Best mac and cheese

Macaroni and cheese may not be duck à l'orange, but it transcends so-called gastronomy by inspiring devotion and embodying sustenance. Adults fight over whose mother's recipe wins out. Friends have mac-and-cheese cook-offs. Even fancy restaurants try to capitalize on such greatness by adding things like -- the sacrilege! -- truffles to the mix. But if making your own isn't feasible and you don't want to pay for somebody else's pretentious mistake, it's time to go to
Silvertone. Owners Josh and Katy Childs have made this subterranean haunt near Downtown Crossing as lovable as it is chic. From boutique wines to killer cocktails to sneakily yummy food, few details go unattended to. For example, the macaroni is thicker than normal, a fine decision that allows for maximum chewiness and cheese-sticking surface. The meal arrives in a shockingly big soufflé dish, with the copious cheese still bubbling. Maybe it could use more pepper, but Silvertone's mac is cheesy as hell, with each forkful requiring manual cheese separation in order to complete the deal.

Silvertone, 69 Bromfield Street, Boston, (617) 338-7887.