Boston Dining

I’ll be out in Boston for a weekend in late October. Friday night I’d like to find a higher end restaurant with great tasting menu, suitable for an anniversary dinner. Reviewing previous posts, I have found Troquet and L’Espalier mentioned.

On Saturday, we’ll be dining as a family (with two teenagers). Just looking for a great local restaurant (seafood, Italian, Asian all good). I was looking at Giulia as an option.
Any suggestions/recommendations appreciated. We’ll be staying at the Westin Copley.

thx

Jan - another option for the tasting menu is O Ya - fantastic multi course meal. For the more casual seafood meal, I personally love Row 34 on Congress street.

Jud, Thanks for the recs. We had a great dinner at Row 34 in Portsmouth NH last year during our daughter’s official recruiting visit to UNH. Did not know that they were also in Boston. O Ya looks great!

Happy to help. If you are looking for the best wine list in town, you can’t go wrong with Troquet.

Just made a reservation for O Ya Saturday October 20. Reading along to find some other spots, mostly for lunches as dinners will be work-related.

Staying in the Seaport.

Really like no.9 Park for the ambiance, as well as the food and wine. (Neither too fancy nor too casual, and right near the commons.) Don’t think they are open for lunch, however.

If you have a hankering for real Piemontese Northern Italian with an entirely Italian list with great surprises, Try Erbaluce . erbaluce-boston.com. Charles Drahgi is an amazing chef and aspiring stand up comic.

The food is always inspiring and the wine impeccable.

Geoff, would you recommend Erbaluce over Giulia? Both look very good.

Island Creek Oyster Bar is always delicious (I think it’s the same folks who run Row 34 … I’m still new to the area so learning my way). But if you venture over to Cambridge, so far my favorites here (with great wine lists) include Puritan & Co. and Pammy’s .

Jan.

Guilia is also a great place. Their pastas are sublime. Erbaluce is not like any other American Italian restaurant. Draghi’s touch is a bit more subtle and he lets the ingredients shine. It’s also in an interesting quaint village area of Boston.

Very helpful. thanks

My favorite restaurant in the Boston area is Craigie on Main (James Beard award), which has an outstanding tasting menu. Great cocktails and an interesting wine list. They also happen to serve one of the most famous burgers in American (cover of Bon Appetit), but they only make 18 a day, so you need to be there at 5:30PM sharp in the bar to snag one. Personally, I think their tasting menu is much better than Troquet or L’Espalier. L’Espalier is certainly a sexy experience, but I find it a bit tired. Bistro du Midi also has a good tasting menu, although I can never go back there again for an embarasing reason I won’t mention lol.

If you want a pure tasting menu experience, check out The Tasting Counter, which was Boston’s highest rated restaurant on the Opionated About Dining Top 100+ list last year. It’s dropped to #117 this year behind Barbara Lynch’s Menton at #110. It’s trying to be Boston’s Brooklyn Fare or The Catbird Seat, although I don’t think it is remotely in their league. But a very fun experience (although the wine pairings are all natural wines and not that great imho).

If you want a great wine list, Troquet has one of the best you’ll ever see, with great prices, and the food is very good too. Just did a 5-course tasting menu there a couple of weeks ago (they also have a 7-course). Unfortunately, you’ll be too late for the Summer Wine Sale, which ends Labor Day Weekend. We had a pristine bottle of '86 Ch Margaux on Monday for $150 ($998 on their list). Wine steal of the year!

As mentioned, Erbaluce is great, although he doesn’t use dairy or butter, so it is non-traditional. Best carbonara I’ve evah had! I also love Pammy’s for Italian (fairly new). But personally, I wouldn’t take 2 teenagers to either of these. Haven’t been to Giulia. SRV would also be a great choice for Italian (Venetian).

Surprised no one mentioned Oleana, which is probably Boston’s best restaurant (James Beard award). Although many people prefer their sister, Sarma, which I’ve never been too.

Boston’s best cocktails are at ArtScience, although I haven’t been since they switched chefs (the photos on Instagram look amazing).

If you like sushi, the omakase at Cafe Sushi in Harvard Square is as good as a 1 Michelin Star in NYC (the omakase, not the whole restaurant, which is very casual, although newly remodeled). Get reservations for the counter and you might sit next to Christopher Kimball! I would much prefer to eat there than O Ya, although the latter is an amazing experience.

The original Row 34 is actually the one in Boston, not Portsmouth. Their sister restaurant, Island Creek Oyster Bar is legendary (these are the oysters Thomas Keller serves at Per Se and French Laundry), but I personally think Row 34 is much better. Skip the famous Neptune Oyster in the North End (Italian district), my last meal there was very weak and it’s a pain in the ass to get into anyway. For great seafood near Neptune, go for North Square Oyster next to Paul Revere’s House. I prefer their lobster roll anyway (both hot and cold versions). Select Oyster Bar is also very good, although expensive.

Not knowing your teenager, I don’t know where to suggest. If they like seafood, I’m sure they’ll be happy at Row 34. Our best pizza is probably Area Four near MIT, where Obama visited. Asian, you might try Tiger Mama (Tiffany Faison from Top Chef). World Championship winning BBQ at The Smoke Shop near MIT (also locations in Seaport and Assembly Square, although I prefer the original). Tiffany Faison’s Sweet Cheeks is also supposed to be good BBQ, although I haven’t been there. Kirkland Tap & Trotter is the more casual sibling of Craigie on Main. I bet they’d like Myers + Chang, a nationally famous Asian fusion restaurant.

Here’s Boston Magazine’s current Top 50 list, which is a reasonable list of our best places:

Just awesome. Thanks much!!

I’m solo in Boston starting Friday night, wife has a punctured eardrum and cant make the flight. Anyone up for a meal or drinks just shout at me.

Glenn - how long are you going to be in town?

Til Weds afternoon.

We’re doing something tonight. I’ll PM you…

I mean Saturday night.

Beer recommendations fellas please…

Glenn - just got back from overseas. Let me see how jet lag is tomorrow- if I am in reasonably good shape, would you be free Sunday night for dinner?