top of the hub + atlantic fish

Photo is from the Top of the Hub website

We started the new year with good food, fun, and company by having drinks and dinner with my brother-in-law and his wife. We took them to the Top of the Hub in the Prudential Center and luckily managed to find a seat in the lounge for some drinks. It's always fun to take people who have never been there before, even if it's cloudy outside like it was that night. The whole ordeal of trying to find a parking space nearby, walking through the Prudential Center, and then taking an elevator up to the 52nd floor of a building can be quite exhilirating. And then you see the spectacular view from the top.

They feature a pretty nice wine and cocktail menu that may be a little pricy, but we all agreed that the portions are bigger than what you usually expect. The martini and champagne glasses we were served that night were quite large which was quite nice. :)

Even though it was quite cloudy, I managed to snap this photo of Fenway Park all decked out for the Winter Classic that took place earlier that day.

Since we managed to [miraculously] find a parking spot on Newbury Street, we decided to find a nearby restaurant for dinner instead of driving to another neighborhood. We ended up going to Atlantic Fish, a restaurant that we had gone to with my sister-in-law and her mother back in February last year.

It's such a classy joint and after eating there again, I have to say that I'm glad we picked it. Our waiter, Fabian, was great and quite animated (even as he poured out one of the cocktails). He was good at taking a group shot with my camera, too.

We shared the clams casino appetizer. It was delicious! There were six pieces and I think we could've fought each other for seconds. I think next time we go back there I could polish off a whole plate of these with their delicious fresh-out-of-the-oven bread. Yum!



As you can see, our table was full of good food! I had the 2007 Viognier from Miner Wines and it was so good. Marina had the 2008 Sancerre “Les Belles Vignes” from Domaine Fournier and it, too, was good. Our waiter brought the glasses to the table and asked us to guess which was which. It was kind of difficult but you could definitely smell a difference between the two (one was sweeter than the other).

Marina had a grilled yellowfin tuna steak with spinach and lobster mashed potatoes on the side. Those mashed potatoes were amazing! Whomever thought to put lobster in mashed potatoes was a genius.

Tony had the seafood fra diavolo dish which was made with shrimp, scallops, swordfish and mussels in a spicy tomato sauce. The portion was quite a lot so he ended up taking home some leftovers.

I went for the lobster ravioli dish again even though I've tried it before because it is just way too delicious to pass up. They make it with chunks of lobster and shitake mushrooms in a really nice and rich basil cream sauce. I had to ask the waiter for extra bread so that I could sop up the sauce.

Needless to say, we had no room for dessert afterwards and left the restaurant with some very happy bellies. It was such a nice way to ring in the new year!

street and company in portland, maine

During our trip up to Portland, Maine for our anniversary weekend, we had dinner with a couple of friends at Street and Company. It's a really nice seafood restaurant tucked away on Wharf Street in downtown Portland.

Our friends ordered the fonocchiona and mortadella with olives, peppers, artichokes, fresh mozzarella, and nuts appetizer (kind of like an antipasti plate) which was interesting to say the least. There certainly were a lot of things on the plate! They also ordered the Maine crabmeat stuffed piqillo pepper which I heard was delicious.



One of our friends and I had the grilled yellowfin tuna which came cooked perfectly medium-rare: just a touch of pink in the middle and so tender. It was served with a zucchini and squash mix on the side, along with a couple of little potatoes, which rounded out the plate quite nicely.

Tony enjoyed the calamari with linguine and red sauce, and one of our friends had the sole Francaise.

Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the entrees and we ordered three of their desserts to top it all off.

I have to say that I was a tad disappointed by the chocolate cake dessert because it was served cold. I think if it was warm and gooey vs. cold and cakey then it would've been the perfect ending to the dining experience.

I would definitely recommend this restaurant if you're looking for a romantic place to dine at in the Portland area, or if you are celebrating a special event. It's probably a bit too pricy to go for just a casual night out, but definitely worth it if you do!

LTK bar & kitchen

We met up with Renee and her dad, John, at the LTK Bar and Kitchen (Legal Test Kitchen) in Boston last night. It's on Northern Avenue near the Bank of America Pavilion (formerly the Boston Pavilion) and boy, there sure was a lot of traffic getting there. We had 6:00 reservations so it probably didn't help that it was kind of still rush hour in the downtown area.

Anyway, we both ended up parking in the garage there at 255 Northern Avenue and it was quite expensive since we went over the 2.5 hour time limit (and even though we got our tickets validated). So just a warning to anyone that parks in that garage: watch the time while you're in the restaurant so you can get a 50% discount on your parking! Yikes! $18!

This was the second time Tony and I went to this place. The first time was a couple of years ago when it first opened up and we were going to see a Bryan Adams concert at the Pavilion. We thought it was just so-so back then. It seemed better this time around food wise, at least the three of them were pretty happy with their dishes (yes, my review is coming!). The atmosphere is really hip and modern, and it was kind of loud in there which was too bad because John is a little hard of hearing. Our waitress seemed kind of cold at first (she spoke super quickly!), but then warmed up to us and turned out to be really sweet during the rest of our visit.

Renee had the Lobster Pad Thai dish and she thought it was delicious. It was kind of cool how they gave her that huge piece of lobster! She couldn't even finish it all, so I'm sure it'll make for some really yummy leftovers.

John had grilled tuna with a lemon caper sauce on the side. They let you pick two sides when you choose the grill option so he got the potato au gratin and spinach. He, too, couldn't finish his dish which probably gives you an idea of how big their portions are.

Oh and it's not pictured here but Renee ordered a red salad as an appetizer and it was quite large so the three of them were able to split it. She said it was a little on the bitter side so I think it was raddichio, but I couldn't try it since the dressing had nuts in it.

Tony ordered the paella dish and it smelled really good. He said it was pretty good and that he was glad it wasn't like other paella dishes he's had where they were almost too spicy to enjoy. He said the mussels were quite sandy though.

I ordered two of the appetizers as my entree: the mussels and the crab rangoon. The mussels were cooked in a garlic and white wine sauce as stated in the menu, however (and this is my beef with restaurants) they did not mention that the dish comes with tomatoes in the sauce. I absolutely fricken hate when they don't list all the major ingredients in a menu description! I didn't say anything and just moved them aside in the bowl, but it really ticked me off.

My mussels were really sandy too, which was a huge disappointment. But what was worse was that five were tightly closed. For those of you who don't regularly eat mussels, that means that they were unedible. I think there were only like 15 to 18 in the bowl to begin with, so I was quite bummed that 1/3 of them were no good.

The crab rangoon was pretty good, but basic. I can't eat the sauce it comes with so I'm sure they would've tasted better with them. Next time (if we go back there) I think I'll do what John did and order from the grilled menu.

The dessert was quite yummy though, thank goodness. We shared a rather large piece of chocolate cake and the restaurant's "BCP" dessert. The BCP turned out to be their rendition of Boston Creme Pie.

Although my food was subpar, we had a nice time meeting and talking with John. The Malbec wine we shared was quite good, too. :)