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The Boston Museum of Fine Arts Restaurant is a little bit of heaven on earth. TOM LANG/MFA |
No one I know ever confessed to eating in Boston's art museum restaurants until I mentioned this review. Then it was as if I had confided a rare medical condition: friends spoke, especially of the Fine Arts Restaurant, in the hush reserved for hospital corridors. In fact, both the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum's café and the Fine Arts Restaurant, each suffering from chronic poor reputations, are much better.
There are still faults. The Gardner Café seats only 32 people (or 62 if the outdoor patio is available). Time-conscious visitors should get on the café's waiting list before walking the galleries. In addition, Mrs. Jack couldn't have suspected that patrons of her museum would eat in a room resembling a diner. Tolerate the noisy kitchen: food, good food, is on its way.
The Gardner offers typical luncheon fare--pasta, fish, salads, soups, sandwiches--at steep prices, yes, but very generous portions. Have the lobster bisque to start, and share half with a friend. It's far too large, and its silken texture too good, to hoard. Sweet Moroccan ketchup adds cachet to the grilled chicken roll-up in Armenian flat bread: a challenge structurally, but very tasty. The smoked salmon and egg-salad club on wheat bread, accompanied by Provençal grains, is sturdier and yet lighter. Then swim the moat of white peach purée and raspberry filigree surrounding the chocolate mousse cake and the mango Bavarian cream. Consider your tab a generous donation. (Three full courses at lunch for two, not including drinks, cost nearly $50.)
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You'll be able to eat at the Museum of Fine Arts more easily, but beware: its three restaurants are the equivalent of heaven, purgatory, and hell. The Fine Arts Restaurant (second floor) is very good, the café (ground floor) is okay, but the cafeteria (lower level) feels like a conviction.
The cafeteria has quick, cheap eats (two slices of pizza and a Coke will run you $5) and access to outdoor tables in the Calderwood Courtyard, but it's still a shock after taking in the Monets. And though the café, one floor up, is a better option, the food is inconsistent. My smoked turkey and goat cheese came lodged between two halves of a yellowing bulkie roll, and the chicken chili was bland and watery. All isn't lost, though: there are a dozen or so always scrumptious dessert selections, changed weekly. The lesson: treat the café like a café. Have coffee and dessert; do not attempt lunch.
For a full meal, indulge yourself with dinner at the Fine Arts Restaurant. (Even lunch isn't much more expensive than at the café, and you'll notice the difference.) The room, first of all, is much more dignified, though service can be informal. During our first course, the waiter merely leaned toward our table while en route past it to ask, "How are the aps?"
That said, the "aps" are great. Both the color and taste of the fried calamari's chili aioli sauce were tangy, and the duck confit and mild goat cheese made a happy marriage. For entrées, the tournedos of beef were as tender as the first time you admitted loving someone other than your parents, and the trout was buttery, but light, and hid delectable mashed potatoes and spinach. Don't resist either the flourless chocolate cake or the lemon and white chocolate tart. The Fine Arts Restaurant is expensive ($130 for two, including drinks and the tip), but it is very well worth it. Thank your friends kindly, and tell them their concern is misplaced.
~ D.D.
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