It was a cool August evening and both the bar at Marliave and the dining room upstairs were all packed, with servers all walking in and out in a hurry. We just arrived in Boston earlier that evening from New York and I had Marliave marked down as a to-visit restaurant without booking ahead. We were lucky to be seated in the outdoor terrace area.
Located right at the heart of Boston, the restaurant feels like a mélange of casual and fine dining, bar and restaurant, the most appealing aspect being its humming crowd of exciting Friday night guests who gather to catch up for a long night of drinking and eating.
Marliave claims itself to be Boston’s oldest chef-owned restaurant, having opened its doors as early as 1885. The menu is a good global blend of European with American, featuring French and Italian classics as well as American ones like beef carpaccio, baked escargots, or mac and cheese with black truffle.
As it turns out, we happened to be in Boston’s Restaurant Week and I went with their $38 three-course menu: beef carpaccio to start, beef wellington for mains and butterscotch pudding as dessert.
This was a refreshing appetizer featuring a generous serving of ribeye carpaccio, fresh arugula, parmesan with olive oil and aioli. Carpaccio was moist and flavorful.
The dish arrived in a silver cloche for maximum drama and added much to my anticipation. I was not disappointed. This was the highlight of my stay in Boston. I had what I thought was the most memorable and tasty beef wellington I’ve had in my life. The tenderloin, cooked to medium rare, was wrapped in a buttery pastry crust that was still crisp, trapping all of the beef’s juices. The meat was succulent and was not the least bit mushy or bland like tenderloin sometimes tends to be.
By the time we had our butterscotch pudding, the night was on us and as we were seated outdoors, the lighting was too poor for a photograph. That said, butterscotch pudding is a signature at Marliave. The pudding, spruced up with freshly whipped cream and candied ginger, is so dense and sweet and scrumptious and, well, addictive that I would recommend having some coffee or tea to stop yourself from getting seconds.
Marliave
10 Bosworth St, Boston, MA 02108, United States (+1 617-422-0004)
11:00-00:00 Daily
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