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Among several good reasons for choosing Giannino for lunch in Cambridge
is that all the entrées and pastas come in full-size or appetizer-size
portions. You may have a varied meal while avoiding the afternoon torpor
that can visit any of us if we take on too many groceries midday.
You might start, for instance, with one of several salads, perhaps arugula
with Caesar dressing ($5.25), or with the Tuscan bean soup with cabbage
and smoked ham ($4.95), not heavy, as it may sound. You could move on to
a small serving of delicious Pansotti Genovese con Carciofi, triangle
pasta filled with artichokes, spinach, and ricotta, served with marjoram
chive butter ($8.50), or of Gamberoni con Carciofi, sautéed
shrimp with artichokes, tomatoes, olives, capers, and cream, served over
polenta ($9.50). You might have room remaining to split with your companion
a Frutti di Bosco, red and black raspberries and red and black currants
in a pleasingly tart tart ($4.95).
Giannino is on the courtyard in the Charles Hotel complex, an agreeable
site; it has no affiliation with the hotel. One end of the restaurant, by the
large windows, is awash in natural light; elsewhere, in the bar especially,
lighting is subdued. In warm weather you may sit in the courtyard under
a colorful umbrella. The restaurant is always lively and is frequented by
people apt to greet a few friends coming and going, creating for habitué
and stranger alike an almost clublike atmosphere.
Giannino is open seven days a week from 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. It's a happy
choice for dinner, too, and if restraint is your motto, you can go for the
appetizer-size rations in the evening as well.
~ C.R.
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