33 Restaurant and Lounge in Boston

So i went to dinner with Liz, a fellow  Northwood alum who i graduated with and Emily, also a Northwood alum who met us up mid dinner. 

Liz and I were meeting at 33 REstaurant and to no one's surprise, the person who lives in Boston, got lost. 

I ordered one of their signature cocktails and a ginger ale to start off the night. Liz arrived a bit flushed from getting lost meanwhile she was only 2blocks away and quickly ordered a similar cocktail. We finally sat down.

(i rarely order cocktail because they are just tooo sweet at times, especially signature ones) 

Thankfully, the bread was warm. This has been an ongoing disaster at the prior restaurants i have blogged about.

The waiter smelled like b.o, he seemed European. But this still did not take away from our dining experience. And with Liz the Northwood, Lake Placid gossip could go on foreverrrrr.

We started with the Calamari and both got the two salads on the menu (which were large enough to be an entree)

The CALAMARI WAS HANDS DOWN the BESTTTT* calamari i ever had. There was no dipping sauce to my surprise, because everyone loves dipping sauce. The calamaris were dressed in sweet, spicy, sour sauce. Unfortunately, once Emily arrived we have devoured the entire plate. 

This is an appp that i would have with dinner drinks before going to my next dining destination for that evening. 

There was nothing special about the salads, Liz seemed to enjoy the dressing and i believe every salad needs the perfect dressing. I got a Ceaser, like i said, nothing special... i will admit i was not adventurous. 

We skipped desert and went to our next adventure that evening. 

Also, 33 Restuarant and Lounge turns into a club at night, looks very comfy and has a fuison-american- contemporary atmosphere. We need to go back.

Also, Also, Also, 33 Restaurant took restaurant.com gift certificates that Virginia, my mother, loves to buy on ebay.com for $5. We used a 25$ gift card which broke our meal price down to only $60. 

Lesson: invest in restaurant.com and even a universal dish such as calamari can be unique. 

Danielle Marie

Union Street Restaurant in Newton Centre..highlight of my Saturday morning

The rooms, Anya and I hit up this joint in Newton Centre for an 'after going out' bite to eat.

 Lets be honest, not just a bite, a full large, greased up meal. Some of us wanted breakfast, while others woke up dreaming about ketchup and veggie burgers (yes, i said ketchup first, it is by far the best condiment that could be put on my plate!) and to finish it off with a crisp ginger ale.

Although the bar/drink menu looked delish that was not on our minds at 1030AM Saturday morning. (Union Street had a take out Bar menu so i grasped it firmly and continued to depart once our afternoon meal was over). 

Court ordered the Comfort Food: Baked Pasta with Four different cheeses, it loooked so yummy that i had to place my fork into her large plate to taste it. IT was definitely, Comfort Food. 

I ordered the veggie dish and sweet potato fries, but more like ketchup and sweet potato fries because as i mentioned above ketchup is my ideal fave. 

For how much we aLLL spent we got SOOOO much food and everything was satisfying. 

Union Street also owns Tavern in the Square, CitySide, Joshua Tree, and the Boston Beer Garden. Although similar food and drinks in all, they all have unique characteristics that make them so popular. 

Danielle MArie

a New Fave MARE in the North End.

Mare is an organic seafood restaurant. Everything on the menu was seafood and appeared great (which, in this case, it WAS). I have been to Bricco which is also a restaurant in the North end that is owned by the same family that owns Mare. 

The wait-staff were laid back  wearing blue jeans and navy oxfords. The menus were given to us on clipboards, which seemed bizarre initially but, sometimes the extra large library heavy dinner menus are a bit over the reasonable size. (and usually the print is so small that you order the things that you remember from their online menu you were looking at about an hour before your reservation).

Anyways, i ordered the Ceaser Salad with popcorn shrimp and the Halibut with asparagus sauce. (this was also an interesting combination because asparagus sauce seems absolutely dreadful to think about, as well as the potential after dinner bathroom experience of what we all know about what the notorious asparagus smell can be)

What everyone else was ordering around my dining guest, my boyfriend, Andrew and myself was the 5 course or 7 course menus that are popular at Mare. They also come with wine pairings for a bit extra. NEXT, and there will be a next time, i will do the 5 course set menu. 

MY appp was phenomenal. To be honest, the dressing was A bit too salty but delish. The dry Chardonnay that i was having that even cut the salt fast.  The Halibut was huge, but i always love the veggies over the main protein on the dish. I am going on a no-fish week this week.  

For dessert andrew wanted to get a coffee and the Tiramasu. IT was waaaaay too sweet and did not settle well but the entire meal prior to dessert created such a positive memorable dining experience and i told myself NOT to spoil the dining evening because the dessert was not too your ideal standards. 

By the time we were leaving i noticed that table of five, which appeared to be a birthday party was getting their final entrees. One of the girls was on her third cocktail. (Settle Down,.. someone has motives tonight.) 

Since we were in the North End, i decided to go passed the Modern Pastry, where i went with my cousin, Donna last week. I got some italian faves for the nightly get together back at my place outside Boston. 

Lesson: Mare is potential new fave in Boston  and do not be embarrassed to go back a few weeks later. 

Danielle Marie

I Should have just Ordered the Veggie Spring Rolls...My most Recent and possibly Final Dining Experience at Sonsie on Newbury Street.

The dining company last evening was great...

 A former ski bud, Heidi and two of my new amgios from Cambridge Anya and Katy, and of course the new roooms, Courtney. 

The conversation was on par but the service not so much. 

I do have to say the Bread at Sonsie was heeps better than the molded yeast Court and I had at the Five Star Carmen's last week. 

Wine time (my favorite time) We ordered a Pinot Grigio and another interesting white wine that Katy, who took a recent wine course at Cornel recommended. Lets just say, for myself, the random conversation, the bread, and the wine were by far the ideal moments from my dining experience this Wednesday evening. 

First of all, I like to order APPs (appetizers) at the beginning of the meal and this was PERFECT because my Courtney was running late so the APPs would keep us satisfied until her arrival. Unfortunately, The waitress peaced for a bit until Court showed up which was a bit bizarre seeing we had a bottle of white wine UN chilled in the middle of our table. 

Anyways the delishhhh Calamari and not so pretty Asparagus are the APPs we ordered. For the million pieces of Calamari, Sonsie gave us a tea cup of dipping sauce. Comon' recent college students we want all we can get. We asked for more, but clearly, to no ones amazement our waitress forgot...embarrassing and quite amateur for this popular restaurant on Newbury. 

Our entrees were ready and the waitress was trying to quickly take away our plates. She aggressively grabbed Heidi's plate when she was in the process of placing the fried baby octopus in her  mouth. (this was not the first time the waitress/busser was trying to take away Heidi's plates when she was not yet finished with her course... it is like HELLO no one else is in the restaurant its 915pm on a wednesday!!!! AS WELL AS try to redeem yourself from the prior mistakes you have already made during our dinner). 

Well I usually order the veggie spring rolls and salad but decided to go with the Snapper. 

It was one word vomit. 

Waaaaay overcooked. there was legit, a scooped out el dente white rice figure on the plate. ( if i wanted white rice i would have paid 50 cents at the take out Chinese joint about a two second jog away). There was also this green leaf on the plate. Initially, it looked like grilled asparagus, but then i thought to myself why is there just one, single, asparagus on my plate. It was a green feather of some sort. I ate it but, lets be honest, it was the BEST thing on MY PLATE!

I could not even send the plate back because i would have straight up told them to just take it off the menu. (I should have gone with the Veggie Spring Rolls). 

The manager of Sonsie wondered over to ask us about our meal after the waitress piled up all our plates and then fell, ultimately, embarrassing herself. 

I gave him props for coming over and hollering that he and "his wife" just moved to Massachusetts. Usually, when restaurant managers come over to five fine, young women like ourselves, they refuse to add their significant other. 

I was silent (unlike me, but i just met two of the girls at the table and did not want to be judged because of my aggressive eating habits and criticism that will never go unnoticed by most people i dine with)

Lesson: Although, i say go out of your comfort box at a favorite restaurant, sometimes you leave regretting to do so because that ruins all prior dining experiences you had at that restaurant. Sorry Sonsie!

ALSO, since we had 5 dining guests, we had two bottles of wine, about 2.5glasses each. In the end it was about 13$ a person for wine. Cheap! And worth it because we ordered very delightful beverages which made the T ride home lots faster because i was people watching and did not care who saw.

Danielle MArie