TAKEAWAYS AND SURPRISES FROM THE ‘NEW YORK TIMES’ 25 BEST RESTAURANTS IN BOSTON LIST

The New York Times has been busy dropping city-specific restaurant lists over the past six months or so. There’s the mega list of top-100 restaurants in New York City that the Times’ restaurant critic Pete Wells is in charge of, and then smaller top-25 lists have been published in Seattle, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Chicago, New Orleans, and San Francisco. This week, it was Boston’s turn for the treatment.

On Monday, April 15, the newspaper published its guide to “The 25 Best Restaurants in Boston Right Now” spotlighting 25 restaurants in and around the city. It’s a big-deal spotlight for our city’s dining scene, which historically has been underrepresented when it comes to national media attention.

The process for putting together the list “involved a lot of scouting and a lot of dining out,” Jordan Cohen, a spokesperson for the Times, said in an email. “For all of these lists, Boston included, we eat in all of the restaurants we feature, but also in many that don’t end up making the lists, as part of our research diligence. We also pay for all of our meals and give no advance notice that we’re visiting.”

The effort was led by Kevin Pang, a former Chicago Tribune restaurant critic and food writer who is based in Chicago but, as the former editorial director at America’s Test Kitchen, traveled frequently to Boston for work, according to Cohen. San Francisco-based editor Brian Gallagher and New York City-based writer Priya Krishna also contributed entries for three restaurants that they’ve previously scouted for the Times’s annual list of the best restaurants in America. In 2022, Gallagher included North End seafood stalwart Neptune Oyster, while Krishna included Dorchester’s Comfort Kitchen on the 2023 version of the list, and Cambridge bakery and cafe Sofra on the 2021 list.

Another local spot that got a spot on the Times’ national best restaurant list in 2022, Cambridge wine bar Dear Annie, was absent on this Boston-specific list. However, Field & Vine, another restaurant run by Dear Annie co-owners Andrew Brady and Sara Markey, was included.

The list is heavy on Italian and seafood restaurants, with inclusions like Jamaica Plain gem Tonino and Quincy mainstay Ming Seafood Restaurant. However, a few well-known names with popular Italian restaurants in Boston, including Karen Akunowicz (Fox & the Knife, Bar Volpe) and Douglass Williams (Mida) were not included. No Italian restaurants in the North End made the list.

Many types of cuisines were not represented at all, including Mexican, Korean, Indian, and Portuguese restaurants. The Times’s city-specific restaurant lists have also included bars in other locations, but no Boston bars made the cut here. There were no pizzerias on the list, either.

In total, seven Boston neighborhoods were represented on the list. Dorchester was the neighborhood with the most restaurants included (Comfort Kitchen, Banh Mi Ba Le, and Via Cannuccia) while other restaurant-rich neighborhoods like Chinatown and Roxbury were not represented at all. Further afield, restaurants in Cambridge, Somerville, Brookline, and Quincy were included, while Newton received no entries on the list.

Here are some takeaways by the numbers:

New restaurants: 4. The restaurants on the list that have opened (roughly) within the past year are Via Cannuccia, Comfort Kitchen, Bar Vlaha, and the Eaves.

City representation: Boston proper has 10 entries on the list; Cambridge has 6; Somerville has 4; Brookline has 3; Quincy has 1; and Winthrop has 1.

Neighborhoods with the most restaurants on the list: Dorchester, Union Square, and Porter Square each have three entries on the list.

Seafood: 5. Row 34, Ming Seafood Restaurant, O Ya, Neptune Oyster, and Belle Isle Seafood

Italian: 3.5. Giulia, Via Cannuccia, Tonino. Pammy’s is Italian-ish, with a strong pasta program, but it also serves other dishes outside of the cuisine and is labeled as “New American” on the list.

Tasting menu restaurants: 3. O Ya (which only serves a 20-course omakase), Nightshade Noodle Bar, and Mooncusser

Vietnamese: 2.5. Banh Mi Ba Le, the Eaves, and Nightshade Noodle Bar, which takes its cues from both French and Vietnamese cooking.

Chinese: 2. Ming Seafood Restaurant and Sumiao Hunan Kitchen

Greek: 1.5. Bar Vlaha and Sofra, which dabbles in some Greek dishes

Thai: 1. Mahaniyom

Peruvian: 1. Celeste

Sushi: 1. O Ya

Sandwich spots: 1. Cutty’s

Pizzerias: 0.

Ramen spots: 0.

Restaurant groups with more than one place on the list: 1. Oleana leader Ana Sortun also co-owns Sarma and Sofra, both of which made the New York Times list.

Most expensive restaurant on the list: O Ya, where 20-course omakases start at $295 per person.

Least expensive restaurant on the list: Bagelsaurus, where the bagels start at $2.75 each.

2024-04-18T15:35:27Z dg43tfdfdgfd