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Community College (Orange)
19 reviews
Belmont, MA
"heck yes! i thought this place was just some stupid bertucci's wannabe for the upper middle class families of belmont. WRONG! all of their…" read more »
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Their signature fig and prosciutto pizza is reason enough to get myself over to Charlestown.
Figs would get five stars from me, except for the fact that every time I've been there I've had to wait a while for a table, even when I had reservations. The waitstaff seems friendly but overly busy, especially for such a small place.
One word of advice: two pizzas is WAY TOO MUCH FOOD for three people, but does leave room for delicious leftovers. Just sayin'.
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I gotta say it: the fig and prosciutto pizza is terrible.
Sorry. I gottta say it, like I feel it. I'm thinking that people who like this pizza are responding to the awesome match that is figs and prosciutto. I still remember the first time I had those two together. It was a culinary awakening. I remember every detail of the meal.
But on pizza... meh. Maybe my teeth are not strong enough. Maybe I should be using a fork and a knife to eat it. But it just doesn't work from a physiology of eating perspective. It's just a mess.
Get the regular pizza. It's not bad, but it's not terribly memorable either. The other stuff is tres overpriced. But if you are in the neighborhood, and really want some pizza, it's a fine place to sit down, if you don't mind the wait.
Just don't get fooled by the name of the place and skip the f*ucking fig pizza. Seriously.
But for your own sake... if you've never had that combo... wait until good fresh plump summer figs... find yourself some super high quality prosciutto (maybe some san danielle)... some highly aged balsamic... and some prosecco. And give me a call... I'll be right over.
Went here twice on my business trip to Boston and there is a reason I went back. I really enjoyed the cozy atmosphere here. Both times I sat at the bar, my place of choice.
Food: The calamari is a great starter. I have tried the chicken pasta dish and 2 of the pizzas. All of which are really solid dishes, nothing to change your perspective on food, but overall quality food.
Atmosphere: This is what brought me back to this place, it just made me comfortable for some reason. I would mention, as others have, be careful if you get seated by the pizza oven in the summer, it gets hot!
If you want a low key evening with some simple dishes and quality atmosphere, swing by Figs when you're in the Beacon Hill area.
Headed out here with an ex- townie friend who was eager to return to his old stomping ground. Well all he could say was " We weren't in Kansas anymore."
Place was cute with a definite neighborhood feel, per Sean not necessarily the neighborhood he remembered ie. a lot less ghetto.
Minus one star for standing in the front door before someone acknowledged our presence and seated us at one of the many empty tables. I might be short but Sean stands out around 6'4 and is kinda hard to miss. After we were seated the waiters were nice and attentive. The pizza was unbelievable. I will totally head back there again.
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Love their pizza. Their namesake fig and prosciutto pizza is delectable. If you get half of that on the pizza and have their portobello mushroom on the other half, you get the perfect pizza. The sweet and salty of the fig side balances out the savory of the mushroom. I've also had their calamari and arugula pizza, which is good though maybe nothing to write home about. If you order late enough, they provide you with enough focaccia bread to start your own bakery.
i dont know why people rave about this place - i mean i think its decent but i dont know about yum delish - i would still go back - dont hate it but dont love it
Hooked on their four cheese pizza. Delicious.
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05/09/2008
They have this old-school tuscan whatever that might be the best pasta dish I have ever had. And… Read more »
Still one of the best places for great pizza in boston. I've heard a few reports that the quality has gone done but our lunch here today was top-notch. We had a 1/2 portobello / 1/2 eggplant pizza plus a kid's pizza for our niece. Everything was really good. The bread that came before the meal was really good. The kid's pizza was huge.
The pizza here is thinner and with a firmer crust than you might be used to but go for it - it's wonderful.
Having seen Todd English on Food Network (and other food porn productions), I've been curious to see what he does/inspires/directs in his restaurants. After being told about the marvelous pizza from friends, had to give it a try.
I was surprised by the small size of the place. They certainly do a brisk take out business. The rhythm of the place was that of a neighborhood pizza joint with an upscale, self conscious chicness.
What is really comes down to is the food. Started the evening with their wonderful bread, and then went straight to pizza. We ordered the crispy eggplant. When it arrived, I was pleased to see the tell tale signs of a wood oven pizza....bits of darkened crunchy crust. There was sauce and bits of breaded eggplant and whipped ricotta. It was very good, but I thought was rather skimpy on the eggplant and ricotta. Still, what we had was beautifully prepared and cooked. Look forward to going back and enjoying more of the neighborhood vibe and their pizza!
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wow - love the pizza at figs! of course i had to go with the fig and prosciutto pizza, given the name of this restaurant and the fact that i love figs. it was awesome! we had half that, and half spicy sausage. both kinds were very delicious. pretty good service, extra points for the fact that my friend's pizza toppled onto the floor by mistake (shaky table) and our waiter promptly brought a new one. i would love to go back and try more kinds of pizza, or something else on the menu - everything looked great!
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Overall my experience at Figs was good. The waitstaff was incredibly polite and attentive but I found the atmosphere to be lacking a bit. I thought the IKEAish photos and paintings on the walls were a little lame and the seating was very snug. Prices were fair dessert was delicious. I recommend the chocolate chip cookie sandwich with strawberry sauce. YUM. Also their fried calamari was cooked to perfection- the breading was light and it arrived hot and crispy to our table. Only complaint was that there was too much sauce drizzled on top. We are going to be sure to ask for it on the side next time. Pizza was good although a tad on the greasy side. I will definitely go back to Figs!
Figs rocks. Figs offers probably the best thin crust pizza in Boston... It's affordable, has a cool decor and the wait staff is always pleasant... especially Catherine on Sunday nights.
Figs is a no risk dinner outing. The only knock is that the tables are pretty close to each other, which sucks if you have a bunch of losers sitting next to you.. However, Figs attracts a pretty decent crowd, so chances are you won't mind and might make some new friends.
Post dinner you can trip into Sully's or the Warren Tavern to round out the night.
I think my favorite thing about figs is how cozy it is. On a dark winter night, this tiny restaurant tucked away in Charlestown glows with invite and warmth. The open kitchen and brick oven send waves of enticing smells across the dining room, while the stemless wine glasses fit perfectly in the palm of your hand. Cozy indeed.
I find that sticking to the basics works best for me at figs. They put out some seriously delicious calamari, and when their pizzas are on, they are ON. Unfortunately that means when they are struggling, I'm left politely pushing a flavorless chicken and grease topped dough around my plate. That being said, the fig and prosciutto and the arugula pizzas often leave me in the happiest of food comas.
These pizzas are big, so grab a few friends and mix and match. They happily let you split the topping 1/2 and 1/2 , which makes it easier to try, um, them all. I've always had really good experiences with the wait staff, whether it be them showing the proper discretion during a date, or easily fitting in an 8 top when we walked in at 7:30. And there's something nice about the waiter being at your elbow with the wine bottle before you even realize you need more. Pushy? Maybe, but if I pushes me towards happy, glowy intoxication I'm all in.
I used to go here every Friday for probably close to 2 years. The people who worked there knew us and often hooked us up on free drinks/desserts. However, lately, there appears to be a change in management as well as staff. The waitstaff seems a bit curt and acknowledgeable. The last time we were there, we waited for 20 minutes until our orders were taken, then it took over an hour for pizza (it's JUST pizza) to get to our table. Granted they apologized and recognized their tardiness, so we let it slide, but when the pizza arrived, the toppings were stingy and it had less flavor than usual. We noticed the chefs behind the oven were new as well! What's up, Todd English!? I used to love this place until new management and staff took over... we're no longer regulars.
I will say, when their pizza was good, it was FABULOUS! Best in town, but lately, things have changed... maybe next we (if there is a next time) we go there, I may change my mind.
I live down the street from Figs and order take out from here often. I love their Boston Red Sox pizza. Delicious!!! I've tried several of their other pizzas and they have all been great. Their mixed green salad is good, but for the price I often find it better to just make one at home myself to save 10 bucks. The heirloom tomato/mozzarella salad was awful when I tried it for the first time a couple weeks ago. The cheese was slimy and gooey. The tomatoes were regular old red tomatoes too- didn't look/taste "heirloom" to me. Don't recommend that one.
The pizza gets cold quickly and they def. taste better when they are hot out of the oven, so if you order take out, get there on time and have everything ready to go when you get home. Once I waited 10 minutes there to wait for the hostess to find someone to ring me out. The pizza was ice cold by the time I got it home.
Great neighborhood restaurant. The waiters are so nice and the food is consistently good. The complimentary bread basket with oniony focaccia is delicious. I sometimes get the Isabelle or four cheese pizzas, and the Tuscan pasta bolognese is tasty and unique, but I usually get the specials and I'm always satisfied. I've recently ordered the cornmeal gnocchi, polenta with tomatoes, and parmesan pea salad; it makes me sad that these dishes aren't always on the menu! My one complaint about this restaurant is that the a/c is really iffy during the summer, and that's not a good thing when you're in a tiny restaurant with a brick pizza oven. Luckily, they do take-out (and they pack that delicious focaccia with it!), so if the a/c is on the fritz, I can just bring my meal home.
WOOO EEEE This place man.. Friggin' Amazing.. The pizza is superb and the variety is out of this world. Todd English owns this restaurant and you can tell he puts a lot of effort into his unique variety of dishes. Amazing use of fresh and high end ingredients. Also they deliver if you live in the area. But not a bad place to go and grab a pizza to take it home. A++ Go Todd
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I work in Charlestown and it's an exercise in self restraint to NOT go to Figs for lunch every day. It's just an honestly nice dining experience. The restaurant is small but cozy, warm, and charmingly decorated. The fig and prosciutto flatbread is my favorite and they make a mean caesar salad (finding a good caesar these days is easier said than done.) The service isn't exactly warm and fuzzy, but it'll do. There are a lot of innovative pizza restaurants around town, but Figs trounces them all without hurting your wallet too much in the process.
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Good gourmet pizza. My fav is the portobello za. and the warm bacon spinach salad. Standard Todd English atmosphere, I like this place the best out the 3 TE trademarks; Olives, Figs, and Rustic Kitchen.
I also really enjoy walking through this neighborhood.
Great Pizza, great pizza, great pizza. Owned by Todd English, it's high-quality ingredients meets a tested recipe for success in a storefront that is incredibly teeny, but offers a nice atmosphere nonetheless.
Food - Great. Flatbread pizza, freshest ingredients, unique sauce. Fabulous pizza combos. The chicken I had was a bit dry - but shoot, chicken dries out in a brick oven! The other menu items are high quality too.
Service - Meh. Could have been better, but what can you do. The one girl working there wore no uniform and was clearly the girlfriend or wife of the chef, and seemed patently uninterested in serving customers. The chef was friendly and accessible though, and served the pizza straight from the oven onto the tables.
Decor - Tiny place, big feel. You know it's small when you have to suck in to sit down! It's understated elegance in a really small space, but they maximize their floor.
Crowd - The uzhe. C-town ladies who lunch, tourons, and work folks. Nice quiet group.
All in all, a fantastic little grotto for pizza!
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Um, only one word needed...YUM! Having only been to Kingfisher Hall in Fanueil Hall, I didn't know what to expect. I've been here twice and it's been fantastic both times. The salads are fresh and the pizzas, well, they rock! I like their house pizza (plain cheese), but the other ones are great too. The pizzas are perfect for sharing with a group.
Delish!
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Having lived in C-town for a year or 2 previously, I found myself hitting up Fig's pretty frequently despite the fact i didn't want to like it as I've heard Todd English is a huge ash-hole, but I heard a rumor his ex-wife got this joint in their divorce or something. I could of course be making this up completely, but who knows sometimes I make stuff up that ends up being true.
The prices are incredibly reasonable, especially when compared to Paolos down the street (your only other C-town alternative for Italian fare). The dining room is smallish, but doesnt' feel like it, and the food is really a good value. There's always is always a complement of locals and tourists, but it doesn't ever feel obtrusively busy for the most part. In short, Charlestown is lucky to have Fig's at it's finger tips. Don't be afraid to stray from the pizza into some of the fairly priced entrees.
Figs:
- Thin, crunchy, rustic, tasty, unique ingredients. served on an upside down hot pan!
- Warm, dark, small environment.
- $15-20, pizza, salads, wines.
Yuuuummmm... very tasty, smoky, crunchy pizza servings...great for 2+ ppl.. I've been twice ..planning to go again soon cause i miss it.
A nice little restaurant that has some really tasty pizza. But don't look past the other items on the menu too. I've had some pasta there that was as good as you would find in the north end.
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Taste the Italian roots of Todd English, who also owns Olives, with his signature thin crusted pizza topped with figs and proscuitto. It's the perfect balance of sweetness and saltiness.
Ah Figs...one of two Todd English babies in Charlestown...Not sure where to start here but having been here two times and tried many options on the menu I would say it is decent at best. The pizza was tough (stale tough really weird and hard to chew) and there was so little sauce on it, there was almost no flavor! The pear salad is delicious though, I would recommend that. Then to desert, it was also a bit stale and lacked any real flavor. I usually always say I will only have a bite of dessert and then end up devouring the whole thing, well here, I really was fine with just one bite becuase it was so bland. On another trip I had the butternut squash ravioli and they were ok, but not spectacular. The real pain in the butt about this place is the staff. Both times I have been here, the waitstaff forgot to bring silverware, drinks, wine, and then forgot to come back for our check. Be warned, small eating area with many people waiting plus a slow kitchen and staff means you will be here for a while. At least an hour and a half I would say (thats what it was for me both times). Would I go back? Maybe because it is close to my apartment, but only if there was too long of a wait at Todd's other baby, Olives.
Let's face it: Todd English is quickly becoming the Walt Disney of Restauranteurs. Check out his website and you'll see logos for places you never knew existed (unless you've visited every casino in North America, as Todd as apparently gotten in good with some very shadowy elements).
Not that the Heartthrob of the Hearth doesn't deserve the square footage. He has established himself as a creative and, thankfully, consistant chef/owner over the years since opening Olives. Anyone who remembers enduring the ridiculous lines and the occassional tears over not getting the kitchen seats knows that very few individuals have had such an impact on Boston's food industry.
My concern, when dragging my kids and parents out from the 'burbs last Friday to Figs (his second store after Olives) was that the quality may suffer for lack of focus. I mean, how many kitchens can one man control?
Fear not. Figs is as I remembered. Cramped but comfortable. Dark but homey. The open kitchen shares its energy and aromas with the dining area, and the customers barely need a menu, as a glace to the surrounding tables provides all of the inspiration required to order a fine meal.
The salads are a bit pricey but worth it. We tried four, along with the eggplant caponata. All were hits, but I was especially impressed by the Scicilian/African flavor of the caponata - surpisingly complex. The vinegarette on the fresh greens was also perfectly balanced.
We were 7, so we ordered 4 pizzas: Bianco, Arugula, Bronx Bomber (classic pepperoni) and a 50/50 of the fig/proscuito and fried calamari special.
Let me put it this way: the pepperoni, which was good, was the least impressive. When a bunch of picky Italians try so many flavors and agree that every one of them rated high grades, you're doing something right. And when 12 year old kids eat a fig and proscuito pizza for the first time and are surprised that they love it, you understand that English didn't invent these combinations while stuck in traffic. The thin crust impossibly supports piles of toppings (except the sparse 'roni slices, which may explain our lack of enthusiasm when compared to the others). Bravo!
Service was attentive and professional, which is rarer and rarer in today's world. And while Main Street in Charlestown was not designed for an '05 Expedition, we found a spot right in front.
If you've been to Figs, go back. If you've never ventured, make it a point.
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I make it a point to visit one of the Figs' locations every time I'm in Boston. The Fig Proscuitto pizza is out of this world! Both restaurants are intimate, have great service and the pizza is absolutely the most delicious I've had. The thin crust makes it easier to eat more!
I found Fig's in Charlestown through some family friends and I will be sure to be back the next time I'm in town. Its a great historical neighborhood with amazing pizza. There are only a few places in California that compare
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love the menu but the space was a bit too congested in a touristy way...not the same feel as the NYC restaurant congestion where you accept it because you know how much space costs and it is done in an elegant way. this was more like, "let's see how many tables we can cram into this cold, hard, space."
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New favorite obsession. Since cheese and I are not really friends (unless it's of the goat variety), I don't jump and run out to pizza places all that often - actually never. However, this is no standard pizza place and it's worthy of me forgetting how much cow's milk and I don't get along for one night of heaven in the mouth!
We had out of town visitors this weekend and they don't share our track record for indulging in expensive food. So I figured this would satisfy their less-adventurous palates and wallet-conscious habits. Two of our other friends joined us as well and we ended up in a long table, right in front of the oven. Great spot, although things got a little warm by the end of the night. Wine selections were great and our waitress was on the ball by letting a friend know that a cheaper white was better than what she originally was ordering. The featured sangria was also great, not overly sticky or sweet. Bread - FABULOUS. Generous foccacia squares with garlic roasted on top. Our table got the Asparagus Frites (arugula and a lemon aioli dressed the plate) and it was amazing. We also got the Garlicky Brushcetta and only having tried the bread (too overcooked) and greens - it was good, but I wouldn't bother reordering.
Entrees - Simone (schmancy Mac'n Cheese with Orzo) went over extremely well with a friend who is not super adventurous when it comes to food at all. Husband did the "test" and Fig's passed with flying colors for it's Chicken Parm. Four of our friends got a pizza with 1/2 being pulled chicken, pesto, Gruyere and onions and the other 1/2 was tomato sauce, arugula, fried calamari and aioli. I tried the latter and was impressed. I got the special fish entree for the evening: trout that was cooked perfectly, dressed with vegetables and seasoning and sat on a huge portion of pea risotto. LOVED every morsel of it and wasn't too happy about sharing any of it! My belly wasn't too happy the next day, but it was worth it!
Down sides: No reservations for parties of under 8, which with it's super small space can cause a problem. We hit the Warren Tavern though to pass our 45-minute wait. Other big no-no, our pizza came out a good 10-15 minutes before the other entrees and the waitress looked shocked when she found out. Someone else brought it over and it was just bad timing. Not a biggie when your big group enjoys each others company, but could make for awkward moments in other mixed crowds.
Otherwise - I'm a big fan and can't wait to explore other items on the menu.
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todd english has had some hits and not necessarily misses but real mediocre performances with all his different restaurant in different locations. but i am happy to say the one closest to me is still fabulous. of all the thin flatrbread pizzas i have tried, figs hands down is the best. great combinations, really good flavors, and a very tasty crust. and they taste just as wonderful as leftovers (a huge plus in my book!).
the other menu items are just as good and do not miss the bread pudding dessert. sweet without being sickly, a wonderful light texture and a lovely flavor of buttery white chocolate running through it. i shared it with a friend who does not like white chocolate (i didn't tell him that there was any in it) and he loved it!
just be prepared for the small crowded surroundings - i tend to like it but others find it too cramped.
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