Best restaurant in Boston, MA?

Question

My family and I (six adults, two one year old kids) are on a cruise and unexpectedly stopping off in Boston tonight for the evening. Can someone recommend a great restaurant with atmosphere to go to? We have two small children with us but father-in-law, who's with me, likes expensive places.

Answer 1

Oh my gosh that is just too hard to decide.

My best recommendation would log onto www.phantomgourmet.com and do a general search of what your food perferences would be.

Phantom Gourmet is a Boston based restaurant dining guide. It is a great site! The site I am posting below is for the Waterfront area. I am assumming that is where your ship is landing. Feel free to explore the site's other spots.



Welcome to Boston!

Answer 2

I agree with Hank. If you're in Boston you should go to a restaurant that you couldn't go to anywhere else, and although I do like Morton's steakhouse, it is the same Morton's you could go to in any other city. Good restaurants for local, New England seafood are Anthony's Pier 4 and the Union Oyster House. The North End is the old Italian section of Boston and although it's becoming gentrified, it's still lively and has some terrific restaurants. My favorite is Giacomo's but I wouldn't recommend it for a large group, especially if you have small children, because it's a tiny place, they don't take reservations and sometimes there could be an hour-long wait (or more). Many of the other Italian restaurants on Hanover Street in the North End are good, and you can also go to Mike's Pastry afterwards because they have the best cannoli ever.

Overall my first choice for local New England seafood would be Union Oyster House and Anthony's Pier 4 is a close second. (The Union Oyster House isn't far from the North End so if you go there you can still go to Mike's Pastry after. I'd highly recommend Mike's no matter where you go for dinner and they will box your dessert to go - it travels surprisingly well too).

Answer 3

Boston has a rich record and a varied neighbourhood; it's a legacy of arts, culture, and knowledge; Boston has something for all therefore discover what Boston can provide you with with hotelbye . The three-mile Freedom Trail leads you past - and in to - 16 of the city's key traditional monuments and sites. It's easy to follow along with, by the type of red bricks in the pavement and by footprints at street crossings. The trail can take you to Old Granary Burying Ground wherever Paul Revere, Samuel Adams, and John Hancock are hidden; can get you to King's Chapel Burying Ground, the Boston's oldest cemetery; Old South Meeting House where in actuality the ringing speeches of patriots spawned the Boston Tea Party and the Old State House, Boston's oldest community building and the site of the Boston Massacre.

Answer 4

I would suggest Mantra, Anthony's at Pier 4, Eastern Standard (a little further away from where you'll probably be, but just a short cab ride away at Fenway Park area), or perhaps for some history you could go to the Union Oyster House. It's not as nice as the other suggestions, but like I said- filled with history and also nice, and in a great area.

Answer 5

My God! I just read the 3 initial Answers before I began writing mine, and the best these folks can do for you is to recommend a couple of chain steakhouses? Horrible!, and obviously they are not epicures. And Phantom Gourmet is of the standard where he would recommend an Applebees as great dining (the weekly PhnGrmt reviews appear in Boston's working class paper; this is not to be condescending - a lot of places with mass appeal have good food if not the epitome of great - but just to be honest.).

Anyway, like most good economy/high tech/college and university/financial centre major cities Boston (actually Boston/Cambridge) is full of great 5-star places to eat.

Presumably if you are on a cruise you will be tying up at Commonwealth Pier, which is only about a mile from downtown. Considering the specifics in your question I suggest that you cannot do better than to visit Boston's oldest great restaurant - Locke-Ober Cafe. About 130 years old, located on an alley. It's most renowned dish is baked lobster a la savannah, but every dish, even those which might on the menu seem mundane, is magnificent. Make sure you demand and insist on a table in the original and most charming and impressive downstairs dining room, where the venture capitalists and lawyer gazillionaires and fortuned Boston Brahmins cut their deals; otherwise the maitre 'd, seeing your kids, will probably try to steer you to the more hoi polloi back or upstairs rooms (the only rooms where women were permitted until a womens lib court suit in the 1970s).

If you do decide to take my suggestion and you cab it from your ship make sure the cabbie doesn't mess around - the streets around Locke-Ober are reserved for pedestrians - if your cabbie goes the most direct route he can only get you to within 2 blocks of it, driving past the new convention center then past South Station railroad terminal then up a narrow street (Summer Street) to where he or she should drop you off.

The last time I ate at Locke-Ober was about 4 years ago, with my lover and her 4 year old daughter (yes the staff initially worried, but even at 4 she was a gourmand - she ordered for her meal, all as la carte appetizers, a lobster stew and a curry and a souffle and wound up captivating the restaurant staff who made her free mocktails [but she was/is a product of Montreal, one of the world's great eating cities, and so correctly gustatorially appreciative from birth!]). The 3 meals, without dessert but including appetizers for me and her mother, and a bottle of wine and coffee, including tip, was as I recall $340.00.

If you wish to think about other places not too far from your boat there are many more 5-star eateries within a 5 minute walk of Locke-Ober (a place called Mantra, one of Boston's two Ritz', a place called 90 Tremont, a place called 5 Park and a couple of others whose names I cannot remember - I am writing this from our Quebec home - and others along the nearby waterfront, even though it is a more quiet part of the commercial area of the city. Also, nearer to your ship there is an interesting place: the Legal Test Kitchen, which is a where the famed Legal Seafood Restaurants test, on real paying diners who wish to be part of the experiment, new recipes being considered for their regular menus.

FYI: In fact, the best restaurant reviewer in Boston, by far, is Robert Nadeau in "The Boston Phoenix", which happens to be Boston's main "alternative" weekly newspaper. It is free and found at red streetboxes located everywhere. You might think to get yourself a copy, throw away the adult entertainment, escorts and B&D section, and check the latest Nadeau restaurant review and also the pages (in the same section of the paper) of summary capsules of his reviews of the past year or so.

Bon appetit.

PS: If any of you are beer lovers there are many great Boston micro-brews; the most favoured at present being those made - at a microbrewery located just a tad up from your ship's probable berth - by Harpoon. The best brew-pub(s) in my judgement are the Boston Beer Works (there are 3 of them), and much of the food there is very good as well - up to 4 star but not 5 star - but a quiet charming atmosphere will not be found there.

Answer 6

To me, it's Kansas City Steakhouse - Plaza III in Fanueil Hall.

Answer 7

***** restaurant is the best and very cheap

Answer 8

omni parker house - 60 school st-
or
nine zero hotel - 90 tremont st

Answer 9

Morton's Steakhouse is nice and expensive but may not be all that kid-friendly. Try this link http://boston.citysearch.com/bestof/winners/family-friendly_dining

Answer 10

Blue Hill House of Pizza !! and it's in the hood !!!!