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
- New on Resy: Peak summer brings openings including Bey in the South End, doling out kafta kebab, grilled whole branzino and other Lebanese delights; plus Mesob, which is serving traditional Eritrean and Ethiopian flavors in the same neighborhood. See the full list here.
- Eggcellent News: Mimi’s Chuka Diner has launched brunch for the first time, and it’s a gonzo mix of American diner-inspired classics like jumbo asparagus Benedict and loco moco plus dim sum standards including shumai and handmade gyoza. All in all, it’s a worthy addition to the local brunch scene, which already features staples like Myers + Chang for Reuben egg rolls, Sonsie for steak and eggs, Cafe Luna for Mexican churro French toast, and Contessa Boston for smoked salmon carpaccio (and views).
- May the Fourth Be with You: America’s 250th anniversary, in Boston: kind of a big deal. You might mark it by grabbing that most All-American of culinary creations, the cheeseburger, at JM Curley before migrating to Loyall Counting Room for American Revolution-themed cocktails, and finally taking in the fireworks (complete with shellfish towers and buttermilk-fried oysters) at Woods Hill Pier 4.
- Raise It: Rooftops and summer go together like peanut butter and jelly, hot dogs and mustard… you name it. And Boston features a number of top-floor dining and drinking situations, notably Rooftop at Revere for private cabanas with panoramic views of the Common, Pier 6 Boston Waterfront to take in the harbor and city skyline with colossal shrimp cocktail within reach, Pier 6 Boston Waterfront for bistecca Fiorentina in sight of the Public Garden, and Saigon Babylon for a ceiling-free garden with lemongrass beef and daiquiris.
New to the Hit List (July 2026)
Avra Boston, The Daily Catch – Waterfront, Kush Modern Mediterranean, Sugar’s Hot Pizza.
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. 89 Charles Boston
Beacon Hill, as central as Boston gets, has long lacked a serious cocktail bar of its own. That’s changed with the welcome arrival of 89 Charles, a sultry subterranean lounge with an Art Deco touch serving drinks like the Soda Jerk with smoked pineapple, Green Chartreuse, and silver dust, or an as-advertised Filthy Martini with marinated olive brine and MSG saline. Thankfully, a menu of snacky smaller plates ranging from foie gras bratwurst to a spicy ‘nduja flatbread are on hand to help soak it all up.
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. Tall Order Somerville
Joe Cammarata and Daren Swisher — the longtime industry vets behind Daiquiris and Daisies in High Street Place — have a standalone bar of their own in the form of Tall Order. Located just outside of Inman Square in what was once the Thirsty Scholar, the drink menu is bound to please cocktail nerds (take its eponymous drink, a blend of rums with Madeira, pineapple skins, and clarified coconut milk), while also catering to the low-ABV crowd and teetotalers alike. The edible offerings, meanwhile, represent pub food at its best with pork sausage rolls, karaage fried chicken sandwiches, and Denver steak frites.
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. Sugar’s Hot Pizza Seaport
For a neighborhood that was little more than a parking lot 15 years ago, the Seaport quickly acquired everything you could ask for — except a real slice joint. That’s finally changed with the debut of Sugar’s Hot Pizza, which comes from the powers behind beloved late-night Nantucket spot Stubby’s (which uncoincidentally, also has a Seaport location). Drop by as late as 11 p.m. for its generously sized, New York-style slices or pies in varieties like classic pepperoni or vodka sauce topped by chicken cutlets.
Walk-ins only. Find more info here.
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. Lanner Noodles – Seaport Boston
Lanner Noodles, originally of Cambridge, has touched down in the Seaport with a second location serving … noodles. But that word barely does justice to the variety of piping-hot bowls flying out of the kitchen, often made with hand-pulled noodles and served in aromatic broths made from braised beef, lamb shank, and more. And contrary to the name, non-noodle offerings are available too, including barbecue lamb skewers seasoned with a house spice mix and a spicy chicken and potato stew.
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.
