The Resy Hit List: Where In Boston You’ll Want to Eat Right Now

What if we told you that the owners behind Field & Vine took their restaurant’s fresh, in-season ethos and applied it to a wood-fired pizzeria? Well, we’d be telling you about June Bug, which has set up shop directly across from the team’s first restaurant. The vibes may be similar, with a vegetable-forward menu that offers dishes like roasted maitake mushrooms with egg-yolk jam, but the change is one of Boston’s most compelling pizza offerings of late — with naturally leavened pies topped by ‘nduja and majorjam, or clams, cabbage, and vermouth cream.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 is meat, vegetables and raw milk cheese from the Farm at Woods Hill in Bath, N.H., with other ingredients drawn from similarly minded local purveyors. The result is simple, classic fare prepared with local ingredients, 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).

“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.

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.

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.

State Park just marked its 10^th 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.

Chef Tracy Chang won national plaudits for her role starting volunteer-run organizations to address food insecurity during the pandemic. But she’s also garnered a James Beard nomination for her work in the kitchen 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 a vegetarian paella? Ditto. And depending on the size of your party, you might even plump for the scene-stealing suckling pig, served in portions that can satisfy up to six.

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 was soon attracting long lunch queues, a phenomenon that has yet to slow. The explanation can be found in its simple, 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. The formula hasn’t changed much — you can also order the dish hot, as well as a hot or cold udon with chicken broth — and the business has since opened a second location in the Seaport.

Walk-ins only.

Natural wine? Tinned fish? We know they’re hot — and in Boston. haley.henry figured that out early on. The cozy wine bar, ensconced in a DTX space little bigger than a pack of sardines, found its sweet spot in pours of off-the-beaten track natural wines paired to tins of octopus or a varied selection of cheeses and charcuterie. Bigger appetites can still be sated by a tight menu of fare pumped out of the pint-sized kitchen, including braised short rib in a celeriac puree or cheeky, always-changing hot dog specials. Quirky rosé blends and chilled reds are poured with a minimal amount of pretension — and a dose of background on every bottle, should you ask for it.

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.

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. the morning prior. Now that you’ve set your alarm, we can fill you in on what’s made Kava such a hot ticket. There’s the matter of its undeniable good looks, including a cozy dining room drenched in sunlight during the day. 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.

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.