Dinner suggestions

[msmemory_archive]

It's that time of year again! My birthday and our wedding anniversary* both fall in the first half of July, and therefore we go out to "fancy" dinner twice. We have some favorite restaurants we return to again and again: Blue Ginger, the Blue Room, J's Restaurant at Nashoba Winery.

But knowing we have foodie friends, what restaurants are we missing out on? Please make recommendations.

*19 years, can you believe it?

Comments

[herooftheage.livejournal.com]

Yes, I can believe it. Hope you get a bunch more together.

I'd be glad to cook you a fancy dinner better than anything you could get at a restaurant, for the price of materials. (And if you like this offer but get a better one from one of the superior cooks in the Barony, take it and I'll be rooting you on.)

I've already told you about my Big Three restaurants (Harvest, Henrietta's Table, and Trochet), so I'll mention one that I haven't: The Central Kitchen. It's a Wine Bar with very nice American tapas sorts of things. It probably loses on the fancy axis for the purposes of your birthday, but the food and wine are both top notch. I think of it as better than ZuZu's for just a touch less money.

[new-man.livejournal.com]

I'll second the vote for Central Kitchen, although I think it's significantly more expensive than ZuZu's across the street.

I've read some poor reviews of Henrietta's Table, mostly commenting on the service, but I've always had good experiences there.

I don't think Harvest is worth the money.

[herooftheage.livejournal.com]

I don't think Harvest is worth the money.

It is certainly expensive. I like it for a couple of reasons: 1) I'm awfully fond of atrium dining, which you can do there in the summer. Outdoors yet enclosed is a draw for me - probably why I'm willing to go to the Ashmont Grille, even if I think the mixed drinks are too heavy on the alchohol, and the food a bit erratic (when they are good, I've found them to be very good, but so far, one of my three visits has been pretty ordinary). 2) of the three I mentioned, I think Henrietta's Table has the best food, Trochet has the best wine experience, and Harvest has a decent mix of the two. The price fixe menu with a good wine flight was certainly at the top of the range of what I'd be willing to pay for that level of experience (I think it was $80/person, but that is just a back of my mind memory), but they'll take a chance on things I don't normally manage to get. My sweetbread experiment at Christmas was a result of having a fabulous little appetizer there, for example. Wish I had done as well as they had with it.