Croma

One of my favorite restaurants in Boston (although having only lived in the suburbs, I know there is much more to explore).
Two words: Duck Pizza.
omnomnomnom

Had reservations for a Saturday night. For a place that prides itself on pizza, I was surprised to find they didn’t have beer on tap!
Anyway, the food was tasty (our party was happy with the Peking duck pizza, pork chops, chicken satay, bruschetta, and seafod canneloni) and the service was prompt, attentive, and friendly. Drinks were so-​so, as they were pumped with sugar, but light on booze.
Would go back again, but I’d bring a sweater next time. Seriously guys, turn up the heat! We weren’t even near the door and we were freezing!

I had lunch with my sister here last week, and it was an extremely disappointing experience. The menu is not badly priced for being on Newbury Street, nor is it particularly exciting. We thought we were going to have a decent, if not adventurous meal. Needless to say, our expectations were not met.
First, the food. I ordered a Caesar Salad, and my sister had a Caprese. She hated hers — the mozzarella was clearly store bought, and had a really hard, dry texture. Her salad was also not dressed properly — it had just the smallest bit of olive oil, and absolutely no balsamic. Her salad was also supposed to have olives on it… they were not there. Conspicuously absent from my Caesar salad were anchovies. My salad was otherwise fine. Being Jersey Italian, we were not impressed.
On to the service. My sister was going to ask for some balsamic vinegar, but never got the chance, as our waiter avoided our table from the time our food arrived until we had finished eating. He legitimately did not come to our table once to see how our food was, if we needed anything, of if we wanted to freshen our drinks (I had an OK bellini, and my sister had a pretty sub-​far, fruitless sangria). Not once.
To top it all off, I ended up having an extremely upset stomach later that afternoon, which I attribute to the food there. I could have sworn that I had had a good meal there several years ago with my parents, but this recent experience has convinced me that it’s not worth going back to, which is a shame, because it is stylish and nicely located, and has an outdoor patio. It looks promising, but don’t eat at Croma — you’ll regret it!

Do you give a place a good review if the food you DID receive was really good? Because the duck pizza was pretty fabulous and so was the fried risotto. However, they ran out of all the seafood dishes, yeah ALL of them. On a Saturday night, wtf man? And that MIGHT be something you tell people when they sit down, not after they order an entrée, wait for 15 min, and then you return to tell them to order something else. Then return AGAIN to say they’re out of that too. All around pretty classless…
The dessert tasted like it had been sitting in the fridge for days and then tossed in the microwave, had that crunchy texture old refrigerated bread gets if left unwrapped too long. Pretty gross actually…

My boyfriend and I spontaneously chose the place for brunch. We had a great breakfast burrito and challah french toast. Our waiter, Joshua, was very kind and nice. Service was fast on a Saturday at 11am. The bathrooms were fine. My bloody mary was good! I’d definitely go again.

I got take out from here once, and do not plan on going back. It took 40 minutes for a very small caprese salad. If it took 40 minutes for this, imagine what an entrée must take! And I found a hair in my salad, which was bland & flavorless anyways. Nice atmosphere inside, friendly bartender, bitchy waiters & hostess. I’ll pass.

Ambiance: Located on Newbury St., Croma’s a cute place (to check out cute, well-​dressed girls if you’re a guy or lesbian or bi, whatever floats your boat). Seating on the street may be difficult on a nice day and requires some wait time, but there’s no wait time for indoor seating.
Food: I can’t say too much about the food since I haven’t been here too many times. I ate the arancini, which is fried risotto with spicy pork, cheese and scallion. It sounds better than it tastes. It wasn’t bad or anything but it definitely did not blow my mind. My friend ordered a steak salad. He asked for medium, but it look more like well-​done to me. The price really isn’t too bad considering it’s location.
Service: The service was pretty good. My friend enjoyed the waitresses as eye candy.
If you dine here, I think it’s more for checking out women and the atmosphere than for getting a great meal. Maybe it’s good for dates provided that your eyes won’t wonder too much.

Went to Croma once and felt like I needed a return visit to judge properly. And I got to say both times were mediocre. The white sangria is delicious — but I think they only put a teaspoon of alcohol in there.
The service is a bit on the slow side, but extremely friendly and sweet. Though they didn’t give us to bread, and thats not a good foot to start on with a carb addict, like myself.
The food is fine — nothing terribly impressive. But its a cute spot, with its outdoor seating, and exposed brick and minimalist décor.

I dined here with 4 friends on the 4^th of July, my second day after arriving in Boston. We arrived about 5:00, it wasn’t too busy but we couldn’t get a table for 5 outside.
The server was friendly, but a little slow. He brought us a pitcher of White sangria, but we ordered Red. The Sangria was just OK. I had the Mussels which were tasty but small. I also had the «Parma» pizza and wasn’t impressed either. It was basically a salad on top of a pizza crust. One of my roommates ordered the Steak Salad and loved it. There was no S&P on the table, and our meal was almost over when the server finally brought some. Overall I thought the portion size was small and the service was sub-​par for the price.
One last thing that I found very inappropriate… While the server was taking our drink order, a manager came over to our table and started arguing with our server, right in front of us. I found this very odd, and it set the stage for our somewhat unsatisfying meal.

Went to Croma on a gorgeous day after work to meet a few friends. I’d made a reservation in hopes of getting an outside table, and was told there was no guarantee. When i arrived around 6pm, there were plenty of open tables outside and i was seated right away, and promptly brought menus and water while i waited for my friends.
Our server was really nice and attentive. we each ordered a different cocktail, and even though they were 10 bucks a pop, they were tasty and strong. not the best i’ve had, but not bad.
we decided to split two pizzas between the three of us. we got the pesto one, which we all loved, and the barbecue chicken. wasn’t really a fan of the bbq, the sauce seemed a little odd to me, and a few of the pieces of chicken had skin on them. and not tasty crispy type skin, but rubbery, icky, skin looking skin.
despite the chicken skin though, i would definitely go back to Croma. the outdoor seating was so nice, and the prices were reasonable. i’d like to try some of their other dishes. nice afterwork, and this would also be a great place to stop on a day of shopping on newbury.

Let’s say 3.5 stars, but I’m rounding down because they didn’t give us bread.
I mean really, who the fuck doesn’t put bread down on your table while you’re waiting for your entrees? It doesn’t matter that I don’t eat breads or pastas any more, they didn’t know that! And besides, I wasn’t dining alone and we were both getting a bit hypoglycemic.
So, I’m out looking for thing necessary to sustain life in Boston, and I found myself in the Back Bay around feeding time. Now, these days my typical lunch and dinner consist of a salad of some form with meat of some form, and the person I was with LOVES cheese pizza. HEY! I’ve been reading mixed reviews of croma, let’s go there!
Alright, the salad. I was hoping for salad with chicken, but since that wasn’t an options, I got salad with steak. The salad was good enough that I actually ate the chunks of tomatoes in it, and for those of you who know me you know that I hate chunks of tomato. HATE THEM! On the downside, I ordered the meat medium, and the pieces ranged from well done to medium-​rare, and I found them to be on the salty side. Whatever, I was hungry, it was beef, down it goes.
Her white pizza was fine. She loved it and cleaned her plate. Sweet.
The waiter was nice enough (although our next door neighbors needed to take my home-​study course in keeping their fucking voices down), and the food came out just barely in the window of acceptability.. . but like I said, we were hungry, we were waiting. No bread.
None.
In summation, the pizza was good, the salad was tasty (save the salty steak bits), and there’s NO FUCKIN BREAD.
3.5 stars

You’re crazy if you order anything other than the Goat Cheese Salad. It’s not really a salad, but moreso the best combination of warm bread, goat cheese, and roasted red peppers (accompanied by a sundried tomato sauce) that you will ever put in your mouth. Everytime I get it, I feel like I’m being presented some sort of decadent treat on Top Chef. Warning: The bread is very filing, so don’t try to order anything else.
The price is right, and the drinks are worth honorable mention. Overall, a great Newbury Street restaurant.

Haha what a yuppie place, but given a fireplace and pacman doorknobs, what’s not to love?
Our server was super friendly, albeit a bit disappointed that none of us ordered the steak tips he recommended. My scallops & butternut squash linguini was delish, and a friend’s pesto chicken pasta was declared superb.
However, when the menu says «All pasta dishes are served with Croma’s freshly baked dough balls,» it’s really not trying to give rolls some pretentious name. Or maybe it is. The bread is the size of the circle made by your thumb and forefinger. aka bite size.
Croma’s décor is warm and modern, with tables just far enough apart so other people’s conversations aren’t butting into yours. Worth checking out if you want a relatively inexpensive meal on Newbury.

This review is in reference to the event at Croma
I called to make a reservation for JAC @ NE game as suggested. They had no idea what I was talking about but said to just come by and it will be fine. About an hour before my friend called again and they said we need a reservation so he made one. When we showed up they didn’t have the reservation.
CROMA, GET YOUR SHITE TOGETHER.
I’d give this zero stars (if possible). The one star is for the hostess who was so sweet and embarrassed for the lack of competence of the management.

Wow. I was pretty skeptical at first. A pizza place that charges ~$ 14 for an individual pizza? Appetizers that are in the same price range as entrees? But to be honest, after eating the food I was pretty well convinced.
We got the calamari appetizer and it was fantastic. Quite posibly the best fried calamari I’ve ever had. Not too chewy, but not too soft. Not too salty, not too spicy, not too bland. It was seriously the perfect plate of fried calamari.
For my entrée I had the BBQ chicken pizza which was also fantastic. The chipotle pepper sauce they put on it was a little bland for my taste, but surprisingly a little Tabasco fixed it right up (ordinarily I despise Tabasco as a blight upon the name of hot sauce). I really thought that $ 14 was going to be way too much for an individual pizza, but it truly was a classy and delicious meal.
The only reason I didn’t give them five stars is because there’s just some part of me that can’t give that many stars to a place that charged us over $ 100 (there were four of us) for pizza and beer.

I’ve never had the pizza and have only been to Croma for lunch, but it was true love…
We sat outside for a lingering lunch on a glorious August day. The service was great and we didn’t feel rushed at all. I got the BLT and soup combo, and the tomato basil soup was AMAZING. I would go back just for that soup. I was disappointed that it didn’t come with sweet potato fries, there was no warning on the menu! But it’s okay because I stole the fries off of my friend’s plate. Delicioso.
The one thing that hampered my experience is the overdressed 40-​something couple next to me who kept making these «mmmm» sounds with every course. Seriously, just eat your sandwich, I don’t care if you have some kind of food fetish, just be quiet. A man with a rolex should know how to eat without sounding like he messed his pants.

Eaten two sunny Sunday brunches here this summer. 3.5 stars:
The good — Outdoor seating, free mimosas (or bloody mary’s if you like that sort of thing) with brunch, yummy smoked salmon eggs benedict.
The bad — Not wearing sunscreen on a hot summer day when you have exposed shoulders and their umbrellas aren’t shading you, the home fries, Newbury prices (pancakes with strawberries on top $ 13), and the wait for a table, albeit not too long.
The ugly — some of the people on Newbury St. walking by ;)

Croma, schroma. My experience here was sort of mediocre. I went for drinks and apps with a girlfriend on a very warm Thursday evening, armed with positive feedback from some coworkers and the understanding that I would be getting pizzas for half price (I believe this is a M-F/5−7pm deal – not bad). We got a table inside because we didn’t feel like melting to our chairs on the patio, and settled into good gossip and cold sangria. Friend ordered a tropical version, I had the only one made with red wine. Her sangria was good, if not a little too light-​tasting, while mine was overly heavy and smacked of… Sprite? Clear, sugary effervescence + cheap merlot does not = yumminess.
Especially at nine bucks a pop.
For apps, we started with spinach and artichoke dip, a definite highlight. Soooo many artichoke hearts, and boy, am I a sucker for the hearts. Next, our pizza was some sort of eggplant and sultana* number. The food was good enough that I’d eat it again, but the problematic sangria – and two very persistent and pesky waiters who wouldn’t leave us alone and kept providing their «expert» suggestions – might keep me from returning.
*Disclaimer: throwing around words like «sultana» may make me sound like a foodie, but I didn’t know what one was until I googled it the next morning. It’s «a type of white, seedless grape of Turkish or Persian origin.»

First time I ate here, it was for a casual outdoor lunch in the midst of the blazing summer heat. My cheese and fruit plate was refreshing, but how can it not? The waiter was nice enough to put out a bowl of water for my puppy and it was a quick simple people watching sort of meal.
The second and third times, i got a salad and was not a fan… whatever my friends ordered both times weren’t anything to rave about either. Once again, another place to be at just because your on Newbury, not because its really worth being at for the food or décor.

Fantastic! I had my last birthday party here and it was so good. I had heard many a good thing about their pizzas and desserts so I was very anxious to try it out.
We had the dough balls which were just that. Nothing spectacular, but very good nonetheless. We also had the spinach dip which was a hit.
Entrees, we split pizzas. There is a wide selection, and as at Figs, it is ideal for sharing. I heard the duck one was out of this world, but I liked most of the ones I had (we had so many I can’t remember them all). Needless to say, there were no leftovers!
Dessert was also a hit. You haven’t lived til you have had the sticky english toffee pudding (we ended up ordering seconds). The cheesecake was great, as was the crème brûlée.
I highly recommend Croma. Everyone said they enjoyed their meal and it is not too loud, so you can have a decent conversation.