Matria — Restaurant in Boston

We had the please of dining at Matria (located inside the Intercontinental hotel) last night.

When you first enter you will immediately notice how underwhelming the restaurant is compared to the bar. The bar area is beautiful and inviting.

The dining room tables and chairs are not alluring at all. The tables are small, the chairs are underwhelming and there are quite a few high tops. Not the best for fine dining.

But don’t let the allure of the bar area or the lackluster of the dining room table and chairs dissuade you.

The food and service is excellent.

Our waiter Ayoub is clearly is a seasoned veteran in the service industry and an asset to Matria. His knowledge of the menu and superior service should be an example for the rest of the waitstaff.

It’s weird that the Matria website doesn’t have their menus, nor is there one posted outside of the restaurant.

My wife and I managed to get table near the windows with decent views of the harbor.

We started with the burrata and it was excellent and highly recommend it. Two people can split it.

Followed by the seared scallops and osso bucco. The osso bucco was so good my wife stole the entire dish from me. lol. I didn’t mind because the scallops were prepared perfectly and were extremely delicious. My wife said she would return just for the osso bucco.

The portions were a decent size and the seasoning and complexity of flavors were on point.

Getting water refills didn’t come without asking.

The cocktails were very well made and balanced but the sizes were a little short and for the price, I would recommend sticking to the wine and beer of which they had a pretty decent selection.

We will probably return tomorrow and get the tomahawk for two.

If you’re in the area, Matria is definitely worth seeking out. Ask for Ayoub, you won’t be...

Five-star hotel, three-star food.

After hearing about the revamped dining spaces at the Intercontinental Hotel, I’ve been meaning to check out this place. While Matria didn’t chase for the moody glamour of a trendy Italian steakhouse, the restaurant seemed nice. The space felt expansive and modern, yet retained an inviting atmosphere for families and hotel guests.

The restaurant claims to draw inspiration from Piedmont with a seafood-focused approach, yet the menu felt indistinguishable from a standard Italian trattoria. Hoping to find something unique, we chose Ricciola Crudo and Vitello Tonnato for appetizers. The yellowtail in the crudo had a fishy aroma that you would only find at low-tier sushi spots, and even the blood oranges couldn’t mask its smell. The veal was slightly better, but any nuance in its flavors was unfortunately drowned out by an overly generous dusting of parmesan.

In the following four dishes, nothing we tried really stood out except for the seafood tagliatelle. Once again, the Bolognese suffered from an overzealous hand with the parmesan. The Eggplant Milanese was a complete misfire—charred beyond redemption, its bitterness so overpowering that we gave up after just two bites. Easily the worst eggplant dish I’ve had at an Italian restaurant, and an unfortunate waste.

Then the Piedmont Ribeye—or rather, just a ribeye, because there was nothing distinctly Piedmontese about it. Even setting aside its supposed regional inspiration, the steak itself was tough, with an underwhelming crust. While it wasn’t outrageously priced, it was the kind of steak I could have easily cooked better at home.

I probably wouldn’t return for the food, but I might still give the bar (Fellini) a shot. Go for the vibes, stay for… well,...

"Chaotic" is the best word to describe this restaurant. The management team is incompetent to run this restaurant which size is around 20 tables (indoor/outdoor together).

We had dinner here during the dineout boston week. There was a long line waiting when we got here but they seemed just seat whoever talks to the front desk lady so there were many groups of people cutted the line. I saw people who was waiting and decided to leave after seeing people cutting line.

We start with weekly special oyster. Good presentation but not very fresh. They are acceptable given $2 each. We had dineout menu and order grilled octopus as the appertizer but found a fish bone out of the polenta. More than that, our waiter took the plate away and we waited almost 30mins for the waiter/manager to take care of this fishbone issue but there were zero proactive actions taken. 30mins later the manager came over basically said he doesnt have to investigate if what i said is true as the waiter had taken my plate. He said the kitchen is insanely busy and you can pay the check and leave but we haven't even gotten to the main course yet. Eventually the manager was not helpful at all and another waiter came over and asked me what do you want. As the restauant who made this issue, you should offer instead of asking your customer what do you want. I dont feel comfortable raising any request as we are not here to make a scene. Eventually they made us another octopus and I called it a night. It was not a pleasant experience. Short-staffed, slow and chaotic with acceptable food. The manager is incompotent and should not be placed for this role. The restaurant is also not ready to handle saturday night during the dineout...