Grotto

Grotto - 37 Bowdoin St (Beacon Hill, Bowdoin, Government Center, Park St)

For our second Restaurant Week dinner, Ann and I checked out Grotto in Beacon Hill. We were both very excited at the prospect of a high end Italian menu with accessible yet intriguing entree options. The name Grotto is very fitting as it is a cozy underground restaurant in an otherwise nondescript building on Bowdoin St. I would recommend it as a good spot for a special romantic dinner (once again price is an issue for making this a regular stop though Restaurant Week only saved $3 a meal over their regular menu with the same choices).

For the Primi course, I ordered the Cavatelle, which was hand rolled pasta combined with sausage and mushrooms in a thick cream sauce. It tasted amazing, although it was certainly very thick, almost like eating a cheese sauce, and required a very dry wine to cut through the taste in your mouth. Unfortunately my Chianti was not up to the task. I also got a bite of Ann's Sweet Potato Ravioli, and it was pretty good with an emphasis on sweet. I'm not sure I would order it for my meal, though. For the Secondi, we both ordered the Carne, which was beef tenderloin over risotto with asparagus and a red wine sauce. The beef was perfectly seasoned and truly a tasty piece of meat. Once again, my risotto seemed to be coated in a sort of thick cheesy sauce, with parmesan flecks on top of it. It tasted good, but could be overwhelming. Luckily, switching to a Cabernet for the meat certainly helped. The asparagus didn't really seem to fit into the taste patterns of the risotto or the red wine sauce, but overall I was very happy with my selection. To finish everything off, I ordered the Melting Chocolate Cake with Vanilla Ice Cream. For me, when it comes to dessert, simpler is better and it's hard to top this combination. That said, it was executed perfectly and was as good if not better than the Molten Chocolate cake at Finale (if only because they gave you a real portion of vanilla ice cream to offset the chocolate). Ann's dessert was Banana Bread with Caramel Ice Cream. I enjoyed the ice cream but am no big fan of Banana Bread and there was really nothing there to interest me after having eaten my chocolate cake.

All in all, I was a fan and would like to try some more dishes out. The normal $36 prix fixe price tag isn't outrageous for nice occasions and you get the added benefit of being able to walk off your meal through Boston's most romantic (and historic!) neighborhood afterwards.