Salts has an atmosphere of such genuine warmth that it’s the destination for special-occasion dinners. Ultracool platings make for dishes that delight you even before they hit your lips. Read more.
Peter McCarthy was doing farm-to-table before practically anyone else, and his “Home Grown” menu, annotated with a list of the producers, is still an example of local sourcing done right. Read more.
With food that capitalizes on the season’s bounty, chef David Punch reels in a cross section of Cambridge. Arrive a few minutes early to share a snack or two. Read more.
If it were up to us, we’d craft our entire meal here out of the first courses; they’re just that satisfying. Read more.
Jason Bond doesn’t proclaim anything, so when you go to his petite, year-old restaurant, the experience will catch you off-guard. Read more.
The name says it all: This tiny Inman Square spot cooks up Chinese-style dishes with New England ingredients, to delicious effect. Read more.
Shrimp and grits. Boiled peanuts. The menu might sound like it’ll more warm your soul than blow your mind. But blow your mind, it will. Read more.
Long before the skinny-jeans crowd claimed Central Square, chef Steve Johnson made it a cool spot to dine. Read more.
Few chefs do both upscale and low-key fare as well as Craigie’s Tony Maws. Nor do many offer them side by side, as he does at his Cambridge restaurant. Read more.
That Somerville is now a hot dining destination is due, in large part, to Keith Pooler. In his kitchen at Bergamot, the chef takes the ubiquitous farm-to-table theme and runs with it. Read more.
Harvest has a problem. We can never decide when to go: enjoy the dinner? Sunday brunch? If only every conundrum were this tasty… Read more.
Poor Charles Hotel. How many people pass through its lobby nightly, ignoring its staffers’ smiles and glazing over its décor? Blame Rialto: The second-floor restaurant has such pull. Read more.
When you finish dinner, you won’t want to return to that neon-lit madness outside. But leave you must. Otherwise, how can you come back? Read more.
Despite being part of the popular Ken Oringer restaurant club, this tiny sashimi bar in the Eliot Hotel still feels like a secret. Read more.
Our testers are constantly on the lookout for signs they’ve been noticed—too many “gifts” from the chef; a suspiciously good table. At L’Espalier, though, we can never tell. Read on for why. Read more.
If newer spots are like overdyed designer denim, Hamersley’s is the classic pair of jeans you cannot do without. Great for date nights. Read more.
When chef Barbara Lynch opened this South End boîte, she proved that slabs of fat-streaked, air-cured meats and stylish Bostonians make an excellent, if unlikely, pairing. Check the stellar wine list. Read more.
The folks behind the gastropub understand that people go out for fun, but when it comes time for more-serious eats, they don’t mess around. Try their wedge salad and Fluffernutter dessert. Read more.
Finding a restaurant not hawking locavore fare these days is tough, but at Lumière it’s no gimmick. Read more.
It’s hard not to be annoyed when great local chefs decamp to other locales. So we’re ecstatic that when Carolyn Johnson left Rialto, she stayed within our sphere. Read more.
Ken Oringer is a tinkerer—one of just a handful of local chefs to toy with techniques like spherification—which makes for some intriguing plates. Great for date nights and business meetings. Read more.