Cheap Eats: Daily Grill

A restaurant called Daily Grill sounds nothing if a little generic. Luckily, their food is anything but. While the Daily Grill is a popular chain on the West Coast, it's rather new to the East, and the Daily Grill in the Prudential Center is their only New England outpost.

The best deal at the Daily Grill is their Social Hour menu, offered weekdays 4-7pm, Saturday 12-5pm, and all day Sunday. The page-long menu features small plates for only $2.95 (a hot dog, hummus plate, beef sliders, meatloaf sliders, a chicken quesadilla, fried calamari, and mac and cheese) and $3.95 (spinach artichoke dip, crab cake sliders, tuna sashimi, and chicken pot pie). Order a drink and you get your first plate free. Bostonist enjoyed the calamari, some of the most tender we've had, and the sliders, which could be paired with another dish to make a full meal. The chicken pot pie, though, was the real standout, and probably the best deal. For only $4, you get a big bowl heaped with chicken, carrots, peas, onions, and mushrooms in a cream sauce and topped with flaky puff pastry, a perfect antidote for the cold days that are sure to come.

If you're willing to spend a little more money but still want a good deal, try the Daily Grill's Supper Menu. For $28, you get a choice of any salad on the menu, one of five main courses (such as filet mignon with a bleu cheese crust, ala cart at $25), and your choice of a dessert or a glass of wine. That's basically three courses for the price of one - not a bad deal in our books.

Daily Grill is located at 111 Huntington Avenue, at street level below the Prudential mall. They are open Monday-Thursday, 11:30am-10pm, Friday and Saturday, 11am-11pm, and Sunday 11am-10pm.

Graduation Dinner at No. 9 Park

I have been dying to try No. 9 Park for ages - I look in the windows longingly when I walk past and I've checked out their menu online once or twice. So what better way to celebrate the completion of my Master's degree (and the end of this crazy semester that has resulted in severely limited blogging time) than with a meal at No. 9 Park?

From the moment we walked in until the moment we left, the service was impeccable. Our waiter, John, was the perfect level of attentiveness - it was easy to get his attention, he came over to check in on us numerous times without seeming obtrusive, and his descriptions and recommendations were spot on. When I asked where the restroom was to another server who had cleared some plates, she led me across the restaurant instead of just pointing me in the general direction.

As much as we were intrigued by the 7-course Chef's Tasting menu, we opted for the 3-course prix fixe instead. Three seemed like a more reasonable number, although based on how much we all enjoyed our meals, we may have to go back for the tasting menu sometime.

For an appetizer, I opted for the artichoke ravioli, with fontina fonduta, fried artichoke hearts, and a shaved artichoke salad. The mix of textures and cooked/raw ingredients was perfect - each bite was an example of how great an artichoke can be. I had a hard time deciding between the ravioli and the much-lauded prune-stuffed gnocchi with foie gras. I've never liked foie, based on what I've tried before, though. Luckily, I did snag a bite off my brother's plate, and I can no longer say I hate foie - clearly whatever I've eaten before has been subpar and ill-prepared because this was completely different - creamy, with a crispy sear, and unctuous without feeling overly fatty.

The entrees were a tough choice - I could have ordered almost any of them and been happy. I ended up ordering the lamb, served two ways (steak and braised) with cooked vegetables and what they called bagna cauda (but was more like pureed olives with olive oil). I don't think there was a single drop of the bagna cauda left on my plate by the end of the meal - it was as well suited to the perfectly cooked lamb as it was to the less exciting cooked vegetables (although I love that they included fennel in the mix). Again, I snagged a bite of my brother's dish - grilled pork belly with spiced peanuts and a sweet pea puree - and I think his meal was my favorite. The pork belly was creamy and salty, not at all stiff like other pork bellies that I've had before. The peanuts added texture, spice, and more salt. The whole thing was sinfully rich but not overly heavy.

Desserts were an even harder choice. I was undecided until our waiter described almost every single dish in detail - he won me over with a made-to-order hazelnut cake with a black olive caramel and Thai basil ice cream. The cake was small and shaped like a canele. The interior was like a more subtly flavored nutella, and the edges were not overly cooked, which can happen so often with molten chocolate cakes. The olive caramel was salty and sweet, and it was very easy to pinpoint the olive flavor. And Thai basil ice cream? That made me want to bust out the ice cream maker and start experimenting. My mother's dessert came with Szechuan peppercorn ice cream, and that was another one that had me itching to start cooking - it was floral and elegant, with just a little kick of spice at the end.

After this meal, I'm pretty sure that No, 9 Park will be my new special occasion restaurant. I don't think I've ever had a meal like this before - we ooo'd over every single bite, from first to last.

Retro Chocolate Plate at Finale

Most people who really know food understand that holidays (especially ones like Valentine's Day) are not always the best time to go out to eat. It seems, though, that this won't be such a problem this year - Valentine's is a Saturday, and the following Monday is a holiday, meaning that the entire weekend is open for Valentine's-themed meals.

Finale has taken this into account, and is offering a special menu for the entire weekend, all focused around their Retro Chocolate Tasting Plate. They got in touch with me to come try it out, and who am I to say no?

I've had Finale's savory food before and enjoyed it, and I've had their sweets (although as take-out, not plated in the restaurant). The idea of a restaurant that focuses on dessert makes me think of absolute decadence, and the Retro Tasting Plate is exactly that (and isn't decadence a good thing for Valentine's Day?).

The plate is HUGE, and each of the six offerings is definitely decadent. And it's definitely retro, filled with old-school favorites like peanut butter and jelly, s'mores, and malted milk balls. With so many different things on one plate, you'd think all the flavors would get muddled, but the through-line of chocolate ties everything together.

To start, let me say that I'm not a fan of either bananas or the combination of peanut butter and jelly. That's why I was so surprised when I genuinely enjoyed both the milk chocolate banana pyramid and the peanut butter and jelly truffles. In the pyramid, the flavor of the sweetened banana puree was mild enough not to be offensive but flavorful enough to evoke the fruit - if all bananas actually tasted like this, I'd eat them all the time. And PB&J is apparently more pleasing to my palate in truffle form.

Also included on the plate are chocolate-covered pretzels, a molten chocolate cake with orange sauce, a giant s'more with a Tahitian vanilla marshmallow and salted graham crackers, and a white chocolate Florentine "love boat" filled with Ciao Bella malted milk ball gelato. This is a serious amount of chocolate, and I couldn't stop eating it. The low point, if there was one, was the molten chocolate cake - it has become such a common dessert at almost every restaurant that everything else stood out in their uniqueness.

So if you're still looking for someplace to eat for Valentine's Day, try giving Finale a call - the Retro Chocolate Plate is something you'll want to savor with your loved one.

- Downtown Boston
- Harvard Square
- Coolidge Corner

Obscene Amounts of Food at Maggiano's

Dinner at Maggiano’s has become a roughly once a year tradition with my friends. We always do the family style meal – all you can eat for $26 – and because there’s so much food, it’s no surprise that we only manage it once in a blue moon. For a chain restaurant with such a low price point for the whole meal, it’s amazing that the food is any good at all… but it is surprisingly tasty (oh, and did I mention plentiful?). In fact, I think the quality is better than many of the more touristy places in the North End.

With the family style meal, you pick two appetizers, two salads, two pastas, two entrees, and two desserts, and they’ll bring refills of whatever you want – plus wrap up whatever you haven’t finished so you can take it home. With so many choices, it leaves plenty of room for everyone to get something that they want.

On this outing, we ordered the Spinach and Artichoke Dip, Mozzarella Marinara, Caesar salad, Chopped salad, Gnocchi in Vodka Sauce, Chicken and Spinach Manicotti, Lemon Salmon, Chicken Saltimbocca, Chocolate Zuccotto Cake, and the Profiteroles. The Apple Crostada was given to us as well to make up for some bad service – I don’t know if it was a timing issue with the kitchen or what, but the second half of our meal was mired by longer than normal waits and inattentive service. The food, though, was all delicious. We had to keep reminding each other that more food was coming so we wouldn’t fill up on any one dish. I don’t think I would order the mozzarella (fairly mundane) or the salmon (boring, and more fishy-tasting than I expected) again, but everything else was great – the manicotti and desserts stand out in particular.

The Savant Project, Brigham Circle

So, I've gone over a year with this blog, having met only a handful of local bloggers. It's not that I'm reclusive, it's just that, well, blogging isn't the most social of activities (I'm sure everyone who's at BlogHer this weekend would object to that). That being said, yesterday I had two blog meet-ups, and there's yet another planned for tonight. Crazy.

After drinks at Eastern Standard with This Boston Life, I headed over to the Savant Project in Brigham Circle to meet, drink, and eat with Boston Food and Whine, Calamity Shazaam in the Kitchen, and the Food Monkey. We had a great time discussing various restaurants and restaurant personalities in the city, as well as sampling the food and drinks that the Savant Project had to offer. We were seated on the patio, and I'm so glad that we were, because it was much hotter inside the restaurant than out. The patio was very cute, walled off by a picket fence - it felt like hanging out in someone's backyard (which is actually exactly what it is).

Since it was Cocktail Week ("like Restaurant Week, but for lushes," as I called it on Bostonist), we all ordered the special - a berry mojito, one of four tapas (we got them all, for the sake of research), and berries in sake with lime whipped cream. The mojitos were a deep pink shade and were delicious, albeit a little too sweet. The tapas (tuna sashimi in a lime soy marinade, tamarind grilled shrimp (above), scallop and shrimp ceviche crostini, and veggie spring rolls) were likewise good but not great. The berries for dessert were served in a sake and Bacardi mix, topped with lime whipped cream and a fried mint leaf. Honestly, I was a bit distracted the whole time by the fried mint leaf - it tasted nothing like mint and had the weirdest texture. I can't see myself going back there to have those dishes, but there were other things on the menu that intrigued me.

We were still a bit hungry, so two of us split the blue cheese-stuffed burger, and the other two split the veggie burger. I really loved the veggie burger, made from chickpeas and spinach and topped with red pepper sauce, goat cheese, and onion rings. The flavors and textures worked beautifully together. The fries that came with the burgers were interesting - a mix of regular potatoes and sweet potatoes, tossed with a garlic parmesan "dust" that reminded us of cheetle. We also tried some of the other drinks on the menu, and I was quite happy with the Master Splinter on the rocks (gin infused with lychee and cherries).

So overall, I think the Savant Project is better than Cocktail Week was letting on. Just like Restaurant Week, the restaurants have more expected of them while the customers pay less money, often resulting in inferior product. I really enjoyed what we had from the regular menu, and would happily go back to try some more of the items that caught my eye.

Sibling Rivalry, South End

For my final Restaurant Week meal, I headed to Sibling Rivalry. I've heard lots of mixed things about the restaurant and was excited to finally get to try it myself. Overall, I was very pleased by my meal (by the decor, less so). There were 11 choices each for appetizers and entrees, which, by RW standards, can be good or bad, depending on how the restaurant handles RW to begin with. Sometimes, that many offerings means the restaurant is just trying to cater to the wider range of patrons that RW will bring in. Other times, as in this case, the restaurant is proving what it can do with a full menu, just like any other night.


I have a hard time passing up calamari on a menu, and this Vietnamese version sounded more intriguing than the typical red sauce-accompanied fare. The squid itself was well-fried, but was not very flavorful. Or maybe it was just overshadowed by the Thai basil, cilantro and chilies. The batter was light and crispy, mirrored by still-crispy carrots, onions and jicama.


My entree was delicious, although I admit it's not much to look at here. The filet of beef was served with creamed onions, tomato jam, and black pepper gnocchi. The tomatoes and gnocchi were in limited supply. I needed more of the two little gnocchi after my first bite; they had a fantastic texture, and the black pepper flavor was powerful without being overwhelming. I've never had creamed onions before, but these made a perfect side dish to the steak, with the sweetness from the onions balancing out the richness of the meat.


For dessert, I chose the lemon tart with fresh berries. The lemon filling was perhaps a bit too stiff, but was at least flavorful. The berries sang with summer - I could have just had a bowl of them, topped with the accompanying hazelnut praline, and been perfectly happy.

Tremont 647 Earns a Hearty "Meh"

For my second Restaurant Week meal, I headed to Tremont 647 in the South End. I've been there before and had a pretty good meal. Their RW menu has lots of different and intriguing options.

The restaurant is small - long and narrow. The tiny open kitchen splits the room into front and back sections; with the kitchen being right in the center, there's a lot of noise in the room. The front bar and patio looked lovely, but we were seated in the darker back area.


I started with the Crab Gnocchi with Fresh Tomatoes and Caramelized Corn. Everything tasted good, but the flavors didn't necissarily mesh. The part I didn't like, though, was the gnocchi; the texture was just wrong. Is there something between dry and gummy? These gnocchi had an almost grainy texture that was off-putting.


For the entree, I chose the Lemon Roasted Half Chicken with Mashed Sweet Potatoes and Chili Spiced Corn. The chicken was very juicy (although I could only eat half of what I was given because it was a big bird). The mashed sweet potatoes were fantastic, with hints of chili peppers and cumin. The corn was also very tasty, but it's definitely not a dish to order on a date... Luckily, I was with friends who didn't care that I had the sauce all over my face. This was definitely the best of my three courses.

One friend ordered a steak dish and asked for his meat cooked medium. The waitress told him that, since they were so busy, they were only cooking to medium rare. It seemed a little strange, since only about a third of the dishes required the grill and everyone in our half of the restaurant was on their dessert course. When his meal came, though, his meat was cooked to his liking. When he told the waitress, she said "Well, you must have gotten lucky with that." Does that seem like the wrong response to anyone else?


And finally, for dessert, I had the Raspberry Cream Eclair. This just didn't work, in my opinion. The raspberry filling was too heavy with the delicate eclair, while the chocolate topping was didn't have much flavor. The part that really turned me off, though, was the over-whipped whipped cream; it seemed kind of sloppy to have that on top.

The service was also a bit hit or miss with this meal. Besides the meat miscommunication above, we had to repeat things too often. It was like pulling teeth. For about half of our meal, the room was only about half full, so I wasn't buying the "we're really busy" spiel. It was clear that the restaurant was trying to do RW right, but it failed in the details.

Excelsior takes Restaurant Week to a New Level

Walking into Excelsior is like entering a James Bond film, all glass and shiny metal. After checking in with the host, we were escorted into a glass elevator and sent to the second floor, travelling through the wine room on the way. Impressive.

We were quickly shown to our table overlooking the Public Garden. The dining room is a classy and modern room. There are a lot of tables, but it doesn't feel crowded. The service was very good considering how busy the restaurant was.


I started with the Native Corn Bisque, with Hot and Sweet Roasted Peppers and Smoked Shrimp. This was spicier than I expected, more of a slow burn in the back of the throat. The corn flavor was deep and rich, but not overly heavy. The best part of the dish, though, was the shrimp, with a smoky flavor that made it taste like bacon. I wished there had been more shrimp (there was only one, sliced in half), but it made me savor the flavor a little more.


Continuing with the seafood theme, I had the Peppered Linguini with Seared Sea Scallops and Crabmeat, Zucchini, Smoked Tomato, and Scallop Cream. This was a fantastic dish, with each component standing strong on its own but mixing with the rest to form a wonderful entree. The scallops were cooked perfectly, with a dark seared crust and a buttery soft center. The smoked tomato stood out, adding the same meaty quality that the shrimp had added to the bisque. There was a good deal of cream coating the pasta, but it wasn't overly heavy. There was an excellent ratio of pasta to meat and vegetables.



For dessert, I had the Dark Chocolate Cake with Coffee Chicory Ice Cream and Candied Orange Zest. This was a perfectly balanced dessert. Too often, a dense chocolate cake is cloying after a meal... a bite or two will suffice. This, on the other hand, was fantastic, and I loved every bite. The cake and the ice cream were well paired. The chicory really evened out the coffee flavor, making it a better accompaniment to the sweetened, creamy dark chocolate. The candied orange zest was more of a flavored simple syrup pooled on the plate, just hinting at its fruity origins. For textural contrast, the plate was scattered with cacao nibs, a very tasty garnish.

This meal at Excelsior was a prime example of what Restaurant Week should be (but often isn't at many restaurants). The portions weren't huge, but the food was carefully crafted. Maybe these weren't the most expensive ingredients, but they were handled with flair, and I was left wondering what else the kitchen could do. Excelsior has now be added to my list of "special occasion" restaurants, but if I had the money, I would eat there more regularly.

Icarus Doesn't Fly High Enough

Icarus spent the month of July celebrating its 29th birthday with a special $29, 3-course menu. The menu consisted of 6 appetizers, 5 entrees, and 4 desserts. I don't believe they were offering a regular menu as well, but really, at $29 there was no reason not to order off the prix fixe.

Everything I had was very tasty (sorry no pics, it was way too dark and I'm not crazy about using a flash in restaurants). I started with corn chowder with crispy bacon and scallops. Three decent-sized scallops floated in a thin broth, accompanied by corn, potatoes and thick, red slivers of bacon. The broth was a little too thin for my tastes, but I'm rather particular about chowder. Because there was little integration between the broth and the solids, I really had to chase the pieces around in the shallow bowl in order to get them onto my spoon. But everything tasted really good.

For my entree, I had the grilled lamb with socca stuffed with peppery greens and a lemon caper vinaigrette. The meat was nicely cooked, with a hint of rosemary, but I think I've been spoiled by my parents' lamb skills at home, because this should have been better. The socca was the primary reason I ordered the dish, and I enjoyed them heartily. Socca is a thin pancake made out of chickpea flour, popular in Italy and southern France. The chard inside was a little tough with the crispy socca, but it was a great side dish for the lamb.

Dessert was surprising. I ordered the lemon buttermilk panna cotta, and we all laughed a lot when it was brought out as we jiggled our plates for a few minutes, watching it dance. The buttermilk gave it a very bright and clean flavor, and the accompanying blueberries gave it a burst of fruitiness.

So overall, it was a good meal, but I don't think I would hurry back to Icarus any time soon. It's not that I didn't like the food... it's just, at their regular prices, I can think of many other places I would rather dine. Boston has tons of great restaurants (although sometimes it can be hard to see the forest for the trees), and I would rather not settle for something that's just "good."