Rabia's Seafood/Oysters and Italian Restaurant Boston, Mass.

What a lucky find this was. We planned to have dinner at Goody Glover’s Irish Pub (which has since closed)  but after sitting there for 10 minutes and being ignored we decided that the North End has way too many delicious restaurants for us to waste our time here. I had seen a sandwich board outside Rabia's on Salem Street offering the stuffed fig appetizer when we walked by so it seemed like something we might want to try.

We walked in and were greeted and seated immediately. We declined the table for two in the window preferring to leave the limelight to someone else. We were seated at a banquette along the wall that had about 5 tables for two at it. We had a basket of bread and dipping oil in front of us while we decided what we wanted to eat. Irene ordered a house wine and I had a Pellegrino to drink.

The menu is eclectic running the gamut from the expected pasta dishes to the unexpected a raw bar and sushi. It was a hard decision there were so many delicious sounding dishes. 

After some discussion between Irene and I agreed to split a Caprese salad and the dish that had drawn us in,  the stuffed figs.

They arrived together and the figs were actually beautiful with the wonderful gorgonzola sauce covering them and a sprinkling of pine nuts. That gorgonzola sauce was so good that we used the bread we had left to wipe up the sauce. The Caprese was as expected with sliced tomatoes and mozzarella with the addition of slices prosciutto. It was not large but was well presented and tasty.

For our main courses, we went our separate ways. Irene ordered the pumpkin and butternut squash ravioli with the same amazing gorgonzola sauce and I chose the penne with broccoli and artichoke with a lemon, garlic, and olive oil dressing. Irene’s portion was small but she was not complaining, actually, she wasn’t speaking at all she was too busy enjoying her food.

My portion was more than I could eat but it was very good and the sauce was very light and lemony. There was a nice ratio of vegetables to pasta.

Service was excellent. We were taken very good care of. The timing of everything was perfect. We finished up with a decaf cappuccino being too full for dessert. Our neighbors who were two college girls in town for a comedy show shared a tiramisu and they let me photograph it. It looked beautiful and they assured me that it tasted even better.

Our meal for two with appetizers, a glass of wine and cappuccino was $78. We thought that this was a very good price for the quality of the meal. We reluctantly walked back out into the cold dark rainy fall night and vowed to return to this little gem. I have returned to Rabia's several times and everything is always wonderful.