January 4th 2013: Dinner at Maggiano's Little Italy, Boston

Today after work, I had a meetup dinner event at Maggiano's Little Italy in downtown Boston.

I was a little early, so I decided to pop into Finale, the desserterie nearby for some pre-dinner dessert,

getting the Fruit and Cream Tart.

Maggiano's is a pretty upscale restaurant with a somewhat Italian family feel to it.

After everyone arrived, we decided to order Classic Family Style, at $28.95 a person, which comes with 3 appetizers, 4 entrees and 2 desserts. The thing is, at every course (appetizers, entrees or desserts), the dishes you ordered come out non-stop at your request, until you decide to move on to the next course. For the appetizers, we got the Calamari Fritte,

the Steamed Mussels

and the Stuffed Mushrooms, made with Jumbo mushroom caps stuffed with spinach and topped with seasoned breadcrumbs, served in a garlic white wine sauce.

After several rounds of appetizers, we finally decided to proceed to the entrees. For this course, we got the Chicken and Truffle Tortellini, baked in a garlic and white wine cream sauce with smoked ham, Asiago cheese and fresh spinach,

the Linguine and Clams in White Wine Sauce with basil and tomatoes,

the Gnocchi and Italian Sausage (Ricotta pasta simmered in tomato cream sauce, finished with vodka, roasted garlic and sliced Italian sausage),

and the Eggplant Parmesan (sliced eggplant, breaded and fried, layered with Provolone cheese and marinara sauce).

In my opinion, I liked the tortellini the best, while the clams came in a distant second. The eggplant parmesan was ok I guess, but the gnocchi had a weird herbal taste.

At this point, we were already pretty full, and there were a lot of leftovers, especially the gnocchi. Guess everyone agreed that it wasn't that good after all.

For dessert, we got the Profiteroles, pastry shells filled with vanilla bean ice cream and topped with hot fudge and fresh whipped cream,

and the creme brulee (Rich and creamy vanilla custard with a hint of citrus, caramelized sugar crust, topped with fresh strawberries). 

I love cream cuffs, and the profiteroles were reminiscent of that, while the creme brulee was actually really good.

After dinner, a few of us decided to go to the Cuffs, a bar nearby in the Back Bay Hotel, for some drinks.

This place is really upscale, complete with a fireplace.

The mojito I got was pretty good,

but as I had to pick my friend up at midnight, I was forced to down it quickly, and walked around the hotel for a bit before leaving.

With that, I headed to pick up my friend then went to his place in Malden to stay the night, as we had some food truck business to deal with early tomorrow morning.