Boston/Cambridge restaurant recommendations ?

We will be visiting our daugther Sept 20 - 24 who is studying a year at Harvard . We are looking for great and fun restaurants , 3 or 4 different ones? Thank you for your help

Not “great” but good in Cambridge, Alden & Harlow. We always have good meals there when visit our daughter

Pammy’s is excellent. And they have a fun wine program. Book well in advance, as they tend to fill up.

Oleana in Cambridge is a wonderful modern take on middle eastern cuisine. My go to in Cambridge. Troquet in Boston has good food and a wonderful and deep wine list.

Craigie on Main in Cambridge (James Beard Award winning chef, and of course their bar burger is one of the most famous burgers in America).

Some other ideas:

  1. A lot of people think Oleana’s sister restaurant Sarma is even better than the mothership
  2. Cafe Sushi (Although O Ya is nationally famous, the best omakase in the Boston area is Cafe Sushi, for a fraction of the price)
  3. Select Oyster Bar (don’t waste your time standing in line at over-rated Neptune)
  4. Fox and the Knife (I haven’t been, but it has a James Beard chef and was one of Eater’s Best New Restaurants in America recently)

Thank you , everybody .

If you like seafood, Neptune Oyster Bar in the North End is excellent. Unfortunately, lines most of the day. But if you find yourself hungry at 11 am, you can usually get a seat when the doors open

Oleana really is a gem. Since you can try multiple restaurants, I would say that should be one of them.

Neptune Oyster Bar is an awesome spot for lunch. Some days you can get lucky and avoid a line. Lobster rolls with butter are great as well as their oysters which you can mix and match. Wine list is decent but pricey. You can find a solid rosé or picpoul for a decent price.

Barcelona wine bar is a really cool Spanish wine bar and restaurant. Very cool wine list, Spain and South America heavy with traditional regions sprinkled in. They offer about 6-7 dry sherrys as well as beer and cockatils. Food is really nice and a perfect spot to get a bunch of different tapas to share. Every time ive been its been packed.

Troquet, especially during the summer wine promotion.

Figs for pizza.

Bar Boulud and Eataly

Went to Pammy’s yesterday . Great cozy bistrot , fully packed . I loved the pork chops . Lot’s of noise , I could hardly understand my table companions But definitely a nice experience . Thank you for the tip .
Tonight craigie on main .

Neptune is a must. If your going to visit the North End and check out some of the historic sites go by and put your name on the list. They will call you about an hour later that your seats are ready. Last time we were there we got in line at 11am. We waited about 20 minutes and put our name on the list. We then checked out the sites and were sat around 12:30. Fantastic fresh seafood especially oysters and crab. Nice list of whites and bubbles as well and it’s still the best Lobster roll I’ve ever had.

Boston has some many great places. Troquet is another favorite.

Thank you . Our daugther made the reservations based on these posts , don’t know if we have more time .
Craigie was good , not great . It’s a big place with well over a hundred diners . We had to wait well over half an hour for our main dish .
I loved my oysters , spaghetti with mushrooms and the swordfish . The women were not so enthusiastic about the pig head , way too fat for them . ( the restaurant did replace my wife’s dish with a spaghetti course at no cost , very elegant ) . People are very nice there , as everywhere it seems in Boston . A relief if you are used to New York .
I was surprised by the selections by the glass : very focused on Riesling . The glass of red wine was served to warm .
Their selection of beers is totally impressive . The winelist per bottle also impressive .
Overall good .

Went to UNI yesterday. So far , our favorite . Delicious food , too much to name it all ( we were 4 , choose each 5 different items ) . Good wine list , not expensive and a huge sake list . We had a great time
Oleana tonight

We went to Oleana yesterday evening . Strange experience . It’s a lovely cuisine , with Turkisch and Greek touches . The food was very good and creative . Service , wine , all fine . But why the rush ? We came in at 7.00 pm , ordered food at 7.05 or so ( 8 dishes to share ) , they were all served at the same time between 7.15 and 7.30 ( cold and hot mixed ) . We were finished before 8.00 pm . Bizarre

Overall , my favorite place was Uni . But all the restaurants were cosy and fun .

Sorry to hear about the service Herwig - have never felt rushed there before. Glad you enjoyed your time here!

On a recent trip to Boston we managed to eat at Cragie, Cafe Sushi, and Select Oyster Bar. All were very good. I’d fly back to Boston just to eat at Cafe Sushi again. Spot on recommendations.

Glad you enjoyed it!