Boutique hotels
-
XV Beacon
- Style
- Stately city stay
- Setting
- Beside beautiful Boston Common
Boston Eating, drinking and dancing
Restaurants
(+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
(+1 617 423 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
(+1 617 450 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
(+1 617 262 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
(+ 1 617 867 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
(+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
(+1 617 742 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
(+1 617 654 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
(+1 617 351 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
(+1 617 423 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
(+1 617 536 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
(+1 617 422 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
Bars
+1 617 787 2337
Deep Ellum
Craft beer fanatics will love this Allston pub. Pair one of the 28 draft brews with cheese and charcuterie plates, root beer braised pork belly or fries topped with truffled gorgonzola.
477 Cambridge Street, Allston, MA 02134
+1 617 695 1806
Drink
High-maintenance cocktail-sippers rejoice: drinks are crafted to taste by master mixologists at chef Barbara Lynch’s Fort Point bar. You won’t find menus here, just skilled bartenders shaking up custom tipples.
348 Congress Street, Boston, MA 02228
(+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
(+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
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
