PRICE:
Frommer's Very Highly Recommended

When I feel like cheating on the North End, I leave my Italian-American neighborhood and head for Beacon Hill, which is hardly known for its Italian restaurants. Grotto may change that. The shadowy subterranean dining room is a cozy retreat, with contemporary art on the exposed-brick walls and overtaxed servers bustling around the small, crowded space. Chef-owner Scott Herritt has fun with seasonal local ingredients, beginning his regularly changing menu with imaginative soups and ending with fruit desserts, and his three-course set-price dinner is one of the best deals around. You might see seared diver scallops with morel mushrooms, baby leeks, and corn in the spring; stuffed duck breast in the winter; or spaghetti and meatballs \"with Grotto's insanely fabulous tomato sauce\" anytime. The first dish that got my attention here was hearty gnocchi with braised short ribs, Gorgonzola, and mushrooms; it was a summer night, and I cleaned my plate. Desserts are indulgent but not overwhelming -- a friend who's usually indifferent to sweets (where do I find these people?) devoured banana bread pudding with caramel ice cream, which left more chocolate pudding for me.

Copyright: Excerpted from Frommer's Boston 2008, (c) 2008, Wiley Publishing, Inc.

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