I adore this place. There's a formal dining room upstairs (which is great)... as well as a hidden gem in the basement called "The Market". This is where you can go to order pre-made meals such as pasta, fish, meat, pizza, subs and dessert. I come here at least once a month to get my eggplant parmesan fix. The eggplant meat nestles comfortably in toasted rustic Italian bread... and the cheese politely oozes out and sits on the red and white checkered wax paper that the sandwich is wrapped in (nice touch, Alta). I've had other subs here, and they don't ever skimp on the portions. The cooks who prep your to-go order are always so friendly and quick! I realize this review is mostly on The Market, but the restaurant is just as good. Cool vibe, great service, and authentic Italian food -- how can you go wrong? read more

Great Italian in Wellesley. The food is always great and they've a terrific wine selection. It's also a great place for lunch. Excellent sandwiches on the go. In the fall their pumpkin cheesecake is a must. read more

Yummy yummy, I ordered the Spicy Chitarra with Lobster, Shrimp, Tomato and basil. I like it.

I've had many subs here. They have the best subs although I recommend the Jersey Steak Bomb above all others. I also recommend they change the name since the only thing worthy of being named after Jersey is a trash bag. read more

Got take out - pappardelle was fantastic. The pasta was perfectly cooked (in take-out!) and the sauce was amazing. Dressing on the Caesar salad was a bit lemony for my taste, but that's a choice. Asked for and got some bread to take home also. read more

Convenient location. Mediocre Italian food. Would rather drive for good food. Also, disturbing to see rabbits as food on the menu. : (

Nice ambience with exposed brick walls and recessed lighting. Antipasti were good, including eggplant, green beans, and mushroom. The spaghettini hit the spot - quite yummy al dente. Tagliatelli was nice as well, but a bit too creamy for my liking. The special, striped bass was quite well cooked and tasty. read more

Excellent experience last night. Made a reservation through Open Table. We were seated immediately. Our waiter and service was attentive, friendly and considerate of all of our special requests. We ordered enough but not too much for the three of us. Three appetizers - caponata, cauliflower, and ricotta. Then we split the shrimp bean dinner salad and the chicken with asparagus and potatoes. That plus wine and coffee and we left quite full and happy. Food was all delicious. The only complaint was the noise level was too much for my dinner partner's aging deaf ears. read more

I've tried most of the menu and it's all very good. There are a few "can't miss" dishes including the freshly sliced prosciutto and fig appetizer, the grilled pork chop and the deconstructed Oreos called "marscaporeos". Nice location and consistently good service too. read more

Stopped in before going to an author event at the Wellesley Bookstore, family of four. My son and I started with lemonades, mine flavored with pomegranite, tasty. Bread was served on a napkin and was crusty so made a mess of the table. The boys ordered pizzas, mine sausage and broccoli rabe, son's pepperoni. Mine was great, and filling. His we ordered without peppers, of course it came with peppers, but they were good about it and the new one came out pretty quick. They even brought a "snack" of crustini with some kind of riccotta-oil to tie him over. The ladies both ordered the ravioli, which they thought was frozen, but they liked the sauce. We had some tiramisu and mascarporeos for dessert, which were both nice. All in all, not a bad little spot for a meal, a bit pricey but the menu looked appealing and the pizza was pretty good. read more

I got the special on two weeks ago on Thursday, it was so rich and creamy it blew my taste buds. I will comeback hoping for that on a menu. Marvelous job chefs , The service was great and the staff were super nice. read more

Every time we go it's the best. There is always a fresh drink menu or the bartender will prepare something with a couple of ingredients I like. This time out, while my wife and I were discussing the options, she mentioned the mushroom ravioli being particularly good, but ordering something else. When our meals came out, the waitress brought a side (on the house) of the Mushroom Ravioli. The service is always impeccable, and the prosciutto is out of this world. Fresh sliced. Yum.. read more

The food was excellent, but our waiter forgot about us halfway through dinner. He never came back to ask if I'd like another drink (and I finished the first one less than halfway through dinner) and we waited quite a while to get the check. I like the atmosphere, but wouldn't recommend going here if you want to talk a lot because it's very loud. read more

Delicious, high quality Italian. Cocktails were great, Caesar salad was amazing, two entrees were absolutely delicious: the lobster/shrimp chittera, and the mushroom pasta dish. Our server, Alex was knowledgeable and went through almost every menu item with us when we asked his favorites. He couldn't have been more on point. The wine we drank with dinner was incredible. Dessert (butterscotch) was perfect. One of the nicest dining experiences we have had in a while. Thank you to Alex, chef Matt and crew. read more

I've been to the market two times now and have to say.....Love it. The biggest reason I could not give it 5 stars is because of no delivery. definitely get the Italian mac and cheese. Sooooo yummy. My wife likes it also so that really helps!! She wanted all of you to know that. read more

The menu is limited and the food is fresh but not remarkable. The wait staff definitely wanted to move guests off the tables quickly and did not make an effort to ensure a quality experience. When I asked about the menu items, the waiter said, "the food is prepared as stated in the menu" and took our menus and left the table. This was our third time having a dinner meal at the restaurant and it has been getting progressively lower in quality and the wait staff less attentive and accommodating. I think this will be the last trip because there are other fine restaurants in the area. Too bad because we had a great experience the first time we ate there. read more

The food was very good but the restaurant is so loud it's difficult to enjoy conversations. The staff tend to rush you before you have finished your entree. read more

The food is nothing like Italian food in the North End. It's way too overpriced for the quality and service. The deli is a bit better, but still extremely overpriced for the quality of food. read more

An excellent restaurant with great service. A favorite spot of ours. Almost everything is fantastic. My favorite is the mushroom lune. I can't get enough of it. Tried the tiramisu today but didn't like that. Didn't taste anything like tiramisu. Still, highly recommend Alta Strada. Always a satisfying experience. read more

I've only been there for brunch but it was amazing. I had the avocado toast. Not only was the food incredibly fresh, the service was super friendly and attentive. read more

Came here for the first time on a Sunday night. So enjoyable. Delicious classic Italian and amazing wine list as well. The staff was so hospitality, Doug behind the bar was just perfect! Honestly the Whole was so well trained and accommodating to requests and wine questions. So happy I finally went in for dinner. I can not wait to try lunch! read more

I've been here a lot lately and it is one of my current favorites! I've read other reviews about the noise level/acoustics but this doesn't bother me: actually it kinda matches the bright, fresh flavors of the food; very alive and healthy feeling. I enjoy getting a few of the small plate appetizers like Mama Zecca's eggplant, brussel sprouts, or parsnips but the BEST is the tuna (it was explained as coming out of a can but ignore this and try it anyway, so good!) I've had entrees too like Arctic Char, which was absolutely melt in your mouth, but I find getting a bunch of small plates and lotso wine (excellent wine selection) the way to go. Service can be distracted acting but not bad. read more

Nice atmosphere and good for groups. The food is tasty, but on the expensive side. The service tends to be mediocre. Recommended food/drink: Homemade Ricotta with Crostini, Eggplant Caponata, Roasted Cauliflower, Pine Nuts, Golden Raisins, Mushroom Lune, Pizza, the Alta Strada Martini read more

Good food. A bit pricy. Staff was well presented, though not too friendly. No wait on Sunday afternoon. Tasty, but very small portions.

Excellent service, food is very good. Chicken was good but could be seasoned better.

I ate her twice in the last two weeks. The first time was my first time and I only went back because the food was great and I thought we must have been imagining on the first visit how rude the service was. First visit, three people, well over $150 bill before tip and god forbid you put your fork down your plate would be whisked away whether you were done or not. I have never ever felt so rushed at a restaurant. Two gentlemen in charge circle the restaurant non stop staring at each take trying to get it turned over as quickly as possible (and yes I understand they are a business....I am talking to the point of outright rude). First night we paid the bill and immediately were approached by one of the two men "in-charge" asking if we needed something else or were we done. In other words get out of your chairs and leave! Went back tonight and it was worse than the first time. I was with a different person and she could not believe it. Clearly all the help are trained to "get you out as quickly as possible at all costs". Tonight was $102 for two of us before tip. Never going back. This place needs to get real and treat a customer like they are in fact the reason they have a business. Rude, rude and ruder. read more

We went there with my kids. It was lovely evening , plates were good but I don't like the service. It was slow my kids were impatient. You know what I mean? read more

Cool, lively and upscale. You're going to pay a pretty penny here but the food was fantastic - certainly comparable to anything you'd get in Boston. The drinks are also great. Very well balanced and delicious. Service is also great. They're attentive, but not overbearing. read more

The place is in Wellesley and is, apparently, quite popular with locals. So, it's pretty much all one would expect: pretentious, noisy and expensive. To be fair, the food is OK - nothing special, but edible; it's an achievement for this kind of places. read more

Take out cheese pizza was hands down the worst pizza we've ever had. The sauce taste like chef boyardee and the owners must have stock in Morton's as the salt content was thru the roof. I'm OK paying $20 for a pizza but we would have been better off with domino's, which up to now was the worst. read more

My husband and my FAVORITE local Wellesley eatery. We love saddling up at the bar for an extremely tasty dinner, fabulous wine/beer/cocktails and excellent service. They offer a great feature of being able to order a number of menu items as half portions and also are so accommodating when splitting salads, etc. I have also found the maître d' to always be friendly and accommodating of any special requests (mom in-laws b'day, etc). Thank you, thank you! Be back soon. read more

What a BIG disappointment!!! Everything about the food was terrible. We started with the grilled octopus which was a joke and 2 salads! The entire plate was full of celery and potatoes with 6 little pieces of octopus. So cheap! Then we had 2 pizzas, the mushroom, truffle, fontina, with caramelized onions and the broccoli rabe and sausage. I can seriously make better pizza at home. The broccoli rabe and sausage dough was so doughy and had no flavor and the mushroom, truffle pizza was okay, but nothing to get excited about. The place was packed for Friday night, which is SO surprising to me! How can a place be this crowded when the quality of the food is atrocious!!?? Would never go back. read more

Definitely very solid food here. I come here on an almost fortnightly basis to tide me over crappy college food. The price can definitely get steep for a college student but order wisely and satisfaction can be attained at a reasonable price point. I definitely like to start with the antipasti here. The anchovies, beef bresaola and salumi toscano are my favorites. For primi, prosciutto is excellent and the mussels are very good fun to eat. My experience with the insalata is so-so and I tend not to get any. Bruschetta is decent and a good filler if you have large appetite, but I would generally get the prosciutto as an alternative. I absolutely love, love, love the pasta dishes here. The chitarra (I've had it two ways, one was with lobster -- both were delicious) was my favorite but they don't seem to always have it on the menu. The spaghetti with aglio e olio con pomodoro is very, very solid and a safe choice. Fedelini with tiny clams is good too. I've had a few other pasta dishes here, but those three were my favorites. They once had duck offered outside of the menu, and that was delicious -- very tender and juicy. The sorbetto, panna cotta, and various other deserts are also lovely. Service is not always the best, and the maitre d' doesn't always come off very friendly, but they are generally nice and willing to help you have an enjoyable time. For a less bank-breaking, wallet-murdering, suicide-inducing bill for dinner for two, I would suggest order a good pasta dish, and sharing antipasti and a primi. It's generally quite easy to get a seat in this restaurant without reservations. read more

This place isn't too bad. That makes it one of the very best places in Wellesley to eat. Which isn't saying much. The atmosphere looks pleasant, reading to me like a fairly casual Italian restaurant --exposed bricks, nice lighting, bar seating integrated into the dining space. But, like other restaurants in Wellesley (see my review of Blue Ginger), it's not actually casual, it's pretentious. The waiters hover; if you step away to the bathroom or to put money in the meter, they'll pick up the napkin from where you've left it, re-fold it and put it back on the table. I think this is supposed to be a sign of extra-loving care meant to encourage a tip. To me, it just seems very odd, unnecessary, and kinda gross. I've used that napkin. Now you're handling it, and expecting me to re-use it? That said, the food is overpriced but often yummy. The appetizers are hit-or-miss and tiny. The salads can be really bad--one I've had recently is basically just arugula over-dressed in an overly sour dressing. But the pasta is often delicious--very olive oily, very cheesy, therefore quite good. The pizza is ok, but very very overpriced, and several times more expensive than you pay for the exact same thing if you order it to go from the cafe portion of the restaurant--not sure how they rationalize that. So, yes, "Meh, I've experienced better," but not in Wellesley, which, again, is really not saying much. read more

Fantastic place actually. While a bit over priced and a bit small-portioned the food is great and the wait staff is professional and not intrusive as I've seen in other comments here. Atmosphere is great and one night when the wait was 45 mins to an hour the manager recognized us and we were seated within 5 mins. Leave a big tip! read more

Probably the only decent Italian place West of Boston. I have brought two of my employees here because it is that good. The pasta that I ordered was fresh just like if you were in Italy. The sauce was amazing. The desserts were just right. I would come here again and again. read more

I am somehow flabbergasted that Alta Strada has 4 Stars. I considered giving this two stars because it's not on the level of a 99, but given its current rating I need to institute some realism to the ratings. Let's start with the #1 thing, Food. If the food was good, almost everything else could be forgiven. Unfortunately, I don't know what they could do to save the food. We ordered the olives, which were good, and the bread they served was also solid, so we thought we were in for a real treat. We followed with the tuna antipasti, which I would be embarrassed to give to my dog or cat (although I'm sure they would love it). It could only be described as canned tuna with some herbs (and by canned tuna I mean straight off the Roche Bro's shelves Bumblebee tuna). We tried the Mushrooms with lemon and sage, and to be honest it felt like they we're trying something new, to be creative, and just missed the mark. The lemon flavoring was completely wrong with the mushrooms, but I wouldn't totally fault them, as at least it was unique, except for the fact that the sides came out within 1 minute of ordering them (don't get excited, see below to see how long it took to actually ORDER them, and you'll be hungry by the time you get there). Unfortunately it became apparent when we received our food that these dishes were supposed to be heated, but were somewhere between warm and room-temperature, likely sitting in the back until someone ordered it, I wouldn't be surprised if it were already plated. Next came some pasta dishes, as they said they were all hand made in-house. My wife ordered the spicy Chitarra with lobster etc. Unfortunately their definition of spicy and mine are two different things. Spicy at Alta Strada means they used enough salt to clear the mass pike after a snow storm. There was so much salt I actually couldn't taste the pasta or the sauce, but the only other flavor that came through was a very fishy one. We sent this dish back. I ordered the Pappardelle with duck, which was different and felt like a good seasonal choice. The duck was well done, the cherries complemented it well. My complaint again was that the pasta was more than overpowered by the excessive use of salt! My wife ate some of my dish, but was still hungry, so we asked for a dessert menu (after about 15 minutes trying to flag our waiter down when we were clearly finished). It took about 10+ minutes for him to return so we just asked for the check and left. Now onto the service. If you thought the food was bad (which we did!) the service left something to be desired. Let's start off with the waiter, who told us about the wine special, or rather told us there was a wine special, but didn't know where on the menu it was, what type of wine it was, or really anything about it. He left and came back 10 minutes later to take our wine selections. 10 minutes later we got our wine and put in our order. We got our antipasti in about 1 minute (see above for its status) followed by the bread (normally you don't wait 20 minutes for bread right?). After we finished (or finished eating, the tuna dish was so bad we only had 2 bites, but weren't quite in the mood to send things back), a waiter came out and took my plate with the used fork on it (there was only 1 fork mind you), and when I asked for a new fork, he politely took the used fork off the dish (he actually moved it onto my wife's dish as he stacked them up) and set it back down directly on the table. All these are little things, but very much something you wouldn't expect given what Alta Strada is trying to sell. I could go onto more, but needless to say, the food was bad, the service was worse, and the completely open concept dining floor wasn't conducive to the number of kids in the restaurant (I was expecting more of an adult restaurant, not a Chuck-e-cheese). If you are looking for a similar style restaurant, similar prices, but MUCH better food and better service, try Tomasso in Southboro right on Rt-9. You won't regret it read more

I hate to go against the tide of most of the reviews here...but, in the interest of honesty and balance, I will. This is a good restaurant with good food. But it is not amazing, and is not one of the best in Wellesley or suburban Boston. The primary drawback here is that the service can be pretentious. Not because it's Wellesley, but it's likely the way the servers are trained (not to be too customer-centric) and I think it's the kind of person the company chooses to hire (a little bit snooty). If that's the vibe Alta Strada is going for, it works. Again, the food is good enough, but you'll find much better quality, variety, taste, and appreciation for your business at many other west suburban restaurants. read more

Alta Strada is a hidden gem. For those Bostonians, you do have to get on the Mass Pike to get there, but it's well worth it! Firstly, you come in to a beautifully designed, and welcoming environment. From the hosts, to the waiters to the bus boys, everything was run smoothly! You could tell that everyone who worked there, loved what they were doing and they did it well too! The food was reasonably priced, and the flavor was amazing! Portions were great and the wine list was robust and inviting. I would HIGHLY recommend this restaurant to anyone looking for to venture in to the metro-west area for a romantic evening. Alta Strada gets 5 stars from me! read more

Interesting restaurant very slow restaurants mediocre service. Half of my tables food came before mine. The food is very spicy and salty. The bread was cold it tasted a couple days old. The restaurant is a very loud. The hostess were very slow to get me seated I came 15 minutes before my reservations and it took them 35 minutes to seat me. Overall an okay restaurant. read more