51 Lincoln Review

Overall rating: 79

Food rating: 79

51 Lincoln: Pretty good, but better food available in the neighborhood

Continuing our trend with Lineage of going back to a restaurant we'd been to once in the distant past, we ate for a second time at 51 Lincoln. We'd been there years ago and had thought it was overpriced for what it offered, but have been hearing good things and thought we should give it another try.

51 Lincoln is in Newton Highlands and like many other restaurants reviewed on this blog features creative preparations of mostly locally sourced foods.

The restaurant includes a bar area with a TV showing sports that is pretty well separated off from the dining area. We had early reservations and despite the restaurant being mostly empty were initially given seats directly in the line of wind gusts when the outside door opened. The hostess was happy to reseat us when asked.

We started out with drinks, ordering a "scarlet martini" that we both thought was excellent. (Later, I ordered an inexpensive Riesling that was awful.) Bread was served with two dips: an interesting tasting hummus, and a tomato/chili. The bread was good and the dips were very good.

For appetizers, we got a poached pear salad, and the preparation of the pears, with a tangy/spicy vinaigrette was excellent. We also got a braised beef ragout served with polenta that was also very good.

If the meal had stopped at this point, we would have concluded we'd been overly harsh in our opinion of 51 Lincoln in the past.

For entrees, we got mahi mahi and chicken under a brick. The preparation of the mahi mahi (pan seared, with roasted butternut squash, oyster beurre blanc, butternut squash chips, fennel and golden beet salad) sounded wonderful but was pretty standard and dull and the mahi mahi was a bit overcooked. The chicken under a brick (chive buttermilk biscuit, chanterelle mushroom ragout, carrot puree) was similarly better on the menu than on the plate where it was pretty dull, though the mushroom ragout went well with the biscuit.

For dessert we got a special: a bread pudding made with mission figs and covered with dark chocolate sauce. This was tasty, but again not nearly as inspired as it sounded.

One definite plus to our visit was the waitress. When my wife asked whether to get the chicken under a brick, or the much more expensive ribeye, she did not try to steer her to the more profitable meal. She also quickly removed the awful wine and didn't charge us for it.

The cost of the meal (with four drinks) and before tip was about $158. Sycamore, about two miles away from 51 Lincoln is similarly priced, has equally good drinks, and the food is tastier and more interesting, and Farmstead Table near Sycamore is somewhat less expensive and also has better food overall.

Unlike with our reassessment after eating at Lineage, I doubt we'll be heading back to 51 Lincoln anytime soon.