Sitting with the Mean Girls at Cafeteria Boston

By: Finance Foodie

A few weeks back I went to Cafeteria Boston for dinner. Although this place is not from same owners of the “seen to be seen” Cafeteria NYC, it bears an uncanny resemblance to its NYC counterpart - both feature a lovely outdoor patio filled with tables of girls who carry bags the size of their bodies and wear sunglasses the size of their face. Nevertheless, as I stepped through the doors and past the black curtains, I prayed that at least the food would not resemble the sub-par dishes from Cafeteria NYC.
The décor of Cafeteria was overall quite lovely and modern – especially noteworthy were the chairs made from material that looked like old wine corks. The only eyesore was the rusty looking “Cafeteria” sign made out of wire on the wall, which was definitely a design faux pas.

I started off with a pear martini. I was expecting the martini to be yellow, not magenta, which confused my sight/taste coordination.

We started with the lobster macaroni and cheese for an appetizer. This was the best dish of the night, as the consistency of the macaroni was excellent and the sizable chunks of lobster were extremely yummy. I was also quite pleased with the breadcrumbs that were sprinkled on top the dish, which provided for a delightfully “crunchy” addition to the appetizer.

My entrée was the pan seared scallops atop cauliflower puree and spinach. I was a bit miffed when I saw the cauliflower puree was a shade of grayish-purple, which intriguingly (but not appetizingly) was the same color as my wool sweater. This made me wonder if the chef was colorblind. The scallops were quite large and well seared, but had a slight hint of freezer burn. Last time I checked Boston was not landlocked, so obtaining fresh seafood should have been easy as pie.

To ease the pain of my rather disappointing entrée, I decided to order 2 more cocktails (as alcohol is clearly the solution to all dining mishaps). The drinks were not bad – the blueberry martini included tasty pieces of blueberry pulp and the strawberry basil martini was the correct color.

All and all, the meal experienced was mixed – some outstanding items were offset by others that were pretty bad. However, I would probably come back during warmer weather to sit on the patio, so maybe you will spot me in the sea of big bags and sunglasses!

Cafeteria Boston
279 Newbury St.
Boston, MA 02116