Small Bite: Our Delhi Bread
The days when a restaurant debut in the South End would incite a stampede of trailblazing foodies are over—the area has long since become our city’s culinary mecca. But one thing’s been missing: serious spice. And so the crowds have swarmed to Mela, a modern Indian bistro from the folks behind Kashmir, Mantra, and Bukhara.
The days when a restaurant debut in the South End would incite a stampede of trailblazing foodies are over—the area has long since become our city’s culinary mecca. But one thing’s been missing: serious spice. And so the crowds have swarmed to Mela, a modern Indian bistro from the folks behind Kashmir, Mantra, and Bukhara.
Located in the old Nightingale spot and outfitted in gauzy pink-orange curtains and shiny copper walls, it feels a world away from the slushy Tremont sidewalks. The food is equally vibrant—though, at least in the early going, uneven. The “chicken noodle soup” was rich with kicks of flavor, and tandoor meats were deliciously smoky. But the paneer in several vegetable dishes tasted more like mozzarella than the firm, authentic Indian cheese, and the signature hot stone meals, in which diners cook their own meat and fish on an oiled 500-degree granite slab, proved that it’s better to leave the cooking to the kitchen.
578 Tremont St., Boston, 617-859-4805.