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The front of L’Osteria Ristorante on Salem Street — a dark green board with the name in gold script across a red brick facade, a green-striped awning, and window boxes of geraniums under the front windows.

Salem Street · Boston’s North End

Forty years on Salem Street.

A family restaurant at 104 Salem Street, in the same hands since 1985. Veal and chicken finished in lemon, butter and dry white wine, pasta made in this kitchen, and a wine list that goes a long way past the house Chianti. Seven days a week, the door opens at twelve.

Find usWhat to order
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Two large meatballs in tomato sauce in a blue-rimmed oval dish, dusted with parmesan and chopped herbs, on a white tablecloth.
Green spinach and pale egg fettuccine tossed together in a cream sauce with strips of prosciutto and sliced mushrooms, in a wide white bowl by candlelight.
Four plates crowded onto one table — chicken with mushrooms in a white wine sauce, veal in a pink cream sauce, spaghetti with garlic and oil, and a chicken parmigiana — with open wine bottles and a spritz alongside.
A square slice of tiramisu heaped with grated dark chocolate on a white plate, on a dark wooden table.

An evening here

  1. 01

    Everything marked homemade

    The meatballs are made here, and so are the gnocchi, the manicotti, the lasagna, the lobster ravioli and both of the soups. The menu marks every one of them “homemade”, which in a room this old is less a claim than a description of who is in the kitchen.

  2. 02

    Straw and hay

    Paglia e fieno, twenty-five dollars: spinach pasta and egg pasta tangled together in cream, with prosciutto, peas and mushrooms through it. The restaurant posts this one itself and calls it a specialty, and it is the dish that tells you this kitchen is not really a red-sauce kitchen.

  3. 03

    Plates in the middle

    Chicken with mushrooms in white wine, veal in a pink vodka sauce, a plate of spaghetti with garlic and oil, a chicken parmigiana under an inch of sauce, and a couple of bottles already open. Nobody eats only their own order here.

  4. 04

    Then the tiramisu

    Two desserts, nine dollars each, and one of them is the right answer. Coffee, and then out onto Salem Street, which at that hour is the best part of the North End and the part the tour groups have usually finished with.

What to order

The dishes they lead with

The red sauce is here and it is good, but it is not the point. Most of this menu is chicken and veal finished in a pan with lemon, butter, marsala or dry white wine, and the pasta everybody photographs is a cream one.

  • Golden egg-battered chicken cutlets in a lemon butter sauce beside a coil of linguini on a white plate, scattered with parsley.

    Chicken Francese

    Medallions of chicken through a light egg and cheese batter, sautéed in lemon until the edges catch, and served over linguini in what is left in the pan. Simple in the way that leaves nowhere to hide, which is why it is the one to judge the kitchen by.

    $28

  • Two large meatballs in thick tomato sauce over linguini in a square white bowl on a dark wooden table.

    Linguini with Homemade Meatballs

    The plate that decides whether an Italian restaurant in this neighbourhood is any good. Made here, big, soft, and buried under a sauce thick enough to stand a fork in. Order the garlic bread and do not be shy about it.

    $26

  • A chicken breast under sliced mushrooms in a glossy lemon butter sauce, with a half slice of lemon on the rim of the plate.

    Chicken al Burro e Limone

    Lemon, butter, dry white wine and mushrooms, and nothing else in the pan. This is the dish that explains the kitchen: the whole veal column does the same thing, and half the chicken column too.

    $26

  • Penne with pieces of sautéed chicken and broccoli florets, dressed in garlic and oil and dusted with grated cheese.

    Chicken Maccheroni & Broccoli

    Chicken, pasta and broccoli tossed in garlic, olive oil and cheese — no sauce, just the oil and what comes out of the pan. The order to make when the table has already gone heavy on red.

    $28

  • Sautéed chicken pieces with broccoli, mushrooms, artichoke hearts and red and yellow peppers, heaped on a white plate.

    Chicken alla Campagnola

    Mushrooms, artichoke hearts, broccoli and vinegar peppers, all of it sautéed in olive oil with the chicken. The most colourful plate to leave that kitchen and the one to point at when somebody says Italian food is beige.

    $29

A lemon drop cocktail in a stemmed coupe with a wheel of lemon on the rim, reflected in a polished dark wood bar.
Eight cocktails, sixteen dollars each, and forty-odd bottles behind them.

The family

The same family,
the same room, since 1985.

L’Osteria Ristorante opened on 104 Salem Street in 1985 and has been family owned and operated ever since — the same family, the same small brick front, the same green board with the gold lettering on it. Forty years is a long time on a street where restaurants turn over in five.

The kitchen makes its own gnocchi, its own manicotti, its own lasagna, its own lobster ravioli, its own meatballs and both of its soups. The rest of the menu is what a room like this is for: chicken and veal in a pan with lemon and butter, or marsala, or dry white wine, or a pink vodka sauce, and pasta underneath most of it.

The wine list is the part people do not expect. Forty-odd bottles, most of them Italian and most of those Tuscan — Chianti Classico riservas, three different Super Tuscans, a Brunello di Montalcino, a Barolo from Piedmont — plus a full bar and eight cocktails on it. You can eat here for thirty dollars or make an evening of it. Both are normal.

  • 1985Family owned and operated on 104 Salem Street ever since
  • 7Days a week, and the door opens at twelve
  • 40+Bottles on a list that leans hard into Tuscany

The room

A full bar, and a long menu

An Aperol spritz in a stemless glass with a wheel of orange in it, on a white tablecloth.
A tall citrus cocktail over crushed ice with orange, lemon and lime slices and two black straws, on a dark wood table.
Half a dozen shrimp, sautéed and lightly charred, scattered with parsley on a white plate.
Baked pasta under melted mozzarella and tomato sauce on a white plate, with the restaurant’s brick wall behind it.

Visit

104 Salem Street,
Salem Street

104 Salem Street
Boston, MA 02113

Salem Street is the North End’s other restaurant street — a block over from Hanover and a good deal calmer for it. The room is small and takes reservations, and there is takeout and delivery if you would rather eat at home. The door is at street level and the dining room is wheelchair accessible. There are gluten-free and vegetarian options across the menu; ask, because not all of them are marked.

Call (617) 723‑7847Get directions

Open

Monday – Thursday
12 PM – 9 PM
Friday – Saturday
12 PM – 10 PM
Sunday
12 PM – 9 PM

Open seven days. The door opens at twelve every one of them, and the kitchen stays on an hour later on Friday and Saturday.