I made my first visit to Cafeteria on Newbury Street back in April 2010 (you can read about my incredible experience here) and have made several trips back since. After purchasing a Groupon for the restaurant a few weeks back, I invited my college roommate to meet me there for dinner tonight.
Earlier in the afternoon I had tweeted that I planned to have dinner at Cafeteria and they tweeted me right back asking me to let them know when I had arrived. When we checked in with the hostess, I let her know I had been instructed to announce my arrival. She said, "Oh yes, of course. The manager wants to meet you."
The hostess walked us right over to a cozy table for two and our friendly waitress came over to take our drink order. I decided to try a cocktail called the cherry coke, which is cherry infused vodka, simple syrup, lemon and cola. I am going to go ahead and say this is the best drink I have ever tasted in my life! It combines the taste of two of my favorite things: diet coke and candy. It doesn't hurt that it arrives in the world's most adorable presentation: a mason jar garnished with fresh cherries.
After our drinks arrived, the manager stopped by our table to introduce herself and told us to save room because "dessert is on us!" See people, another example of why it pays to tweet!
To start our noshing, we ordered the spinach and artichoke dip. Cafeteria's version is non-traditional and all the ingredients are blended together into a true dip. It comes with toasted flatbread triangles which are great for dipping.
For dinner, I ordered the Greek salad. While the fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, red onion, feta cheese and kalamata olives were delicious, I was wishing the salad came over a small bed of lettuce.
My roommate ordered the egg salad sandwich. She said the egg salad had the perfect amount of mayo (often people claim egg salad is ruined by too much mayo). The egg salad was also seasoned with pieces of bacon. The sandwich came on a burger bun, but she confessed she wished it had been on a baguette or another type of bread that would better contain the egg salad. The sandwich came with a side of parmesan fries which were finger-licking good!
After all that fantastic food (and another round of drinks) the manager stopped by our table again to check in on us. So kind! Our waitress popped over just after her to share with us all of the dessert specials which included cherry cheesecake ice cream, chocolate mousse pie, blueberry pie, apple pie and carrot cake. While we were tempted, we were really too full. She then offered to allow us to order a dessert and take it home. Um, have I died and gone to heaven? Who could resist?
We did decide to order the cookie plate to go. Our waitress returned with a container full of five enormous cookies. It would take at least five to six people to polish those off! The true cookie plate (as it's listed on the menu) also comes with a scoop of ice cream. I can't even imagine!
Per usual, my experience at Cafeteria was flawless. The food is superb, the service is outstanding, and the restaurant actively engages with it's customers on Twitter. Follow Cafeteria on Twitter @CafeteriaBoston. In fact, today they tweeted they are getting ready to put heaters out on their front patio! I, for one, can't wait.
