Masona Grill is another restaurant not too far from where we live in West Roxbury. Our friends recommended that we check it out, so the four of us got together for dinner there one night. The website describes the food as New American with a South American influence (the chef is from Peru). I was excited to see what this type of food was all about.
We started off by sharing an appetizer special: the taquitos of the day. During our visit they were lamb taquitos. After I got over my initial disappointment that these weren't actually what I would define as taquitos, but tacos, I dug in. The taquitos were served with Spanish slaw and what the restaurant calls super crema.
We also all shared the Masona antipasto. This plate came loaded with soppressata, roasted vegetables, pickled onions, artichokes, and mozzarella pearls. I love dishes like this that offer a little of everything. We were all able to pick at the antipasto while we shared the taquitos and waited for our dinners to arrive.
For dinner one of our friends got the coffee-rubbed hanger steak with grilled zucchini, snow peas, and hand-cut fries. The steak looked perfectly cooked with gorgeous char marks.
Jeff went with the duck two ways, which had a confit leg and seared breast. It came with a huge pile of sweet potato mash and was flavored with port wine and crispy ginger. Our other friend tried the pork chuleta (or chop) that was a special that night.
Everyone really enjoyed their dishes, but I think mine was the best. I wrestled over what to order because I liked the descriptions of everything on the entree list, but eventually I decided on the Latin seafood chupe. This dish consists of local shellfish with yucca, quinoa, and tomato lobster cream. It was like a hearty seafood stew, and I loved seeing quinoa used in this way. The dish was chock-full of mussels, shrimp, and fish, and the tomato lobster cream tasted amazing. It may not look like it from the picture, but the portion was huge as well, and I couldn't make it through the whole thing.
I wish we had stopped there, but we opted to order dessert because we were using a Groupon that included two desserts (along with two appetizers and four entrees). We went with the fruit crisp special, and it was really strange. It had pineapple and other fruit in it and some spice that I was not a fan of. The chocolate cake with raspberry sauce was slightly better, but Masona isn't somewhere I'd go for dessert. It's where I'd go for hearty, interesting entrees.
We had great service, but I will note that we arrived on time for our reservation and were told it would be another half-hour or so before we were seated. Masona doesn't have a bar, so we strolled around the neighborhood until our table was ready. It wasn't a big deal but just something to keep in mind when you go.
What are your recent neighborhood finds?
