With the improved weather, comes more trips down to the South End for lunch.  I really enjoy walking in the South End because I love pretending that I live in wealthy neighborhoods.  Sam, Vernon and I decided one day to go to Masa (actually we wanted to go to Picco, but it was packed).  Since Sam’s girlfriend has been in town for a while, they’ve been trying to eat at nice restaurants once a week, and he told me that Masa makes a very good brunch.  We weren’t going for brunch, but from his description it sounded like a good choice.

Unlike Picco, nobody was eating at Masa.  I guess nobody else had heard about the brunch.  We got a nice table by the window and out came the pain gratis (this is my neologism for the year (last year was “primanocht”, you’re welcome America).  The pain gratis was an assortment of corn and crusty breads.

The breads came with a sampler of chipotle hummus (left), maple butter (middle), and red pepper cream cheese (right).  As good as the bread was, the sampler of dips/spreads was much better.  I really enjoyed the maple butter and red pepper hummus, mostly because I’ve grown weary of the chipotlification of modern cuisine (making a “chipotle-” something has become cliche in fine dining). 

There were not a lot of vegetarian dishes on the lunch menu, but what was available did seem interesting.  I ordered the fall vegetable vegetable burrito, which was filled with carrots, parsnips, and other boring vegetables.  I should probably go back in spring (i.e. now), as spring vegetables are way tastier than fall vegetables.  However, the biggest disappointment of the burrito is the deconstruction of it.  All the flavor (i.e. guacamole and salsa) was on the corn leaf, rather than in the burrito!  So, I had to unwieldily dip the burrito into the guacamole/salsa to make it flavorful.

Sam ordered the butternut squash soup and salad combination, and I actually enjoyed primanochting his soup, which was very flavorful, with a faint glimpse of spiciness.

However, nothing could match the chile dusted fries for taste and flavor.  I don’t think you can go wrong with spicy fries (outside of them being oversalted, which these were not).

Masa’s menu is very vegetarian unfriendly (with only one dish being a dedicated vegetarian option).  This is particularly surprising for a southwestern themed restaurant.  From my brief excursions into the southwest, there are plenty of dishes that are vegetarian friendly (or can be made vegetarian friendly).  However, the food at Masa is very tasty.  However, no matter how good the sides and pain gratis is, I can’t promote dining at a place that doesn’t really want vegetarians to eat there (as evidenced by having only one dish that is not particularly great).  So, I’ll give Masa two cheese sandwiches, also for the fact that their website commits ALL the cardinal sins of stupid web design (flash intro, music playing without you wanting it to, having to download PDFs just to read the menu, etc.).  Go with meat eating friends and just fill up on the bread.

Masa
439 Tremont Street
Boston, MA 02116 
(617) 338-8884