Beautifully renovated restaurant with a fabulous menu. The service and attention to detail is outstanding. Each dish was delightfully unique and delicious. Outstanding evening - thank you Boccaccio Chef and Staff. We look forward to seeing you soon! read more

See all

The "Chef", is a professional con artist. I hosted a family event here and was served microwaved airplane food. I whole event was an embarrassment. I am still in shock a week later. read more

We went for winter luscious last night Food was awful, our friends were Italians, they had high expectations! Salad was a plate of overflowing leaves with Montral's knots, no dressing Main course I had fish( cod rubbery on toast , no sauce no vegetables, para basic Desert Pannacota terrible, coffee with bad cream, it clotted in the milk!! David our waiter was apologetic It was a disaster. Please DO NOT GO TO EAT THERE , WASTE OF MONEY BOTTLE OF WINE WAS OK read more

Was here for an event prior to re-lockdown. Space has a modern feel, very clean. Service was great - everyone was patient and kind. All servers kept their masks on. They provide little paper bags to place your mask in while eating. The appetizers served were very good. Deep fried shrimp was crispy on the outside but meaty on the inside, beets and goat cheese were balanced well, mushroom pastry was delightful in one bite. The three baguettes plate were tasty but the bread was too hard. Still overall, all appetizers were quite good 4.5/5. For the dinner, the lobster bisque had a nice hint of lobster but was on the salty side. However, servers came around if you wanted seconds - awesome! Flavor - 3.5/5. Antipasto - was two pasta dishes. Risotto in mushroom sauce and penne in vodka sauce. Both pastas were amazing and cooked perfectly to al dente. No mushy risotto here! The flavors were on point and provided a nice contrast to each other. Minor complaint was vodka sauce was a tad salty - maybe due to bacon or porchetta that was used. Still the best dish of the night! Also, comes with 2nds! 5/5. Main dishes - prime rib - cook to a medium rare. I did notice that the cuts were inconsistent. Mine was quite thin - maybe 2cm thick while other people got super thick cuts - closer to 4-5 cm thick. It was quite tough to cut through the meat - they didnt provide steak knives. The roasted root vegetables were a nice addition and the mashed potatoes were amazing! The side salad was forgettable and the oil based dressing had no flavor. 4/5 for the main plate, 3/5 for the salad. Eggplant Parm - was essentially an eggplant lasagna with tomato sauce but without the cheese. Still quite flavorful. Again mashed potatoes are amazing - perfectly smooth, buttery, potatoey so good! 4/5. Dessert - 3 flavors of sorbet. Flavors were blood orange, raspberry and passion fruit. Best flavors were blood orange and raspberry. The tartness works well with the sweetness. 3.5/5. Overall, great food and great experience. Must try the pasta - they know how to do it properly! read more

See all

We went for Summerlicious and the service and food were excellent. You good tell that a lot of thought was put in the menu and everything was very fresh. We can't wait to return. read more

A hidden gem inside a convention center/museum. My husband randomly found this restaurant while we went to Walmart before our weekly date night. The place is very nice, quaint and clean. The staffs are very friendly and the food was delicious. We ordered the grilled calamari, the fish and the steak. I usually don't like grilled calamari because it's chewy and rubbery, but this calamari was very good. It was cook to perfection! The grilled fish was delicious, fresh and light. The steak was cook to our liking. We will definitely come back again. read more

Boccaccio Ristorante - a restaurant with a bar - Italian Near Me - Toronto, Ontario

The restaurant was completely empty when I arrived, and remained empty until the end of our meal, when one other party arrived. The restaurant itself was beautifully decorated, but considering how the staff stood around with very little to do, I would expect it to be spotless. Glasses and cutlery were spotted and could use polishing. When I was a server, if the place wasn't busy, I would ensure everything was sparkling clean. Always keep busy improving the place for better customer experience! The food was good, but given location, ambiance and quality, I considered it to be extremely overpriced. I bet if they lowered their prices, the place would be packed every day. I would not return any time soon, at the prices they charge. I'd rather be in a restaurant that was busy with better service. The staff here seemed very stiff and not very happy. We did not feel welcome as customers, despite being the only ones there. It's a shame to see a business struggling, so hopefully they make some improvements soon. read more

See all

A wonderful hidden gem of a restaurant tucked away in the Columbus Centre. I found this place while wedding venue shopping and it was recommended by the venue staff. The ambiance here is perfect for an intimate dinner date or a family gathering alike The service is impeccable, attentive, friendly and inviting. The food is lip smacking good. We tried the fried calamari to start, the mushroom risotto, and the cavateli bolognese which is a short pasta with tomato and minced meat ragu. Is it by chance that every single item we ordered turned out amazing and wowed us? Don't think so. This is some authentic delicious Italian food. The risotto is the very best risotto I've ever had in my life. Beautiful flavours, creamy but not overly heavy, and you don't get tired of it. The pasta itself was a very large portion, saved it for the next day and it tasted even better. I'm definitely returning so I can venture onto the rest of the menu. I highly recommend this place. read more

See all

I was searching for a place to take my partner to for his birthday and I happened to spot a review for this place in the Toronto Star for a pretty lunch deal $20 for 3 courses; and since they indicated that this place would only be around for another year or so before the location was going torn down to make away for a new building for the community. So this place is a bit hidden in a local community centre, and it is a bit weird to be walking into a dressy place with people in gym sweats staring at you, while working out. Anyhow this place is really good. The space despite being in a basement, it offers an intimacy that is conductive to a date night. So food is quite good. We did order the deep fried artichokes, which were decent, but overall it didn't stick in my mind too much. The rest of the food was pretty good - but I feel like the stand out dish was their pasta of the day. It was just that right combination of creamy, salty, savory flavors that just help you warm up for the rest of the food to come. I loved the chicken I order as part of my fixed price menu - but the pasta appetizer just was that much better. Now I am a sucker for passion fruit anything - but their Passion Fruit Creme (Mousse) was a great finisher and palate cleanser so nothing sat too heavy after the meal. While the portions weren't huge - it was just enough food to fill you up without putting you into a coma. Overall - I was pretty happy. Reservations can be done online and it was quick and easy. They do call you a few days before your reservation to confirm - which is a great reminder. read more

See all

Like the previous reviewer, we used a groupon to try this place out of curiosity. It is located in the basement of the Columbus Centre. Note that parking is free after six but the lot is a bit of a pain to navigate, is very busy and you may have to park some distance from the building. There is no sign for the restaurant easily seen on the street, either. Ambience is classy with some nice majolica and art for sale, but a bit dated and one can't help feeling one is in a basement. Service was friendly but a bit rushed and we were not greeted at the door despite it being a slow night. We were also brought the wrong appetizer though we decided to stay with it instead of sending it back. The main problem with this place is that the food is perfectly good, but just not interesting or exceptional enough to justify what would have been the price range without the Groupon. An appetizer prosciutto with buffalo mozzarella was good but pedestrian. Calamari with fried artichokes was tasty but had a rather boring breading. The secondi were also uninspired sounding so we ordered pastas. Seafood pasta was well prepared but plain. The gnocchi, and the maltagliati with venison ragu both presented very nicely textured homemade pastas with less interesting sauces. Wine list is kind of strange in that it is not all that long yet provides some extremely expensive vintages - as if someone was going to frequent this place in a kind of out-of-the-way location in order to impress people. I'll left unsaid what kind of person that someone might be but I think you might guess. In general, the kind of place which does really mess anything up, but doesn't whet the appetite either. read more

I did not sit inside the restaurant but at the Carrier Art Gallery inside the Columbus Centre catered by the restaurant. The place is a marble rotunda style atrium with lot of original art exhibits. The atrium has a high ceiling with a glass dome which sheds light into the atrium until sunset. That makes the rotunda lightens up and so energy efficient. There is a second floor which provides just an aisle for art exhibits accessible by stairs from both sides. The food is well prepared. The salad is fresh. The famous, I heard award winning, risotto is creamy enough. I usually don't like risotto but this one is really great. The chicken is tender. Not that many places can have a succulent piece of chicken breast! The salmon is well prepared and cooked. This is a nice place to go although the surrounding is construction industry area read more

My 8 guests did not enjoy this restaurant. There was a party going on in the back and the waiters totally ignored us. We waited an hour and half for the salad alone and one salad was forgotten. The ravioli and another pasta dish was awful, not worthy of an Italian restaurant. What an embarrassment! read more

I am giving a three because of the food. Their food are OK but they were not great. Or at least the ones I've tried. I will definitely be coming back though because of the service and the ambiance. Staff are really really nice. Hopefully food would be better next time. Pasta and the vegetable with my veal were salty and my veal was a little dry for the medium rare that I requested. But I had a lovely time with my brother and sister that evening. read more

Just returned from Boccaccio Ristorante after having eaten there using a Groupon for four. For $65 (not including tax) we feasted on two appetizers and four mains, and could not manage dessert. But it's not the quantity of food that distinguishes Boccaccio; it's the quality. We started with frittura di calamari e carciofi and enjoyed a nice-sized portion of perfectly breaded and tender squid and artichoke. No chewiness whatsoever, and appropriately salted. Our other appetizer -- the real winner -- was carpaccio di manzo con arucola e parmigiano, which featured lovely beef tenderloin carpaccio on a bed of fantastically-dressed rocket and diaphanous sheets of generous parmesan cheese. Nothing was left on the plate except the porcelain. For mains, the nodino di vitello alla salvia, or grilled veal chop with butter and sage, was a hefty, thick slab of beautifully-flavoured meat (unfortunately, slightly underdone and needing a second encounter with the grill) nestled atop sweet potato puree and grilled zucchini and red peppers. The puree was crowned with what appeared to be crunchy fried leek, and eating the two together proved a very happy marriage indeed. Another meat dish, the costolette di agnello al timo was a somewhat small portion (considering the $32 price) of three perfect lamb chops in an exquisite thyme/lemon fusion. I ordered the risotto con porcini e profumo di tartufo, or risotto with porcini mushrooms and truffle oil infusion, and was in heaven. The small disappointment of a (very generous) bowlful of not-quite-creamy-enough risotto was offset by the exquisite flavour that every bite provided. I would order this again and again and, if you do as I did, and share the veal chop and risotto between yourself your companion, you really have a perfect winter dish. The service was somewhat hovering when we didn't want it, and nowhere-to-be-found when we twice had to call the busboy over to replenish our water glasses. But the staff there is just so darned nice that it's hard to criticize them. I would easily return to Boccaccio, even without a voucher, and easily recommend it. read more

I didn't enjoy my experience here. The service was horrendous. We had a 5:45 pm reservation on a Saturday evening. My group of 15 arrived early and were seated promptly enough but it took a really long time to get water. We ordered and we didn't get our entrees until 7pm. My side plate from our appetizers was sitting in front of me and the waiter made no move to move my plate for my entree. He placed my entree on top! He could have asked for help, I would have moved it for him. At no point did the servers ever come to ask how our meal was, to refill our water, to refill our bread or simply to check in. That would have been nice since our entrees took such a long time! Considering this restaurant wasn't full for a Saturday night - so that's a signal as to the kind of service you are going to get. It took a long time to get the bill and the waiter practically grunted at me to move over so he could clear my plate. I'm quite disappointed. To add insult to injury it was an automatic gratuity in which I felt they did nothing to deserve. read more

LOVE Boccaccio Ristorante!!! Have been here for lunches, dinners and family events. The food always remains exceptional and fresh. I have been and would recommend this restaurant for years to come! Its a feel good family place! read more

We usually have our parties there and they are normally something to rave about but our last two have been horrible. Vittoria was amazing as usual but too. Ad he is not in the kitchen. They have a set menu when it comes to groups event which is fine. The issue is that the rice in the risotto was. It cooked fully, the pasta sauce was terrible . The vegetable with main were also under cooked and the frittata mista we originally went there for and agreed upon was a struggle to get because they reneged on it and she we finally got it the mista was missing the mista, the calamari were extremely soggy. It too bad because the location, the look, the ambiance is great for us but I think that Joe took the kitchen staff when he left. Boccaccio is crossed out on our good to restaurants. Another thing to be aware of is the corking fee. We were told $15 and they needed up charging $20. To be honest it is not for the money. It the principal. EXTREMELY UPSET and DISAPPOINTED... never again read more

We were completely disappointed with the restaurant. Went there for a date with my husband. The interior is nice and romantic - no questions to that. The waiter was friendly, brought us an ordered bottle of wine, poured the first time and after that we had to do it ourselves. Then we ordered cheese and meat platter. When we got it I noticed a piece of cheese with mold (not Danish Blue). Didn't want to make a scandal, so asked the guy who took away the dishes if the mold was supposed to be on the cheese (obviously not). He said he would find out and we didn't see him after that. Then we told this to our waiter, he apologized and that was it. This is not how those kind of problems are handled in good restaurants. Nothing was offered as a compliment. They just pretended nothing happened. Maybe it's a usual routine for them. For dessert my husband ordered espresso. The waiter (a new one) while confirming the order said "eXpresso"! And it wasn't a slip of the tongue. Italian place where they call espresso and eXpresso is absolutely unacceptable. Definitely won't come back and recommend this place to anyone. read more