Central Bottle Wine + Provisions

I love this place! They have a great selection of wines in a convenient location. The staff are all very friendly, knowledgeable, and willing to help out. I never know what I want when I go in and all I do is say a few words and my price range and they've managed to pick something that I like! Their wines are on the pricier side (don't come here looking for 2 buck chuck) but it's only because they carry quality wines! Highly recommend, especially if you're gifting and not sure what to get. PS. They also have beer, and it's mostly local.

Love this place--awesome wine recs without the attitude. I went in once with a friend who was looking for "Red wine in the $10 range," and they gave her a ton of great recommendations. Also good for $20+ bottles, of course. I haven't tried the meat and cheeses, but reliable sources tell me that they are delicious. For maximal awesomeness, double up with a visit to Flour (right next door).

Great cheese selection!!!! They carry some of my all-time favorites! However when I mentioned really liking one of their cheeses and that I was looking for something similar in flavor, the recommendations they gave were embarrassingly far off target. The cheesemonger is also a rather unfriendly woman. Beer selection is curated well, but horribly overpriced (understandable considering their target demographic, according to their current store cook: rich white Cambridge folk with no hesitation for spending money at cutesy 'local' shops). I don't know wine well enough to judge their selection/prices. I do know that the staff seemed too pretentious to bother asking about wine. Wine has enough of a sigma as it is, and this place sure isn't helping counteract that. But I really do love their cheese selection so I keep going back.

Beautiful shop with great eats and wonderful wine. Extremely knowledgeable, helpful and friendly staff - and I love the cheese counter. Also really appreciate that they sell a wide range of wines - in terms of type and price point, which makes it accessible to all. Fantastic resource for serious wine-lovers!

When I worked in Kendall Square, I would occasionally speed-walk over to Central Bottle for lunch - the simple sandwiches are outstanding and addictive. The wine and cheese selection is exceptional, the staff is extremely knowledgeable, and - bonus! - there are some other local goodies available as well, like chocolates and jams. This is definitely one of the best places to buy wine in the area.

Excellent selection of cheeses, artisanal cold cuts, and wine, all at very high prices. The saving grace is that (a) they have free wine tastings on Friday afternoons; (b) they will cut you as little cheese or meat as you want, so even if you're eating alone, you can get 4oz of this and 2oz of that to go with a loaf of bread and some wine.

The staff here are really condescending. I ordered a panini off their lunch board, and had to wait a long time for it. It was very expensive and only had a single, thin slice of meat on it. When I expressed surprised that it wasn't toasted, the woman rudely retorted: "Panini just means 'little sandwich ' in Italian, it doesn't mean 'toasted sandwich.'" First of all, I don't need a language lesson, and actually you're wrong ("panino" is singular and "panini" is plural), and in the US, as in most English-speaking countries, "panini" exclusively refers to toasted sandwiches—hence the term "panini maker" for a sandwich-warming appliance. I will never come here again and I cannot believe this place has lasted as long as it has.