It’s been a while since I haven’t talked about restaurants on the blog. We recently had many occasions to go out and to try out a few good places around Boston though. Asta is one of them; this restaurant in Back Bay has been opened for a few weeks, and we tried it on a Friday night… A really good surprise.
This restaurant offers tasting menus with 3, 5 or 8 courses. For each one of these, you can pair it with wines. I like this type of menu that you actually don’t really choose: the chef cooks what he wants according to the market (and seasons) and even if there’s a course you may usually be reluctant to eat – this night for me was the lamb – you can be surprised. I had the 5 course menu with wines (most of them were French – which is usually not my first choice on an American restaurant, but honestly, they were awesome – a white from Savoie and another one from les Vosges – without talking of the simple Blanquette de Limoux we had for starters – okay, sometimes I may miss my country). Manu had the 8 course menu – hard for him to resist such a great list.
The cuisine was contemporary, seasonal and local. It was good, original and even sometimes bold. I loved the lamb perfectly cooked (meaning almost rare), I tried a chicken skin tasting like the best chip I ever had. The scallops with blueberries: a true delight. Manu loved the walnut tagliatelles with duck hearth (probably because he’s from the region of duck and foie gras in France). A simple and rustic dish, and in the same time sophisticated with a great sauce. On top of all, the deserts were great – they are most of the time absent from American menus, so it was good to end up with a sweet touch.
You can click on the pics.
- Chef: Alex Crabb
- Range of price: menu from $45 to 95 a person, without wines.
- Where: 47 Mass. Av, Boston
- In a word: New place, really nice people, open to talk about food (what else?), ambiance cozy and cool (nothing fancy or old fashioned – boring). We’ll be back for sure.
