Restaurant Review & Giveaway!

About a week ago Joe and I traveled down to Boston to meet up with Joe's BFF, Neil (I suspect both Neil and Joe would want me to mention they don't use that acronym, but I do and it is entirely fitting). A few weeks earlier, while enjoying lunch at Anello's Gluten-Free Cafe, I overheard the owner and a patron talking about a GF restaurant in Boston's North End. Now, generally I subscribe to the old adage that eavesdroppers seldom hear anything good of themselves, but in this case I overheard something very good for my stomach. Meeting Neil in Boston was a great excuse for dinner at Nebo. Plus, I'd been looking forward to meeting Neil and I just so happen to enjoy Boston.





Nebo was . . . sophisticated with a menu and price point to match, but I have declared it completely worth it. We arrived just after opening and they already didn't have any tables for three left (I love to see a GF restaurant that's also popular)! So, we ended up sitting at the bar, which was perfect. From our seats we could see into the kitchen (which was immaculate - Nebo is not exclusively GF, but I wasn't worried about cross-contamination) and when Joe and Neil started talking about boring Army stuff (yawn), I was perfectly content to watch the bartenders mix drinks.

The service was friendly and they were very conscientious about my dietary restrictions. The gluten-free menu was extensive, almost a complete replica of the regular menu. Ordering GF was slightly more expensive, $3 to substitute GF pasta and $4 for GF pizza crust. And the food was delicious, the GF pizza crust was amazing!


For starters, Joe and Neil shared calamari. All the fried food was GF, so while I don't particularly care for calamari - too fishy - I tried some for the sake of my blog. The bread was light and crisp, the mediterranean aioli was a welcome departure from the usual cocktail sauce and the calamari tasted like squid, per usual.


This is a dreadful picture, the lighting at Nebo was not meant for photography, but you can see Joe's gluten-full pizza with fried egg topping. Which is, apparently, the greatest pizza topping ever. He won't eat perfectly normal and ordinary foods like onion, but he was very excited about the egg pizza - weird. And you can also see Neil putting some of his order, seared sea scallops with a light mascarone cream sauce, on a dish for Joe to try. I don't think he tried (picky), but it was very bro-mantic all the same. In honor of Joe and Neil and their bro-mance, I'd like to direct you to this YouTube clip.


Left to my own devices, I selected the prosciutto e fichi pizza (fig, prosciutto, gorgonzola, rosemary and mozarella) for the gluten-free pizza that was mine, mine, mine. It was absolutely delicious. The combination of the sweet fig, salty prosciutto and tangy gorgonzola was phenomenal.

It was gluten-free heaven. Definitely some of the best Italian food I've had in a very long time. The rest of our visit in Boston was also great with a stroll of the Freedom Trail and a quick stop to visit John, Paul and Sam (Hancock, Revere and Adams that is. We're historians, hence the first name basis), an unsuccesful attempt to take a tour of the Sam Adams Brewery (another time for sure) and a hair-rising car ride through Boston to Harpoon Brewery's Octoberfest.


In fact, it reminded me of the many times exploring Boston with family as a kid - trips to the USS Constitution, Science Museum, etc. Which leads me to the giveaway! Boston reminds me of being a kid and so do . . . fruit snacks! I distinctly remember being slightly jealous of my friends because my Mom never bought fruit snacks. But thanks to the friendly folks at My BlogSpark and Betty Crocker, I have two boxes of yummy fruit snacks now newly guaranteed gluten-free and a prize package including two boxes of fruit snacks, a frisbee, pick-up-stix and one very cool light-up yo-yo that my cat adores.


To enter, leave a comment with your favorite childhood snack! I'll pick the winner next week.