Best new restaurant

In a town teeming with seafood joints, Great Bay transcends the genre. Outdoing themselves, dream-team restaurateurs Michael Schlow and Christopher Myers have carved out a vast, sleek, elegant space in Kenmore Square reminiscent of an aquarium, all cool silver and glowing orange-gold. As for the menu, imagination and subtlety appear in perfect balance, with chef Jeremy Sewall putting every sparkling-clean catch in just the right earthy context. And the wine list, though tailored to fit the cuisine, nevertheless takes into account differing tastes. For Boston, Great Bay is truly a great catch.

At the other end of the aesthetic spectrum -- if not over the top -- is UpStairs on the Square. If Gustav Klimt and Lewis Carroll had been interior designers, this gilded wonderland of pink, purple, and emerald green (not to mention animal prints) would have been the result of their collaboration. But it's the food that most benefits from the meeting of creative minds here -- namely those of established chefs Susan Regis and Amanda Lydon, who oversee the downstairs Monday Club and upstairs Soirée Room, respectively. Impossible to categorize, it pairs scallops with lentils and gnocchi with duck; it makes grilled-cheese sandwiches of brioche and Gorgonzola, and plops lobster and grapes into white gazpacho. What is it, finally, but exquisite?

Great Bay, 500 Comm Ave, Boston, (617) 532-5300. UpStairs on the Square, 91 Winthrop Street, Cambridge, (617) 864-1933.