MA Has 2 Of The 50 Best Restaurants In America, New Ranking Says

MASSACHUSETTS — Two of America’s best restaurants are located in Massachusetts, according to a new list from The New York Times.

To develop The Restaurant List, 14 New York Times and editors took 76 flights to 33 states, where they ate more than 200 meals, the publication said. The sleuths showed up unannounced and made reservations through a smartphone app.

“We pay for all of our food, and we don’t accept freebies. We eat like you do, with the same hope for a meal to remember, to be welcomed and delighted,” The Times wrote.

More than half of the restaurants have opened since the 2024 list was published, The Times said.

In Massachusetts, two Boston restaurants, La Padrona and McGonagle's, stood out as remarkable, according to the report.

La Padrona opened in May 2024 at the Raffles Hotel in the city's Back Bay neighborhood. Head chef Jody Adams is a bit of a rarity in the industry, as she serves as one of the final chefs standing from Boston's 1980s era fine-dining boom, the Times said.

As for the food, the must have dish is the tagliatelle Emilia-Romagna.

• Read more: This New Irish Pub May Have The Best Guinness In The US

McGonagle's is also a new spot in Boston, opening in 2024 and, at the time, claiming to be the first bar on the East Coast, and maybe the first in the U.S., to have installed "proper Guinness draft lines which are used on installs in Ireland."

Chef Aidan McGee is reworking what people in American believe Irish food can be and, clearly, it's working.

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