Boston Food Experiences – Best Seafood Restaurants

Last updated on December 28th, 2022 at 10:25 am

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It’s my third Boston food experiences type of post, the first being snack places and the second is on lobster dishes.

Today’s theme is all about Boston’s fresh seafood, something the city is highly known for.

After this trilogy, it’s going to be the last post about Boston for the next little while.

To be honest, I wasn’t sure about making a third Boston food experiences post.

When I was thinking about the Boston restaurants I liked for the other two blog posts, these ones on this list kept popping up in my mind.

An idea popped up in my mind.

Since I love these places so much, I thought it’s worth talking about on my blog.

Boston Food Experiences #1 – Toro

1704 Washington Street
https://www.toro-restaurant.com/

There’s two types of paella at Toro – Paella Valenciana and Paella de Verduras.

I only ever get the paella Valenciana which consists of both seafood and chicken. In the past, the paella I’ve had are either chicken or seafood. Toro has both so I knew I had to try it.

The paella does take a long time to cook – it’s about 45 minutes so be prepared to wait.

I usually take this time to chat with loved ones while we wait for the main dish. You can also order other things in the meantime like the garlic shrimps, another one of my favourites here.

My friends and I would take turns dipping the restaurant-provided bread in the garlic shrimp sauce.

Paella Valenciana

When the server brings the paella out in a pan, you wait for the sauce to soak in the rice (it’s also burning hot at that time). Once it settles in, mix the paella before serving.

This might be a minor detail but it’s interesting that the paella is more of a brownish colour. Paellas, at least the ones I’ve eaten anyway, tend to be more yellow.

The rice is moist and saucy.

Toro is generous with its seafood portions but I prefer the chicken pieces. The seafood is extremely fresh but the chicken is soft and tender.

This dish is a bit on the saltier end. You might be chugging down a lot of water while eating the paella.

The paella serves about 4 people. If you come to Toro with only one other person, be prepared for leftovers.

Of course, the leftovers are not going to be as good but I still get excited over the fact that I can eat this delicious paella again the next day.

Cons of the Restaurant, Toro

I’ll admit that the location, South End isn’t the most convenient.

Toro is also only open during dinner time. The restaurant opens at 5 pm but when I come here, the line already starts forming before it opens. There aren’t many tables or take reservations either so they run out of space pretty quickly.

None of the downsides matter much to me.

Toro’s paella is seriously one of my favourite Spanish restaurants in the whole world. Haven’t found another one that comes close to replacing Toro yet.

Eating at Toro is one of the best Boston food experiences you can have.

2) Atlantic Fish

761 Boylston Street
https://www.atlanticfish.com/

Atlantic Fish was first introduced to me by a hotel concierge when I first visited Boston.

The concierge said Atlantic Fish was a restaurant in Back Bay worth trying. However, she suggested booking a table in advance since it gets pretty booked up at night.

It is possible to walk in and ask for a table but it can take more than an hour to get seated.

I never come here without reserving a table at night.

Although Atlantic Fish is more of a dinner type of restaurant, they are still open during lunchtime. The menu is more limited but if you can’t get a table during the evenings, consider eating here during the daytime. It’s less busy.

Appetizer

As for an appetizer, I would go for their fried calamari. It practically melts in your mouth. They add cheese onto their squid, which I thought was weird but hey, it works.

I’m pretty picky when it comes to fried calamari. This dish is an option at many restaurants. Trust me when I say I’ve tried many but Atlantic Fish’s fried calamari remains one of the best I’ve ever had.

The only thing I don’t like is the hot peppers. I usually leave it on the plate. It would have been better if the restaurant can replace the pepper with more calamari rings or tentacles.

Main Course

For the main course, I would get the lobster ravioli with absolutely no hesitation.

The downside is that each ravioli is too small for my liking. I wish there was more filling.

Their creamy pasta sauce is so good though.

Although this is a main dish, there’s the option of getting the lobster ravioli as an appetizer. The portion, of course, is smaller.

This might sound bizarre but even their appetizer bread is amazing. I’m talking about the bread restaurants give before any of your food comes.

The bread at Atlantic Fish is warm. When you break the bread apart, you can hear the satisfying crunch. It’s very fresh. A part of me thought I was crazy for liking their bread so much but others who have been to the restaurant agree with me. I’ve even asked for seconds before!

I’m happy I listened to the hotel concierge because now it’s one of my favourite Boston food experiences. Thank you for recommending this place!

3) Teriyaki House

Multiple Locations
http://www.teriyakihouse.info/

Teriyaki House is a bit of an outlier because it doesn’t exactly fit in with the other restaurants. While the other restaurants are more luxurious, Teriyaki House is the type of restaurant you would go to grab a late meal after a night’s worth of drinking alcohol.

It doesn’t have gourmet food. If that’s what you are looking for, skip to the next restaurant.

Teriyaki House is more comfort food and is also on the cheaper side.

I turned to Teriyaki House when I wasn’t in the mood to cook or was rushing to catch up on some Chinese dramas (don’t we all love to eat while watching something?).

As a college student, I did not have the luxury to be constantly eating nice meals all the time. That costs a lot of money and I was trying to cut down on unnecessary expenses.

I will always associate this restaurant with my college life because I ordered delivery from here pretty often. At one point, even the delivery driver started recognizing me.

Food Options

My order is almost always the same each time – teriyaki salmon and shrimp tempura.

Their teriyaki sauce is thick enough so it’s perfect for mixing with white rice. There’s not too much sauce either, which I like.

If you want to go a bit healthier, you can opt for brown rice. For a little extra, you can even upgrade to their fried rice or fried noodles.

As for their shrimp tempura, it’s not too difficult to mess up with fried shrimp. There’s something about the way Teriyaki House makes their shrimp. It’s the batter where they make it crispy.

There are also plenty of other types of Japanese food to choose from here including sushi, noodles, and other Teriyaki dishes.

I would recommend ordering directly from them (that’s what I did) as opposed to a food delivery app if they’re even on there.

Boston Food Experiences #4 – Basho Japanese Brasserie

1338 Boylston Street

https://www.bashojapanesebrasserie.com/

Last but not least is Basho.

It’s a Japanese restaurant in the Fenway area.

For an appetizer, their crispy shrimp is pretty good. In some way, it reminds me of Toro’s garlic shrimp.

They’re both a bit spicy. Basho’s crispy shrimp is probably a bit spicier because they use spicy mayo as a sauce. The shrimp at Basho also looks bigger because it has thicker breading.

When it comes to sushi, you can’t miss out on the snow mountain roll.

Basho’s snow mountain roll has shrimp tempura inside with crabmeat on top. It might remind you of a little tower.

This is the perfect kind of sushi roll for those who don’t like any raw foods. Everything is cooked in the snow mountain roll.

The waitress here once recommended getting a side of spicy mayo saying it would go well with their snow mountain roll.

I tried it once and ever since then, each time I ate at Baso, I would ALWAYS go with spicy mayo with the roll.

Once you know the taste of the roll with the mayo, you can’t go back. It simply does not taste as good without it.

You do have to pay a little extra but it’s not much anyway.

There are other good dishes here as well. If you like Japanese food, you’ll probably enjoy eating at Basho.

Final Thoughts – Boston Food Experiences

ANDDDD that’s a wrap!

Writing this blog post is certainly making me hungry.

Boston does not play around when it comes to its seafood.

If you’re like me and adore seafood, Boston is the right place for you and your appetite.

I also want to take this time to apologize for not having better photos in this post. I never used to take pictures of my food, which I regret because they would go amazingly well with this blog post.

It was a harsh life lesson. I will be better going forward, I promise!

Now to You – Boston Food Experiences

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Xoxo,
Nicole