Pastoral ARTisan Pizza + Kitchen + Bar

Enjoyed our second visit to Pastoral and it was as expected - Excellent!! The food, vibe, service, location and ambiance makes this one of my favorite casual restaurants in Boston.

Sebastian was our attentive server and was excellent. We had a couple pizzas, pasta and I even tried the grilled squid. Yes - I'll get it again, if you're wondering!!

Be sure to make a reservation for Saturday night. We arrived at 5:10pm and the restaurant was 1/2 full. By 6pm it was packed with enthusiastic customers enjoying their dinner and wine.

The presence of the (very pretty!) wood oven created high expectations and the vibe entering the restaurant was very positive. Good lighting, lots of Italian cultural references. We (a bunch of Italians) were ready! Unfortunately, the food we ordered didn't live up to the excitement:
1) First appetizer (pics in order) had a papery, dry and bland flavor, yet it was greasy.
2) The meatballs tasted like a commercial / supermarket, not artisanal, product (I want to stress this is purely a flavor-based observation, i'm not implying anything on the actual source)
3) The margherita pizza presented itself very well, though it was very salty (it sholdn't be) and - more importantly, burnt - one member in our party had a pizza that was completely black (picture 4 shows partially the amount of dough involved after scraping off the topping). Finally, while my pizza tasted good at the moment, it turned out difficult to digest.
4) The spritz was ok, on the blander side but within standard quality for an average Italian restaurant in the US.
For the price and expectations, it was an overall disappointing experience for our party.

The pizza was ok. The employees were very nice. PS: They need new knives. It was impossible to cut the pizza, so I had to eat it with my hands.

Food - 5/5
We LOVE Pastoral - legitimately come once a month.

Favorite appetizers:
- garlic knot - a MOST unique garlic knot; you have to try at least once
- calamari - delicious fried kale, rich flavorful sauce, light airy calamari
- piadina blanco - crispy slices of Parmesan and garlic dipped in wonderful marinara sauce; addicting

Favorite pizzas (delicious sourdough pizza):
- diavolo - a staple, spicy and savory
- margherita - classic, flavorful
*pro tip - ask for some extra hot marinara sauce in the side to dip your crust into

Ambiance - 5/5
Restaurant is spacious, reservations are easy to make, great ambiance (dim lighting). Music can be loud at times - servers are very receptive to music volume changes.

Service - 5/5
Service is great - friendly, professional, and well timed.

We ESPECIALLY love Gjergji (pronounced Georgie) - amazing management and service.

Other notes:
1. Street parking is tough, but that’s all of Seaport. If you’re lucky you’ll get street parking. Otherwise, we usually Lyft there.

Staff was so welcoming and attentive! Sean was bartending and took such good care of us with great attention to detail, kindness, and had great recommendations for craft cocktails, if you like a paper plane and a mojito, definitely get the nojito (thank me later). Thank you Sean for great service, bro for real deserves a raise.