Massimo’s Italian Fallsview Restaurant: Italian restaurant in Niagara Falls
Massimo’s Italian is an Italian restaurant located inside the Sheraton Fallsview hotel in Niagara Falls, Ontario. We dined here with my family for my mom and sister’s birthday during our trip to Toronto. We were also actually staying at the Sheraton Fallsview Hotel so it was convenient that it was in our hotel.
Please note that all prices in this review are in USD.
Interior
Massimo’s is located on the dining floor, which is around floor 13 of the hotel. It is right outside the buffet so it has its own space. Almost every table by the window has an amazing view of Niagara Falls, although I think the photo above is a little misleading because they have daily fireworks during the summer but it starts at 10pm and Massimo’s dinner service ends at 10pm so I don’t think you can actually be here during the firework show.
Seating is comfortable and spacious and has a very classy vibe.
Drinks
Whiskey sour
My boyfriend orders a whiskey sour which actually tasted really good – it was very fruity and loved the egg white foam on top.
Cucumber gin cocktail
My mom, sister and I all ordered this cucumber gin cocktail. I ordered it hoping it would be refreshing but it actually just tasted awful. It tasted like straight up gin with a splash of cucumber. We complained to our server and he was really nice about it and took it off the bill. My mom and sister ordered a whiskey sour after tasting my boyfriend’s and they liked it much better.
Our server also checked in with the bartender and apparently he forgot to add the syrup in our cocktails. He added some syrup for us to see if we liked the cocktail after, but we still didn’t so maybe this just wasn’t the right cocktail for us. Regardless, I appreciated our server.
Moscow mule
I replaced my cucumber drink with a moscow mule and was happy to see it come in the classic moscow mule cup. Aside from that, it tasted like a regular moscow mule to me.
Out of all the drinks, I think the whiskey sour tasted the best.
Food
Massimo’s has a 3 course prix fixe menu. You can order an appetizer, pasta and dessert for $55 or you can have an appetizer, main entrée and dessert for $65.
We were a table of 6, so we ordered 3 prix fix menus and added on 3 pastas or mains. This means every pairing would share an appetizer and dessert, but everyone will get their own main dish.
Calamari fritti
For their appetizer, my parents and my sister and her boyfriend chose the calamari. It is ‘00’ dusted and served with herbed aioli. Al le carte price for this is $18.
Overall, it was an ok appetizer. The calamari came in rings and the batter for it was just average, not super crunchy or thick or anything. Serving size is not bad for 2 people to share. I don’t think it is worth the $18 USD price tag though.
Bresaola
My boyfriend and I chose the bresaola for our appetizer. It is dry aged & cured beef with grana padano cheese, arugula and olive oil – kinda like a beef carpaccio except the beef is dry aged and cured. Al le carte price for this dish is $21.
This dish was also just ok for me, although it was more refined than the calamari. I liked the arugula salad and big chunks of cheese, and also appreciated the little clumps of pickled veggies they have on the plate to balance the flavours. I think if the beef was raw carpaccio style, I would have actually liked it more.
Rigatoni alla bolognes
My boyfriend and I share the prix fix with pasta. For his pasta, he chose the bolognese rigatoni, which came out looking really pretty and delicious. Al le carte price for this dish is $29. Portion size is pretty normal for pasta.
Shrimp linguine
For my main, I chose the shrimp linguine. It is a white pasta with garlic and leek cream, tiger shrimp and grana padano cheese. Presentation was quite nice even though I basically just moved that flower aside after my photo lol. Pasta was creamy and light and they gave quite a bit of big tiger shrimps so I was happy.
Grilled ribeye steak
My sister and her boyfriend choose the 3 course prix fix with a main, so you can select something that is not a pasta dish. Her boyfriend selected the ribeye steak, which comes with garlic potatoes, spring vegetables, black truffle butter and a veal jus.
I didn’t taste any of this dish, but wanted to show you a photo of what it looks like.
Tiramisu
My mother and sister both choose the tiramisu for their dessert, and the kitchen/server was nice enough to write happy birthday on their plate. The tiramisu was quite good, lots of mascarpone cheese.
Citrus panna cotta
My boyfriend cannot pass up a panna cotta so we choose this dessert for our prix fix. The panna cotta is a little sour because of the citrus flavour, and it has lemon tea pearls and citrus sugar sprinkled on top. Definitely less sweet than the tiramisu.
Final thoughts
Loewe’s rating: ⭐⭐
We had an enjoyable dinner at Massimo’s Italian for my mom and sister’s birthday dinner in Niagara Falls. The best part about dining here was definitely the view! It was beautiful to see the sunset and the falls light up as night time arrived.
Food was average to above average. I didn’t think it was the best pasta I ever had and the appetizers were all just ok to me. Dessert was good. Food could be generally more expensive in the Niagara Falls area, since this restaurant is positioned to be more fancy. But I believe the higher price tag can be justified with the view you get.
Service was great, our server was funny and very accommodating for our birthday. He was also great when we didn’t like our cocktails.
If you are staying in the Sheraton Fallsview Hotel, I think it is worth a visit to dine here. If you are staying at another hotel, you may want to visit for the view, but otherwise I think there are better Italian restaurants a little farther out from the touristy area.
Sincerely, Loewe