Monthly Archives: October 2010

Noche

Posted on by
1

Matt & I choose Noche for our joint-birthday dinner, not b/c we heard great things about the food or b/c I’ve been dying to try it… no, we choose Noche b/c of the 1,000 OpenTable point value it provided. We’re up to 6,800 points which means we’re 3,200 away from a $100 gift card to any OpenTable participating restaurant of our choice. On Appleton Street in the South End, Noche is a hot spot for late night diners (the kitchen is open til 1:30am) looking for a lounge/restaurant atmosphere.

Bread: Instead of bread the waitress brought over a tall basket of dried plantains with an aioli dipping sauce. It’s always refreshing to see something new and different to start off the meal.  The aioli was a delicious compliment to the thin & crispy banana imposter.

plantains 'bread' basket

plantains 'bread' basket

Menu: My menu book was missing 1 of the 2 pages it contained – those types of things should be checked. And I guess I need to stop over analyzing online menus b/c sometimes they don’t match the in-house menus… frustrating! The salad and pasta I was originally interested in weren’t offered, so I improvised. 

beefsteak tomatoes

beefsteak tomatoes

Presentation/Taste:
Roasted Beefsteak Tomato, with creamed spinach, chipotle cheddar gratin – I knew we wouldn’t be getting dessert so I had to get an app (I can’t blog about just one course 😉 ). I love (fresh) tomatoes dearly and this sounded like an interesting dish. It wasn’t bad, and I can’t quite put my finger on what I didn’t like about it – I think the creamed spinach on top of the cheese but a bit much for me/my stomach.
Veal Cheek Bolognese, with pancetta & goat cheese – I’ve never been disappointed by a bolognese until today. I think I rushed into this decision; this dish wasn’t on the online menu so once I saw ‘bolognese’ I got overly excited and just went for it. I should have stopped to think about the ‘veal cheek’ that was involved, b/c I did not care for the soggy, chewy meat. I ate every bit of the pappardelle pasta, but apparently veal cheek is not for me.

veal cheek bolognese

veal cheek bolognese

Bathroom: It was clean, had a nice wicker basket, and the full length mirror was a major plus. My goal is to find a restroom that provides hand lotion; it’s getting colder & dryer out and my hands need to be moisturized!

bathroom

bathroom

Wait Staff: Our waitress was nice & friendly; turned out she was a wine pourer at the Wine Riot that Matt & I attended on Saturday night. My water glass was never empty and our food was delivered quickly.

Overall: Meh. Food was just ok and it felt weird being the only people in the place (unless you count the few at the bar). But I can’t completely use that against them as it was 6pm on a Monday night. The décor and comfy seating was a plus; I can see how this would be a draw for late night drinks or bar bites.

The Perfect Bite: Plantains & aioli sauce. Can’t say much about the 2 courses I had but Matt did love his stuffed chicken.

http://www.noche-boston.com/

Teatro

Posted on by
1
The website boasts: “Contemporary. Upbeat. Italian Classics.” and that’s exactly what you get when dining at Teatro. Located at 177 Tremont Street in the Theater District, Teatro is a great spot for a pre or post theater/movie dinner. I’ve already been more than impressed by Chef Jamie Mammano after visiting Sorellina, Mistral, and Mooo… – I’ve been looking forward to his more casual venue for a while.
 
Bread: Large, white, & crunchy pieces served in a tall basket with a white bean puree & EVOO. Once the spread was gone there was no need to go back for seconds.
bread

bread

Menu: So many sections with too many delicious choices! Hot & Cold Antipasti, Salumi, Formaggio, Pizza, Hand-made Pasta, Risotto, and Entree… phew! You could easily treat this like a tappas menu, or decide to order an app for the table if you’re focused on having a main course. The best part: they offer you a choice of an appetizer or entree size for the Pasta and Risotto sections, which is perfect if you’re like me and want to try as much as possible but don’t want to be stuck with a full entree. We decided on an app to share, and I went with a soup and an appetizer sized pasta.

cheese pumpkin & lobster arancini

cheese pumpkin & lobster arancini

Presentation/Taste:
Cheese Pumpkin & Lobster Arancini – how can you read this and not order it? It came with 2 arancini topped with shaved parm, enough for each of us to have a 1/2 (sans my lobster-hating friend). There was only 1 piece of lobster in my 1/2 (which I kind of expected) but the pumpkin flavor was perfect (not too over-whelming). Who am I kidding, I love anything pumpkin!
Autumn Harvest Butternut Squash Soup – Served in a cup large enough to be considered a bowl. When I first saw the white soup I was nervous I’d be having pure cream. But then after the first dip of my spoon the beautiful orange squash puree emerged! Thick, and definitely cream based but not enough to upset my sensitive stomach. I LOVE YOU FALL FOODS!
Rigatoni with Classic Ragu Bolognese – Perfect appetizer size (which is probably an actual serving size). The meat was plentiful and the pasta was al dente! I’ve tried many a bolognese, and this lived up to the rest.
rigatoni bolognese

rigatoni bolognese

Bathroom: Located downstairs are 2 single stall women’s rooms. Nothing fancy but a couple nice features: automatic flusher, blue mini-tiled wall, aqua sink bowl.

bathroom

bathroom

Wait Staff: Regardless of the fact that my friend thought our waiter was hot, I wasn’t too impressed. Polite, but he was making me anxious b/c I felt like he was in a constant rush. He really did not waste anytime chatting us up or making us feel comfortable. Service was a little slow, but I’ll cut them some slack since it was a busy Friday night.
 
Overall: Prices were reasonable and the menu has plenty of options. A perfect spot for dinner & a movie (Boston Common theater is maybe 10 feet away). I definitely recommend, esp if you’re into tappas/sharing plates.
 
The Perfect Bite: A tough decision but the butternut squash soup had great consistency & taste, without overwhelming the belly. And did I mentioned I LOVE FALL FOOD?! 😉
butternut squash soup

butternut squash soup

http://www.teatroboston.com/#/home

Towne Stove & Spirits

Posted on by
1

Hooray for birthday dinners! My original plan was to allow my parents to treat me to a night at Sorellina (which normally I can’t afford), but I heard about Lydia Shire & Jasper White’s new restaurant Towne in the Hynes Convention Center and couldn’t resist. Upon entering it appears to be a small neighborhood bar, but round the corner to the left and you’ll find yourself in the cozy & contemporary dining room, complete with booths, tables, and a 2nd bar. Each table top is adorned with picnic patterned cloth napkins, lab beakers in replace of water glasses, and salt & peppers shakers that resemble sink faucets.

table top

table top

Bread: 3 different types with 3 different spreads. Unfortunately I couldn’t fully understand the server who delivered the bread but on the right we have an eggplant puree, the middle is butter which I didn’t try b/c the spread on the left was too damn good. Not spicy, but had a nice bite to it!

bread & spreads

bread & spreads

Menu: Large & laminated. Oversized menus annoy me; there’s never any room for them on the table (and mainly I’m concerned that I’m going to knock over a wine glass with it). The print & style of the menu was reminiscent of Lydia Shire’s Scampo: sections read vertical & horizontal and are divided into a variety of categories (Crustacea, Wood-Fired Rotisserie, Ocean, Rice etc…). Random flags appear next to certain meals representing their country of origin. After bouncing from one food group to the other I eventually landed on the “Salmon… charred wild king w/ tart key lime & palm sugar gastrique… okinawan yam”.

salmon, okinawan yam

salmon, okinawan yam

Presentation/Taste: I can’t say much about the “tart key lime & palm sugar gastrique”, mainly because I don’t know what/where it was… but the salmon was topped with swiss chard next to the beautifully displayed okinawan yam puree. I’ve never tried the purple yam before and I’m sorry I haven’t! The salmon was cooked ‘medium’ like I requested and paired well with the yam. And for dessert: Brown Butter Angel Food Cake. Known to certain diners as “The Don King”, the cake was topped with a mound of brown sugar cotton candy. What a b-day dessert this was! The cake itself was a bit too dense for me to consider it an “angel food cake”, but I wasn’t complaining, especially after trying the caramel ice cream.

brown butter angel food cake

brown butter angel food cake

Bathroom: Clean, sleek, with an odd green theme: the countertop is lime-ish green and the brick walls were a lighter shade of the same hue. I really enjoyed the sinks: motion activated and the water came pouring right out of the faucet. Always appreciate something different!

bathroom sinks

bathroom sinks

Wait Staff: Wonderful. When I called earlier in the day to add my uncle to the reservation they said it wasn’t possible, but upon arrival they were more than happy to change our table or pull up another chair to our 1/2 booth. Our waitress was personable, had answers to our many questions, and pretended like my over-zealous bday attitude was charming … therefore, I thoroughly enjoyed her.

Overall: While the menu doesn’t excite me to tears, there are still a few items I’d love to try. This is a fairly new restaurant (which I believe opened in July 2010) but I would have loved to see some seasonal dishes (not a pumpkin/butternut squash meal in sight!). Some items are over priced – the $21 hamburger for instance – but you can still have a full meal without digging too deep into your wallet (salads run around $11, pizzas around $17).

The Perfect Bite: Just give me the okinawan… purple yam all the way!