That restaurant looks beautiful, gaspode.

An early Happy Anniversary to you and the hubs.

My veggie friends were somewhat underwhelmed by their anniversary dinner at L'espalier. I note their veggie status because I feel that often the herbivores get short shrift when it comes to fine dining (Greens in SF being the exception), and YMMV.

When I lived in the Boston area, I liked Lumiere in West Newton for special occasion dining. Very good food, nice atmosphere (although not imposingly stuffy and formal) and (this is a big one for me) professional waitstaff. For me, the difference between a good restaurant and a great one lies in the skills of the waiter, and Lumiere has very ones indeed.

Happy Anniversary!

All my favorite Boston restaurants have closed, or gotten bad.

The one place I'd definitely be willing to try again would be Hammersly's, in the South End. I ate once from their bar menu, and the food was wonderful, and the restaurant itself was just so wonderfully romantic. But it's been a while since I lived there, so I'd certainly try to track down some more recent reviews.

I never ate at L'Espalier, but I certainly heard general good things (that is, from newspapers as opposed to friends). Rialto (in Cambridge, I think) also had a wonderful reputation, and the chef has a cookbook that's become my new favorite -- the recipes are spectacular. And I did have friends who ate there and highly recommended it.

Heh. I think I may have gotten every letter in "Hamersley's" wrong. At least the link works!

The Bosie I was involved with fifteen years ago talked me into taking him to Locke-Ober's(which had been the place my grandparents took my uncle when he was getting his MS and PhD at Harvard), but I haven't been since the new chef came. I had a good meal at Harvest in Cambridge the day Reagan died..."it's morning in America" ;-p.

Happy Anniversary!

Happy Anniversary, gaspode and Mr gaspode. I have to say, the menus for that restaurant sound pretentious beyond belief. I'm sure the food is fantastic, but it's a little too fancy for me, I think.

thanks, essexjan and brujita. Our anniversary is a ways away yet (oct) -- I'm just trying to canvas opinions for restaurants. I like to be prepared.

It *does* sound pretentious, right essexjan? I don't really care about that as long as the food is good.

thanks for the other recs everyone, I'll check them out (cross reference them with other stuff, assign a score composing imput from restaurant critics, mecha people, and restaurant messageboards, shove all that on a spreadsheet...I'm only half kidding).

thanks, triode, essexjan and brujita.

Mr. initapplette and I have gone to Via Matta several times for special occasions. We like to order the 5-course tasting menu. The server asks about your likes, dislikes, allergies, etc., and customizes the dishes to your preference. Sometimes you get dishes from the menu, other times the chef makes something unique.

One time, we mentioned that it was our anniversary and they brought a complimentary something-special to us at the end of the meal.

Happy Anniversary!