Opinionated About Dining

Uni Is My Favorite Place to Eat in Boston

         

                                    

 

Many people think of Ken Orringer's Asian fusion restaurant Clio as the best restaurant in Boston. But for my money, Uni, a sushi bar which is housed in the same space as Clio, seperated by just a half flight of stairs, is the better of the two Orringer restaurants. Over the past year or so I've had the pleasure to eat at Uni three different times and Clio twice and I can tell you that it is no contest. Uni wins in a landslide. The entire restaurant consists of a six-seat counter and four tables for two. There are no reservations, but I have to say I've never seen the place full although I've only been on weeknights. In my experience, you will eat better if you sit at the counter and establish a relationship with the chef so he can get a feel for what you might like. That's what I did the first time I went to Uni. I had an 8:00pm flight back to New York and I plopped myself down at the counter at 6:00PM and told Johnny the chef that he had an hour to ply me with whatever delights he could imagine.

                                                                                                    

Northeastern Formal Dining

                                            Boston

Uni - Ken Oringer runs this sushi bar in a space that it shares with his more formal restaurant, Clio. It's just a counter with six seats and four small tables along the back wall. One night last October I sat down at their opening time of 6:00 PM, and told Johnny, who mans the sushi counter, that I had to make a 7:15 shuttle back to New York. Well, he took control of the situation, and in that 75 minutes he managed to serve me preparations of Kumamoto oysters, a quail egg with uni and caviar, toro tartar, barbecued eel and foie gras, Kobe beef with Vidalia onions, and otoro with beet tops. It was a terrific meal with the freshest of ingredients, and Uni gets my vote as the best place to dine in Boston. B+

Uni’s Quail Egg Spoon with Uni and Caviar