best places to eat in massachusetts

For anyone living in Massachusetts, deciding where to dine out can be a daunting task. There are so many great eateries in the state that it is often hard to decide where to go. And with so many dining options, it’s easy for diners to drive past what could be the best places to eat in Massachusetts. Whether you’re from the Commonwealth or a visitor, you’ll enjoy trying any one of these restaurants listed below. While it’s still August, I’ve already started preparing my list of top Massachusetts restaurants to try in the coming year. It can be a bit overwhelming, looking at the reviews, reading the stories from locals, and trying to decide which eateries to visit at those times when we all have a hankering for something good to eat. That’s why I’ve put together a list of some of the best places in Massachusetts that you can dine at. These are all family friendly restaurants so bring your kids, listed in no particular order:

When it comes to the best places to eat in Massachusetts, you have your pick of the litter. Whether you’re looking for a fancy dinner or a casual lunch, this state has something to satisfy every appetite.

Here are some of our favorite restaurants:

In Boston:

Chef Michael Schlow’s Alta Strada is one of the hottest spots in town. The cuisine is Italian-inspired, but with an American twist that keeps things interesting. Reservations are recommended, especially if you want to get a seat at the bar!

The restaurant B&G Oysters is known for its incredible seafood dishes. It’s also located right on Newbury Street, so if you want a little retail therapy with your meal, there are plenty of shops nearby!

For breakfast in Boston, try out The Beehive. The food here is fresh and made from scratch every day—and it tastes amazing! You can even get brunch on Saturday or Sunday from 10:30am until 3pm.

In Cambridge:

If you want great food and live music at the same time, head over to Club Passim! They have live music every night of

If you’re looking for a new place to dine in Massachusetts, check out these five restaurants. They offer a variety of cuisines, including American, Italian, French, Japanese, and Chinese. Each restaurant has been rated by local diners as well as by TripAdvisor.

1. Osteria Posto—Boston, MA

Osteria Posto has been named one of the best Italian restaurants in the Boston area. It is located on Beacon Street in Boston and offers traditional Italian dishes such as pasta and pizza. The restaurant has been featured on local news stations for its delicious food and welcoming atmosphere.

2. Cafe Fleuri—Boston, MA

Cafe Fleuri is an upscale French restaurant that was established in 1872 by Marie Mariette Fleuri-Herault, who came to America from France in search of a better life for her family. Today her great-great granddaughter continues to run the business by serving traditional French cuisine with fresh ingredients imported directly from France. The menu includes items like escargots (snails), foie gras and duck confit among others.

3. Sushi Ichiban—Boston, MA

unique restaurants in massachusets

Misery Loves Co.

WHAT: Experimental plates that have transformed Winooski from a Burlington backwater to a culinary and cultural destination. WHY: Chef-owners Aaron Josinsky and Nathaniel Wade have a habit of spinning wild foods into unfamiliar versions of dishes we thought we knew well. In spring, find a free-form lasagna with nettle leaves pressed into wide pasta ribbons, layered with morels and ricotta, all bathed in featherweight mushroom broth. Come midsummer, look for Vermont-caught crawfish served naked on stoneware plates. Dip these into tiny pots of brown-butter emulsion, and heed the servers’ advice to lop off the heads and drink up the musky river juices inside. — Hannah Palmer Egan

ArtsRiot

WHAT: Big-flavored, testosterone-fueled bar food grounded in classic French technique, at a DIY performance venue in Burlington’s South End arts district. WHY: In late 2014, ArtsRiot cofounders PJ McHenry and Felix Wai ditched a half-baked “kitchen collective” concept and hired ball-of-fire chef-partner George Lambertson to execute the menu. Since then, Lambertson (with recent help from chef de cuisine Jean-Luc Matecat) has metamorphosed the once-reluctant restaurant into an anchor for the South End’s blossoming food scene. It’s the kind of place where you’ll find farmers alongside artists and drag queens, chop-sticking through bowls of black-garlic ramen bobbing with torchons of chicken, pigs feet, and lemongrass. You’ll also meet mammoth burgers — gooey with American cheese and special sauce — stacked on request up to four patties high. — H.P.E.

Hen of the Wood

WHAT: The surprisingly bountiful, four-season Vermont larder on a plate. WHY: When late winter begins to feel like an Ethan Fromian trial to be endured, just page through the menu at Hen of the Wood, where Eric Warnstedt conjures ripe cheeses from hidden caves, roasts roots to candy sweetness, and weaves silk out of pig’s ears. There is still life here, says the man who was doing mushroom toasts before they were a gleam in a Californian’s eye. Return a few months later and steep in the glory of summer’s sweet corn, lamb, and fried green tomatoes with kale and currants. — Amy Traverso

Kismet

WHAT: An intimate, low-lit dinner spot steps from the state capital; forged tight farm partnerships and pursued plant-based cooking before such things were cool. WHY: Crystal Madiera has been a pioneer in the world of produce-centric cookery, dreaming up vegetable-fueled — if not wholly vegetarian — meals at her tiny State Street restaurant for a decade. Today, Kismet is still where in-the-know Vermonters go for paper-thin beef — or root vegetable — carpaccio, and for plates of roasted beets scattered with smoky lentils, powdered hazelnuts, and a shock of labneh. Come winter, it’s the only place in town to get savory bread puddings awash in steaming bone broth. — H.P.E.

Polly’s Pancake Parlor

WHAT: The carriage house of a White Mountain farm that, in 1938, “Sugar Bill” and Polly Dexter (the two are married) converted into a tea room to showcase all the good things that could be made from the sap gathered from Dexter’s sugarbush. WHY: Sugar Bill’s progeny continue serving simple food with an array of maple products to pour, spread, and sprinkle over it. You’re here for pancakes and waffles, of course, but a visit isn’t complete without a scoop of ice cream topped with Maple Hurricane Sauce, created by boiling apples in syrup to create a slurry of woodsy sweetness. — Michael Stern

The Lost Kitchen

WHAT: A fairy tale of a destination restaurant, occupying part of a hydro-powered millhouse (circa 1834) in a midcoast town whose population totals 719. Here’s the plot twist: Dinner at the Lost Kitchen ranks as one of the country’s most unattainable reservations. Chef-owner Erin French begins accepting annual bookings on April 1 for reservations between May and New Year’s Eve, and they fill within hours. WHY: Those who do score a golden ticket are in for the kind of evening that addresses all the senses. Listen to a small dam burbling just outside, note the shift in aromas while watching French and her staff cook eight courses in the day’s dying light, and savor her unfussy knack for layering flavors. Oysters perfumed with basil and violet might kick off a meal; lamb loin revved with pickled rhubarb and feta epitomizes springtime. The food is remarkable, but the calming pace and collective cheer completes the spell. — B.A.

top restaurants in massachusets

Long Grain

WHAT: A detour-worthy neighborhood restaurant among a rambling row of businesses in a picturesque town, run by husband-and-wife team Ravin Nakjaroen and Paula Palakawong. The menu takes its initial cues from the couple’s Thai homeland, then veers into what could be pigeonholed as “pan-Asian” cuisine—though Nakjaroen’s precise and personal cooking style transcends any cursory labels. WHY: A universal comfort like fried rice shows off uncommon care, each grain distinct and mingled with local seafood like Maine crab or smoked mackerel. But every meal should also include Nakjaroen’s true-minded Thai dishes, including pad kee mao (rice noodles fiercely seared in a wok and paired with locally grown vegetables) and a deftly calibrated, not-too-sweet panang curry with beef. — B.A.

Primo

WHAT: Chef Melissa Kelly’s ode to midcoast Maine; part restaurant and part sprawling, organic farm. WHY: There are restaurants that tout the proximity of their sourcing and then there’s Primo, situated on four-and-a-half acres of rolling farmland. Melissa Kelly is the head of the agricultural operation as well as the talent behind the food. Dinner may start with a stroll through the garden, glass of wine in hand, and move into the rustic two-story house that has been converted into a restaurant and parlor. The menu of purely prepared vegetables and pasture-raised meats showcases Kelly’s time at Chez Panisse: Snap peas are blistered and sprinkled with sea salt, thick-cut pork chops accompanied by sweet roasted brussels sprouts. The casual top-floor lounge serves house-made charcuterie, pizzas, and oysters and doubles as the best taverna in midcoast Maine. — Korsha Wilson

McLoons Lobster Shack

WHAT: The quintessential Maine lobster shack with a postcard setting and a roll to beat all. WHY: Lobster rolls are the gravitational center of Maine dining, usually priced in the teens and produced at high volume, which is why so many shacks pre-mix large batches of meat with enough mayo to lube a pot puller. The result: spongy, indistinct meat. But not at McLoons, where mayo is slathered on the bun, not the meat, and hot butter is an at-the-ready alternative. Better yet, order a half-and-half roll and decide which one you like best. — A.T.

Tao Yuan Restaurant

WHAT: The college-town flagship of chef and restaurateur Cara Stadler, who counts dumpling whisperer among her many singular skills. WHY: Stadler and her mother, Cecile, ran an underground restaurant in Beijing nearly a decade ago, when Stadler was only 21. They reunited in Maine, where the family often spent summers. The cooking skews pan-Asian, but zero in on the dishes with overtly Chinese influences to revel in the full measure of Stadler’s abilities. That means seared scallops bathed in XO sauce sharpened with Iberico ham, tangled greens with young ginger and sesame vinaigrette, and her standout dumplings in forms like open-faced shu mai filled with pork and shrimp. — B.A.

Drifters Wife

WHAT: A natural wine bar and modern American bistro that, like the city it’s in, punches above its weight at every turn. WHY: Carried by an infectious enthusiasm and boundless knowledge of wine and the people who make it, co-owners Peter and Orenda Hale have built an impressive 200-bottle strong natural wine list that’s matched in tone and quality by chef Ben Jackson’s menu. A springtime bowl of duck consommé with hen of the woods mushrooms is worth doubling down for a second serving, and bright house-made yogurt offsets the concentrated umami of roasted chicken with carrots and lambs quarters. The kitchen and cellar are ambitious, but it’s the genuine warmth in the front of the house that makes this an East End gem. — Anestes Fotiades

Eventide Oyster Co.

WHAT: The exuberant seafood phenom that sets the standard for the modern oyster bar — not only in New England but for all of America. Eventide is no secret: No matter what time of year you arrive, or at what time of day, there will likely be at least a short wait. WHY: Nearly 20 varieties of craggy, pristine oysters from Maine and throughout the region sit piled on ice atop a hollowed-out slab of granite. Their names reflect their geography, etching maps in the mind: Pleasant Bay, John’s River, Basket Island, Dodge Cove. Eat them plain and then dabbed with accompaniments both classic (red wine mignonette) and newfangled (ices made from horseradish or kimchi). Trust that blackboard specials like fish crudos and octopus terrine will deliver, though the marquee remains the signature lobster roll umami-blasted by an unlikely triumvirate: browned butter, dried milk powder, and lemon. — B.A.