Via Matta and Blu

After another long week of school I suggested we go out for a night out in Boston Friday night.  JO did a little bit of research and picked two new places for us to try out.

Our first stop was dinner at Via Matta.  Via Matta is over by the Park Plaza hotel.  A few weeks ago, when we dropped off flowers at the French Consulate, we walked down this really cute side street behind the park.  It's a really cute street, lined with trees strung in white lights.  We had seen Via Matta and it looked so cozy so I was excited to try it out.

I have to say, this was a great find!  The atmosphere is really cozy and a bit sophisticated.  The lighting is really soft and colors are light browns and beiges.  It's really a calm, tranquil restaurant.  One side of the restaurant has floor to ceiling windows that look like they open all the way up in the summer.  I'm thinking they have a pretty nice patio.  It seems like it's pretty easy to get a table here, which is good to know.

They don't have a huge menu but everything on it looked good.  I got the clam pasta which was pretty good.  The tomato sauce had the tiniest ever kick to it which was really nice.  I think they served a bit too much pasta with the dish, but that's not bad.  JO got the gnocchi and it was delicious!

The meal came and went quickly.  They didn't rush us or anything but the experience felt a bit quick.  In any event, dinner was good and we enjoyed the experience.  I think we will definitely go back.

After dinner, we walked over to Blu, which is located in the Equinox building next to the Ritz.  We had discovered this place back on New Year's Eve when we were looking for a restaurant that still had dinner reservations.  We ended up staying in our neighborhood but we both wanted to check this place out.  Blu, is on the 4th floor and offers stunning views, especially of the Paramount and Boston Opera House.

We were worried we might not get seats at the bar, but this was not a problem at all.  It was pretty empty so we easily got two seats at the bar with the beautiful view behind us.  I'm a little surprised they didn't have the seats at the bar facing the view.  The bartender was really friendly and the drinks were very reasonably priced.  We sampled the Kahlua tiramisu and it was amazing!  A guy sitting at the bar got the crab cake and I can't even describe how good it smelled!  We had fun talking about how awesome the city life is and our April vacation desert road trip.

We will definitely back to visit Blu, preferably in the near future!