Restaurant Weekend - Bergamot and Highland Kitchen

Driving around the Boston area these days is a slower and more treacherous prospect than usual, thanks to back to back to back snow storms. With so much snow on the ground and no systematic snow removal, streets have become much narrower, sometimes leading to the loss of a lane, and results in a nerve-racking game of chicken with on-coming cars vs. parked ones. The fallout is incredibly bad traffic, with the same amount of cars on the road and less room to maneuver.

Because driving has turned into such a frustrating and fairly dangerous activity that I can't fully avoid due to work, I've started to walk as much as I can to go about my routine. That includes going out for dinner.

The husband and I have been wanting to try Bergamot, a fairly new restaurant on the Cambridge/Somerville line in the old EVOO space. so on a recent Friday night when we didn't really feel like making dinner, we made reservations and trekked the 1.5 miles (one-way!) for a meal. It's a good thing it's not an overly formal space since it's hard to feel dressy when you're bundled in several layers and are tromping inside in snow boots. We're glad we did - good wine (I had a glass of sparkling Vouvray, which I rarely find by the glass around here) and mostly solid food, our favourite being the winter vegetable risotto on the menu right now. However, I'm not sure we'd be rushing back anytime soon - other than the risotto (and it is very worthwhile going just for that risotto), there weren't any outstanding dishes that we tried so we didn't waddle away with the feeling "oh, we have got to come back".

That's not how we feel about Highland Kitchen in Somerville. We don't go out of our way to come here (it's a 1.5 mile trek in a different direction), but we're happy to go anytime it's suggested. Consistently solid comfort food is a fantastic choice for a rainy and icy Saturday night. Starting off the evening with my usual orders: my favorite cocktail (a Monsoon, consisting of rum, mango juice and ginger beer), pappardelle bolognese, and finishing off with an insane banana bread pudding dessert in a caramel sauce and vanilla ice cream made me a happily full girl. We spent half what we did the night before for a more relaxed and better meal. While venturing beyond the norm is something I hope to do more of, it's a bit of letdown when it doesn't live up to expectations, particularly since we don't go out to dinner all that often anymore when we're at home. Sometimes an old standby is all I need.

Bergamot
118 Beacon Street
Somerville, MA
(617) 576-7700

Highland Kitchen
150 Highland Avenue
Somerville, MA 02143
(617) 625-1131