Post 390 restaurant review

To show appreciation for the hard work and long hours I’ve been putting in at work lately, my boss gave me 2 tickets to Sunday’s Red Sox playoff game and also said I could go out to dinner + drinks with my husband – on the company. Sunday was quite an eventful day (although we still made it to the Sox game, albeit a little late) and the nurse said I was not allowed to have any alcohol that day, so we decided to postpone the dinner until Monday. I love long weekends!

Post 390 came to Adam’s mind right away as the perfect place to spend my company’s dollars (hehe). The restaurant opened a little over a week ago, seemed to have a great atmosphere and pretty reasonable prices. I wanted the dinner to be pretty special but not overly expensive so that I wouldn’t seem like I was taking advantage of this nice gesture too much.

Monday night seemed like a risky night to go out to a restaurant, especially to a new restaurant on a long weekend. Post 390 is not on a major street like Newbury so the restaurant likely does not get much pass-by foot traffic either. We were afraid it would be deserted. In fact, we had plan B and plan C, just in case. Upon arrival around 8pm, we were surprised to find out the place was hopping (on a Monday night!!). We actually got the last available table on the first floor, and the place is not small. Phew! (we had no reservations)

The vibe was fabulous – very modern, dim lights, a nice big fireplace in the middle, lots of bottles of wine on walls as part of decor. We were immediately very comfortable. I had a glass of the French granache/syrah/mouvedre blend to start. It was a nice wine that paired great with the rest of the food. I also liked the bottle the filtered water (um, fancy name for “tap”) came in. Very classy

For my appetizer I chose the tuna tartare with wasabi cream and ginger pickled beets.

It was fantastic! The little pieces of beets were not overpowering, but rather added a nice textural contrast to the creamy tuna chunks. The wasabi cream added another fun dimension to the dish. Nothing too spicy. Just right. I enjoyed the tuna tartar over a few slices of this mini baguette.

After one bite of Adam’s duck potstickers I knew we’d be back. At this point Adam actually said that he didn’t care if his entree was rotten, he’d be back to Post 390. There were just too many other items on the menu we already were dying to try – and the prices were great for the quality of food!

Thankfully, my entree was not rotten. It was actually very nicely prepared. I went with the native sea scallops with succotash and bacon confit.

After removing all the scallions off the top, I dug in. It was very rich and buttery. The scallops were lightly breaded and fried. It’s hard to see on this picture, but there is a lean piece of bacon running through the 3 scallops, which added a nice salty bite to the perfectly cooked, but otherwise neutral tasting scallops. The succotash (corn, potatoes and lima beans?) was also extremely rich. I think I would have preferred a fresher tasting veggie to contrast the rich scallops but I could be in the minority here. At the end, I enjoyed the dish but I thought it lacked a little something. Perhaps it needed a spicy kick? (Side note: Adam immensely enjoyed his grilled skirt steak)

Time for dessert! I was pretty full at this point, but a restaurant review can’t be complete without dessert in my opinion. There were a few great sounding chocolate desserts on the menu but I actually wanted something slightly lighter and fruitier at this point. The cherry pie with vanilla ice cream (one of 2 pies of the day) sounded perfect. Cherry pie is my favorite kind of pie. I may lose a little bit of credibility here but even saying this, but I love cherry pie so much I even enjoy the supermarket variety (even though it’s been many years since I’ve had it so maybe my taste buds have become a little more sophisticated. One would hope). Back to the cherry pie at Post 390… let’s not insult it by even putting it in the same category as the supermarket crap pie. This was pie with fresh tart cherries (none of that sugary goop) and a buttery crust. I was in heaven. Adam became a cherry pie convert right then and there and helped me finish off every crumb on this plate

What a perfect ending to a great meal! We could not have been happier with our experience at Post 390! It is definitely a place we’ll be back to. There are many items in low teens, and great wine and beer lists, which means we could enjoy a meal there on a weeknight too. So glad we have another new favorite in walking distance from home!