Forum, Boston - Dinner Club Review

This fall, I started a dinner club amongst my ladies friends.  Inspired by my boyfriend and his dinner club, I corralled a group of my favorites together for what will become our opportunity to unite semi monthly over being foodies.  This post isn't about my ladies (though that would be a vastly entertaining post) or how we're going to run our dinner club, but instead about the fabulous restaurant we ate at this fall.

Enter Forum.

Forum occupies that former Vox Populi space on Boylston.  Other than a similar layout, the space has been completed revamped - and revamped well I might add.  It's dark and sleek, with bursts of contemporary accents.  It's inviting, not at all cold and unfeeling and it doesn't act as though it's too cool.  We gathered in the downstairs bar area prior to our reservation to indulge in a little cocktailing.  That's right, cocktailing.  It's the new verb.



Once it was time for dinner, we were transported upstairs to a relatively empty dining room.  We were seated at one of the best tables I have ever sat at.  It was rectangular shaped, with four on either side and two on the ends.  It was lengthy and yet, I didn't feel as though I was yelled down the table to the other side.  It was impeccably set - I felt we were having a very intimate party at one of my very stylish friend's homes.  The chairs were squishy and incredibly comfortable for a night of eating.

I chose a BLT Soup for my starter... and I loved it.  It was served chilled.  You expect soup to be warm, so when that is not the case, it can be a very odd experience.  I love that sort of WHOA.... and the bacon in this was amazing.  The flavor stood out amongst the tomato puree and the croutons.


Salmon apps, posed as flowers?  It would be cheesy, except it's not just the presentation of the dish that's impressive, the execution of the food itself is amazing.











For my main meal, I ordered a pasta carbonara.  The serving sizes of the pasta are HUGE - I could have definitely split this.  I thought it was done well, but it wasn't my favorite of the dishes that were passed around.

That honor goes to the scallops... for a mere $25, these babies are a-ma-zing.  I didn't get a picture of them, but there was definitely group consensus.


I did however, get an embarrassingly bad photo of a deconstructed beef wellington, which was drool worthy.

While I loved the food and ambiance, I have to say the service is top notch.  Maybe because we're six pretty ladies... but our servers took great care of us.  They gave us time to obsess over the menus and played along with our teasing and light flirting (okay, MY flirting).  They answered all of our questions about portion sizes, ingredients and were very helpful and transparent in making suggestions.  I love servers that you could actually see yourself liking in real life.  But the best part was, they suggested we not miss out on dessert.  But our bellies said otherwise.  So we passed.

But, imagine our surprise, when they ignored us and brought two desserts anyways.  Below is an strawberry dessert I would never have given a second glance at, but seriously, I might have thrown elbows to get a few more spoonfuls of it.    Oh and did I mention that the chef himself came out to talk with us?  How awesome is that?

Chocolate.... the crumbs = to die for.

Forum changes their menu seasonally (alas no more strawberry dessert), which I think it an awesome excuse to come back frequently. I can't think of one complaint I have.... except maybe that we don't repeat restaurants for dinner club.   I would recommend this restaurant to anyone who is looking for great ambiance, meals that impress and service that inspires.

See?  So great they even posed for photos!