The Resy Hit List: Where In Boston You’ll Want to Eat in May 2024
There’s no question we hear more often: Where should I go eat? And while we at Resy know it’s an honor to be the friend who everyone asks for restaurant advice, we also know it’s a complicated task. That’s where the Resy Hit List comes in.
We’ve designed it to be your essential resource for dining in Boston: a monthly-updated (and newly expanded!) guide to the restaurants in that you won’t want to miss — tonight or any night.
Four Things In Boston Not to Miss This Month
- Whiskey Business: On Saturday, May 4, Chickadee is inviting fellow brown-spirit bon vivants to a cocktail class focused on the American whiskey family tree. Participants will sample five to six half-sized cocktails paired to snacks while receiving a lesson in American whiskey history from beverage director Ted Kilpatrick. Find tickets here.
- The Mother of All Brunches: Yes, Mother’s Day is nigh, and you should call. Better yet, make her a reservation somewhere good. Like SRV, which is offering a $55 three-course prix fixe; find tickets here. Or Contessa, whose own $105 prix fixe promises pastries, smoked salmon and squash carpaccio, veal Milanese, and more. Find tickets here. Or use our handy brunch guide for more inspo.
- Thai One On: On Tuesday, May 14th, Spoke Wine Bar will host Gaaeng, a supper club focused on the flavors of Southern Thailand. For $110 a head, the family-style feast will include fried shrimp curry fritters, grilled duck heart skewers, skate wing curry, fermented rice with coconut ice cream and much more. Find tickets here.
- Patio Pleasures: See all that sunshine? Must be patio season. And fittingly, we’ve updated our patio guide for the season to be, with shout-outs to more recent openers like Gufo and Shy Bird South Boston, while remembering what makes al fresco standbys like Coppa and Saltie Girl so delightful. Find plenty more options here.
New to the Hit List (May 2024)
Somaek, Temple Records.
1. Sarma Winter Hill
There’s something to be said — actually, a lot to be said — about the sort of restaurant in an otherwise sleepy neighborhood that still books up weeks in advance, more than 10 years after opening. Sarma is that. You could chalk up its sticking power to its bevy of awards, but that would shortchange the constant creativity of chef Cassie Piuma, whose Turkish meyhane concept still resonates a decade in. It has become a laboratory for Mediterranean flavors, pumping out playful mezze like lentil nachos, brussels sprouts bravas and harissa barbecue duck, while still keeping diners on their toes for whenever the Turkish fried chicken — which can only be ordered direct from the tray — comes out of the kitchen.
2. Somaek Boston
Jamie Bissonnette’s first new restaurant since going solo is an ode to simple, traditional Korean cooking inspired by none other than his mother-in-law, who is officially credited as a consulting chef. The menu — which reads in both English and Korean — pairs dishes like seafood and green onion pancakes, steamed pork and kimchi dumplings, or steak tartare with pickled mustard and egg yolks to a robust assortment of banchan, including four types of kimchi. The bar program, meanwhile, serves its namesake drink made by blending soju and beer, alongside a bevy of other low-ABV cocktails. Bonus: the concept is in fact a three-in-one, as Somaek also hosts listening bar Temple Records (see below) and its associated act, Sushi @ Temple Records.
3. Contessa Boston Back Bay
As it enters its fourth year of business, Contessa remains a hot ticket — one of the hottest in town. Which is why it’s a smart idea to take care of the usual post-holiday lull to try and snap up a table for two (or more) and either get reacquainted with, or finally experience, all the rigatoni carbonara and veal Milanese-related hubbub, of the sort that made Major Food Group restaurants like Carbone into modern dining legends. Even if you don’t have dinner on the mind, its glitzy bar helmed by bow tie-clad staff remains the chicest spot in town for a Negroni, rooftop views included.
4. Baleia South End
For years, the Coda Restaurant Group has been content to play in the Italian sandbox. First it was wood-fired pies and housemade pastas at The Salty Pig, then Venetian-style small plates via SRV, and most recently the restaurant-cum-café Gufo. But the group’s last venture eschews the boot in favor of flavors from another peninsular nation, Portugal. Baleia bets big on Portuguese seafood with oysters spiced by piri piri, steamed baby clams in Vinho Verde, and an entire roasted fish with ham and anchovy xo. Meanwhile, landlubbers can still be contented by a lamb shank served with spicy pickles or a sucking pig complete with crispy ears.
5. Saltie Girl Boston Back Bay
Saltie Girl began as a restaurant-within-a-restaurant, taking over an underutilized room within owner Kathy Sidell’s MET Back Bay in 2016. The timing was impeccable: Saltie Girl made a focus out of tinned fish, well ahead of its time. Gradually, the restaurant has expanded to take over the entire townhouse that once housed MET. And its blend of tinned fish restaurant, raw bar and New England seafood shack still feels unique — perhaps thanks to house signatures like a decadent fried lobster and waffles. The main dining room is closed for renovations until mid-February, but the original, smaller space is open for walk-ins.
6. Chickadee Seaport
Out-of-the-way doesn’t begin to describe this spot nestled on the first floor of the Boston Design Center, beside a tile showroom and the Reebok headquarters. As it turns out, it’s as fine a place as any to open a loosely Mediterranean restaurant built around New England ingredients, which has resulted in now-classic dishes like thick-cut chickpea fries with Calabrian chile aioli and harissa-spiced cheddar biscuits, plus an always-changing assortment of housemade pastas. Just don’t sleep on the fried chicken, which really is as good as everyone makes it out to be.
7. Woods Hill Pier 4 – Seaport Seaport
An outgrowth of Concord’s Woods Hill Table, Pier 4 is an ingredients-focused breath of fresh air in a glossy neighborhood otherwise crowded out by steakhouse chains and margarita joints. Like its suburban sibling, the Seaport location sources much of its ingredients from the Farm at Woods Hill in Bath, N.H., with others drawn from similarly minded local purveyors. The result is simple, classic fare, served in a starkly modern dining room with sweeping views of Boston Harbor. And while seasonal dishes come and go, you can always count on the popovers (don’t miss them).
8. Myers + Chang South End
“Asian-ish” flavors abound at Joanne Chang’s longstanding South End restaurant, whose small plates incorporate the culinary traditions of Thailand, Vietnam, Korea, China and beyond. The charm rests not only in its airy diner-like space, but also to an openness to accommodating allergies and dietary restrictions that goes above and beyond. The entire menu, from Mama Chang’s pork and chive dumplings to the wok-roasted lemongrass mussels, is carefully coded to alert diners to vegan or vegetarian status and the presence of any potential allergens. And distinct gluten-free, shellfish-free or nut-free menus are available.
9. Toro Boston South End
Ken Oringer’s Toro arguably introduced tapas to Boston — and supercharged the South End’s nascent dining scene — when it opened on an otherwise snoozy stretch of Washington Street in 2005. Ever since, Toro has been anything but quiet, with small crowds packing around the Barcelona-style restaurant’s entrance. While the menu rotates regularly, a number of house signatures have emerged: most notably, its ultra-saucy patatas bravas (which can be fortified with sausage crumbles), the Valencian-style paella and a decadent uni bocadillo that spreads fresh uni, miso butter and pickled mustard seeds between two slices of well-toasted bread.
10. Field & Vine Union Square
The arrival of pizza-focused sibling June Bug (see above) is a good reason to check back into Field & Vine. Given its emphasis on local, seasonal ingredients, the menu is rarely static, currently with dishes like steak tartare with nuoc cham aioli, smoked beets with raspberry vinaigrette and almond coffee cream, and a grilled swordfish swimming in guajillo broth with hominy. If that sort of tweaking of what otherwise might go under the category of “New American” feels especially novel, well, that’s why F&V’s customers are a loyal bunch.
11. Lê Madeline Quincy
Quincy is making a serious play at being a bona fide dining destination, helped along by creative newcomers like Lê Madeline. Formerly the long-running noodle shop Pho Linh, Lê Madeline represents a more contemporary take on Vietnamese cooking that seamlessly blends unexpected ingredients into classic preparations, resulting in dishes like a creamy bo kho (beef stew) made with hanger steak au poivre, or a dish of sliced duck and banana flowers with fish sauce-laced Dijonnaise.
12. State Park Kendall
State Park just marked its 10th anniversary… although to be honest, it looks a lot older, as much of its furnishings were salvaged from a legendary Somerville bar that shuttered back in 2012. A decade on, it doesn’t feel like a stretch to say that State Park has developed into something of a legend itself, with lively live music and DJ nights, a pool table that’s seldom out of use and house classics like the chicken katsu sandwich and a stiff gibson with house-pickled onions. Rock on, State Park.
13. Pagu Central Square
Chef Tracy Chang won plaudits for starting volunteer-run organizations to address food insecurity during the pandemic. But she’s also garnered a James Beard nomination for her work at this unclassifiable Central Square restaurant, which serves classic Spanish tapas alongside Japanese and other Asian dishes. In the mood for jamón Ibérico, but also braised pork belly bao? Pagu has you covered. Craving miso black cod but also vegetarian paella? Ditto. And depending on the size of your party, you might even plump for the scene-stealing suckling pig, which can satisfy up to six.
14. SRV South End
SRV — as in “Serene Republic of Venice” has brought the cooking of the City of Canals to Columbus Avenue. The emphasis is cicchetti, bite-sized morsels you might enjoy in a Venetian wine bar, or bacaro. Within SRV’s brick-walled dining room, dinner might start with a Venetian Spritz or the vermouth of the day, followed by such cicchetti as its baccala mantecato — salt cod spread on a piece of black bread with herbs — or the evergreen pork-and-beef meatballs. Dinners gradually progress to small or main-sized plates; don’t miss the seasonally changing risotto.
15. Yume Ga Arukara Porter Square
A testament to “if you build it, they will come,” Yume Ga Arukara opened in 2016 at the end of a cramped row of Asian food stalls improbably located within a Lesley University building. No matter, the bare-bones noodle counter soon attracted long lunch queues, and still does. The explanation can be found in its signature offering: a bowl of freshly made udon, the noodles at once pillowy and elastic, served cold in a slightly sweet, scant broth and topped by thinly sliced beef. That formula hasn’t changed much — you can now order the dish hot, as well as version with chicken broth — and the business has since opened a second location in the Seaport.
Walk-ins only.
16. Temple Records Boston
In the 1950s, “listening bars” sprouted in Japan, where audio nerds could bring in their vinyl to be played in a laid-back atmosphere with a cold drink in hand. Why is this history lesson important? Because it provides the context to Jamie Bissonnette’s other new downtown concept. Connected to his new Somaek, Temple Records serves as a listening library for the chef-owner’s impressive collection of LPs, and offers a cocktail menu split between simple, fizzy highballs and more creative drinks like the Off Minor made with Japanese gin, Midori, basil, yuzu, and absinthe. Just no shaken cocktails, as that would disturb the music—an essential rule of listening bars everywhere.
17. The Salty Pig Back Bay
Despite its central setting smack between Back Bay and the South End, The Salty Pig qualifies as a sleeper. This more casual sibling — and predecessor — to SRV takes similar pride in its scratch-made pastas, but it amends those freshly formed bucatini or rigatoni with wood-fired pizza pies and plates laden high with housemade charcuterie (don’t miss the rillettes) and cheese. Its laidback dining room grows even more lax in the afternoon, when a lunch service peppered with the likes of Italian grinders and meatball sandwiches takes over.
18. KAVA neo-taverna South End
If there’s one thing you must know about the tiny, perpetually in-demand taverna at the intersection of Shawmut and Union Park, it’s this: The restaurant only takes reservations a day in advance, starting at 10 a.m.. Now that you’ve set your alarm, we can fill you in on what’s made Kava a hot ticket. There’s the matter of its undeniable good looks. But most of the credit goes to the menu, which is rustic, simple and sized to share, with dishes like keftedes (lamb meatballs) bouyiourdi (baked feta with tomatoes) and grilled octopus among the perpetual favorites.
19. Brick Street Bagel South End
Over the last year, Brick Street Bagels has gone from selling its chewy, crispy wares in parks, restaurants, or cafés via pop-ups to dispensing bagels from its own, dedicated space inside the South End Buttery’s Shawmut Avenue location. For now, “drops” are announced via the indie baker’s website, and tend to happen four days a week: Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. Just make sure to check the schedule yourself — and prepare to queue in line.
20. XOXO Sushi Chestnut Hill
There’s subtle, low-key, and reserved… and then there’s XOXO Sushi. The Chestnut Hill newcomer is none of the adjectives previously listed, and that’s perfectly all right. Because the gleaming sushi bar is where you’ll head for a night that calls for crab butter hand rolls with candied garlic or grilled Hokkaido scallop skewers slathered in lemon miso butter followed by miso black cod or Australian wagyu. If all that sounds like a lot of decisions to make, you can also leave it up to a chef’s choice sashimi or nigiri selection that can be boosted by caviar or truffle supplements.
