Ten Tables restaurant in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is not in your typical, “Harvard Square, Cambridge.” Tucked away on 5 Craigie Circle, a predominately residential district, you can easily miss this tiny restaurant.
A few steps below ground level, I entered the dimly lit Ten Tables. Fans are blowing and the restaurant is almost filled for a Saturday evening. After sitting down, I noticed a comprehensive wine menu, including organic and biodynamic wines. I tried a nonalcoholic beverage, an organic Maineroot soda – in Mandarin Orange flavor. It was tasty, bubbly, and quite a refreshing difference from the typically over-sweetened orange soda. The person I was eating with, however, would prefer a Sprite to the “Lemon Lime” option from Maineroot and thought it had no taste whatsoever.
Two bread rolls arrived with olive oil. The rolls were hot and fresh; crispy on the outside and warm on the inside. The inside had a ciabatta like consistency. The olive oil did not have much taste and needed salt, pepper, and a few herbs. Fortunately, the salt and pepper was on the table so we added it to our tastes.
For the appetizer, I shared lamb meatballs that came with two different breads. This bread was grilled and crusty and the inside had an olive-oil-ly taste, better than the bread we received previously that we dipped in olive oil. (Perhaps, cooking the bread with the oil is better than putting the oil on afterwards)? Anyway, besides the bread, the meatballs were good…tasty, but I would not order them again. It was hard to make out all the flavors in the sauce. While the sauce tasted good, there was something just not great about the meatballs. First, I thought the lamb was not cooked all the way. Then, I thought maybe the meatballs were dried out. Whatever it was, they just didn’t “do it for me.”
For the main course I ordered a pasta dish. I was debating on the “steak frites,” steak with French fries essentially, or this pasta. The pasta came with pancetta and luckily they tailored the dish to my dietary preferences by excluding the pancetta. The cavatelli came with a rich ricotta sauce, spinach, wild mushrooms, breadcrumbs, and sweet corn. I never thought of putting sweet corn with pasta, (two starches)? But it seemed to go well together. I couldn’t imagine having anything else in this bustling pasta dish. It was so rich and heavy, the mushrooms replaced the meat – to have both seems excessive…
The person I was dining with ordered the swordfish dish. I thought it was grilled pretty well and not too dried out. It also came with spinach. Over the swordfish was a stack of salsa – this was not your typical salsa. It was very sweet and had golden raisins in it! There was also a cubed something, after both of us tried it we could not figure out what it was – was it mango, was it jicama, was it a pear? It didn’t have much flavor but was warm, and had the consistency of a boba –those jellies that come in “bubble tea.” Hence, my fellow diner came to the conclusion that, “there are too many unidentifiable flavors for my tastes.”
The meal left us feeling full, but not in a good way. We both felt kind of sick and we both couldn’t finish our plates. The plates were hearty and generous, but you would find food of this proportion in most American restaurants. Whether it was the sauces or the bread, something was just too filling or rich. The service was good, the food was all homemade, and the prices were moderate for the caliber of restaurant. Though, the restaurant was very noisy and compact; not only did we feel like we were sitting on top of other diners, we could clearly hear all of the conversations of people around us. The restaurant has received many awards from the Boston dining scene as posted on the walls, but from a girl who enjoys eating and dining, I won’t be going back anytime soon.
Ten Tables has two locations; in Cambridge and Jamaica Plains. The JP location is: 597 Centre Street, Jamaica Plain, MA