Food

Have you found any new favorite restaurants lately? In true winter fashion, we’ve been mostly sticking close to home and enjoying lots of homemade meals with some Dorchester dining mixed in for delicious measure.

What have we been eating lately?

Dessert first, I say! We have come to absolutely love Molinari’s in Adams Village in Dorchester. It’s cute and cozy, the staff is super friendly, and the food is absolutely fantastic. This past weekend we met friends there and ended with the most scrumptious cannolis after a perfectly cooked salmon over salad and a to-die-for pizza topped with fried garlic, roasted garlic, garlic cream sauce, and meatballs. Hello heaven.

One of our Dorchester favorites is Shanti, and while we usually love it as takeaway eaten at home, we recently went for their lunch buffet, which is fantastic and a great deal at $9.95/person. I polished off a big plate with a little bit of everything. Their food never disappoints.

Warm weather recently had us craving a beach day, and after some sun and surf in Hull, we stopped at Tosca in Hingham, which is one of my all-time favorite date night spots.

Feeling up for something light, we split their incredible beet salad and fluffy, dreamy truffle tots with homemade steak sauce. It is a combo I highly recommend! We love sitting at the bar, which is cozy and romantic, and has no TVs! I hate that so many restaurants have TVs everywhere; if I wanted to watch TV, I would stay home! Tosca has a pretty great wine list too; on our last visit they were featuring a wine from Mauritson in the Dry Creek Valley, which we love.

Breakfast has suddenly become one of my favorite meals, and walking to Sweet Life Bakery and Cafe in Lower Mills has become a nice weather tradition.

It’s often the Irish breakfast for him (and I always steal a few bites) and banana pancakes for me. The song always has me craving them!

If we’re having breakfast/brunch at home, pancakes are often on the menu, but one of the most sinful-tasting brunch entrees we’ve had recently was a brioche French toast, made with Trader Joe’s brioche (SO good), eggs, milk, cinnamon, and raspberries. It’s super easy to make; I just eyeballed everything, soaked the bread for a couple of hours and stuffed it all into a baking pan, cooking it until it was firm and custard-y.

I know we have so many new Boston restaurants to explore, and I hope that as spring arrives we will get a chance to do just that. In the meantime, we are pretty lucky to have so many yummy options so close to home.