Best new restaurant
Union Bar & Grille is just a neighborhood joint the way Tamarind Bay is just the newest Indian kid on the block - technically, but not really. Indeed, the former, as the latest venture from the Aquitaine Group, is nothing if not an American version of the long-time destination bistro. The dining room is suffused with the same understated, chiaroscuro aura, and the menu reflects a similarly smart, unfussy approach to cooking. Fledgling signatures include grilled pork with molasses-mustard shell beans, a succulent gourmet Reuben with caper mustard, and the aptly named aphrodisiac milkshake; whether those dishes achieve classic status is up to you.

For now, the unexpectedly attractive, bistro-like Tamarind Bay is focusing less on culinary mainstays and more on revelations. Which isn't to say the dishes won't be somewhat familiar to anyone possessing a modicum of experience with Indian food, just that they'll seem more distinct, more nuanced - uncommon as opposed to unfamiliar. Why? It's partly because they're cooked to order (rare among Indian eateries), partly because the chef, a known entity in India, is a spice maestro - and partly because parts always add up to something beyond their sum.

Union Bar & Grille, 1375 Washington Street, Boston, (617) 423-0555, www.unionrestaurant.com; Tamarind Bay, 75 Winthrop Street, Cambridge, (617) 491-4552.