Masa, Boston

Masa, Boston
As usual, Marci and I were running late after some difficulties getting checked into the hotel and returning her rental car, but we forged ahead finally leaving for the restaurant at 8:15 for our 8pm reservation. Luckily, after taking the taxi, the place wasn’t very crowded.
Masa is a pretty big restaurant with lots of tables. It’s open and not very decorated with a bar on the left and tables on the right. It was about half full when we arrived. We waited a long time for a waiter to come and pour water and then longer for someone to come to ask us about drinks. We ordered a margarita and a Caprinha. Marci said the Margarita was good but the Caprinha was way too bitter. It needed something sweet. It was a strawberry Caprinha so maybe the strawberries weren’t as sweet as they should have been.
The menu was intriguing and we had a terrible time trying to decide what to order. Entrees were about $22 but they had a prix fix for $25 that included one of four appetizers, one of four dinners and one fo three desserts. The appetizers all looked good, but we settled on two off the prix fix menu and one from the regular menu: quesadilla with shrimp and chorizo, beet salad and All three were very good and flavorful. I would order them all again.
Mains included a salmon with a horseradish crust and empanadas with spinach and chiles. The salmon was quite good, flaky and flavorful but it could have used a sauce. The empanadas were mixed. The spinach one tasted kind of like spanakopita which I don’t really care for and the other one was very tasty and Mexican. It came with two salsas but the way they are spread on the plate it’s hard to get any up. I would have liked salsa in little bowls.
We got to order dessert off the regular menu because the prix fix menu was sold out of its desserts. We selected an apple tart and chocolate tamale. The apple tart was excellent, very flavorful with a lovely puff pastry crust and the apples were just slightly crisp which I like. I didn’t like the kind of eggy texture of the chocolate tamale, but Marci liked it a lot. It was very chocolatey.
A note on service. Our waiter was a bit creepy but friendly. By creepy he kind of looked like a homeless persom and didn’t look you in the face and kind of mumbled when he talked. However, when we asked him questions about the menu, he wasn’t very helpful. He said that it depended on what you liked, which of course is true, but not useful. I asked what was spicy and he said they would make anything spicy which was not my question. He got more friendly as the night went on, but it put a bit of a damper on things dealing with him.
We didn’t leave until almost 11 and as we were walking back we realized Marci had left her sweater so we turned around and returned to get it. Luckily it was still under her seat.