These MA Restaurants Were Named Favorites By 'Bon Appetit'

Two Massachusetts restaurants were highlighted by well-known culinary magazine Bon Appetit, which included the local spots among its list of "America's Favorite Neighborhood Restaurants."

The magazine said it asked 80 of the "most interesting" people — celebrities, professional athletes, fashion designers and more — where they like to eat. They then compiled the selected restaurants into a list divided up by geographical locations.

"These are the spots we return to again and again, the places that make no claim to be the 'newest' or the 'trendiest' and that's precisely why we love them," the magazine says.

Bon Appetit's favorite neighborhood restaurants in Massachusetts are:

Trina's Starlite Lounge, Somerville

Writer, editor and digital strategist Oset Babur describes Trina's ambience in vivid detail, from the "anti-minimalism" style of decor – "the walls are jammed full of old-school beer signs and a plaque proclaiming this to be 'the friendliest place in town.' The greeter stand is illuminated by the same kind of library desk lamp that now permanently occupies suburban basements across America" – to the clientele – "There’s a disco ball above the bar where plaid flannel shirts and local yuppies in rumpled Patagonia Better Sweaters drink off their weeks. College kids who can’t spring for the $14 cocktails down the block huddle up in the booths to devour plates of magical fried chicken and Ritz cracker-topped mac and cheese."

Babur concludes: "It’s officially ‘once I’m here I ain’t going back out season,' the fridge declared one night in January. And why would you want to?"

Trina's Starlite Lounge is located at 3 Beacon St. in Somerville.

Neptune Oyster, Boston

When writer and podcast host Korsha Wilson and her partner lost their jobs in 2011, they sought comfort at Neptune Oyster in the North End.

"The expectation was that we would discuss our next steps while sitting on those bar stools, but we didn’t. We talked about our families, how we wanted to go to the beach soon, anything but unemployment. This was our routine at Neptune Oyster and probably the reason that we needed to eat here on this day."

Serving some of the most "pristine seafood" in the city, Wilson writes, Neptune manages to be a "destination restaurant that feels like a neighborhood restaurant."

Neptune Oyster is located at 63 Salem St. #1 in Boston.

See the full feature here.

Top image of oyster via Shutterstock