Foundry on Elm

Foundry on Elm - 255 Elm Street, Somerville (Davis Square)

Tuesday evening, my roommate Jay and I took a short trip back to good old Davis Sq to see The Social Network at the Somerville Theater. The movie was awesome and we hadn't had dinner yet, so afterwards we headed over to the new place in the square, Foundry on Elm. It's a place I've been meaning to check out since it opened about a month ago.

Even on a rainy Tuesday, there was a pretty good crowd at 9:30 so the place had a good atmosphere. The staff was very friendly and the menu had a number of interesting items, particularly the appetizers. However, neither of us were very hungry so I merely got the Bratwurst and Jay ordered the Burger. No appetizer was necessary once we saw we got bread and the bread was amazing. I would say it might have been the highlight of the whole meal! It was warm and had a thin crust with a soft middle and it was served with fluffy butter that was just incredible. (Another great part of the meal was being able to order Schlitz, which brought me back to $1 sliders and $2 Schlitz on Tuesday nights at Merle's in Evanston!)

In comparison, my Bratwurst was a bit of a letdown. It certainly was not as good as what you can find at Jacob Wirth. I'm not saying it was bad, it just wasn't as good as my expectations had set it out to be. That said, I will definitely be back. There is a lot on that menu I would like to try and it fits in with the theme lately of old school foodie restaurants (see Stoddard's Fine Foods which I need to write a post for as well) that seem to be popular. I will just have to go again when my appetite allows me to venture into the appetizer and entree sections.

Diva

Diva Indian Bistro - 246 Elm Street, Somerville (Davis)

I'm surprised I've waited this long to post about Diva. Perhaps it's because it's so close and familiar that I don't feel it's an event going there. In fact, because of Ann's and my newfound love of Indian cuisine, I've probably been to this restaurant more than almost anywhere else in Boston.

Our experience Friday along with Sanjay and Lauren was pretty typical of what Diva has to offer. We were going around 8:30 on Friday night so we were pretty sure it would be busy. Sanjay tried to call ahead and was told they don't take reservations but just come on over. He put our name in and we had a 30+ minute wait. Standing there, a group comes in from outside and just sits down. Confused, we ask the hostess and she's like "Oh, we had to seat them, they have reservations." Needless to say she was surprised to hear we were told they don't take reservations. Apparently we had spoken to someone else. That is my biggest complaint with Diva, you never know who you're dealing with. You always see the same characters in the restaurant, but you never really get assigned a server and it's unclear who the manager in charge is or if he really cares that things are being run well. This happened to us where our server was also busing tables so some things took a long time to come around, like our check. Like I said, typical.

Enough of that. Let's get to the good stuff. The food. It's incredible (at least for a non-Indian like myself). I don't think I've had a bad meal there. My favorites are the Tandoori Tikka and anything in their Masala sauce. Their chicken curry is also very good, but I'd say neighboring Namaskar's is slightly better. They have a fairly limited wine and beer list, but Ann really enjoys their lychee martinis. All of their breads are really good and I've had many good appetizers with several more to explore. Let's just say we never leave hungry.

Finally, the atmosphere is lively, drawing in a good neighborhood mix of young professionals and college students with Friday night being particularly busy. I must say that despite the generally lackluster service, Diva is still one of my favorite places to go in Boston with great food and reasonable prices.