WHO’S IN CHARGE Giovanni Longo brought to Malden the flavors of his native Calabria, the toe of Italy’s boot, when he opened his charming Ristorante Serena here 10 years ago. Longo, 41, handles all the cooking and shopping for his 50-seat, dinner-only restaurant.

“Thank God I was never sick in 10 years,’’ he said. “I never missed one day.’’

To Longo, fresh ingredients are a must. “I’m at the market every single day. The only freezer here is a little freezer for ice cream.’’

Our party of five arrived at 8:15 on a Tuesday night. As it happened, a swarm of almost 40 people, a school group and parents, arrived at virtually the same time. The crowd filled two long tables stretching across the little dining room. Chef Longo found himself cooking some 45 meals in his small, semi-open kitchen, all ordered at more or less the same time. It could have been an episode of a reality-TV competition — “Chefs Run Ragged!’’ — but Longo handled the challenge with aplomb.

THE LOCALE Tucked away in Malden’s Maplewood Square, Ristorante Serena doesn’t even have its own front door. To reach the dining room, you enter a side door on the opposite side of the building and walk past the entrance area of the Chinese restaurant next door. But this is a hidden gem worth finding. The Ristorante Serena dining room is intimate and inviting, with white tablecloths, light burgundy walls, and tasteful decor. The vibe on most weeknights is probably fairly subdued, but on the night we visited even the acoustic-tile ceiling couldn’t keep the noise level down.

ON THE MENU Longo doesn’t rely on familiar Italian-American staples like chicken Parmesan (which he says “doesn’t exist in Italy. It’s really a chicken cutlet with sauce and cheese, because Americans love cheese’’). We started off with three delightful appetizers. The “pyramid’’ ($11) was a small tower of prosciutto, fresh basil leaves, thick slabs of mozzarella, and tomato drizzled with aged balsamic vinegar; the slightly leaning tower was held in place by two wooden skewers. The only weak links, flavorwise, were the slices of tasteless winter tomato.

Salsiccia e rabe ($12) was a luscious plate of crumbly, garlicky homemade Italian sausage and juicy broccoli rabe. Also delicious was a tangy bowl of crema di zucca ($7), fresh butternut squash soup with fried pancetta and grilled crostini. It had a creamy richness and just a touch of sweetness.

A daily-special pork chop ($24) was impressively tender: The chef had brined the oversize chop before cooking it, he explained later. Its prosciutto and mozzarella stuffing was set off with sauteed mushrooms and an extremely yummy sherry-wine truffle cream sauce.

We tried three pasta dishes. Penne al granchio ($18) — penne with crabmeat and shrimp — was served in an orange vodka sauce that complemented its fresh seafood flavors without overwhelming them. A plate of linguine with fresh clams ($17) was bathed in a rich broth prepared, like other dishes here, using a fragrant Calabrian favorite, extra virgin olive oil.

A bowl of spaghetti carbonara ($14.50), made with pancetta, egg, Parmesan cheese, and black pepper, was enjoyable but a little bland. Understandably, given the packed house, some dishes were slow to get to our table, but not objectionably so. And somehow everything arrived steaming hot. How did Longo pull this off, we asked him the next day.

“It’s experience,’’ the chef said.

Ristorante Serena, 18 Lebanon St., Malden. 781-324-3170,www.ristoranteserena.com.

Coco McCabe and Doug Stewart can be reached at dcstewart@verizon.net.