Boston Restaurant Week - Tresca

Yay! It's time for Restaurant Week in Boston again. This weekend, my dear friend (and one of my favorite people) is visiting Boston. Browning is here to visit me and her friend, Jeslyn. She is Browning's best friend from school and someone that I am so fortunate enough to have cultivated a friendship with because of Browning. This visits will become much more frequent with her and her family's impending move to Western Mass. Just under two hours is a lot more doable for visits versus four hours. I am so excited to have Browning, her adorable daughter, and hilarious husband much closer to me.

Back to the food. Last night Browning, Jeslyn and I went to dinner in the North End. Earlier in the week, Jeslyn sent an e-mail with a few recommendations for dinner. In the end, she decided on Tresca. None of us had ever been before and were very pleased with Jeslyn's selection. We got to the restaurant about a half hour prior to our reservation and sat at the bar for a glass of wine. While sitting, we were offered a plate of calamari by one of the restaurant's regular patrons. At first, we declined but he insisted a few times. Due to my hunger, I took this gentleman up on his generous offer. The calamari was excellent. I liked the spicy aioli sauce with the calamari. In fact, I liked it so much that when we sat at our table, we ordered another plate of it.

During Restaurant Week, patrons are offered a limited prix fix menu. A three course dinner is available for $33.09. Despite the fact that the menu is limited, the dishes are all excellent. Had it not been for Lent, I would have had a very hard time choosing something to eat. The first course was the Insalata Campo. It was a very generous dish of greens that did not disappoint. My second course was a gnocchi course with wild mushrooms. The final course was haddock with an artichoke and potato puree. None of the courses disappointed. If I had to pick a favorite course, I would select the gnocchi. The portion was reasonable and the sauce was not too heavy. The gnocchi seemed to melt in my mouth.

We declined to get dessert at the restaurant and instead decided to head to Mike's Pastry so that I could pick up a little something sweet for the husband. I opted to get him a black and white cookie as well as a cannoli. The girls got a black and white cookie as well as a lemon cookie.

In summary, it was a great evening. The food was delicious and the company was fantastic. In retrospect, I am glad that Jeslyn picked a restaurant that was very busy and had a lot of background noise as we were laughing throughout dinner. These two woman are absolutely wonderful and hilarious.