Rialto (the Bar)

Local mozarella, farm fresh tomatoes, microgreens

One great way of enjoying fantastic food without spending too much is to eat at the bar of an expensive restaurant. After having some amazing entrées at Jody Adams' Rialto in Harvard Square, we decided to stop by on a Monday night to try the bar menu.

What a pleasant surprise! We loved the ambiance of the bar inside the Charles Hotel, and the food was really enjoyable. Choose from an assortment of antipasti ($4 each or 3 of $10). Salads made from farm fresh vegetables range between $7 and $8, and pizzas and sandwiches range between $10 and $15. You can also order pasta, seafood, or steak, which range between $12-$18.

All-in-all, it's a great way to try Jody Adams' great Italian menu without breaking the bank. Best yet, Mondays are $1 oyster days!

Oyster Sauces
We loved the Monday $1 oyster deal. The day we went they had Island Creek oysters from Duxbury MA, which tasted fresh, briny, and sweet - not at all fishy.

Duxbury Oysters ($1 each)

Corn, bacon, basil $4
We also tried three antipasti ($10). Although this corn dish was good, we kept thinking we liked another corn dish we had tried recently a little better.

Crispy Artichokes, Pepper Aioli $4
These crispy artichokes were perfectly grilled and served as a great appetizer.

Fisherman’s soup rouille, gruyère, basil oil 14
I ordered the Fisherman's soup, which is actually not pictured because my photo came out blurry. :( Essentially, it's a rich, seafood based soup that is blended and then strained. It's served with crostini and  gruyère cheese (pictured above). The soup was pretty good, though I couldn't help but compare it to this fantastic blended fish soup I had enjoyed in France a few years back, and I kept thinking it did not quite compare. Nevertheless, it's a nice, light soup that still manages to pack in a wonderfully rich and complex seafood flavor.

Penne Bolognese veal, lamb, pork, tomatoes 14
Bryan absolutely loved his bolognese. The pasta was fresh (which is a huge plus in his book), and the taste of the meat sauce was deep, rich, and fragrant. Best yet, it was reasonably priced at $14.

The bar is a nice place to hang out, and you never know who you might meet. A nice gentleman seated close by struck up a conversation with us. Thinking that we were tourists of some sort (was he tipped off by the fact that I kept taking pictures of the food??) he offered to take a picture for us.

We later found out he lived really really close to the restaurant. He seemed like an old regular, stopping by just to enjoy a plate of oysters and a sandwich - a simple, high quality meal that really doesn't cost that much.

So, if you want a taste of what Jody Adams has to offer but don't feel like forking over close to $100 for a meal for two, definitely check out the bar. It's got a nice vibe, and the food is pretty good.

One caveat - the particular night we went, the service was really really slow. I'm not exactly sure why, but we probably waited close to an hour before we got our entrées. It was a bit annoying, and I'm hoping it was a fluke because everything else (aside from that) was actually pretty good.

Rialto
1 Bennett St
Cambridge, MA 02138