Mike B.
Danvers, MA
6/14/2010
I love this place, we have been there several times and always walked out happy. Food, price, and service are top notch, Giovanni is always around checking on thecustomers, and has even sent us over drinks a few times... The only complaints, It's Maplewood Square (not really their fault) and for a big guy like myself, I could use a little more food.
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Review from M R.
Malden, MA
9/21/2010
This is a nice place to take a date because the atmosphere is very romantic. The food is pretty good, the prices are pretty fair and the staff is friendly. Mostly, I think it's important to say that I received above and beyond excellent customer service from the owner and chef, Giovanni.
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Review from Michele R.
Malden, MA
1/28/2010
I would just like to say that the atmosphere here is really romantic and the food is good. Mostly, the customer service that comes from the owner, Giovanni, is outstanding! I suggest checking this place out!
