Awe-Inspiring Aragosta - Boston

Finally, a waterfront restaurant that isn’t a tourist trap! I’m usually wary of hotel restaurants too as they traditionally cater to the overly pampered vacationers and are often served with a side of sell-out. But not Aragosta! At Aragosta, the food is the very articulation of the high standards set by the authentic city-slickers.

And what city experience is complete without a more numerous and more attractive version of the Sex and the City cast at the next table? They weren’t particularly loud, but sitting in the middle of Aragosta’s dining room is an acoustic nightmare. Then again, the situation was no one’s fault, and people always tell me I need to speak up anyway so no stars lost.

A detail I did love about the dining room was the clever use of curtains on all 4 sides at the center of the restaurant. It made my table feel less exposed, less awkwardly public, but even a concrete wall couldn’t drown out the adjacent SATC girls. The good news is, they inspired me to write this post. Sorry guys, roll your eyes freely but let me have my rare girly moment…

For starters, loved the Calamari Salad. Loved that they served the calamari rings cold and as is, without covering them in greasy breading. The chilled chewy rings were the best rings a girl could wish for, and calamari is a girl’s best friend at Aragosta, with the refreshing combined effort of sharp bitter greens and salty tapenade. This dish culminated in a crisp, carefree concoction, much like SATC’s fabulously raw, raunchy Samantha Jones. Like Samantha’s lack of subtlety, all the elements of the calamari salad are out in the open, exposed for all to feast upon.

My entrée was the Fluke, an accurate description of at least half of Carrie Bradshaw’s fashion choices, IMHO – I’m just not into most of her garish vintage vices. This dish, however, is as complex as Carrie’s shoe collection. She’s indubitably high maintenance yet I still occasionally find an angle that surprises me. The fish was flaky-fresh, not too heavily seasoned to just appreciate the pure flavor. The bed of bead-like pieces of pasta with the occasional buried clam made for an authentic experience – every time I searched for a clam, I felt like I was digging in big balls of chewy, tasty sand. Except the clams weren’t sandy at all. Like Carrie, this dish is a conglomeration of distinct pieces, and I for one thoroughly enjoyed the realistic simulation of digging for clams and the thrill of the chase, and I’m guessing Big and Aidan did too…

My dining companion had the Herb Roasted Organic Chicken, a classy, no frills dish, the embodiment of the no-fuss-no-muss keep-it-simple elegance of Miranda Hobbs. The chicken was juicy with a nice roasted flavor, and I was told that the mushroom polenta was also quite good.

The refreshing Olive Oil Cake is the well-polished Park-Avenue Charlotte York/Goldblatt with the exquisite attention to detail and refreshingly shocking hint of freshness. The olive oil cake is a non-prude classic, and the lemon citrus flavor and cold creamy strawberry ice cream are far from boring. A composed combination, Charlotte is a class act, but who can forget when she flashed the naval captain during Fleet Week?...Remember when she jumped the bald guy who would later become her husband?

I often fear going to restaurants during restaurant week, and I often go with the expectation that the quality of the food will be lower than usual to account for mass production. Not at Aragosta! The food is as unique as each SATC girl, each dish with its own flavors and character, rounding out a classic pack of lifelong brunch buddies.

A Brief Defense of the Service (optional further reading):

The service was at worst on the good side of standard. No one rolled out a red carpet, and no one wiped my mouth for me, but I hardly felt neglected. The food came promptly but at a reasonable pace, no empty plates outstayed their welcome, and the server checked on us a few times so that we felt wanted but not too interrupted to converse freely.

To the Yelpers who wrote bad reviews based solely on service, I’m not writing this on Yelp to avoid being accused of personal attacks: IMHO, rating a restaurant based solely on service is about as cool as sporting a neon fanny pack in NYC. I understand that service matters, but it shouldn’t be everything - Isn’t a restaurant’s primary role to make food? One delightfully spoiled idiot rated them one star after she pitched a hissy fit because Aragosta couldn’t accommodate her party of 10 on the terrace immediately. I get that it sucks to not be able to sit on the terrace, and it’s not cool that you weren’t told that in advance, but is it really appropriate to rate a place one star because you pitched a fit, cancelled your reservation, and didn’t even try the food? That’s about as cool as adults who sing along, off key, during Broadway musicals. Loudly.