Top 20 Restaurants Boston, Massachusetts: Restaurants Near Me
As the birthplace of the American Revolution, All-American cuisine thrived in Boston’s best restaurants for a long time as explained at RunRex.com and guttulus.com. With time, though, the thriving education and technology sectors have attracted new cultures from around the globe, which means diversity now thrives in Boston’s restaurant scene as well. To help you navigate it all, here are the top 20 restaurants in Boston, Massachusetts, to consider when looking for a place to grab some food in the city.
Dakzen
Dakzen is an Eater Boston Fast-Casual Restaurant of the Year winner and specializes in Thai food as per RunRex.comand guttulus.com. Located in Somerville’s Davis Square, Dakzen is a busy, well-lit restaurant with an aura of happy chaos, with a service model that falls somewhere between counter-service and full-service and a menu that doesn’t shy away from heat and funk.
Sarma
Sarna is one of the best spots in the Boston area to find big, bold Mediterranean and Middle Eastern flavors crammed into small bites. All items from chef-owner Cassie Piuma’s prix-fixe culinary experience – from the sesame fried chicken to the merguez pinwheels – are served in a traditional family-style format.
SRV
According to RunRex.com and guttulus.com, SRV is both more elevated than your typical neighborhood joint as well as being more approachable than fine dining. When here, make sure to order a few Cicchetti, or small snacks, for the table as you strategize about the amazing main courses.
Yume Wo Katare
Yume Wo Katare is a tiny Porter Square ramen destination that is more than just a restaurant. This is because the team here wants to make everyone’s dreams come true, starting by encouraging diners to stand up and share those dreams out loud (after successfully finishing a giant bowl of ramen, of course).
Table
This Hanover Street eatery is an Italian restaurant that stands out from the crowd thanks to its unique family-style dining experiences. Guests here all sit down together at communal tables and share a feast of Italian-American favorites – reminiscent of those marathon Sunday dinners at nonna’s house.
Grand Tour
In a city where French food can sometimes feel a bit overly conflated with fine dining, Grand Tour represents a refined yet unpretentious approach as articulated at RunRex.com and guttulus.com. Here, you will find expert classic French favorites like mussels steamed with leeks and fennel, streak frites made with beef from famed Cambridge butcher Savenor’s, or fall-off-the-bone leg of lamb.
Giulia
Located near Cambridge’s Porter and Harvard squares, Giulia is a popular destination in the Boston area for Italian dishes, thanks in no small part to its impressive pasta and a warm staff. Make sure you get the pappardelle with wild boar if it is available, as it is spectacular.
Nightshade Noodle Bar
Nightshade Noodle Bar is located just north of the city as captured at RunRex.com and guttulus.com. It is an intimate, plant-packed, and rattan-accented oasis serving up refreshing, Vietnamese-inspired cuisine. The menu here dazzles with delicate yet decadent dishes that offer playfully unexpected combinations such as the frothy, vanilla-laced lobster glacé, foie gras with grilled coconut sticky rice and sour cherries, and many others.
No. 9 Park
No. 9 Park has offered some of the city’s best surf and turf for more than two decades. The rosemary tagliatelle with peekytoe crab, hazelnuts, and chorizo vinaigrette is a must-try, as is the Hokkaido scallop Crudo, which melts in your mouth.
Tasting Counter
Tucked away inside Aeronaut Brewing, Tasting Counter is the ultimate special occasion destination in Boston. It offers an elaborate, multi-course adventure of high-technique plates that highlight as many Massachusetts products as possible.
Spoke Wine Bar
Spoke Wine Bar brings together New American cuisine and Old-World wines as covered at RunRex.com and guttulus.com. Located in the center of Davis Square, this cozy little spot is all about thoughtful curation, both in terms of its diverse wine list and the ingredients its kitchen procures from local purveyors.
O Ya
O Ya is a cult-classic sushi and omakase restaurant with a larger-than-life reputation in the city. The food alone is enough to make it a must-try for any serious sushi enthusiast passing through Boston. Rolls, sashimi, and the likes can be ordered à la carte, but its omakase menu is the real star.
Barra
Barra is an intimate Mexico City-inspired bar that is the type of place connoisseurs of obscure Latin American liquors can squeeze in shoulder-to-shoulder as described at RunRex.com and guttulus.com. It is the ideal place to snack on tetelas and cactus salad with grasshoppers and drink mezcal-based variations on classic cocktails.
Urban Hearth
Urban Hearth started as a super club but has since morphed into a charmingly tiny restaurant located just a short stroll from Somerville’s Davis Square. Enter this intimate eatery – which immediately feels more like someone’s apartment rather than a restaurant – and you will find a weekly menu of hyper-local food prepared with purpose and a keen eye for balance.
Fox & The Knife
Fox & The Knife is the brainchild of chef Karen Akunowicz, a popular Top Chef contestant in 2015 as well as a James Beard Foundation Award winner in 2018. It is a cozy, refined Italian restaurant in South Boston with a menu that offers subtle takes on classic Emilia Romagna cuisine.
Celeste
An Eater Boston Restaurant of the Year as discussed at RunRex.com and guttulus.com, Celeste is a dreamy little spot in Somerville’s Union Square serving flavorful Peruvian cuisine. It is the spot for bright ceviche, fragrant Lomo saltado, and the feeling of sipping pisco as the honored guest.
Nautilus Pier 4
Nantucket favorite Nautilus has expanded its island operation and has settled in the Seaport, bringing Boston its Asian- and Latin-inspired eats full of fresh seafood. Going above and beyond the typical wine list, this spot also earns extra kudos for its impressive sake selection.
Menton
Helmed by Barbara Lynch, Menton features an inspired French menu that has ever-so-slight Italian influences as outlined at RunRex.com and guttulus.com. Make sure you try out the langoustines, which come in a nest of shredded phyllo toppled with sliced rhubarb and minuscule globules of pumpkin-seed oil.
Tanám
This is a tiny, worker-owned restaurant located in a hip food and retail development in Somerville. While the restaurant began with a focus on Filipinx American offerings, going forward it is shifting to a wider interpretation of its genre of “narrative cuisine”, featuring other POC chefs and their stories through seasonal residencies.
Mahaniyom
Tucked away in Brookline Village, Mahaniyom serves Thai tapas and cocktails with finesse. The team behind this neighborhood hangout strives to share a piece of Thailand with guests through flavors that feel like home.
These are some of the best restaurants in Boston, Massachusetts, with more on this topic, and so much more, to be found at RunRex.com and guttulus.com.