Most Overshadowed by Its Design (Tie): Banq, Dante
“You must go to Banq just so you can see it,” everyone gushes. “Dante’s the place for drinks on the patio,” everyone proclaims. And everyone’s right on both counts: the glossy, high-tech forest clearing of a dining room at Banq (1375 Washington street, Boston, 617.451.0077) is truly a sight to behold, as is the view of the Charles from the deck of Dante De Magistris’s Dante (Royal Sonesta, 40 Edwin Land Boulevard, Cambridge, 617.497.4200). But everyone’s omitting the best part: the food. At Banq, Indian-born chef Ranveer Brar’s elegant, quietly innovative east-west menu, for instance, recently included flash-seared shrimp with glass noodles in coconut sauce ($12) — a lush, Vietnamese-inspired reminder of Hong Kong–style honey-walnut prawns. As for De Magistris, he’s a chefly blessing to the bold of palate, whose combinatory instincts are fierce — and whose pestos (fennel, pistachio, you name it) are among the best we’ve tried.
Prince Hamlet Award for Evoking Foodie Ambivalence: The Relocation of L’Espalier
Moving to uncramped digs in the Mandarin Oriental Hotel (774 Boylston Street, Boston, 617.603.1900) must have prompted hallelujahs from long-suffering back- and front-of-house staffs at L’Espalier. The new home of what is arguably Boston’s finest restaurant offers facilities and elbow room that should enable chef/owner Frank McClelland’s exacting, luxurious fusion of French and new American to soar to even greater heights. But to any patron who ever pitched woo or a business proposition in that beautiful old Back Bay townhouse, the passing of its inimitable charm must be bittersweet.
Best Wine List That Doesn’t Have to Be: Legal Sea Foods
You’d think a fishhouse franchise as safe and reliable as Legal Sea Foods (various locations) wouldn’t offer much more than oak-aged chardonnays to accompany its cherrystones, chowder, and char. Offer them it does, from places as far-flung as the Judean Hills in Israel. But it also boasts “pure chardonnays.” And “great shellfish wines” like white-hot albariño and underrated muscadet. And argentine rosés, obscure Spanish reds, exclusive Loire Valley imports ... In short, VP of beverage operations Sandy Block is not only a master of wine but a master of surprise. On that you can safely rely.
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