Lo Grasso’s Cafe & Bistro

I love this place. It is cozy, comfortable, and welcoming. The warm mesclun salad is outstanding — a must. Check the specials board — typically the freshest ingredients. I had baked haddock — a light layer of tasty crumbs on a generous portion of fish with perfectly cooked carrots and delicious mashed potatoes. My dinner companion and I wondered about what gives the potatoes such depth of flavor! My restaurant of choice.

Great little place with a nice varied menu. It’s BYOB so be prepared before you go. We brought a cooler with a bottle of wine and a couple of beers. I got the Scallop, shrimp casserole. Lots of seafood and a good mix of breadcrumbs. We all had good meals and will be back.

Went in the dead of the winter, it was cold as ice and awful.

The food is really good. Great experience except for the waitress. Don’t expect to get your cork right on taken wine. Save it. Don’t let her take it if you expect to take wind you did not finish.

A fine bistro meal in a place without many choices in the Winter. We both had the excellent crab cakes with our own wine (they were not serving alcohol at all on the night we dined).
As noted by a couple of other reviewers, service is not quite as polished as in most similar restaurants. We attribute this to Lo Grasso’s history as a transformed café.
Most importantly, due to some of the harsh reviews posted here, we approached the meal with a bit of trepidation. We were in town for a concert in February, when pretty much nobody else was open. But having eaten here, it’s very difficult to understand those reviewers’ bitterness. Maintaining a small restaurant in a place like Rockport in the off season is brutally difficult. Lo Grasso’s deserves our appreciation, not petty personal attacks.
We’ll be back!

Sal and Donna do a great job creating a cozy dining experience in Rockport off the main track. Italian specialties, generous portions served with style, yummy deserts all in s warm and friendly small town ambiance. Delicious, you will be very pleased. BYOB

ETA: After this review was posted I got hit with a mini-​tsunami of hate messages. Two of the senders acknowledged having a stake in the place. The others were probably employees or would say they were «wicked good friends of the ownahs.» It was all along the lines of «Your (sic)» or «Ur (sic)» followed by creative insults like «idiot» and the ever-​popular default epithet «d-​bag.» By some strange coincidence, at least three of the five-​star reviews were from the same people! Imagine that.
Stay classy, Lo Grosso’s. Hopefully the DPW will keep the streets plowed this winter so the Sysco truck can get through.
Lo Grasso’s is to Italian restaurants in Rockport what Comcast is to cable/​internet service in many places. If you’re the only game in town you can charge whatever you want, no matter how lousy the product or service. So they do. And they get away with it since the supply of tourists and suburbanites is endless.
There’s an undefinable quality in small restaurants. They can have a feel of «cozy» and even «intimate,» but can just as easily seem cramped and overcrowded. Maybe part of why Lo Grasso’s gives the latter sense is the way their hostesses have loud, protracted discussions about wait times with new arrivals which can be heard across the room. Or perhaps it’s from there being no inside doors — just a pair of curtains — so that a blast of whatever conditions lurk outside hits each time someone enters or leaves. Not that there’s anything wrong with this, necessarily. It’s fair warning that the atmo is along the lines of «A loaf of bread, a bottle of wine, and thou, and raucous hostess/​servers, and noisy patrons, and weather updates straight from the parking lot.» Candlelight, clinking glasses, and murmured conversations are NOT what you should expect. Anticipate having to coordinate with the person (s) at your neighboring table before a chair is pushed back, and plenty of «hon’s» from the female staff. It’s all part of the, you know, ambiance.
As for the food, I’ll exercise the virtue of brevity for this ‘graph. Sauces «extended» with flour? Freshly unwrapped bread? Thawed Bird’s Eye mixed vegetables? On multiple occasions over several years with varied entrees? For how much???
I don’t call ‘em Lo Grosso’s for nothing!

This place is awesome. I can go for just the pesto garlic bread alone. Never had a bad meal here and go several times a year. Place is small so make a reservation.

This is the best restaurant in town! It’s off the beaten path, away from the downtown tourists and has the best chicken marsala I have ever eaten. Bring your own bottle of wine for a small corking fee and it gets even quainter. It’s only open a few nights a week so be sure to call ahead for reservations. Yum!

Small restaurant off the beaten path in Rockport. We were visiting for a week and were tired of the similar seafood restaurants in the area, so it was great to stumble upon Lo Grasso’s. Great menu with a mix of Italian and American fare. We forgot that you could BYOB, but they did serve wine as well. My husband had the tuna special which was HUGE. 2 large tuna fillets, in fact. I had the jambalaya which was full of chicken, sausage and shrimp and was very tasty. I’d definitely recommend this place to anyone visiting Rockport looking for something different.

We love it here! So warm and cozy. I’m a huge fan of the scallops putanesca and my husband always hopes the seared tuna is on the specials list. Perfect dinner every time. The desserts are homemade and always decadent. Great service and byob too. Can’t ask for more. Five stars!!!

Great time had by all. The owners are a husband and wife. Dining here is like being in their home. The hospitality is just an added bonus to the scrumptious food! Everyone loved their chosen entrees. The fried calamari with the sautéed peppers was a show stopper. The fried artichokes and bruschetta were perfect. Do not miss out on the crème brûlée. My family and I have been visiting rockport for years. We will never have another trip and skip this hidden gem.

This is honestly one of the best Italian meals I have ever eaten! My whole family voted Lograsso our favorite meal out of our vacation.
I had the chicken piccata which was excellent. The food is exactly what makes Italy great, simple dishes cooked with love. You can taste it, my chicken was tender and moist, buttery and tart.
It’s bring your own bottle which helps the pocket book but actually I thought this place was really good value anyway. It is small, so make a reservation.

Open the door and wonderful cooking fragrances stimulate one’s senses. I was reading reviews and missed that reservations are appreciated. We arrived at 1830 on a busy Friday evening. The staff were wonderful about developing a space for us. Our table was reserved for 2000. Salad, appetizer, dinner, desert and coffee were efficiently served, not rushed. We enjoyed Italian entrées; they were delicious! Off street parking!

My husband & I have had a few good experiences at LoGrasso’s, but last night was certainly not one of them. Neither the food or the service were up to par, and I’m depressed to think that I paid for it. A total waste of $ 60.

My husband and I visited as part of our anniversary weekend away to Rockport and were pleased, despite poor service. The décor is eclectic, and it’s a little cramped, but that just made it more cozy. We loved the BYOB policy and thought our dinners were pretty generous in size. The waitress was terribly grouchy, even after we went out of our way to be extra friendly. Fortunately, we were happy and enjoyed the night, anyway!

Great portions. And great taste. Overall great value– highly recommend. But call ahead they have limited hours and days that they are open.

We arrived without a reservation on a Saturday night. Although they were expecting some large parties with reservations, the hostess sat us graciously. We found the food to be delicious. I had a wonderful piece of salmon with sauteed vegetables and rice pilaf. The vegetables had a nice amount of oil in them, probably as much as I would use at home. I believe that Italian food should be swimming in oil. That’s what Italian food is all about. And it’s a myth that oil is bad for you; just eat the right kinds. I devoured everything on my plate and left there quite happy. I would go back.
It would have been nice to know that the place was BYOB, but I was relying on my Kindle while staying at an Inn, and did not find that info. Other people had brought bottles of wine.
They have plenty of parking. It’s in an obscure strip mall.
I think this restaurant should get its own website. Let people know what you’re all about.

A nice combination of good food, good service and quirky ambiance. They won us over right away by starting us with Alexandra’s (of Gloucester) bread. My companion ordered a breaded steak dish that was served with a delicious sauce and a side of perfectly cooked al dente pasta. My spinach ravioli in a white sauce was a soothingly satisfying portion, with just the right amount of seasoning.
We finished it off with a Boston Crème pie that defines what that thing should be; a densely moist cake doused with a chocolate sauce that demanded that we finish every crumb.
A very pleasant evening.

I love everything about this place. Portions– good, Quality– excellent, Service– Fantastic, Ambience– warm. BYOB– awesome.
It is no longer a deli, but a Bistro. The only do dinner Tuesday through Saturday.
I don’t want to say too much because I like that it is a secret!