Boston in February
 

My husband has a conference in Boston February 15th through the 20th. My 14 year old daughter and I have decided to come along on the trip. We get in Friday evening and leave Wednesday afternoon. We've booked the Kimpton Nine Zero. None of us have been to Boston.

What do you like to do in Boston?

Any restaurant recommendations? We like all types of food.

Thanks!

Boston
 

Well...prepare for winter weather!

Boston has many interesting diversions. The Museum of Fine Arts has everything from mummies to Monets. A wonderful place to spend time. Nearby is the Isabella Stuart Gardener museum, a small museum in an Italian villa. The Museum of Science is well worth a visit. You can shop and eat at Fanuel Hall, or the North End. (Little Italy)
Walk the Freedom Trail, visit Paul Revere's House, stroll around Beacon Hall or Newbury St.
If you are a baseball fan, take a tour of Fenway Park. It's a blast. If the duck tours are operating...they'really a hoot.
Have fun and dress in layers.

Thanks! Yeah, February is not ideal from a weather standpoint.

Download the National Parks app for the Freedom Trail to guide you.

Yeah, you’ll want to do indoor stuff in Boston in February.

Will second the MFA and Gardner Museum. The Museum of Science is fine, but even better if you’re a youngster, and that pretty much goes for the Aquarium.

The Freedom Trail will be okay, though you may want to linger inside the attractions along the route to get out of the cold.

Consider also the Kennedy Presidential Library, the various historic houses (Otis, Gibson, etc.), Trinity Church, the Boston Public Library, and the various museums at Harvard University. The numerous available day trips will likely not be much fun that time of year, though a day trip to Salem for the Peabody Essex Museum and whatever historic houses might be open is a reasonable option.

What kind of food do you like? Recommending restaurants is pointless otherwise.

Ansel Adams exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts will still be on, as well as all the outstanding permanent exhibits.

Saturday night, February 16, the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Andris Nelsons will be performing Schumann and Bruckner. https://www.bso.org/

Across the street from Symphony Hall is the mapparium, housed in the Mary Baker Eddy Library.
https://www.marybakereddylibrary.org/project/mapparium/

You can have dim sum in Chinatown.

The Huntington Theatre Company will be doing Spamilton. https://www.huntingtontheatre.org/se...019/spamilton/

Thanks for the suggestions. Spamilton would be fun! Yes, I think indoor activities are probably our best bets. We’re used to the cold but not damp and cold.

As for food: we always love a good oyster bar, Indian, sushi, Chinese. Really all kinds of food and like trying trendy/new/innovative restaurants. I don’t care
much for heavy meat or poultry dishes but daughter and my husband both like that.

Faneuil Hall is great for food and relief from the cold. Ambling around the North End is a favorite and Old North Church is just gorgeous. Above all, bundle up! :)

Chinatown is your best bet for Chinese food. Consider Taiwan Cafe (Taiwanese), Peach Farm or New Jumbo (seafood), China Pearl or Hei La Moon or Empire Garden (dim sum), Shabu Zen (Japanese shabu shabu).

For sushi, O Ya is pricey and innovative but excellent (in the Leather District, near Chinatown) while Sakurabana is a good standard (Downtown).

For oyster bars, there’s Island Creek (near BU and Fenway Park) and Neptune Oyster (North End). The latter is a great place for seafood in general but can get crowded. Unless you stick to raw oysters at the bar with a beer, I’d avoid Union Oyster House, as the food and service is generally not good. Summer Shack can be hit or miss.

If the weather is okay, then a Free Tours by Foot tour of the FreedomTrail is a fun thing to do. We did it in November though, so hadn't got that cold then. We had a very enthusiastic tour guide who made the history lesson very interesting.

Although your daughter might not be interested in the Museum of Science, she might like the planetarium shows and/or IMAX theater. Sometimes we have unusually warm weather in February. I love food tours but they require walking around outdoors. The North End would be pretty but the South End of Boston Food Bites tour we did last fall required a lot of walking and looks like it doesn't operate again until April. You can spend time exploring Chinatown and enjoy dim sum. There are also some wonderful Chinese bakeries.

Another vote for the Mapparium!

In miserable weather Uber can be a good choice in Boston. Normally a great walking city, not likely in February. We have used it for relatively short distances and drivers did not get annoyed with us for doing so.

bachslunch, thanks for the restaurant recommendations. I appreciate it.

And thank you all for the suggestions. I'm curious to see what kind of weather we get.

That is school vacation week, by the way. Not sure how it will impact your plans. Fewer school groups, more families in museums.

In addition to Island Creek and Neptune, Row 34 (same folks as Island Creek), Select Oyster Bar (chef formerly at Neptune, IIRC), and B&G (try the lobster BLT) are all good oyster bars.

Whaling in Oklahoma is also seafood focused and innovative. A group of friends and I really enjoyed it recently.

Puritan & Co is also worth a visit. For high concept on that side of the river, Tasting Counter is fantastic. Sarma is also worth a trip.

From the O Ya folks is the izakaya Hojoko. Call ahead to see if they have a band playing as it can get intolerably loud, but it is good, creative food. I also like Uni, even if I’m unconvinced the expansion improved it (though Boston Magazine rated it #1 this year). For more traditional sushi, also look at Cafe Sushi.

I think Toro is still great. And Coppa too, but the dining room at Coppa is so small that eating there is pretty annoying. Have heard good things about Little Donkey (another Oringer/Bissonnette place like those two), but have not been.

My my favorite place, though is Asta. I love the food. I love the unpretentious space. Love the friendly, unpretentious service. Love the wine program. The chef used to be at L’Espalier (almost as overrated as Menton, IMO) and staged at noma. They have never done any advertising and their website is useless (though they’ve recently added online reservations). It is a testament to the food that they’ve managed to become successful. The bummer is that reservations are now harder to get.

Thanks so much, tg! Asta looks great and exactly what we like. I had looked at Uni and Puritan & Co. I'll check out the others, as well.

Just to clarify about Asta, as I have some fear I've misrepresented it... I noted the space is unpretentious (former pizza place - they simply spraypainted over the first part of the old "Pizza and Pasta" sign) and the service is warm and friendly. But... the food is very modern and it is a tasting menu concept - it is as ambitious as any restaurant in the city - it is a noma knock-off after all.

I happen to think it is a great combo, but I wouldn't want folks to think that the unpretentious service and decor meant comfort food. Not that you did, kureiff, but I don't feel I was terribly clear.

If you do go to Asta, I like to sit at the counter.

Nope, understood. We’ve been intrigued by noma and the food. There’s a place off the B.C. Coast that we thought would be fun to try someday. Pilgrimme Restaurant | Galiano Island, BC. It’s owned by a former noma cook, and I think I must have read about it in Sunset.

I’ve eaten at noma twice. It is special. Not just the food, but the service (dishes are served by the chefs, including Rene himself - he is very nice and very humble). Simply warm and welcoming. It is (IMO) everything a restaurant should be. Asta definitely channels much of what makes noma so great.

This article seems timely for you:

Things to do in Boston? Don't listen to the travel guides - The Boston Globe

Funny... we actually lived around the corner from Jacques.

Nikki, that's a fun guide! Thanks!

The Harvard Museum of Natural History, on the Harvard Campus in Cambridge, is a great museum and well worth a visit. Their glass flowers exhibit is amazing and one-of-a- kind, and I really love their hall of minerals, so many gorgeous and fascinating specimens. <https://hmnh.harvard.edu>

Second this recommendation. The Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, which IIRC is attached to the Natural History Museum, is most worthwhile also.

Harvard’s art museums are also excellent. Plus, you could spend a decent bit of time strolling the campus and looking at the architecture — and not just inside the yard, either.

For lunch stop at the Regina Pizza location on Thatcher Street. Great pizza! Also Mike's for cannoli. I've stayed at the hotel you're staying at. Good choice.

Agreed, great pizza. Note that they only sell whole pies, not slices, if that’s what you’re looking for.

Mike’s is good for cannoli, but some prefer Modern Pastry or Maria’s. I think they all do this well.