Mantra
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Overall Rating: Failure (58 out of 100)
52 Temple Place
Boston, MA 02111
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Phone: 617-542-8111
Overpriced and sterile, Mantra makes a mockery out of fine dining. Want to go clubbing in the Ladder District? Mantra is a potential destination. Looking for sick meals? Don't go here. Mantra represents the antithesis of sick meals.
Our History at Mantra
Previously, we only visited Mantra to go dancing. For dinner, we recently tossed a bunch of money in the garbage on a Saturday night at 7:30pm.
Appetizers
Mantra fuses French and Indian flavors with seafood, poultry, meats, and produce. Our party sampled several appetizers that illustrated this fusion style of cooking, including spiced scallops and tandoori stuffed quail.
Spiced seared diver scallops were served with mango, cumin, black pepper relish, and red pepper coulis. This rub delicately complemented the large, tender scallops. The tandoori stuffed quail was served with balchao sauce and a tiny portion of mustard mashed potatoes. We liked both appetizers, but four scallops for $19 and unspectacular quail for $17 is highway robbery.
Other appetizers include a tasting of oysters, saffron tandoori shrimp, and "menage a foie". For $23, the cleverly-named menage a foie gives you a variety of miniature delicacies: torchon of foie gras with winter fruit compote, pate with black truffle and brioche toast, seared foie gras with lobster, morel and goat cheese dumpling, and sour cherry Chambord gastrique. If you like foie gras, do yourself a favor: forget Mantra and go to The Butcher Shop.
Mantra peddles a bottomless supply of naan while you await your meal.
Rating: 7.5
Main Dishes
Overpriced to the extreme, Mantra's dinner menu includes pork tenderloin roulades, grilled rack of lamb, veal tenderloin, deconstructed tasting of game hens, fresh coconut herb crusted halibut, and steamed marinated gulf prawns.
Our party tried the veal tenderloin for $32, the deconstructed tasting of game hens for $39, and the fresh coconut herb crusted halibut for $39.
The veal tenderloin, served with garlic spinach, herb Idaho potatoes, and port glazed madras onions, was undercooked. The deconstructed tasting of game hens - quail, squab, and duck breast - was served cold with broccoli raab and mediocre yogurt, mustard, chili, and fig dipping sauces. Mantra's "fresh" coconut herb crusted halibut tasted like a dry, bland slab of fish with a few breadcrumbs sprinkled on top. We detected no coconut in the crust. Accompanying curry leaf coconut sauce resembled a pool of mayonnaise.
The halibut dish was supposed to include grilled asparagus, bean sprouts, and peppers. Adding insult to injury, we received three asparagus, a few red pepper slices, and bean sprouts - all "barely steamed" more than grilled.
To put it lightly, the menu over-promises and under-delivers.
Rating: 4
Drinks
Cocktails, sometimes carelessly mixed, go for about $10. Like everything else, much of the wine list is stratospherically priced. On the other hand, Mantra made several mean martinis, helping us forget the calamitous cuisine.
Rating: 7.6
Service
The staff wandered around like zombies and seemed bored as they awaited the main event - the transition of Mantra from a restaurant to a club. Our waitress took forever to deliver drinks, and it was no wonder: we watched as she took our drink orders and then went behind the bar to mix the drinks. Bartenders were missing in action. Sid Vicious cleared our plates.
Rating: 5
Ambiance
Cold, airy, and empty, Mantra has no heart. We felt as though we were intruding on preparations for the evening's clubbing activities. Signs of the previous night's clubbing showed up on dirty curtains. Men relieve themselves on ice; a few hours into a visit, the bathroom becomes downright raunchy.
Rating: 5
Et Cetera
Trivia: Mantra makes a better nightclub than a restaurant. Slip in before 10:00PM to avoid a $20 cover and sip a drink in the smoke-free hookah den.
Menu: Check out the menu here
Reservations: Mantra is on OpenTable
Transportation: Park in several nearby garages or valet for $15.
Dress: There is no reason to go here unless you want to go dancing. With this in mind, dress for a night of clubbing, or go elsewhere.
Hours: Dinner is served Monday through Saturday from 5:30PM to 10:30PM.
Labels: Downtown-Crossing, Failure, French, Fusion, Indian, Mantra
I will never spend another dime in that place.
That place is GARBAGE!
Wow, I'm surprised. I've eaten there a couple of times, and found the service friendly and the food well-prepared and creative. Maybe I just hit them on a good night :-)