Sorellina

Every now and then, you have to keep it classy. Restaurant week (or now Dine Out Boston) was finally upon on us so we carefully scoured every menu in search of the best dinner options in town. Surprisingly, in my 7 years living in Boston, I have never taken advantage of Restaurant Week. For those of you unaware, Restaurant Week is where establishments all across town serve a prix fixe menu for lunch and dinner showcasing their most popular dishes. You can either choose lunch for $15/$20/$25 or dinner for $28/$33/$38 depending on the place and and the menu. There are so many restaurants to choose from so you just have to pick a place with a decent looking menu and hope for the best.

In the end, we settled on Sorellina in Back Bay. They boast modern interpretations of Italian classics and had pretty awesome reviews on Yelp. Their menu seemed comprehensive and well thought out and had plenty of options for our party of 6. Plus, it was the only time we would be able to afford such an expensive restaurant. So after work, we got all fancy and headed out for what we hoped to be an impressive evening.

For $38, you get to pick and choose 3 courses off their prix fixe menu.This in turn was a great deal for a place like Sorellina because their entrees alone are usually ~$40 a plate. How anyone is able to rationalize that amount of money for a single plate of food is beyond me.

We came with a group of coworkers and were seated promptly. They started us off with drinks and some delicious fresh bread which is always good for a fancy restaurant because I’m usually never full in the end.

Since we gave up alcohol for lent, we didn’t get drinks. However, our good friend Nevin ordered something (pictured below) that seemed amazing but I can’t remember the name of it. Oh well.

I also really wanted to use the flash for pictures but thought it wasn’t appropriate for such a venue. Thus, I resorted to using the only light source I had at the time. I apologize for the terrible pictures. I tried my best. 

Selma started off with the Endive Salad – Gorgonzola crema, winter citrus, candied walnuts, blood orange vinaigrette. This was quite tasty but it was really just a salad in the end.

I got the Salmon tartare – light smoke, creme fraiche, quail egg, fennel pollen crostini. This was fantastic, especially when you paired it with the quail egg. This was almost too pretty to eat. Almost…

Nevin ordered the Kobe beef meatball (off their regular menu). This was probably the best meatball I’ve ever eaten in my entire life. Who doesn’t love balls of meat?

For the main course, Selma ordered the Salmon – Faroe island, organic carrot puree, fennel-winter citrus salad. The picture did not do this plate justice. However, Selma still said that my salmon was better 🙂

Nevin ordered the Chicken – Giannone farms, confit, whipped potatoes, verdure, jus. He seemed to be enjoying it.

And I (as well as the rest of our party) got the Ribeye – Foie butter, fingerling potatoes, confit carrots, vin cotto. I was extremely surprised by the size of this steak. I was imagining a tiny cut of meat but when this slab came out I was in awe. The steak was cooked to a perfect medium rare and was definitely my favorite part of the entire meal.

For dessert, I got the Sformato – Chocolate – hazelnut Bavarian, frangelico crema. This was very light but packed a lot of flavor.

And Selma ordered the Limone – Fallen lemon soufflé, mascarpone, pomegranate. It had the perfect consistency with just the right amount of lemon. Out of the two desserts, this was our favorite.

All in all, this was an amazing meal. The food was impressive and the restaurant/service was great. This is definitely a “very special occasion” type of place but it was well worth the trip down for Restaurant Week.

As a side note, unbeknownst to us at the time, guests of Sorellina were invited to use the restaurant’s complimentary car service for transportation within metro Boston. That was our one chance and we blew it. Damn.

And with that, thanks for reading!

Also, be sure to visit my fundraising raffle for the J&J Triathlon and Bike MS for a chance to win a home cooked meal by yours truly or a $25 Amazon gift card!