August 22nd 2015: Upscale Meals in Burlington and Brookline

Today for lunch,  we were at the Burlington Mall,

and decided to check out The Blue Stove, a relatively small upscale restaurant serving Tapas style food located within the Nordstrom section of the mall, a pretty unique concept in my opinion.

The menu had lots of interesting stuff on it, from which we got the New Orleans BBQ Shrimp with Shoestring Fries,

The Toasted Gnocchi with Short Rib Tomato Ragu,

The Crispy and Spicy Dark Cherry Glazed Beef

And the Spicy Pork and Chorizo Sliders (Poblano aioli and pepper jack cheese On a Brioche Bun,  Garnished with Pickled vegetables).

The sauce for the Shrimp was simply amazing,  and I could not stop gobbling up the fries with it. The sliders were delicious with the sauce on the burger. The beef was Crispy with just the right amount of flavour to them.  The Gnocchi were just alright though.

Dinner was at La Morra, a somewhat Italian restaurant in Brookline.

We got the Fried Sage Leaves with Anchovies,

The Insalata di Mais alla Griglia (wood grilled corn salad with local tomatoes, basil and white wine vinaigrette),

the Ravioli di Mais Con Funghi (Corn Ravioli in Corn Brodo with mushrooms)

the Pesce Serra Alla Griglia (wood grilled bluefish with fresh herb sauce, corn ragu and farm beans),

and finally the Panna Cotta (Brown Sugar Panna Cotta with roasted peach and pine nut cluster) for dessert.

The leaves were a little interesting, though a little too oily and salty with the anchovies at times, while the corn salad was tasty, though simplistic in my opinion. The ravioli was delicious, but really small in portion.The fish was pretty good too, as was the dessert, but overall, compared to other high end places, the food was a little underwhelming for what it cost, the small portions and the relatively uninteresting menu not doing anything to help the situation.