There aren’t too many Greek restaurants in Boston, but we settled on Doretta Taverna & Raw Bar in the Back Bay.
The atmosphere is a reason in itself to visit Doretta Taverna & Raw Bar. The restaurant is filled with contemporary art and colorful decor. It’s certainly stylish, but not in a flashy way, but in a more simplistic way. The space inside is big – there are tables and booths that surround a big bar located in the center of the restaurant.
Doretta is like many restaurants around the back bay or downtown area – it doesn’t pretend to be this lesser, more casual restaurant. That means you’ll get smaller portions that cost more, but the quality of dishes are top notch.
The dinner menu is split into raw, mezze (smaller plates), and larger plates. I had never had grilled octopus, so we started with an order of that. Again, a small portion, but so. Damn. good. The order came in a bowl and in that bowl, along with grilled octopus, came with capers, onions, and parsley.
After splitting a mezze, we also ordered a larger plate to split. While the branzino and lamb shoulder both sounded great, we ultimately went with something a little more affordable, that sounded just as great – the lamb burger. We were not disappointed. The lamb burger was topped with whipped feta, spicy cucumber, and tzatziki sauce. The burger came with a side of awesome homemade potato chips which we also thoroughly enjoyed. We also found a foodie hack and dipped chips in the tzatziki sauce that fell out of the burger and onto our plate, and that was a truly delightful experience for my taste buds.
If you’re looking to change it up from the typical bar and grille, Doretta fits the bill as an elegant restaurant downtown with fresh, authentic Greek food – a very solid place for a date night!
! When we arrived at the restaurant, it was pretty crowded, but we were seated right away. The sit-down part of the restaurant is very nice, boasting a calm vibe. The dinner menu featured a rather large amount of items to choose from including a nice mix of entrees and appetizers that sounded unique and authentic to Greek culture.
We opted for appetizers to share and sample instead of order entrees. One was the Teriyaki Glazed Chicken Tenders served with a sesame ginger crème on the side and mandarin oranges. The tenders were so good – they were juicy and the teriyaki sauce that was glazed over them was sweet and perfectly complemented the sesame ginger crème and mandarin oranges. You can also order the chicken tenders as a meal, and after tasting them, we kind of wished we did that. Oh well, hindsight’s 20/20.
The other appetizer we split were stuffed mushrooms. They were just as good as the tenders, and bonus points because it looked artsy AF when they were served to us. There were five generously-sized stuffed mushrooms drizzled in a balsamic glaze, which was also artfully dripped on the plate. In the middle of the circle of stuffed mushrooms were greens and shredded carrots, which added to the appeal of the plate. The mushrooms tasted just as delightful as they looked. They were savory and satisfying and had a nice consistency.
I also ordered elote – otherwise known as grilled Mexican street corn on the cob. . I’m not a corn on the cob person, but I will say that corn on the cob tastes a lot better to me when it has spices and cheese on it.
I was in the mood to try something different that I hadn’t tried before, so I went with what Dorado might be best known for – cemitas. What is a cemita you might ask? It’s a Mexican sandwich served on a bread roll with sesame seeds. Here is a diagram courtesy of Dorado, hanging on their wall.