Washington Square Tavern

Let's Eat by Kitty Kaufman

If I tell you how good Washington Square Tavern is then we're all going to have to wait. So we'll go for the communal table and you hang at the bar with your Martinelli Jackass Zin.

Friday night. We get seated at once and you will too if you go early. Fried calamari with yuzu aioli arrives first sans garlic, tomato sauce, cherry peppers, and hot sauce. Bright mesclun and baby spinach salad, so fresh they must be growing it out back, with walnuts and citrus dressing was crunchy and tangy. Frisée salad comes with creamy goat cheese and golden beets, milder than red ones.

With the menu's new American slant, the no-meat group can start with the PEI mussels. Carry on with roasted eggplant and spinach ravioli; roasted local cod and one of our evening's choices: local sea scallops. Huge and lightly cooked, they are plated with what we thought was sauce that turns out to be cauliflower puree. On the list of vegetables we know we should be eating but aren't, this preparation stands as a tribute to chef Chris Cronin's bent of less being more. Cronin, late of Delux Café, also knows what to do with his gnocchi. He terms it simply Parmesan gnocchi with sweet fennel sausage and San Marzano tomatoes in tiny pillows.

The secret to Tavern's ongoing success may be what they don't do: no reservations, no take-out, no dessert and no valet parking. They keep the lights low and the music peppy, with servers who know the menu inside out.

See it on TripAdvisor

© April 19, 2012

Write to us:
Kitty@corp-edge.com

Share it on X Twitter:

See Boston restaurant stories via One for the Table on Zomato

Locanda Del Lago in Santa Monica
Italian Western
Santa Monica Seafood Cafe
Fine kettle of fish
Boston Museum of Fine Arts
Food, and art
Ming's Blue Ginger Wellesley
Red hot and blue
Deli after Dark Dedham
Yes, we have no meatballs
Sophia's Grotto
Meatballs and calamari in Roslindale
Pon Thai Bistro
Pon cooks with fire
Island Creek Oyster Bar
Happy, happy new year
Amelia's Trattoria in Cambridge
New York state of mind
Cafe Sushi in Cambridge
Industry standard
Black Trumpet in Portsmouth
Ta dah
Flour Bakery
Eat dessert first