Rabbit Reporting » Upstairs on the Square / Monday Club Bar (Restaurant Week, Boston)

Upstairs on the Square / Monday Club Bar (Restaurant Week, Boston)

I had decided to avoid Boston Restaurant Week based on local reports — and on the sheer terrible-ness of Toronto’s RW equivalent, Summerlicious (which is also hobbled by its stupid name). But I accidentally found myself at the Monday Club Bar (Upstairs’ “downstairs” sister resto) during RW, and had a lovely time.

I had never been to “Upstairs,” and I’d been looking forward to visiting based on foodie recs. I was concerned that RW was going to make my visit a disappoint.

The room itself is a confection. Based on Internet pictures, I was expecting Sophia Coppola’s “Marie Antoinette,” but it’s a little more eclectic and shabby chic. The space doesn’t quite feel like Versailles, it does somehow feel like Harvard. Either way, the Monday Club is a pretty room (the upstairs dining room… which might be more candy-floss, is closed on Monday so we couldn’t check it out). We arrived about 9:00 and were seated immediately at the bar (our preference). We ordered a bottle of Lucien Albrecht cremant rose from their RW wine selection, and picked at some bread and EVOO before our apps arrived.

We started with a watercress salad and a chilled zucchini soup. Zucchini is kind of a bland veg, but the soup had a nice summer-y taste, bright and refreshing. The mozzarella beignet didn’t add much, but it was a pretty garnish. The watercress salad was pretty basic, but it had a very nice pancetta balsamic dressing and was doctored up with a few tomatoes and onions. For mains, we split the swordfish and the skirt steak. Two pieces of fish had a nice balsamic-y taste, plated with a white bean and tomato side and finished with an olive tapenade. Everything was tasty and worked well together. The skirt steak came with 4-5 slices of meat (cooked medium rare, as ordered) on top of a warm and hearty bacon, corn and potato salad. Mr. Rabbit started with the steak and didn’t want to trade half-way (as was our deal), but once convinced, he was equally pleased with the swordfish.

Desserts were also very good. A lemon pound cake came with strawberries and crème fraiche “ice cream” — it looked light, but it was actually quite flavourful and sating. The chocolate panna cotta was pudding-y, rich and chocolate-y, and came garnished with a chocolate sauce and a chocolate cookie tuille. It might have been too much or too un-subtle on the chocolate for some, but I quite liked it.

Service was consistently relaxed, friendly and accommodating. On a Monday, the room had a nice buzz (what I would expect on a Wed/Thurs, but not jammed — a few empty tables did remain). We lingered over coffee (which I understand is ostensibly not on offer at some RW spots where they just want you to clear out ASAP). Our meal (2 RW specials at $33, wine at $36/bottle and a coffee) came to $109.

RW portions are smaller than I would expect on a regular night, but I was impressed that Upstairs was trying to execute a well planned and interesting menu — nicely varied options, innovative and well-considered sides, seasonal ingredients, and some fun and reasonable special liquor and wine options (their signature champagne cocktail was reduced and they had chosen a red, white and sparking feature wine for RW). I was impressed. I imagine that at RW you see about 2/3 of what a kitchen can really do (I mean, they are definitely limited by budgetary and temporal constraints). Mains here are regularly $15-30 (and we did consider ordering of the regular menu, but found that there were no more enticing options downstairs). I would definitely come back here, and I would recommend for a RW visit, although I think anyone should pare down expectations slightly for this event.

Posted on August 18th, 2007 by rabbit
Filed under: Boston, Restaurant Reviews

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