Another foray into Boston dining led me to Banyan Bar and Refuge, which bills itself as a modern Asian gastropub. I read about it in Boston Magazine where it was given top billing on two lists: The best 25 restaurants of 2015 and the 50 best restaurants in Boston 2016.
The bartender at the hotel where I was staying couldn’t warble higher and louder to sing its praises. There were other restaurants on the lists that sounded just as intriguing such as O Ya, Shojo—you can see I was attracted to Asian restaurants—or more traditional haunts like Barbara Lynch’s Menton or the very avant garde Tasting Counter in Somerville.
The bar and dining room at Banyan
Interestingly the night before my trip to Boston, I went to Evo in Portland where we had an extraordinary impromptu dinner that had so much style and taste—a hard act to follow anywhere and at one of out city’s best restaurants. And it was still on my mind when I began my dinner at Banyan.
