One of the many things I have missed over the past year and a half is dining out. While I haven’t avoided restaurants altogether, the number of visits we’ve made has been a fraction of what it would have been without the pandemic.
Frequenting restaurants helped add dimension to The Kitchen Scout and I miss having that piece of the blog to offset recipe posts. As time has marched along and we became vaccinated, we became increasingly comfortable with dining outdoors and sometimes indoors and and hope we can continue to do so safely going forward so that we can support restaurants, their owners and staff. I am rooting for them to thrive despite the challenges they continue to face.
At the beginning of the summer, I came across a new restaurant that had opened during in the Fall of 2020 despite the raging pandemic. Servia, located on State Street in Boston, was serving up a menu of Eastern Mediterranean delights that looked very appealing. So I made a reservation for the end of the summer when we would be able to get into Boston and invited our friends, Jim and Sarah to join us.
Servia is located in the Cunard building, the former North American headquarters of the Cunard shipping company and is named for a model of the ship by the same name gifted to the building in 2015 during the company’s 175th anniversary.
At the edge of the Financial District and close to Faneuil Hall, we visited Servia on a relatively quiet Saturday evening at the end of August. Despite how lovely the restaurant was inside, we did opt to eat outdoors and were seated along the sidewalk, protected from cars by a line of faux evergreens that worked quite well! Once the food and drinks started flowing, we could have been almost anywhere and we absolutely enjoyed every single bite of what we ordered (and we ordered a lot). Servia’s menu draws from so many influences including Turkish, Greek and Italian cuisines. It came as no surprise after sampling the food that I read that Ozcan Ozan, the man who ran Sultan’s Kitchen in the financial district for over three decades was involved with the restaurant. If you know, you know – Sultan’s was one of our favorite lunch places back in the day!
At the helm of Servia are Executive Chef Claudio Cavalleri and Patrizia Chambers. Chef Claudio was born in Como, Italy where he worked in his aunt’s restaurant before gaining experience internationally at restuarants in Rome, Greece, Ibiza and New York. Patrizia was also born and raised in Italy and owned Patrizia’s restaurant in Plymouth, Massachusetts.
Service was excellent and we were very pleased with our evening out! Servia is open daily for lunch and dinner. I hope you make a visit soon!
An interior shot of the bar…
And the main dining room…
Loved the plates and glassware. It’s hard to tell but the glass is actually oval which was fun…
We got there a little early so enjoyed our drinks. I loved the delicate coupe my sparking rose was served in…
Servia’s menu is broken down into sections including Meze, Salads, Shareable Plates, Ancient Grain Pitza’s and Tagine’s & Mini Kebabs. We ordered from all sections with the exception of the pitza’s (next time!) which are made with a type of black flour from what I can gather. I believe the house made pita is made with the same flour so it’s slightly darker in appearance as you will, and almost reminiscent of a lavash bread in its appearance and texture.
Overall, the portions were very generous and made sharing among four people quite easy as you will see.
From the Meze section, we chose these delicious falafel served with a tahini based sauce called Tarator…
We also ordered the Meat Cigar Borek that were stuffed with ground lamb and served with a red chermoula sauce. The flavor of these was fantastic and I would order them again in a heartbeat!
It’s hard to resist something called Triple Cooked Fried Potatoes so we ordered them and were not disappointed. They were served with a spicy bell pepper ketchup…
I definitely wanted a salad so among the four offered, we chose the Servia which was a mix of tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, feta, pickled onions, kalamata olives, za’atar and a lemon vinaigrette. Delicious…
From the shares menu we selected the Mediterranean sampler which allowed us to taste Servia’s hummus, baba ganoush, carrot labneh, muhammara and spicy hummus. All were very tasty but I think the spicy hummus may have been my favorite…
A little closer up of the house made pita…
Grilled Lamb Chops with Pomegranate Vinegar and Barberry Rose Petal Jam were perfectly cooked and a great blend of tart and sweet, served over a bed of vegetables…
Grilled Flat Iron Steak served with a Zhoug Sauce was also perfectly prepared and delicious…
And lastly, from the mini Kebab section of the menu we ordered these Harissa Lamb Kebabs served with a tomato and cinnamon jam. As you can see this was served with a generous salad on the side so you may do well to condense your ordering as there was plenty of extra food…
So there you have it! A wonderful meal out with fun friends and delicious food. I hope you can get to Servia sometime soon and have an equally enjoyable time! Let me know if you do.
Until next time…
Two Years Ago: My Summer Vacation
Three Years Ago: Comfort Food Round-Up
Four Years Ago: In Conversation with Joanne Chang
Five Years Ago: One Pot Chicken, Broccoli and Cheese Pasta
Six Years Ago: Chicken Paprikash
Seven Years Ago: Roast Chicken with Garlic, Lemon and Parsley
OH! Anything attached to Sultan’s Kitchen & Ozcan Ozan is a MUST! Thanks for this Val. I’ll be there within the week 🙂