Davio’s

Went for our anniversary on ⁵⁄₃₀. It was one of the best steakhouses I’ve ever been to. Popovers. OMG. Shared Kobe meatballs — amazing. I had the farro, avocado, and cauliflower salad. It was so nice to have something you don’t find everywhere and it was incredible! My husband had the arugula salad. Very simple but also good.
For dinner, we shared the rib eye and had roasted potatoes, corn, and mushrooms. All excellent. Too full for dessert, but they brought us a plate of mini desserts for our anniversary.
Service was top notch. Because of Memorial Day, they weren’t all that busy, and they let us take our time — we were there for almost 3 hours. I hope to be able to go back one day!

My boyfriend and I came to Davio’s to celebrate both his birthday and a new job. We had an amazing experience. We started out with their incredible pop overs and buffalo chicken spring rolls (highly recommend these or the steak and cheese!) I got salmon and he got filet mignon. We shared the asparagus and mashed potatoes. All was perfectly done. We finished the evening with chocolate lava cake; their complementary chocolates at the end of the meal were also a nice touch. We ordered champagne and a bottle of Pinot Noir, both delicious. It was a perfect meal for a special occasion; I look forward to visiting again soon.

We had a very nice meal at Davio’s during the weekend of the Boston marathon. Needless to say, it was an extremely busy weekend, but the service was top-​notch and personable. We shared the kale, quinoa salad, and it was just the right start. The shaved brussel sprouts were delicious, as was the chardonnay vinaigrette. For me, since I was running, I opted for the spaghetti with manila clams. I had asked for them to go lighter on the butter, and it was perfect. Delicious! Hubby had the Niman pork chop and was extremely happy as he devoured it! No dessert for us, but we would definitely return if we visited Boston again!

I loved the sign on their door: «Please use left door; Pull with Passion.» It started us on our Davio’s experience with a laugh.
We came to Davio’s for a pre-​arranged Sunday brunch and found that they had decided to grace our party of 15 with a nice private room beyond the bar, and a wonderful server with a good sense of humor and terrific personality! (Didn’t catch her name, but she’s blond and had been working here about 7 months — this was late March/​early April.)
One DC mentioned never having realized that there was a restaurant here, however, I suspect that our experience may have won over a few future returning guests.
I shared an order of their Sampler of Spring Rolls — One of Each Roll $ 15, each presented in two halves dressed and garnished accordingly:
Philly Cheese Steak Spring Rolls®, Spicy Homemade Ketchup, Spicy Mayo 11
Chicken Parm Spring Rolls®, Marinara 11 (for 4)
Buffalo Chicken Spring Rolls®, Blue Cheese 11
Shrimp Cotija Spring Rolls™, Citrus Aioli 11
Reuben Spring Rolls™, Thousand Island 11
I skipped the Buffalo chicken due to their perceived spiciness, but of the rest I enjoyed them in the following order: shrimp, reuben, Philly cheese, chicken parm. They were the thin skinned small slim sort of spring rolls, not like those hulking deep fried egg rolls often sadly filled with celery and such in American Chinese restaurants. Rather light and not at all oily.
For my brunch pick, I had the Beef Tenderloin, Poached Eggs, Potatoes, Popover, Truffle Hollandaise 24. It was great! The egg yolk was runny, the beef tender. The potatoes plentiful, though soft, not crispy. It was basically a dressed up eggs benedict. I also had the pleasure of sampling a few dishes around me. The Oven Baked Jonah Lump Crab Cake, Whole Grain Mustard 15 was not particularly lumpy, being made of shredded crab meat, yet it was still all crab with little filler and tasted quite good. Definitely an appetizer portion for 1. The Deviled Eggs, Blue Cheese, Bacon 5 arrived 3 filled halves to a plate, neatly dolled up with sprinkles of green and crisp bacon bits which added a nice crunch to the bite I had.
To tempt us at the end, a cart of desserts was then rolled in. It was a beautiful spread with «ice cream» made of shortening since the real stuff would of course melt. A couple of us shared the flan, which was good, but I found the texture to be similar to the custard under the torched sugar hood of a crème brûlée, rather than eggy as flans traditionally are.

Great for Sunday brunch! Great atmosphere and excellent service. I will be back to try out the dinner menu.

Typically flawless execution, even for non-​typical guests …
Davio’s is a known upscale location, but on April 23 my son arrived wearing jeans and t-​shirt, with his wife and two young children in tow. On a Saturday night … without a reservation!
I was alerted to the unfolding events by a text: Dad, we look like we’ll be ordering the spaghetti and meatballs and drinking house water :-)
Nonetheless, my son’s family was welcomed into the restaurant, comfortably seated, and they felt remarkably well attended throughout dinner. The sommelier stopped by the table to help the couple choose a bottle of wine.
Value? He dropped $ 300 on dinner and tipped well; an unusual expense for the young family, but reports that the dinner experience was worth every dime.
The owner has written a book about extraordinary service: It’s All About the Guest: Exceeding Expectations in Business and in Life, the Davio’s Way. Yesterday I bought the book (yes, recommended good reading) and started reading the stories.
Look, it’s one thing to read about great service in a book, or even to experience everyday great service. It’s quite another thing to experience flawless execution and great service in less-​than-​typical circumstances. You only get that level of execution because everybody on the team walks the talk.
The story warrants a special tip of the hat to Davio’s staff. Nicely done!

Having celiac disease requires a great deal of research to find restaurants to have nice meals when I travel. Often I will find a restaurant that is advertised as being gluten free friendly but arrive and find that my options are very limited because they aren’t celiac friendly. This is not the case with Davio’s! The gluten free menu is huge and we had so many options to choose from!
We arrived for our 7pm reservation and were greeted by the friendly host who took our coats and showed us to our table. The server (Juan) came by to take our drink order and brought me my requested GF menu. We enjoyed the busy energy of the space while waiting for our beverages and placed our order. The food was delivered in good time and well spaced between courses.
The food!
First course: arugula salad with Parmesan and lemon dressing — very fresh, crisp, spicy arugula, generous serving of parm and perfectly dressed with the lemon olive oil dressing; Davio’s homemade sausage, grilled and served with a sweet and tangy chutney.
Main course: hand rolled gnocci in lobster broth with a generous serving of lobster. I rarely get to have gnocci and the soft, plump and melt in your mouth goodness of these little dumplings was an incredible treat. The broth was flavourful and not at all heavy — perfect balance for the rich lobster and gnocci; grilled flatiron steak with horseradish mashed potatoes, sweet corn and grilled asparagus. This was the most generous piece of flat iron steak I’ve seen — especially in a restaurant. It had the thickness of a filet and grilled perfectly rare. The potatoes were full of fresh horseradish and the pairing of the corn, steak and potato in one bite were a lovely flavour combination.
Davio’s does have a wonderful dessert cart but my gf options were panacotta or fruit so I passed on dessert. Juan was very gracious and brought us beautiful chocolate truffles with our bill so I still managed to finish the meal with something sweet.
The service was excellent. Our water was filled as soon as it was low, when Juan realized that we were sharing everything, he brought us additional plates to allow us to do so and brought an extra steak knife so we didn’t have to share the flatware.
It was an excellent end to our first day in Boston!

I don’t eat Italian food so I don’t know much about it, but it was a wonderful experience (especially for my stomach). Fancy schmancy place, got a reservation here during Restaurant Week. It was so worth the low-​price that we paid for a 3 course meal. Baked scallops were great!!! Our waiter was great and our food came out at perfect timing, right after when we finished one course, the next one came out.
Appetizer: Beef tartare. I don’t eat much raw beef and I wanted to try something new and oh boy it was a weird experience for me, but really good at the same time. On top was beets I think and it was perfectly sweet and paired so well with the meat. It also came with cracker things that added a crunch to the texture compared to the chewy meat and damn putting these things together was bomb.
Entrée: Fusilli with ground lamb, bell peppers, and ricotta cheese. Overall it was alright. The pasta was hard but not a problem because the ricotta cheese went with the plate really well. The lamb was good and it felt exactly like ground beef, I couldn’t tell the difference.
Entrée #2: Baked scallops that was served on a black plate thingy that my friend ordered. Oh my goodness these scallops were huge!!! This dish was really «heavy» I guess you could call it and I had only a couple of scallops. These were so perfectly baked with a great amount of crunch on top and a tongue-​burning sensation at the same time LOOOL. I wish I knew what this was called but would definitely order it again.
Dessert: Bread pudding. I tried something new, again, and I didn’t know what to expect. It was meh. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t anything out of this world. It tasted exactly like you put bread and pudding together and voila!

Heard many positive things about this place. Decided to try this place out on a Friday evening. The host was super friendly when we checked in.
Within a couple minutes, our server greets us. Their bread basket was filled with hot popovers. That was a surprising treat… very old school and not many places offer them.
We ordered the following:
Appetizers:
Oysters Rockefeller — it’s baked oysters topped with spinach and cheese. It was a tad bit on the blander side.
Spring roll platter — assortment of all their spring rolls. Great for sharing and sampling all the varieties.
Truffle fries with gorgonzola cheese bits — great truffle flavor and the cheese bits elevated the fries.
Main course:
Pork chops with goat cheese tater tots — giant piece of pork chop greatly seasoned and the goat cheese tater tots were divine
Lobster risotto — creamy, rich with decent chunks of lobster
Grilled scallops in cream corn — scallops were nicely grilled and caramelized
Dessert:
Fresh berries with ricotta cannoli
Banana chocolate chip bread pudding
Both desserts were great — ample to share.
Overall service was attentive, food was great and nice ambiance.

Came here for dineout week menu and it didn’t disappoint! We loved the beef tartare and the appetizer portion was already huge. Upon finishing I was 60%full. The scallop entrée was big and delicious-​six scallops cooked in creamy leek sauce in a skillet with asparagus on the side. The toffee bread budding was also the highlight of this meal. It’s very good… friendly service, great food at great price and quality. Davio’s I’ll be back.

Makes me sad to write this review.
I’m usually a huge fan of Davio’s. I worked there close to 20 years ago, and their applewood smoked chicken penne pasta is still something I dream about.
However:
Valentine’s brunch was awful.
It started out OK. Great make-​your-​own bloody’s.
Started with deviled eggs. Yummy.
Then, the waiter screwed up our order. My BF got the tenderloin with poached eggs, which was amazing. I ordered the breakfast pizza, but got an omelet. I waited over 10 minutes for someone (the hostess) to notice I wasn’t eating it. She took it back and they put a pizza order on the fly.
I split my BFs tenderloin while we waited for the pizza. 3 course breakfast is OK, I guess. Pizza finally came after 20 min of waiting. The portion was huge and the pizza delicious. But the waiter never asked if we wanted a second bloody, and never came by the table to check on us. After having a couple pieces, we were pretty full… and we waited another 20 minutes for anyone to come back to our table with our check. I spent more time waiting than eating or enjoying. I was 100% annoyed when I left.
The place was fairly empty, at noon on Valentine’s Day. I’m not sure what the waiter was doing, but it wasn’t the service I expect from Davio’s, Especially not on a holiday, when we could have picked anywhere in the city. Not when you’re dropping over $ 80 on a breakfast.
I don’t think I’ll ever go back, not for breakfast, not for dinner. This is coming from someone who generally ate at Davio’s at least twice a year, multiple locations.
Really, really disappointing experience.

I had my birthday dinner here on 2÷4÷16. We had reservations and were seated upon our arrival. The host took our coats and showed us to the table… with chair split by a column. The table sucked and is not intimate at all. There was at least one other 2 seat table with the column dividing the diners. Fortunately, that was the worst of the evening. After a short wait, someone came over, greeted us and took our drink orders. Our drinks arrived and someone else filled our water glasses. A third person took our appetizer and meal orders. I hate i did not get his name, he was exceptional. We split the Sampler of Spring Rolls. It was nice that we were each served our own half of each spring roll. It was plated nicely. The spring roll we thought we’d like the most (chicken parm) was our least favorite. It was not disappointing, it just wasn’t the favorite. Our server recommeded the bolognese when I could not decide between that, the swordfish and the flat iron. It was a nice portion and well seasoned. My date had chicken livers (eww) and enjoyed that dish as well. We passed on dessert because a fresh baked cake was waiting for me at home. Our total was not any more expensive than other nights out — although we usually do not share an appetizer. I’ll be back to try the other dishes I passed on.

Wow — came here for my birthday dinner and I can’t say enough from the moment we sat down until we left how amazing the service was. It was perfect — there was somewhere there is a timely manner anytime we needed anything, but I never felt rushed. The food was delicious and the prices are extremely reasonable for the level of service and food.

I was underwhelmed by the meatballs I ordered for lunch. First of all, there were only 2, and they were too big and served luke warm. These big blobs of ground meat appeared not to have much of any freshly chopped spices, onions, or garlic in them. One meatball had a small shaving of cheese on it, the other did not. The tomato sauce was also disappointing. It tasted like Ragu, not homemade tomato sauce. The bread in the basket was also ho hum, and the 2^nd round was not even warmed and had the texture and quality of Wonder Bread.
The location and décor is very nice, though. The staff is pleasant. It’s just that the food was mediocre at best.

We have dined at Davio’s several times and we have always had a wonderful experience. Everything exceeds expectations, the restaurant décor, the service and of course the food.
Our server, Doug, was professional and attentive (but not too much) We started a cocktail, I had the Blushing Juniper, which is Hendricks Gin, St Germain and Prosecco — SOOO tasty, hubby had a cocktail that was like a Cosmo, but with orange, he said it was great.
For food, we started with the meatball appetizer — delicious. I ordered the Lobster Risotto, it was so rich and full of flavor, with asparagus and tomato. Hubby had the pasta special, spaghetti with truffle cream and scallops, it was very rich and yummy.
Just a great experience — we come to Davio’s each time we are in the city, we love it.

When your food is this high on the price scale, I expect to be impressed. It’s as simple as that.
Add in that I expect you to take care of little things, like a competent valet service, and you screw that up? I’m unhappy; and you get 2 stars.
Meal was average at best. Wine selection and drinks were delicious and easily the highlight of the trip.
But when you ask the hostess and also assistant manager if the valet company will park your car overnight and they say yes, but the next day your car keys are missing and go home with some 16year old kid who rides his skateboard back to the restaurant to drop off the keys not until 11:45am, you’re a mess.
Figure it out. You’re a high end restaurant in Back Bay; valet is NOT this difficult. Train your staff. Pay attention to the details and be better than just another average quality overpriced restaurant in Boston.

My boyfriend took me here for our anniversary and it was such a lovely evening. The staff are friendly and attentive without hovering and the food is absolutely fabulous. I love that their bread is popovers instead of regular dinner rolls and I swear, that cannoli is the best I’ve ever had (sorry Mike’s).
Prices mean Davio’s will stay a special occasion destination for us only, but well worth the money for a treat.

What they lacked in service that night, they have made up for in customer service. Within an hour of my post, I had a Unilocal message and a voicemail (they must have figured out who I was from the Saturday reservations) following up and apologizing for my disappointing evening. After my conversation with the restaurant manager, we are willing to give it another try and hope that this time the level of service matches the food!

After years of hearing about Davio’s and walking past it, my husband and I finally went here for a kid-​free date night.
My first impression was about how excellent the service was. As soon as we walked in the door, we were greeted and our coats were checked. We were late, but were immediately seated by the host, who commented that he’d saved a «romantic table by the window for us.» The hostess even complimented my necklace (maybe they’re told to say these sorts of things and maybe the pre-​dinner drink was affecting me, but I really appreciated it). The waiter and busboy were also so friendly, polite and knowledgeable.
My second impression was «wow, this place is huge!» I never realized how big it was. It was not super romantic, but definitely lends itself to a romantic dinner or a fun night out. Looking around, I saw every type go diner: couples old and young, families with young kids, groups of friends, etc.
Now onto the food. I think our favorite part of the entire meal might have been the popovers! I expected some bread, but not these, which were huge! They were light& fluffy on the inside, but crispy and flavorful on the outside (probably the Gruyère). Mmmmm.
We knew we had to try some of the spring rolls to start. They let us change the sampler a bit, so we got 2 eachof the steak & cheese and chicken Parm, and 1 of the buffalo chicken. These were smaller than I expected (not a bad thing, as I’m still soooo full), but were delicious. The steak & cheese was hubby’s fave and the buffalo was mine (with the steak in a close second).
We decided to the 10-​oz filet mignon, which they served already split onto 2 plates. It was super crispy on the outside and nice & juicy & tender on the inside.
For sides, we split the broccoli rabe (this was great) and the truffle mac & cheese — my least favorite portion of the meal. The truffle was a bit overwhelming for me and the sauce was a bit thin.
We were torn on dessert, but went with the banana and chocolate bread pudding with coconut ice cream. It was good, but I’ve had better bread pudding and the coconut flavor was mild. Don’t get me wrong — we devoured it, but it wasn’t the most amazing bread pudding I’ve ever had.
The waiter brought a free surprise treat with the bill. Im sure they do this for everyone, but we appreciated it.
Overall — fantastic attention to detail and great food!

It was delicious! From the bread to the dessert everything we ordered was sooo good!
The Parmesan chicken spring rolls! The scallops and veal, amazing!
Also had the banana chocolate bread pudding and apple tart which were delicious as well.
Be ready to eat a lot and try not to inhale the amazing bread and leave space for the yummy food!

Mgr at work has been dying to go for months so we finally decided to make some reservations and off we went.
Was seated the moment we walked in, the place is nice, large & quite nicely decorated.
We were instantly acknowledged by our waiter (who was the best)…
We were given great option, all questions answered, suggestions were great also.
Again I’m at a point in life right now where I cannot eat much food & this night was not a real good one for me, Nothing stayed down and I was in the bathroom many times.
We ordered the Scallops (a co worker and I were splitting) and they gave us separate plates which was nice so we weren’t trying to divide things up at the table.
Food was great, Apps were great, Many options on the menu.
The dessert cart came around & I just wanted some berries and he was able to make that happen for me. Which was nice.
I think they are trying TOO hard to be upscale when all in all its just a Nice Steak House type restaurant. I mean I get the whole «wipe the crumbs off the table thing is appreciated» but really… It just fell short somewhere. I cant quite put a finger on it.
The food was very good, and would love to go back once I can eat more!

I had an excellent dinner at Davios Boston. The staff was very accommodating in seating us late at night in the middle of a winter storm; yes my review is long overdue. We were literally the only party at the place and it was late in the evening. Our waitress was extremely helpful with the menu, very well acknowledgeable of it, and gave us incredible recommendations. Even the manager made a second to stop by and engage in a small conversation and also to check on our dinner. The food was delicious of course and their wine selection is excellent.
I usually recommend ton of people to them since even the host is always incredible nice.

We were treated very well and reservations were enlarged twice. Very accommodating and professional.
The service for a party 8 was excellent thought out the evening
The food was very good.
There was an issue with software billing on the check. I was contacted personally and most professionally by management and it was easily dealt with.
This is a professionally operated establishment and I look forward to a return visit

Great food but not that pleased with the service.
We came here for a friends birthday and we wanted some place nice, the décor and atmosphere definitely were what we were looking for but we were not that impressed with the service. The waiter seemed very impatient with us as we were holding off on ordering since we were still waiting for some people in our party to arrive, he kept checking on us every 5 minutes even though the same chairs were still empty. When we finally ordered he talked in a very robotic tone and almost disappointed that we didn’t order any appetizers for the table. Although the food was very good, from the pasta to the truffle fries to the veal special, everything came out on time and was delicious. Our plates were cleared away from the table even though we never said we were done since there was still food on them. Overall loses two stars for the lack of commitment to the service, the waiter almost seems eager to get us out, we wanted to surprise the birthday girl and have him bring out a dessert with a candle but he waved us off and just ended up bringing out the entire dessert cart to the table so she had to basically pick out what she wanted. Even though he did put a candle on her order but it just wasn’t really a surprise anymore. Just very disappointed with the service overall although I would’ve love to just come back for the food.

Came here as a group of 15 for restaurant week and the experience was average. I understand that we had both our sheer number and RW working against us, but 3.5 hours from start to finish was a bit much. The length of time between our appetizers and entrees was so long that for a split second I thought I had already finished my meal and was ready for the check. Our waiter didn’t even give us an update until we voiced our concerns with the timing and simply stated that they were plating them up.
Onto the food — I split the RW prix fixe options among two other coworkers so I could try a little bit of everything. For appetizers, we had the burrata bruschetta and the shrimp bisque. The burrata was good and the prosciutto was an obvious, but delicious complement. The shrimp bisque was okay, nothing spectacular — creamy bisque with chunks of shrimp throughout and topped with chives.
For entrees, we decided to splurge and get the ribeye for an extra $ 10 and split the swordfish and spaghetti. Let’s start with the steak — decent cut of meat (not the best I’ve ever had, but again, it’s RW), asked for medium rare, but was a bit rarer than I expected. Seasoned well and accompanied by various roasted veggies. The swordfish was tender, seasoned well — probably my favorite of the three. The spaghetti was a bit too al dente — could have used an extra minute and lacked salt. The noodles themselves tasted like they were boiled in unsalted water and might have been saved by the pesto if it weren’t also bland and unappetizing.
Lastly, the desserts. Our waiter kindly informed us that our chocolate mousses were «upgraded» to molten chocolate cakes. I also tried the layered lemon cake. The chocolate cake was good — perfectly cooked on the outside with a molten lava center. It was accompanied with a vanilla gelato that paired well with the warm, gooey chocolate. The lemon cake was a distant second. The cake itself was extremely dry and I only took a few bites before giving up. We ended the night with a small assortment of chocolates and cookies that I didn’t care to try, but was generally well received by a then comatose group.
Overall, I left feeling unsatisfied and sleepy. Maybe I’ll give them another shot with a smaller group on a regular night, but for now I have very little to rave about.

How have I not written a review for Davio’s yet? This has become a regular quarterly dining place for a good friend and I. The menu is ridiculously extensive, which is generally a red flag for me, however, everything I have eaten here has been fantastic. Also – the bread. Omg. Buttery, fluffy amazingness. Round two, please. Service is wonderful, complete with napkin folding while you excuse yourself to the restroom. On the pricier side, so not my usual hangout, but definitely worth it for a special occasion.