The Best Restaurants in Boston
Find the best chowder, lobster rolls, barbecue and more in Beantown.
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Seafood: Select Oyster Bar
In a city teeming with seafood restaurants, it can be hard for any one to stand out, but Select Oyster Bar in the Back Bay, opened by chef-owner Michael Serpa in 2015, manages to do just that. Serpa, who earned wide acclaim as executive chef of Neptune Oyster in the North End, operates a sleek and sexy restaurant, where the focus is squarely on fresh seafood, not just the oyster it's named for. While dishes like an enormous Maine lobster salad and tasty seafood bouillabaisse are outstanding, raw seafood is where it's at. A ceviche of the day or hamachi crudo taste exceptionally fresh and bright.
Editor's note: This guide has been updated with the latest information on these restaurants as of July 2021.
Pizza: Pizzeria Regina
Since 1926, the family-owned Regina Pizzeria has served tasty pies in North End’s Little Italy. Now run by the third generation of the Polcari family, Regina has outposts throughout Massachusetts. Happily the signature brick-oven pizza tastes the same at each location, though dining at the "original pizzeria," where time seems to have stood still, is an experience all by itself. The pie is so beloved, the Boston Red Sox named it the team’s official pizza. Regina’s claims its secret to success is in its centuries-old crust recipe, light but tangy sauce and aged whole-milk mozzarella. Whatever it is, it’s pretty hard to stop at just one slice. Pizza aficionados love that you can order your crust according to preference, from light to well done, with no hassle.
French Twist: Frenchie
This snug little bistro in the South End is as authentically French as it gets, with owners who grew up in France, and a staff that seems imported straight from Paris, complete with accents. White-brick walls, tile and marble floors inside — plus a patio and a solarium strung with twinkling lights — make for an utterly charming atmosphere. The wine list features a generous number of wines by the glass, most of them French, and the menu boasts dishes like escargot garlic toast, which will make you forget avocado toast was ever a thing. Follow it up with delicate mussels in a white wine broth, perfectly cooked drumstick coq au vin, silky foie gras and classic steak tartare. If you didn’t know you were in Boston, you’d swear you were in a little bistro in the City of Lights.
Chowder: Legal Sea Foods
Clams, garlic, salt pork, onions, flour, clam broth, fish stock, potatoes and light cream: Nine simple ingredients make up one of New England’s most-iconic dishes, offered at one of New England’s best-known restaurants, Legal Sea Foods. The first Legal’s, as locals call it, opened in 1968, next to the Berkowitz family’s fish market (which opened in 1950). Still family-run, Legal’s now has restaurants up and down the East Coast, but its chowder, which was served at almost every Presidential Inauguration since 1981, is probably its most-famous dish. Rich and creamy, chockful of clams, it is essentially New England in a bowl.
Barbecue: Sweet Cheeks
Boston has not historically been known for its barbecue, but Top Chef contestant Tiffani Faison made great strides when she opened Sweets Cheeks several years back. Based in Fenway, the restaurant is a casual, boisterous place to dine, with ribs, chicken and other smoky mainstays served on metal trays lined with butcher paper. Drinks arrive in mason jars. Faison’s biscuits, accompanied by honey butter, inspire an almost cult following, but the Texas-style barbecue is the star here. Heritage-breed pulled pork, St. Louis pork ribs and chopped brisket can be ordered alone or in combo trays. Classic sides, like mac n’ cheese and collard greens, complement the meats. Try to save room for the outstanding butterscotch pudding, if you can.
Greek: Committee
Located in the Seaport District, Committee is a lively and fun place to enjoy traditional Greek fare, preferably with a few friends. Sharing is the name of the game at the Mediterranean restaurant, which sports a modern and stylish design with communal tables and a wraparound bar. A meal may include a trio of dips or the spanakopita spread, a plate of olives and sesame-crusted feta with Greek honey, then spiced ground-beef kebabs, artichoke moussaka, and grilled lamb chops marinated in olive oil. The bar has great fun with the cocktail program, creating drinks like the Great Scott!, a concoction of brown-butter washed bourbon, rye, Cynar, vanilla, saline, creole and chocolate bitters. There’s also a large selection of Greek wines by the glass and bottle.
Hot Spot: Guy Fieri’s Tequila Cocina
Guy Fieri opened his first Boston restaurant in late 2019, adding Guy Fieri’s Tequila Cocina to his long portfolio of restaurants. Located in the new Hub on Causeway complex next to TD Garden, the Latin-inspired menu features appropriately on-brand items like Trash Can Nachos (served in a can that a server upends on a plate in front of you), as well as selections of small and large plates ranging from salsa and chips and tacos to roasted pork shank and crispy whole snapper. There’s also an enormous menu of tequilas and if you can’t make up your mind, you can order a flight to sample a few. Beantown, meet Flavortown!
Sports Bar: Banner’s Kitchen & Tap
For sports fans who can’t score tickets to their favorite team’s game, or those who prefer to dine in comfort while cheering or booing, Banner’s Kitchen & Tap, which opened in the new Hub on Causeway complex next to TD Garden, is a more than satisfying option. The enormous 25,000-square-foot-space is basically designed around what’s touted as the largest LED TV screen on the East Coast, measuring in at an astounding 40 feet. And if that’s not enough, there are also 13 screens and five banners with live scores and stats. And since watching a sporting event is not really complete without tasty fare, Banner’s serves up favorites like nachos, burgers and fish and chips, as well as some notable items, such as the clothesline smoked bacon (pork belly, black pepper and maple glaze) and an amazing buffalo cauliflower appetizer that might just make you forget wings.
Neighborhood Joint: Brassica Kitchen + Café
Tucked into a row of businesses across from the Forest Hills T station in Jamaica Plain, this is precisely the kind of restaurant where everybody knows your name — and what you drink. They probably also remember what you ate last time and have something you should try this time. Chef-Owners Jeremy Kean and Philip Kruta, who made their mark as pop-up chefs at Wink & Nod in the South End, may keep things casual here, but with food and drinks that are anything but. The décor is cozy, with all the wood counters, tabletops and shelves made by Kruta using wood re-purposed from an old farmhouse. Dishes like buttermilk-brined fried chicken and the Brassica burger, with a smoked green tomato and secret sauce, elevate the standards. The creative cocktails are excellent here, too.
Modern Italian: Sportello
One of the restaurants in Boston powerhouse chef Barbara Lynch’s portfolio — which includes No. 9 Park, B&G Oysters, Menton, Drink, Stir and The Butcher Shop — the casual and chic Sportello in Fort Point Channel is what Lynch calls a modern Italian trattoria. The restaurant evokes a diner, with a U-shaped counter in the middle offering views of the kitchen. At lunch, a two-course prix-fixe menu is the way to go, with minestrone or a chicory salad, followed by Lynch’s signature tagliatelle bolognese or braised rabbit pasta. At lunch and dinner, all the pastas are made in house and change with the seasons, including gnocchi, black garlic pappardelle and tortelloni. They are even better with a glass from the all-Italian wine list.
Classic Bakery: Mike’s Pastry
Expect a long line no matter the time of day at this iconic North End bakery, where cannoli fly out the door by the dozen, and have since the bakery’s opening, in 1946. The classic pastry shell, stuffed with ricotta cheese, is packaged in a signature white box tied with string, which thrills anyone who receives one as a gift. Cannoli filling flavors run the gamut, from plain (but tasty) to the more exotic Nutella and limoncello. Other delicious pastries include biscotti, cookies and lobster tails, an American version of the Italian sfogliatelle ricci, a pastry stuffed with a combination of whipped and pastry creams.
Late Night: Dumpling Palace
A city where the subway stops running by 2 a.m., Boston isn’t known for its wealth of dining options after midnight. Luckily, Dumpling Palace bucks the trend, serving until 2 a.m. Located in the Back Bay and the sister to popular Chinatown’s Dumpling Café, Dumpling Palace takes its name seriously. The namesake dumplings shine here, including delicious soup dumplings, little purses filled with broth and meat. Crowd-pleasers like scallion pancakes and pan-fried wontons, as well as a variety of noodle and rice dishes, round out the lengthy menu.
Supper Club: The Beehive
Few spots can host top-notch live music every night of the week with absolutely no cover charge, and also serves excellent food and drinks. That’s what makes The Beehive so special. Located in the South End, in the Boston Center for the Arts complex, this artsy restaurant andclub occupies a sprawling two-level space decorated with local art that rotates often. Live entertainment includes jazz, blues, cabaret, burlesque, country, R&B and more. The menu is eclectic, with dishes like lamb moussaka, duck au poivre and pan-seared salmon. Come early for dinner, then settle back to enjoy the show. The weekend jazz brunch, which runs from 10 a.m.-2:30 p.m., is wildly popular.
Doughnuts: Blackbird Doughnuts
Blackbird Doughnuts gained a cult following pretty much the day it opened its doors in the South End in 2015. Part of the Gallows Group, which also owns Gallows and the Banyan Bar + Refuge restaurants, the bakery’s scratch-made creations include seasonal flavors like Salted Toffee, Pumpkin Boston Cream Bismarck and Cherry Cobbler. Even Grammy Award-winning singer Adele loves them: She gave the Boston Cream Bismarck flavor a nod during a concert at TD Garden in 2016. A new outpost of the doughnut shop recently opened in 2017 in Fenway.
Italy by Way of Venice: SRV
SRV, which stands for Serenissima Repubblica di Venezia, or Most-Serene Republic of Venice, transports diners to Italy with plates of pasta made from house-milled flour, and various tasty cicchetti, or small bites, including pork and beef meatballs, shrimp-studded polenta and salt cod with black bread and herbs. Risotto, whether flavored with mushroom, fish or lobster, is always outstanding and worth the 25 minutes it takes to make. Located in the South End, the cozy restaurant — run by chefs Michael Lombardi and Kevin O’Donnell — has collected rave reviews and awards ever since opening in 2016.
Hot Lobster Roll: Mare
The battle for lobster roll supremacy in Boston may be stressful for restaurateurs, but it’s a delicious research project for diners. Variables include the type of roll, whether the lobster meat is hot or cold, and if it’s served with mayonnaise or not. For the purist, Mare in the North End offers a top-notch version, made with the meat of a two-and-a-half-pound lobster and nothing else, served in a brioche roll made fresh daily at sister bread bakery Bricco Panetteria. Snag a seat on the patio for great views, cozy fire pits and a glass of wine to enhance enjoyment of your lobster roll.
Dive Bar: Bukowski Tavern
This little spot, tucked into the outside corner of a parking garage in the Back Bay on top of the Massachusetts Turnpike, meets all the requirements of a classic dive bar: It’s cash only, it’s got an exhaustive beer list, it features dishes like "white trash" cheese dip, the music is loud and the staff can be friendly, or not, according to whim. Can’t pick a beer? Spin the beer wheel and live with the consequences. Regulars can join the "mug club" to earn their own mug (which is then hung from a hook on the ceiling) by drinking their way through the beer list within six months.
Steakhouse: Grill 23
For more than 30 years, Grill 23 & Bar has set the bar for what a steakhouse should be, and while it has the requisite white tablecloths, enormous portions and servers clad in formal jackets, the beef is what really matters. It comes from a farm in California that raises vegetarian-fed, hormone- and antibiotic-free cows, which makes a difference in the taste of the beef. Seafood and produce, however, are sourced locally. A perfect meal here might be a plate of raw oysters, the 14-ounce dry-aged prime New York strip, sides of broccoli rabe gratin and truffle oil tater tots, then the sublime coconut cake to finish.
Tacos & Tequila: Loco Taqueria
This lively South Boston restaurant always feels like a party, with a giant bar in the middle of its large room. The tequila and mezcal menus likely also have something to do with that. Those who can’t settle on one of the dozens and dozens of choices can go for one of the flights, such as the bartender’s favorites or the Tour de Mexico. Fun and inventive mixed drinks can include the Rainbow Dragon, a mai tai made with tequila. Tacos can range from a somewhat traditional Baja-style fried fish, with charred jalapeno, pineapple aioli, pickled cabbage and avocado, to the fun General Tso’s Taco, with sweet and spicy glaze, pineapple rice, sesame and cilantro. The raw bar is outstanding, with gorgeous dishes like oyster ceviche topped with passionfruit, mango, pineapple, pomegranate, habanero and citrus.
French: Deuxave
Deuxave has everything you could want in a French restaurant: a gorgeous setting, well-informed servers and spot-on food. Chef-Owner Chris Coombs opened this contemporary French restaurant in 2010 in the Back Bay to wide acclaim and it’s as good as ever. Start with the nine-hour French onion soup (the richness of the broth is worth the intensive prep) and dive into the spiced Long Island duck breast with huckleberry jus, sautéed bulgur and a kale salad. Allow your server to suggest wine pairings — they know what they’re talking about here.
Southern-Style Brunch: Buttermilk & Bourbon
If Southern food — including puffy beignets, buttermilk biscuits and fried chicken and waffles — is your idea of a perfect brunch, then Buttermilk & Bourbon awaits. The latest enterprise of Chef Jason Santos of Citrus & Salt and Back Bay Harry’s, Buttermilk & Bourbon firmly embraces Southern sensibility with a creative spin. Bananas Foster pancakes, deviled egg toast and bruleed grapefruit switch up brunch standards. Pair the food with a pitcher of hurricanes or something from the DIY bloody Mary bar, then end with a soft-serve mimosa (watermelon sorbet and a split of Champagne).
