Moeca

By Valerie Kolligian Thayer • February 16, 2023 • Dining & Reviews, Lifestyle, Outside the Kitchen, Restaurant Reviews, Scouting Missions

A few weeks back, my husband and I met up with our dear friends Maral and Mark for dinner at relative newcomer to the Cambridge dining scene, Moeca. Funny enough, years ago we met them at this exact spot when the restaurant space was a different concept, Shephard that closed its doors in 2018. I’m not sure given the pandemic if any restaurant launched in between, but it is such a cozy space and has housed restaurants for a long time (previous to Shepard this was the location of Chez Henri) that we were so glad to be back for a delightful meal.

Moeca is the most recent concept from Michael Pagliarini and his wife, Pamela Ralston of Giulia and formerly, Benedetto fame. Giulia is actually one of the very first restaurants I reviewed here on the blog and it has been a mainstay of the Cambridge dining scene for a very long time for good reason! You can read that review here if you are interested!

Moeca is the Italian word used for a small green crab which has an interesting history both as a delicacy in Venice and as an invasive creature here in New England. A resilient and adaptive creature that Pagliarini used in his cooking at Benedetto became the perfect namesake for his new, seafood-centric restaurant conceptualized and developed during the pandemic…

The restaurant is not large so best to reserve if you can on the Resy app. We had an early reservation and lingered for hours with nobody rushing us at all so don’t be discouraged by an early booking! We dined starting at 5:45 and didn’t leave until almost 9. The bar is also intimate and would be a fun place to come for a drink and some dinner or a few small plates…

Two of our group ordered from the creative cocktail menu. First up, the Sierra Serenade with mezcal, chile, blood orange, pomegranate and lime…

And a festeira with bourbon, dry madeira, pear, lemon and nutmeg. So pretty…

Moeca’s menu is inspired by global flavors while endeavoring to source responsibly raised seafood, largely from small boats. The menu is divided into three sections. Raw bar includes such items as oysters and all kinds of crudo and caviar. Shared plates are larger and cover a range of offerings from soups, fritters, a few vegetable dishes and even a duck liver parfait. Large plates are few but are for bigger appetites and include lobster spaghetti, branzino, chicken fried monkfish and roast duck.

We ordered quite a bit of food as you will see, but we consumed most of it as they were fairly light while also being large on flavor. We enjoyed most all of the dishes with few exceptions and we all would recommend you give Moeca a try sometime soon!

First up was this yellowfin tuna with chili, cucumber, peanuts and lime. If you are a raw tuna fan, this is the dish you absolutely must order. It was incredibly fresh and absolutely divine. The flavors were bright and spicy, just how we love it. How beautiful is this presentation…

Another item from the raw bar wa this Hiramasa (yellowtail kingfish) with hearts of palm, oro blanco and green curry. Also lovely, I personally preferred the tuna…

We ordered one of the night’s specials which were these grilled mussels and we were very pleased that we did!

We all addored this brussels sprouts and chickpea pancake with chili jam. In fact, I think we ordered two if I am remembering correctly! A nice break from all the seafood and a heavier dish that satisfied both our carbs and vegetable cravings…

We thoughts we should order the one dish that included the green crab in its preparation since it is the restaurant’s namesake. This is a steamed green crab custard with black truffle, leek and sunchoke. Not my favorite if I’m being honest. I didn’t love the flavor of the custard itself and I’m not a huge truffle lover. Others did enjoy it however…

It was hard to resist ordering this tender octopus with bok choy, sunflower seed crisp and orange. Since visiting Sicily, I now understand how delightful well prepared octopus can be! Loved the play on textures here with the seed crisp and the brightness from the citrus. And look at those watermelon radishes!

These were the wellfleet clams prepared in a ham broth with butter beans. The clams were tender and I really enjoyed the creaminess of the beans, but the dish was lacking in flavor we felt, especially compared with some of the other plates we had enjoyed…

You can’t experience seafood without something fried so we ordered these smelts and chips served with a delicious green tomato tartar sauce and a lemon wedge to brighten up the fried fish. I thought these were delicious, but they are a fishy fish so if that isn’t what you like, then you may not want to order these! The chips were perfectly executed and again, added a little bit of heartiness to our meal…

And lastly, we ordered branzino to share as couples. This is a must order, especially if you love branzino like we do. The fish was perfectly prepared, light and tender served with the most delicious chermoula sauce which you can see spread over the fish, some charred onions and sprouting cauliflower. Delicious…

Believe it or not, the guys wanted dessert and there were some delightful offerings including this nutella gelato served with mini chocolate fondant, caramelized milk bread (on the bottom) and concord huckleberry gel. Delicious…

And this smoked vanilla mascarpone gelato with spicy caramel popcorn! So pretty right?

Not an inexpensive night out at the end of the day, but the quality of the food overall was excellent and the service was top notch. I hope you consider Moeca for your next night out!

Until next time…

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