The Resy Hit List: Where In Boston You’ll Want to Eat in August 2026
Updated:
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.
Consider it your essential resource for dining in Boston: a monthly-updated guide to the restaurants that you won’t want to miss — tonight or any night.
Four Things In Boston Not to Miss This Month
- Afternoon Delights: One can only exist on slop bowls for so long — it’s time to have a proper lunch. And what good timing, as Tonino will continue to host prix-fixe, family-style lunches every second Saturday through October. Elsewhere, JM Curley has brought back lunch service, so that you may again avail yourself of lobster mac ‘n’ cheese and housemade crunchwraps after 11 a.m. each day.
- Summermaxxing: All good things must come to an end, including an epic summer marked by hordes of Scots and a flotilla of tall ships. But don’t despair: soak up the waning days of summer at venues uniquely suited to the season, including The Tall Ship Boston for deckside carnitas tacos and clam strip rolls, ReelHouse Marina Bay for waterfront shellfish towers and shrimp ceviche, and Marcelino’s Seaport for traditional caviar service with unbeatable Boston Harbor views.
- Taste It: Is Boston having a tasting menu renaissance? It sure feels that way, with many-coursed options like Wa Shin and O Ya for omakase, Nightshade Noodle Bar for a Michelin-recommended blending of French and Vietnamese cuisines, Lenox Sophia for the intimate feel of a chef’s kitchen, and long-running asta for an omnivorous tour through seasonal ingredients, also available vegan or vegetarian.
- Province Me This: Haven’t made it out to P-Town yet this summer? We don’t want to hear the excuses. But we can help you secure reservations to the likes of Freemans Provincetown for short rib tartare and butter-poached Maine lobster, Liz’s Cafe and Anybody’s Bar for hearty classics like shrimp scampi and chicken Parmesan, Joon Bar and Kitchen Provincetown for duck sliders and tagine-spiced scallops, and Victor’s for coconut-crusted shrimp cocktail and scallop risotto.
New to the Hit List (Aug. 2026)
Bey, Mesob, Petula’s, Picco.
1. Sarma Winter Hill
There’s something to be said — nay, 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. Yes, the bevy of awards has helped, but that would shortchange the constant creativity of chef Cassie Piuma, whose Turkish meyhane concept still resonates. Piuma has maintained her Somerville spot as 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. Juliet Union Square, Somerville
It’s no exaggeration to suggest that Juliet may be one of the Boston area’s most interesting places to eat. The independently owned and operated restaurant is at once a breakfast-and-lunch café serving housemade pastries and burgers, and a dinner destination focused on Niçoise cuisine (spaghetti pomodoro, pollock meunière, etc). In addition to that regular menu, it also hosts “rotating menu productions” that change throughout the year, giving diners the chance to experience prix-fixes themed around Quebecois cuisine, Persian New Year, the New England coast, and more.
3. Nightshade Noodle Bar Lynn
With a Michelin recommendation now under its belt, Nightshade Noodle Bar continues to cook up an innovative blend of French and Vietnamese flavors through a variety of tasting menu options. They range from a seven-course “Prelude” that lasts up to 90 minutes to a showstopping, 30-courser dubbed “The Ultimate” that runs over three hours. Between the extremes is its 14-course “NNB Signature Tasting,” which may include everything from grilled coconut sticky rice pops to confit garlic noodles with crab cakes.
4. Bey South End
Among the South End’s hottest current reservations, Bey is a shoebox-sized space on Shawmut Avenue that takes its name from Beirut and serves a modern interpretation of Lebanese cuisine. Said food comes in the form of cold mezze like whipped labneh with za’atar chips, hot mezze including pan-fried halloumi with orange blossom honey, and larger plates like beef kabab or a whole grilled branzino.
5. Kush Modern Mediterranean Somerville
Chef-turned-TV host-turned-chef again Saba Wahid Duffy serves her own vision of “modern Mediterranean” at her intimately sized Somerville restaurant. Occupants of any of the 16 seats will dine on dishes that mix traditional Mediterranean and South Asian flavors with aplomb, resulting in dishes like curry spiced falafel with maple tahini, harissa brown sugar-braised beef, and even cardamom white chocolate pistachio cookie ice cream sandwiches (say that three times fast). And if you want to try your hand at a little cooking yourself, Duffy offers three-hour classes that can be booked via the restaurant’s website.
6. The Daily Catch – Waterfront North End
Situated at the tip of the North End — and critically, in sight of the water — The Daily Catch sources fresh hauls from the Boston Fish Pier and converts them into simple, family-style Sicilian specialties served straight out of the pan. Favorites from its 50-year history include calamari meatballs with whipped ricotta, serves-two lobster fra diavolo, and monkfish Marsala.
7. Mesob Restaurant South End
If you’re not yet familiar with the bounties of Ethiopian and Eritrean cuisine, you’re about to get a hands-on experience of them (in more ways than one) at relative South End newcomer Mesob. Situated on Washington Avenue and dialed into authentic flavors, it offers the likes of gored gored (raw beef mixed with spiced butter and chile powder) and berbere-spiced chicken stew, all of which can be scooped up with spongy, sour injera.
8. Fallow Kin Cambridge
Fallow Kin had big culinary boots to fill as the successor to the Central Square space that once hosted Craigie on Main. It helps that the new restaurant is helmed by an all-star roster of local talent, including Talulla owners Conor Dennehy and Danielle Ayer and veteran chef Marcos Sanchez. The focus here is squarely on the local and seasonal, which manifests in a menu that puts veggies front and center, like twice-cooked sunchokes with broccoli pickles and smoky cabbage in a seaweed broth with crispy chicken skin, but doesn’t forgo meat, seafood, and pastas.
9. Cafe Sushi Cambridge
The nondescriptly named Café Sushi, ensconced in a strip mall between Central and Harvard Squares, is a textbook case of don’t-judge-a-book-by-its-cover. Because hidden in plain sight remains one of the city’s best sushi programs, now four decades old, served in a simple but artfully appointed dining room with spare wood furniture and hanging paper lanterns. You’ll be well-served with a spicy scallop hand roll over sushi selections including Japanese mackerel with poblano miso and 12-spice pineapple, or a creative house roll like the ceviche with shrimp, salmon, avocado, and pickled jicama.
10. LoLa 42 Seaport
Like its sibling establishment, Nantucket’s LoLa 41 — which now has outposts in tony vacation spots across the country, — LoLa 42 finds culinary inspiration in the countries that sit on the 41st parallel. What this means in edible terms is plates of lobster fried rice, cavatelli Bolognese, and a robust sushi program. Making the potential choices even more difficult to choose between is the existence of their namesake burger, which is slathered with foie gras sauce and served on an English muffin.
11. Picco South End
One of the South End’s best-kept secrets, Picco keeps regulars (particularly families) coming back for cold-fermented, perfectly charred sourdough pizzas crowned with bountiful pepperoni slices or made up as house specialties like the Alsatian (bacon, Gruyere, shallots, and crème fraiche). Just leave some room for the other side of its name (it stands for “Pizza and Ice Cream Company”) with homemade flavors like miso blueberry and chocolate malt, which can be taken home by the pint.
12. Marcelino’s Seaport Seaport Waterfront
The covered patio at Marcelino’s Seaport gives diners a front-row seat to Boston Harbor. But they may feel like they’re patronizing a white-hot island party spot somewhere in the Mediterranean, thanks to a thumping oonce-oonce soundtrack and a menu that features Lebanese-spiced whole branzino, beef kebab skewers, and traditional caviar service. The cocktail menu, meanwhile, takes freewheeling inspiration from around the globe with creations like a briny oyster shell martini balanced with a hit of lemon oil and an oat-clarified Boston tea milk punch that pays tribute to a certain historical event with rum, Champagne, and a trio of teas.
13. Little Sage North End
Before its closure in 2009, Sage was a North End mainstay beloved for its housemade pastas. Now it’s back in a slightly smaller, 50-seat dining room as Little Sage, under the auspices of original chef Tony Susi. What hasn’t changed is the emphasis on scratch-made pasta like ricotta gnocchi with Maine lobster and brick oven-baked entrees including head-on Argentinian shrimp in an artichoke puttanesca.
14. O Ya Leather District
Long before “omakase” was a household word in Boston, or anywhere really, Tim and Nancy Cushman were serving their eclectic take on the experience from a narrow, brick-walled room in the Leather District. Almost 20 years on it remains clear-your-calendar occasion dining, with a chef’s tasting menu (also available vegetarian or vegan) that unfolds over the course of two to three hours in singular bites of nigiri and sashimi that incorporate eccentric, experimental components like housemade potato chips, squid ink, or panang curry.
15. Petula’s South Boston
There’s a little bit of everything at Petula’s, which has cemented its status as a neighborhood hang with crowd-pleasers including tempura-fried fish tacos, smash burgers and 12-inch pies topped with the likes of figs and prosciutto or mushrooms and fried garlic. And that’s before even delving into the drink menu, which offers a Negroni with coconut-washed Campari and a pumpkin espresso martini topped by cold foam.
16. Kahaani South Boston
The old Worden Hall space on West Broadway has been transformed into Kahaani, a new gastropub with bold Indian flavors and flower-festooned walls. Specializing in Hyderabadi cooking, which incorporates Turkish and Arabic flavors, signature dishes here include slow-cooked chicken biryani and Haleem meat stew.
17. Umami Crudo Boston
Cambridge’s Umami Omakase has touched down in Boston proper with a sister restaurant, Umami Crudo. While the former — as the name would imply — is omakase only, Umami Crudo delivers an a la carte experience utilizing the same top-shelf seafood, resulting in dishes like oyster sashimi with a grapefruit granita, toro caviar rolls, and lobster somen.
18. Willie’s Beacon Hill
Jamie Bissonnette’s latest ventures (see Somaek, Temple Records, etc.) have a funny way of expanding into adjacent spaces. Now the same has happened with Zurito, whose next-door neighbor — formerly a pizzeria — is now Willie’s, an intimately sized new restaurant serving chewy, thin-crust pizzas and housemade pastas with influences from Spain or Asia. For instance: the P.C.T. pie, essentially a large-scale pan con tomate, and spaghetti carbonara made with yuzu kosho and Parmesan dashima.
19. Retroroom Boston
“That ‘70s vinyl lounge,” could be an alternate title for Retroroom, a groovy new hideaway on Boylston that features DJs on the weekends but invites patrons to pull records from its extensive house collection anytime. All while enjoying of-the-decade treats like onion ring towers, cheese fondue and “super-size” large-format cocktails including the Back Bay Killa made with pineapple-infused vodka, orange juice, and dark rum, served in a kidding-you-not disco ball.
20. Avra Boston Back Bay
To step inside Avra Boston is to be instantly transported to some sun-kissed seaside town on the Aegean coast. It’s a feat the upscale chain accomplishes with white-washed walls, indoor olive trees, and most importantly, a menu stocked with whole-grilled fish flown in fresh from the Mediterranean. Go all out with an entire, de-boned branzino ladled in lemon sauce, plus grilled Portuguese sardines, and Maine lobster pasta to fill in any gaps.
