The best Italian restaurant in the area - Zio Paolo's in Medway, Massachusetts
Written: Dec 20 '06 (Updated Dec 22 '06)
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Pros: Large portion sizes, Extensive menu, Excellent service, Great ambiance
Cons: Can get crowded on a Friday or Saturday night
The Bottom Line: Between the extensive menu, the great ambiance and the excellent service, you will almost be guaranteed to have a great experience and some great food
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| jps246's Full Review: Zio Paolo???s |
Are you looking for good Italian food in the Boston Metrowest area? Check out Zio Paolo’s in Medway and you’ll be pleasantly surprised at what you find. There’s great food, good service and a welcoming, intimate atmosphere to this restaurant tucked away in suburbia.
Located in an older strip mall in the center of Medway that also includes an Ocean State Job Lot, a hardware store, a salon and a few other restaurants, Zio Paolo’s is a hidden gem and well worth the stop for lunch or dinner if you are traveling east or west on Route 109 in the Medway area.
Where to find Zio Paolo’s
Located at 112 Main Street in Medway, Massachusetts, Zio Paolo’s is located directly off of Route 109 (Main Street) in a small strip mall/shopping center. The restaurant is located toward the western end of the mall, almost directly behind the Bank of America that is built further out from the rest of the mall, closer to Route 109.
There is ample free parking for the restaurant, though on busier nights, you may have to park some distance from the restaurant and walk over. However, I’ve never seen the entire parking lot for the shopping center fill up.
When can you eat there?
Zio Paolo’s is open for both lunch and dinner and also offers a Sunday brunch. Hours run from 11am to 9pm Sunday through Thursday and from 4pm until 10pm on Friday and Saturday.
Dining options…
There are three different dining areas within Zio Paolo’s which you can be seated in depending on how busy it is and whether or not they are hosting a private party.
The Trattoria Dining Room is the main dining room which offers booths at almost all of the tables except for a few tables for larger groups. The Bistro Dining Room consists of wrap around booths for larger parties and also hosts private parties as more tables can be added or a buffet run down the middle. For a more casual affair or if you just want a drink, you can dine in the Z Bar where you can either sit at the bar or at several of the tables in the area.
For all three areas, the same, full menu is available.
What can you eat?
Between the lunch menu, the early dinner menu, the full dinner menu and the dessert menu, there area lot of different offerings available at Zio Paolo’s. There’s more than enough for most people to find at least one thing that they really want, more if they really like their Italian food.
Lunch
The lunch menu is the smallest, with several different choices including the old standby chicken parmigiana and my personal favorite, chicken saltimbocca. There’s also picatta and marsala and all four are available with either chicken or veal over your choice of either linguini or rigatoni. There’s also lasagna, chicken and spinach or roasted vegetable cannelloni, linguini with clams and clam sauce, sausage or chicken Abruzzi, london broil, and several different seafood dishes. The entrées range from about $8 to about $10 and are slightly smaller portions than the dinner entrées.
There are several meal sized salads available including a grilled chicken Caesar salad, a Gorgonzola Apple Salad, a Grilled Chicken Breast Salad (a garden salad with chicken breast), a Mango Grilled Salmon Salad, and a Chicken Monte Carlo Salad. You can also order a side Caesar or house salad to go along with your entrée choice at a discounted price. The meal sized salads run from about $8 to $9 and the side salads are generally about $3.
If you’re not in the mood for a salad or an entrée, then you can also get yourself a sandwich at lunchtime. There are several different kinds of burgers, a grilled chicken sandwich, a sausage, pepper and onion sub, along with a steak tip and a meatball sub. If you feel like a wrap, there’s also a wrap version of each of the salads that they offer. The sandwiches all come with fries or pasta salad and cost anywhere between about $6 for a basic hamburger to $10 for the steak tip sub. The wraps all cost about $7.
Early Dinner
If you get to Zio Paolo’s before 6:30pm on Monday through Thursday or 6:00pm on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, you can take advantage of their early dinner menu. The menu offers a varied selection from their main dinner menu, but all of the entrées are priced at only $9.95 and if you add a salad to your meal, it’s only an additional $2.95. Choices include chicken parmigiana and cacciatore, haddock pomadori, veal and sage ravioli, chicken and spinach cannelloni, roasted pork tenderloin, sausage and mushroom or chicken and asparagus risotto, and mussels marinara to name just a few.
I like to think of this early dinner as a chance to explore some new things. Whenever we get there early enough, I usually try to try something I haven’t tried before. Not only do I get something new, I can try it knowing that I haven’t spent a lot of money on something I may not like. Plus, I’ve never run across something I haven’t liked yet.
Dinner
In addition to the full priced versions of everything available on the early dinner menu, the full dinner menu also includes a collection of soups (chicken normandy, clam chowder, Italian wedding soup, Onion Soup Gratinée, and Lobster Bisque), dinner salads including small house and Caesar salads to go with your meals, a full size Caesar salad with grilled chicken, an antipasta salad and several other salads choices. The soups range in price from $5 to $10 and the side salads are $2.95 with an entrée, while the entrée salads range from $8 to $10. With some of the salads, including the antipasta salad, the Gorgonzola Apple Salad, the Pomadoro Formaggio, and the Pan Seared Mozzarella Salad, you can get large portions if you want to share it between several people or get it as an appetizer.
There are an extensive number of different appetizers available from shrimp cocktail or fresh oysters to baked escargot and spinach and artichoke dip with a whole bunch in between. Honestly though, I’ve only rarely gotten an appetizer since between the salad I usually have to start my meal, the bread that is served and then the size of the main course, if I had an appetizer, I would never eat any of the main meal.
The entrees available on the dinner menu include everything that was on the early dinner menu along with several other choices that are just too numerous to talk about. There are a number of Italian pasta or risotto dishes, beef entrees, and seafood entrees.
Once again, my personal favorite is the chicken saltimbocca, but almost anything is good. My boyfriend loves the linguini vongol and I have friends that rave about other dishes that they have had. I’ve found it hard to come across something I don’t like and with the almost all of the entrees, almost any request can be accommodated. For example, I love the chicken saltimbocca, but I don’t like mushrooms so I just ask for the meal to be made without the mushrooms and there is no problem.
The prices on the full entrees run from about $13 to $30 depending on what you get. Generally the pasta dishes are the least expensive, followed by the seafood and finally the steaks and the surf and turf dishes being the most expensive. With the pasta dishes bread is also included in the price and with the other dishes you have your choice of mashed potatoes, roasted potatoes or house risotto with your meal.
If you still have room after dinner for dessert, I congratulate you since the portion size on the salads and the entrees is quite large and definitely well worth what you pay for. I almost always end up bringing some home and having it for lunch the next day and it’s the rare occasion that I actually feel like having dessert when I am at Zio Paolo’s.
Cheesecake, tiramisu, cappuccino brownie ala mode, apple pie, cannoli, frozen oreo soufflé, bananas foster, chocolate chambord cake, and vanilla crème brulee are all available and run $6 to $8. Portion size, like the entrée size is very large and the deserts are easily shared between at least two people. My favorite is the chocolate cake, while my partner loves the cheesecake covered in the homemade whip cream.
Take-Out
Everything on the menu is available for take-out. Just call ahead and it’ll be ready for you when you arrive or show up, order, wait at the bar and then head home with your meal.
Catering
In addition to the standard menu, Zio Paolo’s also offers a take-out and in-house catering menu that contains larger versions of most of their entrees.
Vegetarians
There are several different pasta dishes available without meat and while I've never tried (I like my beef and chicken), I am sure that some of the other dishes could be turned into vegetarian dishes by making them without the meat.
Service & Ambiance
For being in a strip mall, you’d never know it once you enter Zio Paolo’s. The interior is warm and invitingly decorated. The seating is all very comfortable and even at its most crowded, the way that the majority of the booths are designed, you have an intimate meal with those sitting with you, not everyone else around you at the other tables. Lighting tends to be subdued, almost to the point of it being too dark in a few corners of the restaurant.
The wait staff is very attentive to guests, even on busier nights. We’ve never run across a single example of bad service since we started going to Zio Paolo’s and more times than not, we have been extra impressed with the service. The staff strives to make your meal as enjoyable as possible and is willing to go the extra distance to make that experience for you. Whether it’s accommodating a special request with your entrée or helping us out with our photographs at a party, you always feel good about the service you’ve gotten when you leave Zio Paolo’s.
My experiences at Zio Paolo’s
Since Zio Paulo’s opened a few years ago, my partner and I, along with our friends have been frequent visitors. I’ve had countless meals there and my partner even planned a surprise birthday party for me that was hosted at Zio Paolo’s.
Compared to other restaurants the service at Zio Paolo’s generally just floors me. We have had consistently good service throughout the years and never had a bad experience, which is more than can be said about some other restaurants. The hosts are pleasant and the wait staff is very attentive, keeping drinks refilled, spacing out the various portions of your meal and making sure that you have everything that you need.
When I had my party there, the staff was even more attentive, making sure the group of about 20 of us had everything we needed and by the end of the evening, they were even helping us get our group photographs, turning down lights and taking the group pictures for us.
Zio Paolo’s is also comfortable. I love the fact that when you sit at your table the seats are nice to sit on and the way that the booths are designed, even when the restaurant is full, you feel almost like it’s just you and whoever else is at your table. It makes conversation easy and it helps make the experience more enjoyable.
To me, when it comes to choosing where to eat when we want Italian food, there are really few other places I’d even consider nearby. Our first choice for Italian in the area has got to Zio Paolo’s and it never ceases to satisfy us.
Final Thoughts
When I think of Italian food, I think of Zio Paolo’s and I’m just really glad that this great restaurant is nearby and easily accessible so I can take care of that hankering when I get it with quality Italian food in a great setting.
So if you’re living in the Medway/Franklin/Millis/Holliston/Milford area or just traveling along Route 109 in Medway and want some great Italian food, consider stopping at Zio Paolo’s. Between the extensive menu, the great ambiance and the excellent service, you will almost be guaranteed to have a great experience and some great food.
Recommended:
Yes
Kid Friendliness: No
Vegetarian Friendly: Yes
Notes, Tips or Menu Recommendations Don''t be afraid to ask for modifications to a dish if you don''t like something or like a dish a certain way.
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