Lobster roll
The Boston lobster roll is fresh-picked Gulf of Maine lobster meat tossed warm with drawn butter or cold with mayonnaise, served in a buttered top-split bun.
Where: Neptune Oyster, Pauli's, James Hook & Co, Row 34, Saltie Girl
Boston eats off the water. Day-boat scallops from Chatham, Duxbury oysters from row 34, lobster pulled out of the Gulf of Maine and trucked into the kitchen at Neptune Oyster by 11am, plus cod cured into the Friday fish-and-chips that built the city's pre-revolution fortune. The North End still rolls cannoli on Hanover Street: Mike's Pastry has fed the tourist line since 1946, Modern Pastry has fed the locals since 1930. Cambridge runs the country's most serious Eastern Mediterranean kitchen at Ana Sortun's Oleana, plus the Joanne Chang pastry empire across ten Flour Bakeries. Chinatown packs Cantonese roast-meat counters, Taiwanese soup-dumpling rooms and Vietnamese pho shops into ten short blocks south of Boylston. Dorchester Avenue runs a mile of Vietnamese banh mi, Cape Verdean restaurants and Irish pubs in a single subway corridor. Tasting menus at O Ya, Krasi, Pammy's and Sarma run $150 to $300 a head. Lobster rolls on a buttered split-top bun, served warm with drawn butter or cool with mayo, are the city's signature plate; you eat them at Neptune in the North End or in line outside the Pauli's window. The constant is provenance: chefs name the boat, the farm, the bay, every time.
Eat your way through Boston
Browse by price
Map of Boston
Every restaurant, cafe, market and bar we cover in Boston, pinned. Click a pin for the page.
Where to eat in Boston: editor-picked starting points
5 institutional venues to anchor a Boston food trip
- O Ya - Japanese sushi, chef Tim Cushman
- Oleana - Middle Eastern, chef Ana Sortun
- UNI - Japanese izakaya, chef Ken Oringer
- Sarma - Turkish, chef Cassie Piuma
- Pammy's - New American, chef Chris Willis
Signature Boston dishes
- Lobster roll - The Boston lobster roll is fresh-picked Gulf of Maine lobster meat tossed warm with drawn butter or cold with mayonnaise, served in a buttered top-split bun
- New England clam chowder - New England clam chowder is a thick cream-and-potato soup with chopped quahog clams and salt pork, served with oyster crackers
- Boston cream pie - Boston cream pie is two layers of sponge cake filled with thick pastry cream and topped with chocolate ganache
- Boston baked beans - Boston baked beans are navy beans slow-cooked overnight with salt pork, molasses, brown sugar, mustard and onion
- North End cannoli - The North End cannoli is a Sicilian-style fried pastry tube filled to order with sweetened ricotta cheese and dusted with powdered sugar or chocolate
Best Boston neighborhoods for food
- North End - Boston's Italian heart since the 1860s
- Back Bay - Newbury Street brownstones, Boylston shopping and the hotel-bar dining row
- South End - Brownstone Boston at table
- Beacon Hill - Gas-lamp streets and steakhouse rooms
Signature dishes in Boston
The plates that define eating in Boston.
New England clam chowder
New England clam chowder is a thick cream-and-potato soup with chopped quahog clams and salt pork, served with oyster crackers. The city's signature cold-weather soup in Boston since the 1700s.
Where: Union Oyster House, Legal Sea Foods Long Wharf, Neptune Oyster, James Hook & Co
Boston cream pie
Boston cream pie is two layers of sponge cake filled with thick pastry cream and topped with chocolate ganache. Massachusetts's official state dessert since 1996, invented at the Parker House Hotel in 1856.
Where: Modern Pastry, Mike's Pastry, Flour Bakery, Tatte Bakery & Cafe
Boston baked beans
Boston baked beans are navy beans slow-cooked overnight with salt pork, molasses, brown sugar, mustard and onion. The dish that gave Boston the Beantown nickname and ran the Saturday-night Puritan table since the 1600s.
Where: Union Oyster House, Legal Sea Foods Long Wharf
North End cannoli
The North End cannoli is a Sicilian-style fried pastry tube filled to order with sweetened ricotta cheese and dusted with powdered sugar or chocolate. The defining Italian-American pastry in Boston since the 1920s.
Where: Mike's Pastry, Modern Pastry
Fried clams
Whole soft-shell clams, dipped in evaporated milk and corn flour and deep-fried until golden. Invented at Woodman's of Essex on the North Shore in 1916, a New England summer-shack staple in Boston ever since.
Where: Neptune Oyster, Union Oyster House, Legal Sea Foods Long Wharf, Pauli's
New England oysters
New England oysters are wild and farmed bivalves from Wellfleet on Cape Cod, Duxbury Bay south of Boston and Damariscotta in Maine. The signature raw-bar plate at Boston seafood rooms since the 1820s.
Where: Neptune Oyster, Row 34, Union Oyster House, Saltie Girl
New England fish and chips
New England fish and chips is beer-battered or breadcrumbed haddock or cod, deep-fried until crisp, served with thick-cut fries and tartar sauce. The Friday-night Catholic-Irish staple in Boston since the 1880s.
Where: Union Oyster House, Legal Sea Foods Long Wharf, South End Buttery, James Hook & Co
Parker House rolls
Parker House rolls are soft, buttery yeast rolls folded into a half-moon shape and baked golden. Invented at the Parker House Hotel on School Street in Boston in the 1870s; a staple of New England Thanksgiving tables.
Where: Flour Bakery, Modern Pastry, Union Oyster House
Scrod
Scrod is a young Atlantic cod or haddock, typically under 2.5 pounds, broiled with breadcrumbs and lemon butter. The defining Boston seafood-room weeknight order from the 1920s through the 1980s.
Where: Union Oyster House, Legal Sea Foods Long Wharf
North Shore Roast Beef Sandwich
Boston's regional sandwich obsession: thin-sliced rare roast beef on a sesame onion roll, lavished with BBQ sauce, mayonnaise, and American cheese (the famous 3-Way).
Where: Pauli's, James Hook & Co, Saltie Girl, Anna's Taqueria
Boston Bar Pizza
South Shore bar-style pizza: thin crust crisped in butter or oil to a deep golden bottom in a 10-inch round pan, topped with slightly sweet sauce, edge-to-edge cheese, and a caramelized cheese ring at the rim.
Where: Santarpio's Pizza
Boston cream doughnut
Yeast-raised doughnut split and filled with vanilla pastry cream, then dipped in dark chocolate glaze. The official doughnut of Massachusetts since 2003. Eaten in three bites, ideally with black coffee at a counter.
Where: Mike's Pastry, Modern Pastry, Flour Bakery, Tatte Bakery & Cafe, Iggy's Bread, Sofra Bakery & Cafe
Boston haddock fish and chips
Fresh North Atlantic haddock fillet dipped in beer batter and fried to a shatteringly crisp golden shell, served with thick steak-cut chips, malt vinegar, mushy peas and tartare. The Boston Irish-pub default.
Where: Union Oyster House, Legal Sea Foods Long Wharf, Neptune Oyster, Row 34, James Hook & Co, Saltie Girl
Restaurants to know in Boston
A handful of the places we send friends to when they are in Boston.
Neptune Oyster
Neptune Oyster on Salem Street has run the city's defining raw bar in Boston since 2004. 42 seats, no reservations, Gulf of Maine lobster roll on a buttered.
Signature: Lobster roll, Oysters on the half shell
Union Oyster House
Union Oyster House on Union Street has shucked oysters in Boston since 1826, the oldest continuously operating restaurant in the United States.
Signature: Oysters on the half shell, Clam chowder
Mamma Maria
Mamma Maria on North Square is the North End's fine-dining anchor in Boston, in a five-room brick townhouse since 1973. Kitchen leans italian.
Signature: Pappardelle with wild boar ragu, Veal osso buco
Giacomo's Ristorante
Giacomo's on Hanover Street has run a no-reservations Italian-American room in Boston's North End since 1985. Priced at $$. At 355 Hanover St.
Signature: Lobster ravioli, Fra diavolo
Carmelina's
Damien DiPaola named Carmelina's after his mother and runs it on Hanover Street as a regional Italian kitchen in Boston since 2012. Located in North End.
Signature: Sunday gravy, Tortellini al pesto
Regina Pizzeria
Regina Pizzeria on Thacher Street has fired thin-crust pies in Boston's North End since 1926. The original location is the one that matters, brick oven.
Signature: Margherita, Giambotta
Where to eat by neighborhood
North End
Boston's Italian heart since the 1860s. Hanover Street rolls cannoli, Salem Street pours espresso, and the side streets run a dozen red-sauce trattorias.
Best for: Italian, Bakeries, Seafood, Late night
Back Bay
Newbury Street brownstones, Boylston shopping and the hotel-bar dining row. Krasi's Greek list and Saltie Girl's seafood counter live here.
Best for: Fine dining, Seafood, Brunch, Cafes
South End
Brownstone Boston at table. Tremont Street runs Toro, Coppa and Myers and Chang inside ten blocks; Washington Street fills with brunch lines on Sundays.
Best for: Tapas, Brunch, Wine bars, Vegan
Beacon Hill
Gas-lamp streets and steakhouse rooms. Mooo runs the porterhouse seat; Charles Street keeps a row of small wine bars and bakeries.
Best for: Steakhouses, Fine dining, Cafes, Wine bars
Seaport and Fort Point
Boston's newest food district built on old wharf land. Row 34's seafood room, Trillium's three-storey taproom and the harbor walkways.
Best for: Seafood, Breweries, Cafes, Brunch
Chinatown
Boston's third-largest Chinatown packs Cantonese roast-meat counters, Taiwanese soup dumplings and Vietnamese pho into ten blocks south of Boylston.
Best for: Cantonese, Dim sum, Taiwanese, Vietnamese, Late night
When to come hungry in Boston
Peak food season: May to October, lobster season, soft-shell clams and Cape Cod oysters at peak. September is the chef-shopping farmstand month. February to March, lobster prices spike and many small rooms run shorter hours.
Local dining hours: Lunch 11:30-14:30. Dinner 17:00-22:00, last seating often 21:00. Late-night kitchens in Chinatown, Allston and Kenmore Square run to 02:00 on weekends; most of the city closes by 23:00.
Tipping: Tip 18 to 22 percent on the pre-tax total at sit-down restaurants. Bars and counters get $1 to $2 per drink or 18 to 20 percent. Tasting menus often add service automatically; check the bill before adding more.
Boston food, FAQ
What food is Boston known for?
Boston's signature dishes include Lobster roll, New England clam chowder, Boston cream pie, Boston baked beans, North End cannoli. See our signature dishes chapter for where to eat each.
What are the best food neighborhoods in Boston?
TableJourney editors map Boston by district. North End, Back Bay, South End, Beacon Hill are among the strongest for food, each with its own guide.
Where should I eat fine dining in Boston?
Editor picks in Boston include O Ya, Oleana, UNI, plus the full fine dining chapter on TableJourney.
Are there food tours in Boston?
TableJourney covers 5 editor-picked food tours in Boston, with what each shows you and how much to budget.
Does Boston have good vegetarian or vegan food?
TableJourney's Boston dietary chapter covers vegan, vegetarian, gluten_free, halal, kosher venues, each editor-picked with what to order and how to ask.