PRICE:
Frommer's Exceptional

The Blue Room sits below plaza level in an office-retail complex, a slice of foodie paradise in high-tech heaven. Its out-of-the-way location means that it doesn't get as much publicity as it deserves, but it's well worth a trip to East Cambridge, perhaps combined with a movie at the Kendall Square Cinema. The regularly changing menu combines top-notch ingredients and layers of aggressive flavors, and the crowded dining room isn't as noisy as you might fear when you first spy the open kitchen through the glass front wall. (Upholstery and carpeting help soften the din.) Appetizers range from imaginative salads to steamed mussels with chorizo and saffron aïoli to delectable pizza. Most entrees are grilled over a wood fire, roasted, or braised, with at least one well-conceived vegetarian choice. Roast chicken with Moroccan spices, served with garlic mashed potatoes, is fantastic. Seafood is always a wise choice (grilled branzino -- yum!), and pork chops are juicy and succulent. In warm weather, there's seating on the brick patio.

Copyright: Excerpted from Frommer's Boston 2009, (c) 2008, Wiley Publishing, Inc.

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