rob gross

Hi,

I was a bit surprised that there haven't been any postings about
Restaurant Week. To be sure, the dinner price is now $33.07 for
dinner (and it's $43.07 at the fancy part of Upstairs on the Square),
which is not cheap. (The lunch price of $20.07 still seems like a
good deal, but I haven't ever had time to take advantage of Restaurant
Week lunches.) At this price, restaurants are not forced to be
creative with inexpensive ingredients, which originally was part of
the event's appeal for me.

We hit Lineage (Coolidge Corner, Brookline) early in the week. The
menu there featured a few appetizers, but the gazpacho was so clearly
the most interesting that we all tried it and loved it. For the next
round, two of us had the steak, a large portion which came in a
wonderful sauce, and I had a very nice piece of salmon. All dishes
had accompaniments of interesting vegetables. Desserts were a choice
of butterscotch pudding (my selection, after the waitress told me that
it was award-winning; I would guess after eating it that it won an
award only because the category of "best butterscotch pudding" is not
one with a lot of entrants), a very very good strawberry shortcake
with two scoops of ice cream and some whipped cream, and a milk
chocolate mousse (which was good, but clearly would have been better
had it been dark chocolate).

On Friday night, after a bad day, we decided to go out to dinner on
short notice. Aquitaine in Chestnut Hill, La Morra on Route 9, and
the Fireplace in Washington Square all were booked until quite late at
night. One last phone call to Dalia's, also in Washington Square,
produced the encouraging news that they could handle us either at 7 or
8:30. We chose the earlier time, and the restaurant never seemed to
fill up; perhaps there were some cancellations, or perhaps the
restaurant likes to keep some tables available for walk-ups.

Unlike Lineage, which had some full-priced dishes in addition to the
special 3-course menu, Dalia's had only a limited menu. The three
appetizers included another gazpacho (sounds like a Restaurant Week
trend), a shrimp dish with watermelon, and a beet and goat cheese
salad. The gazpacho turned out to be much richer than that from
Lineage, and perhaps not quite as good. I got the salad, which seemed
light but was surprisingly filling (and featured excellent beets).

For entrees, I selected a boneless short rib stew with poached
peaches. This was more what I was hoping for in Restaurant Week:
somewhat less expensive ingredients combined in a clever way. The
portion was in fact enormous, the ribs perfectly tender, and the sauce
wonderful. My friend had a chicken breast stuffed with bread crumbs
and lobster meat, in a citrus sauce with roasted potatoes.

We were sufficiently stuffed to share one pudding dessert, and ask for
a slice of chocolate mousse cake to take home. It was wonderful for
breakfast this morning.

I hope to get to La Morra this week; it seems to be the only
restaurant with a salad, pasta, and protein as the 3 courses. I also
like the idea that at La Morra, an extra $15 gets a glass of wine with
each course.--Rob

--
Rob Gross (617) 552-3758
Department of Mathematics http://fmwww.bc.edu/gross/
Boston College gross@bc.edu
Chestnut Hill, MA 02467-3806

muckerheide

Anyone have reservations for Restaurant week? We're going to Masona
Grill... The menu looks better than average, and its near home so it would
be nice to discover somewhere new.

mark katz

No plans yet but wanted to mention that we were at the Masona Grill the
weekend before last - it's one of our favorites and also nearby to us.
I'm sure you will enjoy it.

Mark

a brown

I tried during the summer restaurant week to get into Todd English's
"Olive's" in Charlestown...and they were all filled up on the days I wanted
to go.

When I heard about the Winter edition of Restaurant week...I just called
again for *anything* on Sunday...and it was all filled up again!

Hmmmmm...

One thing I found out last summer was that the prices aren't always that
good of a deal. Unless you are going to a restaurant you really want to go
to...or a retsuarant that is typically prohibitively high for a meal.

Anyone else find this?