Foreign Affairs Wine Bar & Bistro

Went with a group of four last Thursday night. The majority of us loved the food. The legume salad, trout and salmon entrees were especially good! Our two complaints were with the noise and lighting. There were only two other parties dining but we couldn't even hear each other across the table. I suggest better sound absorbers because I can't imagine how bad it would be with more of a crowd. The lights could've been dimmed a little for a better ambiance. Other than that, we were quite impressed and look forward to coming back!

Having just moved to town from Jamaica Plain, my wife and I were excited to try some of our new local options for dinner. Leaving behind our little JP world of favorite restaurants, talented chefs, and amazing people-watching, we knew we were going to be a bit forlorn with our new dining life. We really appreciate inspired food. We are incredibly persnickety about tastes/ambiance/service in that way that only couples, into said inspired food, can be. You know, the kind of people who get all conversational about what the chef is communicating by the lack of salt shaker on the table sort of couple.

This past Sunday, my wife and I had a wonderful dinner at Foreign Affairs.

Salt. None was on the table. Interesting. An incredibly friendly waitress brought over a seemingly-boring plate of butter and bread and took our drink order. Thinking I was headed down the ocean-based path, I ordered a glass of the house-recommended sauvignon blanc. Snicker... this is a no salt place... snicker.

No salt, oh boy, here we go... wait, YUM!

The bread was hot, crusty, and really special. The mystery butter was strangely sweet but had huge (and tasty) pockets of salt in it that did nothing short of quiet the both of us as we devoured the entire thing. It was surprising (hard to do) and it was fantastic. Great start. Really great start.

To start, I ordered the mezze plate while my wife opted for the marinated baby kale legume salad. Wine: gone. Next up, "The General" cocktail (drink appropriateness and pairing thought out the window at this point). Now, the falafel on the mezze plate were, far and away, the best I have ever tasted. Small, fresh, wonderfully seasoned and colored. I lost half of them to my wife. The olive oil and bread made a new and surprising combo when dipped in the nutty dukkah. I had never had that before and it was quite good. I would say the hummus needed a bit of pep to keep up with the other tastes on the plate. Overall, a very nice appetizer. My wife's salad was absolutely delicious, but I think she is going to write about that. We ended up splitting both dishes as they were both that good.

The General was good. Not my favorite, but there were more... next up, "Toronto"

For a main course, I had the pan-seared sea scallops and my wife, the half chicken. The presentation on both plates was very nice, as was the portion size. Not too much, and not too little. At first, I was a bit disappointed with the lack of dressing on the micro-green pile in the center of the plate. I like when each ingredient is considered. I like when an ingredient isn't allowed to exist on its own, but rather has the tiniest treatment to make it that much more surprising, or at least different from what I would prepare on my own. This is a detail: a first impression. With my first bite, all was well. The scallops were perfectly cooked. Perfectly. The grapefruit added a citrusy twist to the light, summery brine from the scallops. It was delicious.

My wife's chicken was also incredible. The miniature squashes and spring hash that was on the plate made for lovely combinations of tastes. And the chicken, yum, was perfectly crispy and juicy in that great chicken-sort-of-way. It was a simple dish with no surprises, but very well done.

I was at a point now, where I had a massive glass of rye and bitters and a dessert in front of me.

We went with the "milk and cookies" for dessert which included several varieties of handmade cookies and a glass of fresh milk from Appleton Farms. The milk was amazing. I had never had milk that fresh before and it was surprisingly different. While the cookies were not up to par with the rest of the meal, I feel as if we ordered dessert poorly. Even the best cookies are really only so good. The ginger-oreo-sort-of-thing was the shining star in the bunch. Next time, we'll go with the brittle and ice cream that was also an option.

At the end of our meal, our check came and again, a surprise. The total came to around $97 including my own 3 drinks. This is incredibly reasonable for what we ate and drank. Typically, when we go out for dinner in Boston or NYC, the bill is usually around $130 and up. We had a lovely, and very tasty, dinner and for such locally-sourced food, it was pleasantly priced.

At the end of the evening, we walked away as two very happy diners. For a restaurant that just opened its doors, there are naturally some things to improve upon. These were details, however, and not major flaws, however.  The little details that, for us, make dining interesting, were what we talked about because the rest of our meal was superb. Service was friendly, fast, and classy.

We will definitely return.