March 19th 2015: Meals in Boston and Brookline

After work today, I had 2 meetup dinners to go to, one at Antico Forno, an Italian restaurant in the North End area of Boston, and the second one at a later time at Lineage, an upscale restaurant in Brookline.

As I was notified just hours before that I could go for the second one, which i would rather go to, in order to make time for it, I decided to skip the first event by going to the Italian restaurant earlier. Even then, the place was already full, but thankfully I could find a spot at the bar.

Here, I ordered quickly, getting the Ribbollita Soup (traditional Tuscan soup with seasonal vegetables, cannelloni beans, pancetta, croutons, Parmigiano cheese drizzled with extra Virgin Olive oil)

And the Seafood Risotto, which contained asparagus, grilled Shrimp and scallops.

I have to say, the portion size for the risotto was pretty small, even though it was pretty tasty, so you can imagine my surprise when I saw that the bill was almost 40 bucks! Way too costly for what I had.

Thew are definitely better cheaper places around.

When I got to Brookline, I was really early, so I decided to check out Temptations Cafe, a nearby, chic looking cafe.

True to my mission, I ended up getting the Prosciutto and Fig Panini (prosciutto, walnut fig preserves, arugula, Gorgonzola cheese).

Pretty good, although the Gorgonzola was a mite strong.

I was still a little early when I got to the restaurant itself, which has a nice oven in the center of it.

Thankfully, I did not have to wait long for other people to arrive. Almost everyone else got the Prime Steak Burger (pepper jack cheese, crispy onions housemade pickles, hand cut fries), 

with some of us trying the Spicy Lobster Tacos (avocado mousse, mango salsa).

I did not think the famous tacos were that fantastic though. I would have preferred more sauce.

For food, I decided to do the Seafood Tasting, consisting of the Ipswich Razor Clams (fennel puree, potato, leek), 

the Salmon Tartare (cucumber, red onion, red bell peppers) 

and the Butter Poached John Dory (housemade bacon, gremolata, poached artichokes, white rice), which I forgot to take a picture of.

The clams were way too salty, while the tartare was not to my liking mainly because of the onions and peppers, and finally the fish was dry bland, along with the rice which was undercooked.

Definitely not one of the better restaurants on my list.

Overall, a disappointing night for eating.