my favorite restaurant in the city. they have menus like you describe, full on tasting menus, a la carte, and a cheaper bar menu. if you want a cheaper baller night, go the bar and order the foie gras / pate plate and the cheeseburger. omfg so good.

Can't wait to try this place.

I tend to think that Vinoteca di Monica and Mamma Maria are the only two good restaurants in the north end, but it sort of depends on your perspective. If you're looking for a meal with thoughtful recipes that might compare to something like del posto or babbo (not saying they're that good, but this is a nice way of saying "if you care about your italian food...") then go to either place and avoid the rest of the neighborhood like the plague.

If you want a good red-sauce joint then pretty much everything on hannover st works.

Two questions:

1) Anyone have any good fancy sit-down lunch recs in the financial district? I find myself eating at Radius like twice a week now (not complaining) because I can't find anything else comparable downtown. I like, but don't love Miel (IC) and Cafe Fleuri. The Woodward and Moo are ok.

2) Best nice place for drinks, appetizers, and a 25-35 y/o crowd? My friends and I go to Douzo a bit for this because it's really easy to graze on sushi while putting a buzz on and it's not a horrible scene, but looking for options.

Also, to contribute a bit more. I'd like to really strongly recommend All-Star Sandwich in Inman Square. it was only mentioned in passing in this thread, which is a shame because it is quite possibly the best broad-menu sandwich shop I've ever been to. The place is a little cramped, and you have to be in the mood for sandwiches, but it's really, really, really good at what it does.

skimmed the thread, and didnt seem to notice anything in the fenway area. being the baseball nut that i am, thats mostly where i hang out in boston. anyone have any suggestions within walking distance of fenway park?

maluken for sushi + karaoke

Eastern Standard.

Yea I like Monica's as well that's where I go most often. They have a good prix fixe menu 3 courses w\ wine for 45 bucks. They also have a little shop on the corner of prince and salem that makes a great Italian sub.

yes, also Audobon for potstickers + awesome burgers + decent scene.

I'm on Newbury St and am from out of town. Date food recommendations?

I'd get off of newbury st a few blocks and go to Post (casual upscale), Mistral (fancy upscale) or L'Espalier (fancy upscale). Douzo is a nice sushi place that nearby as well. Newbury itself doesn't have good restaurants if you ask me.

I'd probably do Post (caddy-corner from the Hancock building on Clarendon), it's kinda new, pretty nice, and casual enough.

abe and louie's on boylston

I think of Abe's as more of a cougar pick up spot than a date spot, maybe if you're 30+?

Capital Grille is right on Newbury.

steakhouse for a date?

uh. yeah? why not

because steakhouse = heavy meal

heavy meals can sometimes damper enthusiasm for possibilities later in the night including:

drinking
dancing
sex


It's not like you can't close after a heavy meal, but I generally think lighter meals, or apps + drinks are better for dates. This may just be personal taste though.

b/c a steakhouse is almost certainly not a girls #1 choice for a nice dinner. almost any girl I know would prefer Mistral over Abe & Louis. that's not to say it's a bad choice - Abe & Louis is certainly miles better than Fridays or some Irish Pub etc. but if you are gonna spend $150 ish for 2 people, there are better choices for a date, assuming that the girl hasn't specifically told you "god damn I want me some steak tonight"

to another point, Mistral and L'Espalier are really in 2 different price points, they shouldnt be grouped together.

hang out w/ different girls

I mean, I'm also at the point where I would often/usually rather go to Mistral than a steak house. the steakhouse is a fun place place to go with a group of guys. but a Craigie on Main or No 9 Park will blow away any steakhouse there is

I typed this up because I feel the same way but deleted it.

Mistral's Steak au Poivre (I think they do it with 20 oz Porterhouse maybe?) is the best steak (even without the au Poivre) I've had in Boston FWIW.

For roast beef I think harrisons is overrated. Go to simards in wilmington...open till 3 am, always adventures to be had in the drivethru

This isn't all dining, but I just got back from a week vacation (half Boston / half Maine), and I wrote up a trip report for another forum which I thought I'd share. There's enough dining in it to make it relevant here, and I figure there's some chance somebody else stumbles across my post and gets some non-food advice benefit from it too.

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Arrived Sunday afternoon at the Intercontinental Boston. Hotel is amazing, and in a real convenient part of town. Definitely wouldn’t pay the $300-$400 per night price tag unless it was on someone else’s tab, but it was well worth the $140/night Priceline price, and then some. $39/night to park a car in the city too, but that’s anywhere I guess.

Walked around the harbor and Quincy Market area that evening, and ended up in North End, which was really cool. It’s kinda similar to Baltimore’s Little Italy, though spread out over a much bigger area with way more options. They happened to be celebrating Fisherman’s Feast in the North End that night, so it was more festive than usual. We went into some little Italian place for a makeshift happy hour (i.e. pound Sangria), and next thing we knew, some marching band enters the place and plays for about 10 minutes. It was part of that festival I think. Pretty neat:



Ended up at G’Vannis for dinner that night, and hit up the tourist trap known as Mike’s Pastry for dessert. Despite the lines full of out-of-towners in the place, it still hit the spot:



(Side note for the Boston people – Monday morning, we hit up this Clover food truck outside our hotel for breakfast. Apparently they’re fairly new, they’re vegetarian, and there’s one near MIT and one in the Financial District. Had a great breakfast sandwich with a soft boiled egg, tomato, some sort of soft cheese, and salt and pepper on a wheat pita. It was $3, very good, and according to some blogs, these trucks seem to be developing a pretty loyal fan base. Try a meal at one of them if you happen to be by one of the locations.)

Monday morning, we did most of the Freedom Trail. I assume most of you have at least heard of it, but it’s the walking tour through the city to see all the mostly Revolutionary War era historical stuff. I won’t bore you with those details, but one of the really neat aspects about Boston are how there are these 200+ year old sites all over the city, with modern office buildings less than a block away. Any nothing really seems out of place. Here are a few of the better pictures from the Freedom Trail:



Massachusetts State House



Granary Burying Ground



The North End – we were here again around lunchtime Monday as part of the Freedom Trail, and tried (guy from other forum’s) recommendation of Volle Nolle for lunch. Cool little neighborhood sandwich spot. I approve.

Thanks in part to the recommendations in this thread (my other board), we ate at Toro (a tapas restaurant) that night. It happened to be restaurant week in Boston, so we did that deal - $32 apiece for two appetizer dishes, five “main course” dishes, and two dessert dishes. We ended up trying some great stuff – marinated oysters, braised beef short rib with prunes, crispy pork belly with leeks, escargots, and fava beans, etc. Unfortunately, most of my pictures here ended up blurry, but here is one that turned out the best, along with the Restaurant Week menu:



"Asado de Huesos" - Roasted bone marrow with radish citrus salad and oxtail marmalade



After wine, a couple of the “upgraded” dishes, an after dinner drink, tip, etc., we’re still looking at ~$150 for a “$32 apiece” meal, but well worth it. This meal was one of the highlights of the trip for me.

Tuesday was our last day in Boston - we spent the morning in Cambridge. I’d never been there before, so I wanted to see the area. It’s a cool college town. Had brunch at a diner called Zoe’s. Pretty good, felt like it could have been near any college. Walked around Harvard for a bit, that campus is gorgeous:



We drove to Jamaica Plains for the Sam Adams Brewery Tour that afternoon. I'd have done Harpoon, but they only tour on the weekends.



And then went to the Red Sox game that night. Hit up Cask’n Flagon before the game (a little too commercial-feeling for my taste, but it was fine. It had beer.) And we ended up seeing a really great game for an unbiased observer (I torture myself as an Orioles fan.) It was a 6-0 Sox victory, including an incredible catch at the wall by Torii Hunter, a well-pitched game by Clay Buchholz, a homerun over the monster by Darnell McDonald that broke a car window, and a grand slam by Ryan Kalish. In the 5th inning, there was a marriage proposal on the scoreboard too, and it ended up being the couple sitting directly next to us. That was pretty neat. And normally I think those are really cheesy, but we were talking to the chick for the better part of the beginning of the game, and she was die-hard enough that it was perfect for them. Pictures from that night:









Wednesday morning, we made the ~5 hour drive up to Maine to spend some time on Mount Desert Island, which is home to Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park. Is there a good thread on this forum to post a bunch of cool pictures from there? (They're not good enough for the photography thread.) Acadia is absolutely amazing.

Glad you had fun. The North End this time of year is pretty crazy there is a celebration every weekend. Now that its the last week of restaurant week you guys have any good recommendations lunch and dinner?

Mostly posting to subscribe, but I'll be eating at L'Espalier for the second time in two weeks in a few days and I'm quite excited. I think that place is excellent in every way, I'll try to write something up if I have time but no promises.