Monday, February 8, 2010

Boston Happy Hour: Masa

Posted by Katie

What: Masa
Where: 439 Tremont St., South End
When: Everyday 5-7pm and all day Thurday
Honeys Heart: Tres Chile Margarita ($12), Tapas Combo Platter ($5)

I've been wanting to try Masa for awhile now, so when Shannon and I realized that our schedules allowed us to meet for dinner on Friday night, Masa was a no-brainer.

Masa serves Southwestern inspired cuisine but now that I think about it, we didn't even really look at their menu as we already knew that we wanted their tapas combo platter. The platter is usually $10 for 10 tapas but from 5-7pm everyday and all day on Thursday, Masa offers their platter for only $5. Nice!


Top row from left to right:
  • shrimp with aioli
  • goat cheese-stuffed pepper
  • corn salsa on mini tortilla (Masa's online menu is not updated so i'm guessing on some of these...)
  • goat cheese and queso chihuahua quesadilla with chile anaheim puree and pasilla chile balsamic glaze
  • goat cheese and almond-stuffed date wrapped in bacon
Bottom row:
  • spicy corn cake
  • grilled chorizo with cranberry chutney salsa
  • queso fundido jalapeno empanada
  • pulled pork and montery jack springroll with Masa bbq sauce
  • shredded chicken taquito with chili ancho aioli

Shannon and I loved the empanada and stuffed date but we could have done without the cold corn tapa and the goat-cheese stuffed pepper. Everything else fell somewhere in the middle which was fine with me because when you've got 10 things to sample, it's not the end of the world if you don't like one or two things.


Of course, it wouldn't be happy hour without a cocktail so I let the waiter talk me into the Tres Chile Margarita ($12). The margarita is made with tequila that has been muddled with anaheim, long hot, and jalapeno peppers and oranges mixed with a little agave nectar and sweet and sour mix. It is definitely spicy but refreshing at the same time. Shannon and I were still a little hungry so we ordered the housemade chips with salsa and guac ($7) which was a better compliment to my margarita than the tapas because the chips and salsa were not spicy at all so the drink jazzed things up a bit.


Overall, Shannon and I had a lot of fun sampling our tapas and at that price we will definitely be back again.