If You're in the MOOD for Good Food...

We went to The Backroom at Moody's last weekend for dinner and it was great! It is a restaurant that is attached to Moody's deli in Waltham. We didn't have a reservation, but the hostess was very nice about helping us get a table. The room was very dark and loud, but felt warm and cozy.

Lots of people came over right away to offer us water and drinks, and they kept checking on us throughout the meal. The service was excellent.

When we sat down, we had some really delicious snacks already on the table. One was fried semolina pasta tossed with truffle salt. I've never had pasta fried like chips before. It was crunchy and delicious and had a true truffle flavor.

These are the pasta chips. I think that maybe Moody's invented them!

Moody's is known for their charcuterie, and so they also started us with sweet Sopressata. Sopressata is an Italian dry salami. It was spicy and I liked that it was chewy. I really liked that Moody's offers snacks in the beginning, in addition to bread, which was also very good. But it was fun to have something different before our meal.

We shared a few starters. We had warm mixed olives, and it seemed like maybe they were fried, but it turns out that they are actually fire roasted. I preferred the green olives. This was definitely a different preparation from how olives are usually served, but I still liked it.

I love olives and so does my little sister!

We also had Never The Same Wagyu Meatballs which they say are made from their best cuts of meat, fresh herbs and tons of cheese. Do you remember what Wagyu beef is? If not, you should go back to the Matsuhisa Vail post and review! The meatballs came in a delicious sauce and we learned that they oven roast the tomatoes for the sauce first, and this really brings out the sweetness and flavors. My dad especially liked dipping bread into it.

For an appetizer, I had Grilled Octopus, which came with hummus, white beans and herb lemon vinaigrette. I liked how the octopus was very crispy. A lot of restaurant octopus isn't crispy enough for me. I also really liked the white beans. They were very tender and almost melty.

The skinny crispy part of the tentacle is my favorite part of octopus!

My parents had Kale Arugula Salad with peaches, chicory, blue cheese, toasted pine nuts and peach vinaigrette. They really enjoyed this salad!

This salad had lots of different stuff on it, which we really liked!

My dad and brother had 7X Wagyu Steak Frites, which was made with skirt steak and came with truffle fries, steak sauce and confit tomatoes. Skirt steak sounds like it comes from a dressed up cow, but it is really a long, flat cut of beef that is known for being more flavorful than tender. I think that my brother likes tender cuts more, but this was very good. My brother's fries were plain, but my dad's were seasoned and they were definitely better with the seasoning! My sister loved them.

My sister had flat bread pizza. It was very very cheesy. And my sister said that it was very saucy too. She loved it and my parents also thought that it was very good.

Can you see all the cheese sliding off the pizza?!

I had Crispy Duck and Frisee Salad with duck confit, soft-cooked farm egg, and caramelized shallot vinaigrette. I liked the duck part. I wish that there had been different greens mixed in with the frisee and less dressing. But I would still recommend the dish for sure.

Doesn't this egg look creamy?

Our family really enjoyed dinner at Moody's. It's a restaurant with great food and outstanding service. Waltham is a little bit out of the way, but it's worth the trip. Even if you eat nothing but the pasta chips, you'll leave happy!