Restaurant Week Boston -- Sibling Rivalry

I have mixed feelings about Restaurant Week. I know it's a great deal -- a three-course meal for $33.09 at a fancy restaurant is nothing to sneeze at. But for the most part, I find that many restaurants dole out food that they would never put on the regular menu. As a result, I do my best to find a restaurant that is serving the caliber of food they'd serve on any Saturday night in the summer. RestaurantWeekBoston.com provides menus so you can see ahead of time what you will get.

Last night, I headed to Sibling Rivalry with some friends, and really had a wonderful time. As it is, the South End has a lot to offer in terms of restaurants, and I think Sibling Rivalry is one of the best concepts in the area. In case you aren't familiar with it, Sibling Rivalry is owned by two chefs who happen to be brothers. Each creates a separate menu per night, and the guest is allowed to choose from either menu.

Both menus looked fabulous. I started with Chef David's tuna tartare on a bed of sushi rice and my boyfriend had Chef Bob's Vietnamese crispy squid. The tuna tartare was well-seasoned, although the portion was not more than a few bites. It came with a stripe of wasabi mayo and spicy mayo, neither of which was particularly needed, and then a dab of sriracha and a dab of soy glaze. I enjoyed it, but it wasn't too different from any other tuna tartare I'd had.

The Vietnamese crispy squid was the real star of the appetizers. The fresh squid was neither rubbery nor chewy -- the texture was perfect. The seasoning was similar to Chinese salt and white pepper squid, so it took me back to my childhood days. The ginger-lime-chili dipping sauce (although it was more of a juice than a sauce) complemented the squid perfectly. The portion was bigger than the tuna tartare and felt more filling.

For the entree, I tried the special: Alaskan black cod with a miso glaze, pea tendrils and wilted spinach. The black cod was cooked perfectly -- not an easy feat with the mass production of Restaurant Week. The flaky flesh was a bit more buttery than regular cod, and had a texture closer to halibut than to cod. Pea tendrils are quite possibly one of my favorite vegetables -- all of the flavor of peas, but none of the mushy texture.

My boyfriend's scallops were also good. While the scallops weren't quite cooked perfectly (I felt they could have used another minute of searing), the cilantro sauce added the perfect zest and zing that made up for it. Dessert was nothing special -- I enjoyed my bread pudding and he enjoyed his mousse.

The service was wonderful -- the courteous waiter kept an eye out for stray crumbs and answered all of our asinine questions. We were 45 mins late for our reservation due to an emergency, but the gracious hostess never faltered in her smile and sat us immediately upon arrival.

I will say that I left Sibling Rivalry still a little bit hungry. While none of the portions were extremely small, I definitely was not full at the end of it and considered stopping somewhere for ice cream. All in all, a good time.