Sometimes you experience a restaurant, and while the entire
meal is good and you eat delicious things like beets and brie and belly, one
dish stands apart in such splendor, it’s really all you remember. Recently in
Boston for training, I met up with my college suitemate Lisa for a catch-up
sess and dinner on Newbury Street, a hipster enclave in the Back Bay
neighborhood of the city. We decided to
share a bunch of appetizers rather than go for entrees, and the one that
ended up winning the meal was a hard sell for Lisa, a former vegetarian: bone
marrow baked oysters. Sonsie is on the dim side, which renders it rather
romantic, but doesn’t make for super photos. But here are the glorious
bi-valves:
We also loved the pork belly and apple slaw tacos, which
employed chipotle mayo to warm up the cooling crispness and sweetness of the
apple. The slab of pork belly in these was generous and less fatty than other
bellies I’ve had. Of course, pork and apples are a classic combo, and we both
liked the fall flavors and clean finish of this dish, which could have easily
gone overboard on fat between the belly, mayonnaise, and whatever they used to
dress the slaw. The tortilla even seemed to be homemade, a rustic flour vehicle
for the sweet, savory, and spicy flavors contained inside them.
The beet and kale salad was maybe a little less exciting
than the first two dishes, but beets just seem so right this time of year, with
their sweetness and cool, tender texture. The raw kale in this was very tender,
and though I prefer goat cheese with beets, the shaved percorino provided a
salty, nutty bite that answered to both the beets’ sweetness and the kale’s
bitterness. Very nice.
I had read that the pizzas were really good at Sonsie, so we
chose to share the mushroom and brie pie. The crust was charred, airy, and
really chewy. It provided a pretty stinking gorgeous platform for sweet
caramelized onions, woodsy wild mushrooms, and creamy, funky brie cheese. The
overall finish of the toppings was creamy, which foiled the smoky, chewy
crust perfectly. This was another brilliantly balanced dish, with sweet,
earthy, pungent, and milky flavors all playing nice in the sandbox together.
It’s a refreshing way to approach food that not all chefs can master, and we
loved it.
We went for the warm apple tartin and the pumpkin panna
cotta. You know, because fruit is healthy! Hahahahaha. I loved the toasted
marshmallow atop the panna cotta, which brought the complexity of that charred sugar
flavor to the very traditional pumpkin pie flavors present in the dish. The
cinnamon ice cream was the clincher in the tartin, with a little pastry crust
underneath, and a really forward tasted of stewed apples permeating the dish.
I would recommend Sonsie as a date night spot, a great place
to impress colleagues or customers, and of course, a wonderful restaurant to
catch up with an old friend. It’s cozy, our waiter was adorable and hilarious,
and every dish was fine-tuned to its limit. I would not call it relaxed, however
– there’s a definite upscale feel here that is permissive of laughter but not
yoga pants. So get gussied up, and try Sonsie on your next visit to Back Bay.
I’m awarding it a nine on the BHS scale, for the wonderful service, French bistro
setting, and bone marrow baked oysters! Because who wants to eat anything else
once you’ve had them? Not I!
We’re wrapping up the year here at BHS HQ. Literally, I
mean, I haven’t wrapped a single present yet. I need to get on it. I will have maybe two more
reviews from Binghamton-area restaurant this year, plus the Big Hungry Awards,
which will recognize all the best eats in Upstate New York I’ve had this year.
So keep up with us as we hurtle towards 2014, my Hungries. My personality is
big; my hunger is bigger!
The pumpkin panna cotta is speaking to me.
ReplyDeletePlease come wrap my gifts for me.