Bar Boulud - Boston Sept 2014

Bar Boulud - Boston

In the home stretch of my first pregnancy and I was needing to go out for dinner. I just wanted to put make up on and feel somewhat attractive :)

We were planning on going to Atlantic Fish Co. without reservations of course, but by the time we got they they didn't have availability until 10:30pm. Not gonna happen. We went outside and I saw that Bar Boulud was right across the street. I had just read about the Boston location being open and thought, let's give it a shot. They didn't have anything until 9:30pm, but we could eat in their lounge which offered a limited bar menu. Perfect!

What we ordered:

Mrs. Bouvier (cocktail) - house infused vodka, lemongrass, ginger, citrus and soda
The waiter said it was sweet, but it was more tart than anything else.

Gougeres - choux pastry, gruyère & espelette
I prefer the gougeres at No.9 Park.These were not as airy and had a little too much kick to them.

Brioche de homard facon - lobster roll, horseradish, tarragon
Brent ordered this, I had a bite. I thought it was good, Brent liked it more and more with each bite.

French Fries
very good, freshly hand cut expected amount of salt

Spaghetti au Citron - wellfleet countneck clam, bottarga, lemon, fennel
It came in two sizes, I ordered the large. It was really good. The pasta was fresh, the clams as well. It was not too citrus-y, it had just a hint. The butter and garlic in it were nicely proportioned. I finished it all! The bottarga (salted, cured fish roe, typically from grey mullet or tuna) was a nice addition on top, giving a bit of crunch to the meal. 

Overall it was a good meal, however there were a few drawbacks. The music in the lounge was a bit too loud which made conversation difficult. Also, there was a long delay between when we ordered and when we received our food. There were lounge tables seated after us who were served and left before we even got our food. Our server seemed to have disappeared during this time as well. eventually another staff member came to to say she would check on things, but in my mind she should have done that much sooner.

Certainly worth another try, with reservations to try the full menu.

Oiishi Boston - May 10, 2014

For my birthday we returned to Oiishi. I had wanted to go to O-ya but they were fully booked until later in May and I didn't want to wait for good sushi.

This time we did not have too much to drink and ordered a little bit less so we were so full.

The restaurant was much busier than when we went for New Year's Eve.

Brent had a Lychee martini and I ordered a glass of l'Hortus Rose.

Here's what we ate:

• Ishiyaki Wagyu Beef - love it! 6 raw slices of Wagyu beef in a marinade. They bring you a hot rock and you cook it for only a few seconds on each side. So tasty. 
• Avocado Terrine - This one was fun. The avocado was chopped up and resting on a layer of ice. There was a sauce underneath the ice. I had to break the ice to get the avocado to fall into the source. Also quite tasty.
• Wild king sake (salmon) sushi - much softer than the salmon sushi I am used to.
• Sake Toro sushi  
• White Salmon sushi 
• Unagi (fresh water eel) sushi
• Unagi with avocado sushi
• O-toro (tuna) sushi
• Snow crab sushi
• Cripsy Mango maki - Brent liked this one a lot. I thought it was good, but probably not my favorite
• Kumamoto oyster tempura maki - we didn't like this one. All the flavor of the oyster is gone when it is warm. We prefer it raw.
• Molten Chocolate Cake
• Yubari ice melon

Overall, it was a very yummy meal. I'm glad we went.

Oishii - Boston

December 31, 2013 - New Year's Eve dinner

Oishii

Nine Zero hotel

This year we decided to stay in Boston so Brent could partake of the libations without worrying about driving. We stayed at Nine Zero, a boutique hotel right off the Boston Common and next door to the Omni Parker House. It was a beautiful hotel, and we had a corner room on the 15th floor so the views were fantastic!

View from our room at Nine Zero

Nighttime view

Our dinner reservations were at 7:30 so we got a taxi at 7pm. We had a perfect view from the hotel to watch the fireworks from first night, except that there going off while we were in the taxi. We will need to plan better next time!

It was our first time dining at Oishii. We started with drinks of course, Shisojito for Brent and a Lychee Martini for me.

For appetizers we ordered Salmon on Fire and Ishiyaki (Wagyu Beef on a hot rock)...

Salmon on fire

Ishiyaki

...we ordered a few things from the raw menu: Kumamoto Oysters, o-toro sushi, wild king salmon sashimi, snow crab sushi and Unagi sushi.

...and two maki rolls: Rock Shrimp Explosion and the Crispy Salmon which ended up being much larger than we expected!

Overall the quality of the fish was fantastic and we really enjoyed the food. I still think I prefer O-ya for teh overall atmosphere and experience. Brent commented that Oishii is more traditional sushi compared to O-ya and I would agree. I think I like the innovation a bit more at O-ya.

We were informed that Tom Brady and Giselle were dining in a private room while we were there. Turns out Tom is friends with the owner and they dine there several times a year.

We were stuffed, but we still managed to fit dessert! Molten chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream and Yubari ice melon, which was a really nice light dessert. It was like melon flavored shaved ice in the shape of a melon and the rind was made of white chocolate. The molten cake was a little too molten.