Boutique hotels in Boston
-
XV Beacon
- Style
- Stately city stay
- Setting
- Beside beautiful Boston Common
Boston
Eating, drinking and dancing
We've tracked down the best cafés for people-watching, the bars with the coolest cocktails, the most accomplished restaurants and the liveliest local nightlife in Boston.
Restaurants
(+1 617 262 3023)
L’Espalier
A series of exquisite, traditionally designed dining rooms with an edge of modernity, L’Espalier has bagged countless awards for its New England-inspired French cuisine. There are four rooms in which to sample its wide-ranging menus, excellent wines and vast cheese selection – the Library is our favourite.
774 Boylston Street, Boston, MA 02199
(+1 617 536 4300)
Toro
As close to Barcelona as Boston gets, this convincingly Spanish tapas restaurant is a nibbler’s fantasy with huge menus of Iberian favourites, such as boquerones, garlic prans an seared foie gras, an all-Spanish wine list, and an ever-jovial atmosphere. Pass around the cava porron and settle in for a lengthy banquet.
1704 Washington Street, Boston, MA 02118
(+1 617 351 2565)
Sonsie
A swarming point for the city’s sophisticated set, Sonsie is a classic dark woody brasserie with an Italianate menu that leans towards mouth-watering pizzas and foccacia.
327 Newbury Street, Boston, MA 02115
(+1 617 536 6300)
Abe & Louie’s
With its Hollywoodesque hideaway booths, vaulted ceiling and bronze chandeliers, this is a classic gentlemen’s steakhouse, unfussily decked out with red and black leather booths and banquettes.
793 Boylston Street, Boston, MA 02116
(+1 617 422 0008)
Via Matta
Bisected by a chunky wooden table lined with fresh foccacia and olive oils, this Italian hotspot is a bright and simple space where diners devour pasta and seafood prepared with the freshest seasonal ingredients.
793 Boylston Street, Boston, MA 02116
(+1 617 450 4343)
Bouchée
This banquette-lined Back Bay brasserie serves good-value classic French dishes, such as confit, steak-frites, and cassoulet – as well as a selection of iced lobster and oysters – in an informal setting.
159 Newbury Street, Boston, MA 02116
(+1 617 423 0550)
B & G Oysters Ltd
Built into the basement of a quaint red brick house, this subterranean seafood spot is famed for its Maine lobster rolls and fried oysters. There’s also a great garden patio outside for the summer-season snacking.
550 Tremont Street, Boston, MA 02116
(+1 617 423 0550)
The Butcher Shop
The beefier brother establishment to B&G Oysters combines a fully functioning butcher’s shop with an atmospheric exposed-brick dining room where you can sample the prime cuts on offer. The deliciously meaty menu has little to appeal to vegetarians, but then, if you’re a vegetarian there’s not a chance you’ll be dining here.
550 Tremont Street, Boston, MA 02116
(+1 617 742 3474)
Neptune Oyster
Hailed as the best raw food bar in the city, Neptune has the decor of a Parisian bistro but in place of steak-frites you’ll find lobster and clams. The combination of a no-reservation policy, limited space and amazing food make visiting a gamble, but when it pays off, it really pays off.
63 Salem Street, Boston, MA 02113
(+1 617 742 9991)
No 9 Park
A standard-bearer for Bostonian fine dining, illustrious restaurateur Barbara Lynch’s first outlet offers a fine selection of freshly prepared Mediterranean dishes, together with an exciting seven-course tasting menu.
9 Park Street, Boston, MA 02108
(+1 617 670 2515)
Mooo
In addition to the Kobe beef and fine filet mignon on offer at the XV Beacon hotel’s modern mushroom-toned steakhouse restaurant, you can enjoy a fantastic selection of lobster, stone crab and oysters.
15 Beacon Street, Boston, MA 02108
(+1 617 654 9900)
O Ya
Surreptitiously secreted down a cobbled alleyway in an old fire station, this contemporary Japanese joint is the much beloved culinary offspring of an absurdly talented husband and wife team. Tim, a Nobu-trained restaurant consultant and his team of chefs create fabulous sushi and sashimi, as well as delectable cooked seafood and wagyu beef.
9 East Street, Boston, MA 02111
(+ 1 617 867 9300)
Mistral
A grand and glam dining room for a full-on French fine dining experience, with floor-to-ceiling windows, pale green banquettes and artfully exposed stone walls, creating a faintly Provencal vibe.
223 Columbus Avenue, Boston, MA 02116
Cafés
(+1 617 267 4300)
Flour Bakery & Café
Wizardly pastries, marvellous muffins, tantalising tarts and sticky buns to rave about; Flour’s owner Joanne satisfies the city’s sweet tooth with her prolific pastry-making. For lunch, the crusty baguettes and zingy soups are a must.
1595 Washington Street, Boston, MA 02118
(+1 617 482 1015)
South End Buttery
Everything a good day-with-the-papers café should have is here in abundance: cupcakes, cookies, coffee and bagels by the bucketload.
314 Shawmut Avenue, Boston, MA 02118
(+1 617 737 1234)
Sportello
An ideal stop-off for a cool canteen-style pasta lunch – or to pick up pastry treats from its cornucopian bakery counter – this trattoria-inspired café is located just upstairs from Drink bar; handy for post-prandial cocktails.
348 Congress Street, Boston, MA 02210
Bars and clubs
(+1 617 423 0069)
The Beehive
Set up to evoke an old theatre with chandeliers, red velour curtains and exposed brick, this live jazz venue is gritty, industrial, a little bizarre, and totally charming. If you don’t want to sit in the thick of the musicians, there’s a brasserie-style bar off to one side with extra tables.
541 Tremont Street, Boston, MA 02116
(+1 617 868 6739)
Middlesex
A minimalist club lounge with a laid-back atmosphere, this ascending star of the Boston music scene lures in international DJ stars and, with a respectable lunchtime menu and a variety of tempting bar snacks, doubles as a more than serviceable snacking station.
315 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139
