Stellar Stella

With a gentle breeze and low of 60F, Friday was the perfect night to dine al fresco. We took the opportunity to head to Stella in the South End for dinner. We arrived at 7pm and got a table outside promptly.

Stella's patio reminded me of NYC. I thought Stella would be more about the drinks and ambience than the food, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that it's both!

We started with the arancini and the prosciutto melon salad. I also got a pear ginger martini. The arancini was delicious, nicely breaded and fried. Yum! I also liked the prosciutto melon salad which was quite unique. It had both watermelon and melon and was drizzled in a balsamic / orange juice sauce? In any case I loved it. Light and refreshing.





For mains we shared the special of the day (seafood risotto), a Quattro Funghi pizza and a rib eye steak with garlic butter. The winner was definitely the pizza. I don't know what it was but everything about it was done right and absolutely delicious. The risotto was ok, I wouldn't say it wasn't flavorful but none of the flavors really stood out? The steak was good.



For dessert we strolled to Aroa Fine Chocolates...to be continued ...

Stella
1525 Washington St
Boston, MA 02118
(617) 247-7747




Chomp Meter:

A good restaurant in my books! I want to try a pasta dish the next time we're there. Also I almost didn't want to blog about Stella because I want to be able to get a table outside as easily the next time :)

One minor nit pick, an annoying thing about the menu is that the slashes used to separate the ingredients make it difficult to read ...

Newbury Street Eats: Croma

I haven't been blogging much lately since I just started school again after 5 years. Yes I'm that old. It's so hard getting back in the groove of things! Thankfully this doesn't mean I've stopped eating out.

A bunch of us headed out to Croma last Friday evening since a friend was in town. Croma's a pizzeria/bar on Newbury street with outdoor seating (take note for when summer comes around again). I've only been there once before but remembered that the pizzas were good. The menu actually reminded me of the offerings at CPK but the crust is thinner.

I ordered the pesto chicken pizza and asparagi (goat cheese, tomatos, and asparagus). Both were pretty good. I didn't get to take photo's of everyone's pizzas but N got a pretty unique pie with an egg in the middle!

Asparagi


We ended off with Croma's award winning sticky toffee pudding. Delicious, though it got a tad sweet towards the end.


Chomp Meter:
Good but not spectacular. It was only alright for me. Zzzzz

Croma Boston
269 Newbury Street
Boston MA
617 247 6200

La Casa de Pedro ... es su casa

This restaurant in Watertown serves great Spanish/Venezualan food! Even though this is the only time we've been there, I'm already really liking the place.

Not wanting to battle the crowds in Boston, we decided to head down last Friday evening. I hate circling for parking and liked that we were able to find parking quickly. The place was busy when we got there but it wasn't packed so we were able to get a seat right away. A rather prime seat on the patio if I might add.

We started off with some sangrias which were perfect. Not too alcohlic and not too sweet. For our appetizer, the waiter recommended Arepes with chicken and avocado. There was this glimmer of excitement in his eyes as he described it so of course we had to get it. They were delicious!

We saw another couple (they looked like they knew what they were doing) order the Paella as an appetizer. It was packed with seafood and looked so good that I almost wanted to ask if I could take a photo of it :)

Next came our main courses. The Pedro's Birthday Dish for Pacman. It's really steak, chorizo and blood sausage. Can I say heart attack on a plate? We devoured most of it except for the blood sausage. Perhaps I'm not used to the taste, but it wasn't flavored very well causing my imagination to run wild with thoughts of assorted animal parts! *gulp*



Here's my Kristofer's Camarones Tropical. The shrimp even came in a coconut which was cute. The sauce was delicious as well. Sweet and coconuty. Yum!


And here's a bonus photo of the patio with Pedro himself!




See La Casa de Pedro and other foodie finds on a map at Chompster.com

La Casa de Pedro
343 Arsenal St.
Watertown, MA 02472
Phone: 617.923.8025

(They are now near the Panera Bread in Watertown.)

See their menu



Chomp Meter:
I love this place! Great quality food without the hassle of going into Boston. There's also a good variety of entree's so there's bound to be something for everyone. Possibly one of my favorite Spanish places in Boston.