Ostra — Restaurant in Boston

A true Five Star experience. Ostra is a place to enjoy seafood, and to in indulge and stimulate sensations of taste, aroma and visual appeal. For example, I started with a seemingly simple order of snow peas vinegaret; that was my first revelation— I tasted the gentle vinegaret and as I munched, the slivered snow peas gradually released their sweetness and appeared as a distinctly pleasant green taste later. This occurred repeatedly with slight shifts in tastes as I munched other elements in the mix. Tonight’s dinner was not going to be something to rush through but to luxuriate. Next, my main course was Monkfish- it’s light and meaty with cohesive texture and delicate flavor, and it left plenty of room for a full bodied but not strongly flavored sauce which was a complex light brown mushroom savory packed with thinly sliced Shiitake. Complex because if you let it linger, the tastes appear at different places on the tongue- it’s what happens, and I can’t explain that. (This doesn’t happen at fast burger places no matter the quantity of their particular sauce.). I had the Chocolate Tort for dessert; it appeared to be nice but ordinary. WRONG. The tort’s crust was delicate and yielded with gentle pressure from my spoon to reveal inside an enveloping creamy chocolate. This had the same mouth filling sensation as the main course, but with chocolate. Japanese call it Unami when your tongue is fully immersed in flavors and I’ve never experienced this in sequential contrasting dimensions in one meal. The restaurant’s facility, tables and settings are extremely tidy and impeccable. Every member of the staff and management displayed genuine care and focus on me. They use a Team approach; things like keeping my glass full, or like changing table settings between courses which occurred frequently and unobtrusively. Margaret was my primary server and was delightfully efficient, and she was effective as an advisor as we discussed several options, but she also acted as the be Team’s Leader. This was fine dining and I loved it with emphasis on “Delicious!” (Please click 👍🏼....

As much as Boston has this image of "lobstah rolls" and "clam chowdah", Ostra opens your eyes and serves you (on a beautiful platter) what can be achieved in terms fine dining in a seafood city.

From the raw food selections to the chef's composition, the food is of amazing grade. So much so that the restaurant offers a gratitude section to the fishermen that help them in serving these quality ingredients. And all of this is complemented by staff that are highly attentive and friendly (shout-out to Katherin).

Look, the food is amazing. You could pin the menu to a wall and throw a dart at it, order whatever it lands on, and you'll be stuffing your cheeks. However, if you'd like recommendations, let me start off by saying that if you do not order the Salt Crusted Branzino, you have wasted your time. This fish is cooked in a bed of salted crust that makes it sweat so that when it's served on a beautiful food runner table, you can watch the staff break it open like a coffin housing a mummy. What you are left with is a fish whose flavors were not allowed to escape but rather collect and served with this amazing lemon and olive oil mixture that will allow you to speak to your ancestors. This thing is phenomenal and transcending.

The second one I recommend is the Paella. Boston has some really good Spanish restaurants, but Ostra, whose focus is not Spanish food, offers one of the best paellas in the city. When I got the dish, I made sure to return a CLEAN pan because every grain of rice was gold. Not to mention that the seafood that comes with it is generous.

Lastly - that Ricotta Gnocchetti you're considering? Yeah. Get that too. After you eat what's in that plate, ask for a straw and have the remaining delicious cream.

Don't forget, Ostra is fine dining. It's a place that has decorative dishes in place just to take them away as soon as they bring the complimentary bread (that thing is also ungodly delicious). The prices are high. But it's worth it. Treat yourself and celebrate whatever you have at this...

I am shocked this is a $$$$ restaurant. I made reservations for Bar seating quite a while ago. We get seated at the end of the bar, closest to the bathroom (gross), and it's very dark. I asked, is it going to stay this dark over here? She's said, oh yea, these lights haven't been working for years. I'm like...um, what? They have not figured out how to correct this by now? They are easily the worst seats in the house. So I had us moved to the side room which was better, but the main room seems better lit. So there are 3 levels of lighting there - be sure to state which one you want!

Was not offered a cocktail or wine list, had to wait 20min until I just went ahead and asked for a gin martini to start since I had no idea what else they had, and finally got the list. Asked the first person about the oysters and caviar - where are they from? Oh, I don't know, I'll get someone for you. A second time - ask the same thing. Oh, I don't know, I'll get someone for you. Finally, some answers. Service continues awkwardly, I am having to rearrange the table for new dishes, wipe off the bread crumbs, I felt like I was waitressing again! Not what I expect of this type of restaurant!

We get a dozen oysters - when they serve them they don't even point out which are which, we had to ask, and they were all uh...

We get two different caviars - that look exactly the same, one is supposed to be a bigger pearl but it's not. At least it comes with all the proper accoutrements, some weird mint though as an unnecessary plate filler. took almost 40 min to get the caviar - how?? Anyways, oysters and caviar were great - because, well, how can you mess them up? All you had to do was open them.

The branzino - this dish and service almost made up for all the folly thus far. Beautifully done, well served, and had the skin fried up - really delish meal and would come back here...