Rustic Kitchen
Friday, August 17, 2007
Overall Rating: Sick Potential (71 out of 100)
210 Stuart Street
Boston, MA 02116
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Phone: 617-423-5700
Located in Park Square, Rustic Kitchen is an Italian-Mediterranean bistro. Everything is made on premise, including breads, pastas, and desserts. The restaurant features an exposed pasta station and a wood-burning pizza oven.
Sounds great, doesn't it? The menu sounds even better. Unfortunately, the food and experience did not come close to living up to our expectations.
Our History at Rustic Kitchen
Our first visit to Rustic Kitchen was on a Saturday night at 7:00pm.
Appetizers
Appetizers range from $9 to $15 and include clam chowder, fried clams, arancini, oysters, veal meatballs, and prosciutto & homemade mozzarella. We tried the fried clams for $15 as well as the clam chowder for $9.
Rustic's clam chowder was watery and flavorless. The chowder included pancetta, garlic crostini, and hardly any clams. The crisp fried Ipswich clams with potato salad was a unique dish that yielded an interesting combination of tastes. However, $15 for fried clams felt insulting.
Four salads are also available starting at $8 for mixed greens.
Rating: 6.5
Main Dishes
Entrees include pizzas, hand crafted pastas, seafood, and butcher shop favorites. Pizza starts at $10.50. Pastas start at $16. Seafood ranges from $22 to $26. And the butcher shop favorites range from $19 to $33. We ordered veal & ricotta filled ravioli for $19 and pan seared wild striped bass for $22.
The pan seared wild striped bass sat in an overwhelming pool of oil. Included tomato-fennel jam and arugula were barely present. We had high expectations for the homemade ravioli in Parmesan broth with wild mushrooms. Unfortunately, we were again disappointed. The ravioli was very oily and the veal & ricotta filling was bland. It did not taste homemade.
Rating: 6
Drinks
We enjoyed an affordable bottle of Riesling for $24. Drinks were mixed well.
Rating: 8.4
Service
Service was OK, but pacing was poor. Entrees were served right on top of our appetizers. Our waiter was difficult to track down once the entrees arrived.
Rating: 7
Ambiance
A 250 seat bistro and bar spans two rooms. In addition, there are two private dining rooms, a garden lounge, and a live broadcast studio kitchen. We scored a prime seat in the middle of the action - a good-sized booth for two. However, with 250 seats, the place seems hard to fill. The bar was busy, but there were many open tables. The wood-burning pizza oven is impressive.
Rating: 7.6
Et Cetera
Trivia: Rustic Kitchen hosts Friday evening cooking shows. Learn more
Menu: View the menu on Rustic Kitchen's web site
Reservations: Rustic Kitchen is on OpenTable
Transportation: There is valet as well as two parking garages on site.
Dress: Casual
Hours: Dinner is served Sunday through Wednesday from 4pm to 10pm and Thursday through Saturday from 4pm to 11pm.
Labels: Italian, Rustic-Kitchen-Boston, Sick-Potential, Theater-District
