The Resy Hit List: Where In Boston You’ll Want to Eat Right Now
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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
- Kickoff: The 2026 NFL season starts Wednesday, Sept. 9 with the Patriots facing the Seahawks in Seattle. We can think of a few worthy places to savor the rematch, namely Game On – Fenway for its 32 flat screens and coal-fired pizza, Scores for steak tips and bottomless fries, Dillon’s for South Shore-style Buffalo chicken pizza, and Back Bay Social Club for onion ring towers and New York strip steaks.
- ‘Tini Time: The full-scale revival that the martini had enjoyed over the last year shows no signs of slowing down, and Boston is spoiled for choice. Consider The Wig Shop for its olive oil-washed dirty, 89 Charles for a frosty-as-advertised Freezer Martini, The Street Bar for a Signature Martini made with a blend of multiple gins and vermouths, and the Atlantic Fish Company for its generous, no-nonsense pour.
- Act Natural: The Boston Public Market is now home to Marzae Cellar + Provisions, a newly opened tasting room from local natural wine-maker Marzae. As for what else is new on Resy, you can get the full scoop here.
- Wine and Dine’d: September’s shaping up to be a fine month for those who enjoy a little wine with dinner. Thursday, Sept. 17 sees Dr. Konstantin Frank bringing its Finger Lakes vino to Tonno Wakefield, tickets here; Scarpetta Winery is touching down at A Tavola on Wednesday, Sept. 23 for a five-course dinner, tickets here; and a four-course fall equinox dinner at City Winery takes place on Monday, Sept. 28th with wines paired to hanger steak, lavender honey crème brûlée, and beyond; tickets here.
New to the Hit List (Sept. 2026)
Extra Dirty Cocktail Club, Louis Corner, Matria, Viale.
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. Louis Corner Boston
Louis Corner — which now has a full liquor license — continues to delight its little corner of the South End, with its upscale takes on American comfort classics like bechamel-enhanced mac ‘n’ cheese and a smash burger finished with spicy mayo and caramelized onions. And the newly enhanced cocktail menu now features the likes of Expedition 552, made with bourbon, amontillado sherry, and crème de banana.
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. Matria Downtown
If “Northern Italian Steakhouse, but on Boston’s waterfront” sounds appealing, you may want to consider Matria. Perched in the Intercontinental Hotel, it features a harbor-facing patio warmed by fire pits, which is as good a place as any to enjoy a freezer-cold martini and a bagna cauda-coated prime tenderloin with truffled polenta and pancetta brussels sprouts on the side.
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. Viale Central Square
Since 2014, Viale has quietly served its stretch of Mass Ave. with handmade pastas like tagliatelle verde with heirloom tomato pomodoro and saffron lumachel in a seafood broth with clams and mussels. They also have one of the best dollar oyster deals going, with buck-a-shuck taking place from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and 4 to 7 p.m. Fridays.
15. Extra Dirty Cocktail Club North End
A 20-seat lounge hidden behind a curtain at The Red Fox, Extra Dirty Cocktail Club is the mixology equivalent of a tasting menu. After buying tickets on Tock, guests are treated to progressive courses of cocktails paired to small bites and curated around a particular theme, for instance, agave spirits and Mexican citrus fruits.
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, intimately sized and new but with a similar continuity: chewy, thin-crust pizzas and housemade pastas with influences from Spain or Asia. Witness, for instance, the P.C.T. pie, essentially a large-scale pan con tomate; or spaghetti carbonara made with yuzu kosho and Parmesan dashima. Quintessentia Bissonnette, and we’re here for it.
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.
