Via Matta
79 Park Plaza (Arlington St.) 
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Boston, MA 02116
617-422-0008 | Make Restaurant Reservations
Cuisine
Open
Lunch Mon.-Fri., Dinner Mon.-Sat.Features
- Full bar
- Reservations suggested
- Outdoor dining
- Valet parking
- Casual
* Click here for rating key
| Via Matta’s been positively throbbing with customers since day one. At first, they came because this urban take on a trattoria is baby sister to Radius, whose owners---chef Michael Schlow, wine director Chris Myers and general manager Esti Parsons---form a cult of personality. But their collective style, by turns spare and rootsy, ensured their sophomore venture would stay on top as one of the pioneers of contemporary Italian in Boston. And so it has. Hardwood floors, Italian glass and leather and rolling cheese carts make for festive atmospherics. The menu, however, is smartly restrained and intriguingly elegant. In its nifty twist on a classic, pungent porchetta tonnata has rightly become a signature, as has the much lighter variation on melanzane Parmigiana that is crunchy eggplant. While we’re sorry those appetizers are only available at lunch or in the adjacent enoteca (which also makes the short list for nightcaps and a plate of ridiculously good Mascaporeos), we’re delighted to see the kitchen doing all kinds of neat things with quality produce: meals don’t get much more refreshing than a starter of raw oysters with grapefruit and grilled celery, followed by crab salad tarted up with persimmon and gooseberries, climaxing with paglia e fieno---plain and spinach pasta---tossed with just-harvested mushrooms and nepitella, a mint-like herb. Come summer, the patio pulses with activity. |
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