My mother came into town for her spring break, so I’ve been on a temporary hiatus from reviewing restaurants as I have been eating loads of home cooking (and home-cooked leftovers).  I thought I’d pay her back (as best I could with my meagre salary) and take her out someplace nice.  We ended up going to Upstairs in the Square in Harvard Square, which is one of the most convoluted restaurants I’ve ever been to (and that includes Vapiano).  There are multiple different dining rooms, each with a similar, yet slightly different menu.  We started on the first floor, and told the hostess we were mostly vegetarian, so she said “You should try the Supper Club menu, there is a vegetarian prix fixe.”  So, we decided to climb up to the top level which was decorated like an Alice in Wonderland tea party.

We actually ended up not ordering the vegetarian prix fixe which was a 5 or 7 course meal for 50-70 dollars (depending on how many dishes you wanted).  Funnily enough, most of the dishes on the prix fixe were available à la carte, so we decided to split a few entrées and appetizers.  The free bread (pain gratis, if you prefer pretense) was tasty despite being sourdough.  I don’t like sourdough, but I do like free bread, so I’ll say the bread made me morally conflicted.

Our waiter told us that he really liked us, so he had the chef make us some cheese gougères, which were basically fried cheese puffs.  They were quite fantastic, and we were really excited to get these for free.  That was until we saw our waiter say the exact same thing to another table.  That actually broke my heart almost as much as my last girlfriend, because you expect that from someone you are involved with emotionally, but not a waiter!  He even invited us to come visit him in Brazil during the World Cup in 2014!

After that, we tried to salvage the dining experience despite that overt betrayal.  Fortunately, my mother’s Jerusalem artichoke soup was phenomenal, with bits of sorrel and black trumpet dried mushrooms providing texture contrasts to the perfectly salted and flavoured soup.  I am not a big fan of soups, but even I was impressed by this soup.

I ordered the roasted beet salad with horseradish panna cotta, which was a phenomenal dish.  The sweetness of the beets paired with the sinus-clearing flavor of the horseradish was an intriguingly tasty pairing.  I could eat this all day.

Unfortunately, there was only one entree for the three vegetarians, which was mixed winter root vegetables with gnocchi.  Almost all other gnocchi dishes that I have ever had were very heavy and filling, this dish was magically light.  It was minimally salted, and the contrasting flavors of brussel sprouts, carrots, parsnips, mushrooms and chestnuts with pesto created a delightfully tasty broth remaining after the dish was finished.

At this point I was pretty full, but we had to order dessert.  My cousin ordered churros with chocolate syrup and cinnamon ice cream which was phenomenal.  Each item (churros, syrup, ice cream) would have been delicious on their own, but in combination were amazing.

I ordered the gateau noisette, a hazelnut mousse torte with hazelnut butter cream and hazelnut ice cream.  It was a little too hazelnutty for my liking, and I like hazelnut.  At this point I wished I had gotten the churros instead.  Apologies for the blurriness.  At this point I was approaching a diabetic coma.

My mother ordered the chocolate pecan turtles, which were chocolate covered pecans with a brown sugar caramel.  These were very tasty, but ludicrously sweet, to the point that I could only eat a half of one (okay, maybe one and a half) of the three turtles.

Upstairs in the Square in my opinion is a little pricey, but definitely worth going if you want to experience fine dining.  The service is very friendly (perhaps too friendly – don’t get emotionally attached to your waiter, they’ll break your heart).  I know I gave a glowing review of Rialto, but I would say that Upstairs in the Square is better than Rialto.  There are not a lot of vegan options (the gnocchi had egg, the soup and salad all had dairy), so for that I can’t give them five cheese sandwiches.  But I will give them four and a half cheese sandwiches.

Upstairs in the Square
91 Winthrop Street
Cambridge, MA 02138 
(617) 864-1933

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

If you’re looking for dating advice, don’t read this blog for dating advice.  That being said, it’s very difficult to try and impress women with fine dining.  On one hand, she might be amazed at your taste, but on the other, she might think you’re just a pretentious snob.  Anyway, I met this girl named Nykesha in New York who I was seeing a few weekends in a row (hanging out, doing fun early date stuff), and I felt it was time to amp up the situation and do a romantic meal together.  This girl works in Midtown Manhattan, and I thought it would be cool to take her to DB Bistro Moderne, a place I almost went to with Hakeem and Chamique that looked like a good date venue*.

Before we even ordered we were given parmesan breadsticks with pesto and olive tapenade.  The breadsticks were light and fresh-tasting, and went well with the pesto and olive tapenade.  As an amuse-bouche, it was quite appealing.

We both ordered soups, and I told her that I was not a big fan of soups, as a function of my wisdom teeth surgery 13 years ago.  Nykesha said I should get over that by now.  I ordered the butternut squash soup, which pretty much was the best soup I’ve ever had.  So, I did get over it, but not because of her, it just turned out that I’ve only been eating really crappy soups for years (sorry, Au Bon Pain!).

That being said, the butternut squash soup was the best soup I had until I tried the wild mushroom soup that Nykesha ordered!  There was such an interesting blend of flavors and textures in the soup, with little quasi-dried mushrooms providing a pop with every spoonful.  I am a big fan of mushrooms, and the bold flavor was really great, almost to the point where I tried to get her to switch (with no success).

Nykesha ordered the orecchiette pasta, which is supposed to have a venison ragout, but they were willing to make vegetarian by not putting in the venison.  They did put in the butternut squash, chestnuts, and tomatoes.  The pasta was obviously very fresh, but the flavor was quite mundane and likely needed the ragout to taste good.

I ordered the “parsley impression farfalle”, which was the only dedicated vegetarian option on the menu (that wasn’t an appetizer).  Basically it was campanelle pasta with mushrooms, tomatoes, truffles and parmesan.  While I was enjoying the food and I actually much preferred my pasta dish to Nykeshas, I was slowly thinking about how much I was spending on this meal (~$30 for each pasta dish!).

Nevertheless, a meal’s got to end in dessert.  We decided to split the hazelnut marjolaine gateaux, which was frangelico cream, milk chocolate coffee mousse, devils food cake, and coffee ice cream (and a bizarrely cool chocolate wheel).  The desserts at DB Bistro Moderne are definitely the highlight of any meal.  It’s cliche to say that the meal looked to good to eat, but it actually felt weird digging into such a beautifully organized dish.

Overall, Nykesha and I had a good time, despite us both realizing that this New York-Boston thing was not going to work.  She definitely had a better time, as I ended up paying for the whole thing (stupid chivalry…).  What food is available for vegetarians at DB Bistro Moderne is fantastic and very delicious.  However, the selection is very limited, and while I had a very tasty pasta dish, modifying a dish to make it vegetarian just does not work.  Furthermore, the staff didn’t seem too keen to try and invent something for us knowing that we were vegetarian and didn’t want to have the exact same meal experience.  So, I can’t give full credit to DB Bistro Moderne for that.  However, for a fancy dining restaurant, it is reasonably priced, and the food is amazing, so I’ll give it three and a half cheese sandwiches.  I could be assuaged to give it 5 if it catered to vegetarians with a couple more entrees.

*Before you ask, SHE wanted me to record the date by blog.  Women can be vain sometimes.

DB Bistro Moderne
55 West 44th Street
New York, NY 10036

I feel I should admit that many times I am mentally formulating a review of a restaurant before even eating there (I can already tell you I will not enjoy my meal at K-O Prime). Irish pubs traditionally have very little on the menu that is vegetarian friendly (perhaps vegetarianism is anti-Catholic?), which is why I usually avoid eating at Irish pubs. Once I discovered that Phoenix Landing was an Irish pub, I immediately presumed that I wouldn’t be able to get anything there. So, on my first excursion there, I ended up getting a soup and an appetizer, as I didn’t see anything obviously vegetarian on the menu. It wasn’t until I went to the Phoenix Landing website to double-check the menu did I realize that they had both a grilled cheese club as well as a Portobello sandwich. Thus, my menu choices may seem strange, as this review encompasses two trips to Phoenix Landing.

On the first trip, I couldn’t find anything vegetarian (due to my blinding hatred of Irish restaurants*), so I ended up ordering the hummus plate and a cup of cream of Portobello soup (which was a special that day). The hummus plate was quite tasty and was a combination of veggies and pita chips served with: red pepper hummus, artichoke pesto, and olive tapenade. I must say that this plate was pretty special, as most hummus plates are just celery and carrots (maybe broccoli), but this really ran the gamut of vegetable options including: zucchini, squash, red peppers, as well as the standard carrots and celery. Also, the dips weren’t too salty or oily (as is often a concern when dealing with tapenades, pestoes, and hummuses). So, I would definitely rate it as a great appetizer for a summer day.

The soup was tasty, though I didn’t really detect that many Portobello mushrooms in it (it seemed laded with white mushrooms), but it was a special, so I can’t speak to much about it (specials are typically hit or miss, as the chef is either trying to repackage leftover food, or they are trying out a great new idea for a menu item).

My redemption trip to Phoenix Landing after I discovered that they do have veggie sandwiches that seem interesting (Guiness-marinated Portobello sandwich?!), but I actually became intrigued by another special – veggie burger sliders. I’ve loved the concept of sliders (little mini-burgers) ever since I first went to a White Castle at the age of six. And these veggie sliders were fantastic. Served on a brioche bun with mozzarella and a pesto-mayo, it was an interesting combination of caprese and veggie burger. The fries were a little undersalted, but I’m sure my doctor is fine with that at this point. I believe that the veggie burger sliders are a great new option to add to the menu of Phoenix Landing permanently. However, since they are only a special, I have to take that into consideration.

The main reason I never noticed the veggie sandwiches was that they were listed in a section called “burgers”, and I didn’t see the keywords Portobello or Veggie Burger as the menu title. Instead, the veggie sandwiches have stupid names like “Neo”, or “Grilled Cheese Club”, which initially made me think of a grilled cheese turkey club, so I didn’t give it much thought. But the fault lies definitely with me, not Phoenix Landing (See? I can be magnanimous!). Phoenix Landing has quite a few veggie options, though I’m surprised that they don’t have an out and out veggie burger option (possibly veggie burger sliders in the future?). And the options that exist are quite tasty, and I rate them highly among the Irish restaurants. Phoenix Landing is hands down the most veggie friendly Irish restaurant I’ve seen in Boston, and for that I’ll give it four cheese sandwiches (on the caveat that they include a veggie burger/slider option in the future).

*I don’t really hate Irish restaurants, but you, my devoted reader, probably think I do, and I don’t want to argue with you.

Phoenix Landing
512 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02139-4029 
(617) 576-6260

For some reason beyond my comprehension, Hakeem and Chamique are absolutely obsessed with all things Swedish (excluding Ikea, which they don’t care for). So, they suggested we go to AQ Kafé near Columbus Circle, which is part of the Townhouse Restaurant Group that includes Swedish brother restaurant Aquavit (I presume that Aquavit is the older brother as it’s older and has a major influence in the running of AQ Kafé.

Much like Irish food, Swedish food is generally unfriendly to vegetarians, and there are slim to no opportunities for vegetarians (especially vegans). I was able to conjure a meal including the soup of the day (tomato cheddar – in a vegetarian broth) and macaroni and cheese. The macaroni and cheese was breaded, which is an intelligent strategy to compensate for overcooking the macaroni and still leaving the eater with good texture. This macaroni and cheese was better than what I had a few days prior from the Parlour, primarily because it was 3 dollars cheaper. However, the cheese was slightly sharper at the Parlour (though still not worth the extra three dollars).

The tomato cheddar soup tasted like somebody opened a can of Campbell’s tomato soup and grated a little bit of cheddar into it, such that the cheese didn’t fully melt. I hope I’m not actually giving away the recipe, but that is literally how it looked and tasted. If offered this in the future, I would avoid this at all costs, unless you desire spending 5 dollars for Campbell’s soup.

I also had a cinnamon bun, which was supposedly filled with almond and had cardamom and cinnamon flavor. However, I did not taste the almond filling at all, and outside of Paul Newman’s Sweet Enough Cinnamon Flakes, it is possibly the most disgusting cinnamon-related dish I have ever eaten. It is perhaps possible that the one vegetarian sandwich is actually tasty (it’s a Portobello and roasted red peppers sandwich), but it is unlikely that it is worth 10 dollars (almost no sandwich is worth that). So for overcharging on the one legitimate vegetarian entrée, and providing scant other quality food, I’ll have to give AQ Kafé one and a half cheese sandwiches.

AQ Kafé
1800 Broadway
New York, NY 10019 
(212) 462-0005