51 Lincoln - A Little Bit About a Lot of Things A Little Bit About a Lot of Things

March 2, 2011 51 Lincoln

51 Lincoln is located at, where else but 51 Lincoln Street in Newton Highlands. This small restaurant is empty when it first opens for dinner, but fills up rather quickly. The noise is at a normal hum as we come inside from the cold.

We are greeted by the host, who promptly thanks us for calling and telling them that we were running a few minutes late. We get sat at a two top against the wall, ironically the same place I sat the last time I was here. The dining room has a cozy feel to it, like you are dining at a friends house. They have some great artwork on the walls!

Love the bread basket, a little something for everyone. I personally love the corn bread. The bread was accompanied by two spreads (see below)

A red pepper and tomato spread with olive oil (top) and the hummus (bottom).

Polenta, isn’t it all the rage these days? We order a side, the polenta fries with truffle Parmesan dip ($6), as an appetizer. They are light and crisp on the outside, nice texture to them, and they come with a lovely salty butter, which is good, but I’m not sure I like it with the polenta fries. I would have liked to have seen something tomato based with it. Meanwhile, the salty butter was excellent on the bread!!

I had the bolognese last time, so I wasn’t sure I was going to get it this time. I got the full sized portion ($23) but you can get a half sized portion as well ($14). The pasta was perfectly al dente and the sauce was very light, and the meat was excellent…a little gamier than other bologneses that I have had recently, but excellent. And they certainly don’t skimp on the meat!

We also ordered the corn tamale ($22). Such a beautiful presentation! Really nice bold flavors and the masa was quite moist. An excellent dish.

We end the night with the apple fritters ($8) which came with lemon ricotta (underneath) and brandied apricots. The fritters were just ok for me. They were warm and light and sugary but there wasn’t enough apple for me. The apricots were good but didn’t wow me.

We also had the banana flan with toasted walnuts, cinnamon sugar tostones ($8). Tostones are basically friend plantains. Flan is one of those desserts that just creeps me out a little, its a consistency thing for me. I thought it was tasty, but I wouldn’t crave it. We thought that the meal was much better than dessert. We are sure to go back as the menu changes regularly! Service was good-she was friendly but not memorable. Our water glasses were always full and our meal came out in a timely fashion. No complaints here.