Moëca — Restaurant in Cambridge

Giulia is one of my top 3 favorite restaurants, and I’m pescatarian, so I was very excited to check out this newer seafood-focused sister restaurant. I will say upfront that like Giulia the staff are all very kind and approachable, and the flavors of the food were top notch, especially including the vegetable small plates (a lot of restaurants don’t do vegetables justice). My cocktail was also great, and contained sake vermouth, which I’ve never seen before.

But I sadly can’t give the restaurant 5 stars because there’s one huge ambience drawback and the prices are out of control. Ask lots of questions about portion sizes before you order.

My friend and I were one second away from ordering a scallop appetizer that we luckily found out in time contained ONE (1) single scallop for $21. Unfortunately we did unknowingly order a $44 so-called large plate of branzino, thinking we were getting a whole fish to share (the waiter explained it came with head and tail on, what would you think?), but actually it was only half of a fish for that price!! It had been divided lengthwise so you get half of its head and tail, and one filet attached open-faced with a condiment on top.

Also beware there is one table at this restaurant that is extremely unpleasant to sit at and unfortunately my friend and I got the short straw that night. It’s back in a corner literally within the bussing station (not just near it), so you have waiters running in and out, printing receipts, etc. and the height of the bussing station also occludes your view of almost the whole restaurant. We could not at all enjoy or benefit from what seemed like a lovely atmosphere in the rest of the restaurant. I expressed my dismay about this as we were being seated, but there was nowhere else for us to sit. The host said they would let our waiter know we’d like to move when another table opened up, however despite a lot of tables flipping about 30 minutes into our seating, no one ever in fact offered to reseat us. So we ended up eating our $44 half-fish inside a work station. It’s like being at a completely different restaurant from all the other diners in the room.

Moeca, please get rid of this table. Whatever profit you glean from this one table each night is not worth the deeply unpleasant experience your guests are having sitting here.

In the end would I come back? Maybe once a year for a special occasion since the chefs and bartenders are quite talented, and only if I could be guaranteed not to be sat at the poor table. But even then I’m not sure. It’s not a place to relax, the service is too fast and we felt rushed to leave. We ordered a drink, 2 small plates, and one large plate, and were only able to sit for about an hour total before the check was dropped at our table and we had to leave.

If you’re someone who cooks seafood at home and lives in New England where affordable, fresh seafood is abundant I don’t think you can justify this as a go-to restaurant.

I left hungry, didn’t have enough time to relax and catch up with my friend, and had to eat a second dinner when I got home, a shame after...

I went here with the family for my sons birthday. Service was great. We sampled a lot of food, almost all were excellent, with two exceptions: the semolina gnocchi and the John Dory. I think the gnocchi was ok, but not up to par with the rest of the menu, the John Dory was a definite miss, and even more underwhelming is the confit of artichoke which I was looking forward to.

The stand outs: yellow fin tuna started was absolutely spectacular! Family loved the unicorn oysters, and I think they were great, but the tuna blew my mind (freshness, balance of flavors and texture). I was particularly thankful that the server allowed us to get a 4th oyster so that we can each have one without having to order two servings. A side note, our server was so helpful and collaborative in helping us decide what to double up on and to listen to our likes. She was very knowledgeable and cool.

Cape cod scallops is a must! Would I have got a second order of that vs the tuna? No the Tuna dish was the star for me but if I didn’t get the tuna, I would have definitely doubled up!

Beet-leek fritters with Labne were excellent. Beet forward, and light. Texture was perfect, firm and structured, not oily as most fritters could be, the addition of a tangy labne underneath was inspired, only wish it had a touch more, and the chili was just right. We would have ordered a second serving if we hadn’t had so many more dishes to come.

The asparagus with trout roe was a good plate to share and added freshness. The sauce was really good, the overall dish is good, and I understand why it’s on the menu, and why we needed to order it, but I would give it an 8. Would I order it again, no but happy we tried it.

Paying $8 for two rolls was a bit steep, but ok. The placement of it on the menu (half way through the sharing plate, was a little odd, so I expected a little more). It was meh, it could have been given for free and would have added more to the experience than paying for it.

I would have ordered two soft shell crab. Really delightful and bright dish. I’d order this again, for sure!!

The lumache with ramp pesto was truly surprising for me. I think the pasta was over cooked slightly, but the ramp pesto was delightfully light, flavorful and on point! The whole toasted pine nuts so fresh and added the beautiful pop of texture and richness.

The cook on the branzino was amazing. Skin so crispy, and spring onions so delicious, we fought over them! Is it worth $52, maybe. 52, not 50, not 49, 52! On a second thought, yes!

No doubt the John Dory needs to go off the menu. None of the components delivered!

We ordered two deserts, the strawberry with a whipped cheesecake (was ok) and lemon desert with pistachio sorbet (excellent)

The drinks were strong, good, the service was relaxed and attentive without being overbearing, the atmosphere was nice. The menu is a 9, and I want to come back, and for that I give...

I'm not sure how relevant this review will be since I went here a month ago and I heard that the menu changes every ~4 weeks. Moeca is certainly not a cheap option for food, but there were some real winners amongst the many (many) dishes we tried. Also, looks like it's booked out for a while, so try to plan early for a reservation! This might be our new go-to place for celebration meals -- what other place can you say changes their menu every time you go?

We had two drinks -- Gold vibrations and Tropea (both $14). We asked for the sweetest drinks and Gold vibrations was recommended as the sweetest. It was very tasty. Tropea sounded like it would be sweet from the menu, but it was more mild, with a smoky taste and a nice watermelon juice ice cube. The drinks were quite strong, so I think they are pretty worth it. I'll break down the food into three categories: love, like, and gripe.

Things I loved: Swordfish with mussels ($38): This was my favorite. I thought the fish was quite perfectly cooked (though the thicker part was nicer since it was less cooked), the mussels were perfectly cleaned and cooked, and the sauce was delicious. A perfect dish, I would definitely recommend. Sturgeon saltimboca ($24): Very delicious and the mushroom sauce was to die for. Grilled oysters with XO sauce ($12): Very tasty as well, perfectly cooked, perfect flavors. Raspberry guava sorbet with almond macaron and cheesecake ($9): 100% worth getting. I thought it would just be sorbet, but it was an artfully created dessert with 3 components and everything went wonderfully together.

Things I liked a lot: Octopus ($28): Perfectly cooked -- crispy on the outside, soft on the inside. It came with baked beans though, which I thought was an odd pairing (I skipped the beans). Ricotta gnocchi with chanterelles ($22): Amazing in terms of textures and got me hooked on ricotta for the following week. I thought the sauce was too acidic though, and it was a bit lacking on sauce amount.

Things I had some gripes with Caviar ($28) with crispy potato: Tasty, but I would say the money would be better spent on more substantial seafood than caviar. Green crab custard ($16): Decent and smooth (I think it's made from the tomalley of the crab) but I wouldn't get it again. Focaccia ($10): Very delicious, but the accompanying sauce was a bit too tart for me. The chili crunch definitely had a kick. Shishito peppers ($12): Not it for me. It seemed like there were non-shishito peppers, and many of them were sweet and/or too burnt to eat. The sauce was nothing special. Strawberry gelato panino ($13): Decent but the bun was lukewarm so it was lacking the contrast in temperatures and it felt unnecessary.

Overall had a great time trying everything, and excited for...