Giacamo's in the North End! Great italian/seafood and very reasonable prices. Crowded and noisy, but fun.

I would suggest Legal Seafood for Lobster and the North End for Italian - Piccola Cucina Venezia - Hanover St. and Mike's Pastry for dessert.

lcuy, you must try Giacomo's in the South End next time you're visiting. I'll meet you there and treat you. We are quite the regulars! No lines!

Another dear fodorite friend stayed at the Marriot in a beautiful corner room. They had Shaw's supermarket across the way steam them up a couple of lobsters to enjoy back at the room taking in the view of the city.

I must agree with the votes for Giacomo's- we were in Boston for the first time a few weeks ago, and not only was it our favorite meal of our trip to New England, it was also the least expensive.

Bring cash though, no credit cards accepted.

I second Legal Seafood. Steer clear of the "famous" No Name Restaurant - it's dirty.

Reasonably priced North End Italian spots that are very good would include:

For Southern Italian: Pagliuca's, Maurizio's, Saraceno's.

For pizza: Pizzeria Regina (the original on Thacher St. only, avoid the mall offshoots).

For Southern Italian seafood: Daily Catch, Giacomo's.

For super-cheap Southern Italian comfort food lunch: Galleria Umberto.

For baked Southern Italian and pizza: Antico Forno.

For Italian baked goods: Modern Pastry, Maria's, Mike's.

For an espresso and cannoli: Caffe Vittoria.

Very strongly do NOT recommend Piccola Venezia. Also one can do notably better than any of these spots: Limoncello, Cantina Italiana, L'Osteria, Lucia, Filippo's, Trattoria Il Panino, Fiore, LoConte's, Mother Anna's, Strega, G'Vanni's, Piccolo Nido, Nebo, Cibo, and Artu. And at all costs avoid: Ida's, La Famiglia Giorgio, Dolce Vita, Riccardo's, Caffe Pompei, Joe Tecce's, and La Famiglia Spagnuolo. That still leaves a lot of places.

Feel free to check out the post I made at Chowhound's website on the area:

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/448599

The best "deal" you're going to get on lobster is to either hit a bar that offers reasonably priced no-frills boiled lobster (one example is Whiskey's, near where you're staying on Boylston Street) or to hit an inexpensive no-frills seafood spot. For the latter, try:

-Dolphin Seafood (near Harvard Square in Cambridge)

-Yankee Lobster (waterfront area)

No Name is not an especially good choice for this despite the price, and avoid suggestions to try Barking Crab, where I've gotten sick twice, or Jasper White's Summer Shack, which is expensive and not very good.

If you're OK with spending more money on seafood, you might consider Neptune Oyster (in the North End), which is excellent and does arguably the best lobster roll locally.

Bachslunch is awesome! I agree with everything except his opinion of Artu, where I love the sausage,rapini, and fusili and the very, very light eggplant parmesan. You almost have to hold it down on the table.

Thanks everyone! Giacamo's was excellent, inexpensive, and not much of a wait. I had the lobster ravioli. Yum!