# United States & Canada Vacations Forums > General Discussion >  >  boston restaurants

## stuart

Help...going to Boston for a 3 day weekend.... visiting colleges...where to eat??? Noth9ng too stuffy but need great food!  thx

----------


## MIke R

well Boston is about seafood....The Union Oyster house is the oldest continous  running restaurant in American and worth a stop for some oysters and a beer..Legal Seafood is excellent too as is the No Name Restaurant right there on the wharf....all three places serve up great clam chowdah too....or go to the North End for great italian food..Artu's is our favorite, and then hit Cafe Vittoria for espresso and a cannoli....if you want great pizza, Regina's is the best of the bunch in the North End

----------


## MIke R

and if you are checking out Harvard...Bartleys Burger Cottage is to die for...right there in Harvard Square...Cambridge has too many great little bistros to mention...hard to find a bad spot there

----------


## KevinS

With a college student in tow you might want to visit Faneuil Hall.  It isn't known for fine dining, but there is enough variety that parents and kids might actually agree on something.  See  www.faneuilhallmarketplace.com Union Oyster House is around the corner, and the North End is a short walk.

The No Name is good - good seafood, reasonable prices, hard to find, certainly not upscale.  Any of the Legal Seafoods or Jasper White Summershacks will have great seafood, but be pricier.

Are you planning on staying in the city itself or North/South/West of it?

----------


## JEK

> Any of the Legal Seafoods or Jasper White Summershacks will have great seafood, but be pricier.



That reminds me that in the 80s at one point of time one Legal was on the worst list and one was on the best list, of seafood restos.

----------


## MIke R

hard to believe any Legals could get a bad rating, given how fussy they are as buyers of seafood ...but anything can happen I suppose....no one is fussier then I when it comes to seafood....if it wasnt swimming today or yesterday at worse....I aint eating it...I rarely eat seafood in a restaurant...living on the Cape and growing up working on commercial boats will do that to you.....but Legals is as good, and safe, as it gets

----------


## JoshA

Does anyone remember the original Legal Seafoods in a modest Cambridge, MA location? You'd wait on line to get seafood served to you on a paper plate and then eat it on the sidewalk because there would be no room at the few tables there. It was the Anthony's Pier 4 for poor college students. Fresh, high-quality seafood led to their success.

----------


## MIke R

I dont remember that Josh...I am friends with a few fishmongers on the Cape who sell to them regularly....the fishmongers have a love hate relationship with them in that, Legals has no qualms about paying top dollar for what they buy ( and they only buy local fish from day boats ), but they inspect each and every fish and reject anything that doesnt look to be in great shape

----------


## JoshA

I thought they had a quality operation for fish selection based on my experience in their early days. I'm not sure how they can still do it with all the high-volume restaurants they operate now. I wonder if it's only in New England that they are so fussy.

----------


## elsie

A very good source for Boston restaurant reviews can be found at:

http://www.phantomgourmet.com/ShowPage.aspx


Go to search restaurants for options regarding food type, rating (anything from "approved" up tends to be very reliable, many of the ones lower are OK too), and neighborhood. Regarding neighborhoods, note that Cambridge is included within "greater Boston".

----------


## jdr

At least one trip to the North End is a requirement.

We live in the South End and are partial to the restaurants down here, many of which are "foodie" destinations right now, for better or worse. The South End is a great place to walk to if you are in Back Bay and want a different feel.

----------


## KaraBrooks

Boston food always seems to disappoint me (and I am always looking for a great restaurant there since it is so much closer to us than NYC) but I really liked The Rendezvous in Central Square recently.  Relatively new and really very good (we ate there with the food critic for the Improper Bostonian which was interesting -- he was scribbling notes the entire time -- not too secret. He gave it a great review. We went back for their Sunday supper -- cheap prix fixe and great wine bargains). You can book there on Open Table (it's under t for "The"). Best fun meal I've had in Boston in ages.

----------


## MIke R

Kara...go to Artu's in the North End...take it from this Sicilian who hardly eats Italian outside my home...you wont be disappointed

----------

