Guilia

A while back a friend at work asked me how I liked Giulia, an Italian restaurant in Porter Square.  I was embarrassed (well just city embarrassed) to say that I hadn't been.  Giulia consistently gets rave reviews and makes top ten lists yet I hadn't been there yet.  When she told me it takes about a month to get a reservation it got me hooked.  When I got home I checked out the menu and I was hooked.

JO and I were finally able to get a reservation for a Monday in the middle on January.  It was the perfect way to start a long week of school, with something to look forward to.  It was a frigid night but we decided to brave the ten minute walk from Porter Station.  Giulia is located in the "dead zone" between Porter and Inman.  It's a long, somewhat narrow restaurant with one wall taken up by the bar and the other by tables with bench seating along the wall, and chairs on the other.  The wall behind the bar is brick.  Each table had a different table runner in a rustic pattern.  Although the restaurant exudes fine dining the experience was quite relaxed and the prices weren't unreasonable.  Our waiter was friendly, informative, and knowledgable.  They did have a lot of expensive truffle deals going on but they never pushed them on us.

We got a few appetizers and both were delicious.  My favorite was the burrata and toast.  For dinner JO and I both tried the pastas.  The pastas were perfectly cooked and seasoned.  Mine featured pancetta and onions and JO got the papperdelle with boar.  For dessert we got the panna cotta with three ingredients I don't love:  thai basil, pineapple, and black pepper.  Despite the ingredients I would order that again.  It was delicious and all the ingredients made sense.

Despite the frigid temps we decided to just walk home because it's only about a 25 minute walk and much less hassle than the T can be.  I always forget how close Porter Square is.  I always feel like it's some other world.  I feel like we'll be visiting Porter more often to eat at Giulia.