Don't Miss These Famous Boston Restaurants

Every metropolitan area has its share of famous eateries. These are not always the finest restaurants in a five-star sense, but rather serve as cultural stand-ins for the area itself. They represent something unique that is not generally available elsewhere—except perhaps as a pale imitation or a franchise.

When it comes to famous Boston restaurants, you want to go where everybody knows your name. That name is, obviously, Cheers, the famous fictional Boston bar as seen on TV. While the menu is pure bar food tricked up with allusions to the television series, the attraction is really one of being there rather than dining there. Indeed, the lure is so powerful that a second Cheers location has been created. This is an exact replica of the first one, but located at the Faneuil Hall Marketplace rather than over on Beacon Hill, where the original resides.

Even as the two Cheers locations serve as host to countless fans, another Boston institution has been plying its wares for more than a century. Durgin Park is a New England original—a restaurant famed for its intentionally caustic wait staff even more than for its traditional Yankee fare. The menu is built around staples such as Pot Roast, Corned Beef and Cabbage, New England Boiled Dinner, and Boston Baked Beans.

Chowders are present in full force, as is a cornucopia of Atlantic seafood and a plethora of desserts that could have come from a 19th century recipe book. Apple Pan Dowdy, Boston Cream Pie, Strawberry Shortcake, and Indian Pudding test the willpower of even the most rigorous dieter. Durgin Park is crammed on weekends and holidays with tourists anxious to sample the good-natured abuse of the staff as well as the scrumptious offerings of the kitchen.

When it comes to famous Boston restaurants, it seems that it is as much about the ambiance as the food. Do not miss out on either.