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

[baronessv.livejournal.com]

David's brother tends to take us to some places that seem pretty fancy (and are generally expensive enough for me to breathe a sigh of relief when he picks up the tab.) Most of them are in the Back Bay/Newbury area. Paparazzi is a big favorite, and I consider it to be very romantic as well as all the food being excellent. They like to go to the Atlantic Fish Co., but I tend to find it a little noisier than I would like (although the food is amazing.) We recently went to the Ruth's Chris Steak House that opened up in Old City Hall, and it was...staggering. I had the filet mignon and it was crazy amounts of good and a substantial hunk of meat.
In other areas, we ate at Rendevous in Central Square once. One of David's friends knows the head chef and we kept on getting sent freebies, so that didn't suck. The food was delicious but the presentation was AMAZING, although I couldn't quite get over that the building used to be a Burger King (I did make a quip upon coming back from the bathroom that THOSE hadn't changed at all, and I was surprised they were still letting the homeless woman sleep in there—Obviously not true, but worth a laugh.)
Do you like Ethiopian food at all? Addis Red Sea in the South End is fantastic and I wish I could eat there every day. Try the honey wine if you go...I need to find a place to buy that by the case for Pennsic.
There's a fancy Thai place called Montien here in Inman Square that's been Best of Boston a few times. It's pretty inside, but I've only ever gotten take-out (which was very good.)
David says Dali for tapas and yummy sangria, very very good food. His description of the interior sounds very swanky and sexy. It's on Kirkland(Camb.)/Washington(Somer.) and Beacon(Somer.)/Hampshire(Camb.) right on the Camberville border (hence the annoying need to clarify street names since they change when they cross the border.)
We ate at Olé (again in Inman) once and I was actually surprised at how good it was. I think someone told me it was overpriced and not worth it, but I really enjoyed the food I got and the guacamole really IS worth nine bucks, which I would not have thought was possible.
Diva in Davis Square is good for Indian although I usually go to Cafe of India in Harvard because it's closer and I used to work a block away and knew all the waiters by sight. They're owned by the same people and the food is more or less the same, but Diva is a little sexier on the inside.
Hmm. My ideas are petering out. Hope that this gives you at least some new inspiration!