The best dishes in Boston

Chef Barbara Lynch’s pillowy prune-stuffed potato gnocchi never leave the menu at her flagship restaurant. The Vin Santo-soaked prunes have just the right bit of Italian dessert sweetness cut only by savory foie gras and crunchy almond bits. This is such an iconic dish in Boston that the The New York Times even called it "a no-holds-barred spectacle."

With table seating for around 20, this spot’s intimate size and unassuming décor allow its menu to pull off all the pomp and circumstance. Enter the famous omakase tasting. With 18 courses and a hefty price tag, it lasts a while (up to three hours). Is it worth it? Oh yeah. Mainstays include Kumamoto sashimi with cucumber mignonette and watermelon pearls, and foie gras nigiri with chocolate balsamic kabayaki and raisin cocoa pulp, while fresh fish changes seasonally. Say “hello” to sushi chef Hiro Konishi, who has manned the counter since its 2007 opening.

It took chef Tony Maws six months to create Boston's most in-demand burger. Despite being available “by request only,” it has won multiple awards and even graced the cover of Bon Appetit. A mix of locally sourced brisket, short ribs, hanger steak, bone marrow, and suet, he ups the ante with a touch of miso for umami (hello, savory), and finishes it off with home-made spiced ketchup, house-made pickles, celery root slaw, and a housemade bun. Caveat: Maws only makes 18 a day, so on most days there’s a 5:30pm line outside, and they’ll sell out quick. 

This signature cold plate uses the restaurant’s namesake ingredient to deliver an umami bomb that only chef-partners Ken Oringer and Tony Messina could create. The tidy spoon-sized package—which has been on the menu since the contemporary izakaya opened—combines Japanese applewood smoked uni, a dollop of Ossetra caviar, a quail egg yolk, and tangy yuzu.

Harvesting daily from his farm in Duxbury, Island Creek Oysters founder Skip Bennett loves his oysters. Slurping on a dozen of them, you’ll understand why so many chefs around the country add these pearls to their own menus. They’re nurtured and bottom-planted "free range" on the mineral-rich mud flats of Duxbury Bay. The locale’s drastic 12-foot tides bring new water rich in food (algae), giving the oysters their unique, complex flavor that ends in sweet buttery goodness. Presented on a bed of ice, with cocktail sauce and mignonette—what’s not to love?

This legendary dish has been sold an estimated 75,000 times since its introduction on the restaurant’s opening day menu. Made in the style of owner Garrett Harker’s Irish mother, who added cream to her red sauce, it’s full of housemade lamb sausage, peas and rigatoni baked to chewy-meet-crisp perfection. Fresh chopped basil, a few scrapes of nutmeg, and a mound of housemade ricotta seal the deal. True story: There are patrons who have eaten here countless times and stayed true to only ordering this beloved pasta dish.

A signature menu item since Ken Oringer and Jamie Bissonnette opened their South End tapas spot, Toro’s street corn keeps executive chef Josh Elliott on his toes. He goes through about 550 pounds of corn on the cob per week to keep up with its demand. His maiz asado is grilled and then served dripping with aioli, lime, espelette pepper and aged cotija cheese.

Union Square Donuts is an award-winning donut company that knocks the notion of donuts out of the park. This “pancake breakfast on a donut” begins with a brioche dough. This creates a donut that’s light and airy, almost pastry-like, ready to be glazed in a concoction made in-house from wood-fired Vermont maple syrup from Bobo’s Mountain Sugar. Then the iconic treat is topped with thick cut smoky bacon. Be the life of the party and snatch up a dozen at their Time Out Market location. Because bacon.

Move over fried chicken... this inspired dish at Kathy Sidell’s award-winning Back Bay eatery is a New England approach to the classic breakfast-meet-supper Southern dish. Consider it an iconic bucket list-worthy meal in Boston. In this iteration, a giant crispy buttermilk waffle is topped with fresh lobster meat fried to a golden brown and served with sweet corn butter and slightly spicy chili-infused maple syrup. 

Chef/owner Michael Schlow’s legendary meatballs are a family affair. Combining his childhood meatball-making lessons in Italy with his Greek mother-in-law's ground lamb recipe, he has shaped some of the best meaty bites in Boston. In Wellesley, Schlow’s Alta Strada adds whipped ricotta, pine nuts, and wisps of Parmesan to the traditional Italian red sauce, while an order at Michael Schlow's at Time Out Market switches to a spicier red sauce.

Not only has she dominated the local BBQ scene, but Chef Tiffani Faison is making her skilled home cook Southern mom proud with her biscuits. A bucket gets you four tender, flaky gems—warm and ready for dipping into her legendary housemade honey butter. There’s also an option of adding seasonal jam. Although touted a side dish, they can certainly hold their own, since they were named the “World’s Best Biscuits” by Forbes and “Best Biscuits in the U.S.” by Food & Wine. They’re perfect for sopping, but also stand alone perfection.

The folks at this diminutive Brookline Village sandwich shop rub all-natural Niman Ranch chuck steak with a secret salt mix and leave it to cure overnight; it then gets slow-roasted to beefy and juicy perfection. It’s piled into a buttered black pepper brioche from Iggy’s, and topped with crispy shallots, Vermont sharp cheddar and horseradish-spiked Thousand Island. The whole process takes about 36 hours, and the combo is absolutely habit-forming.

Each piping-hot pie served out of this 1903 bakery-turned-pizza place is a slice of history. Still owned by the Santarpio family, not much has changed over the generations. It’s been a century of classic NY-style thin crust, dripping cheese, signature grumpy service, and no-frills dining. Known as one of East Boston’s original pizzerias, having catered to Italian-Americans, there’s nothing but Old World, old-school simplicity (read: you won’t find goat cheese or arugula on the toppings board). Word to the wallet: Following its yesteryear vibe, this place is cash only.