Al Forno in Providence, Dante's Kitchen in East Greenwich, Boat House in Tiverton and Sofra in Cambridge

One of the longtime stalwarts in Providence, Al Forno is upscale with a wonderful menu and decent wine list.

zucchini blossoms

pan-seared sea bass

Caesar Salad

A much more casual place, Dante's Kitchen in East Greenwich has real potential: imaginative menu, a cool space, good service, but the food was a mixed bag and the very small space was way too loud.

Susie had the fried green tomato BLT with hand-cut fries, which was tasty.

I had pulled pork hash with poached eggs and a grilled buttermilk biscuit (homemade of course. The BLT with hand-cut fresh fries was spot on but the hash was basically shredded pork on top of a handful of small, diced fried potatoes. Hmmmm. And then the eggs were small with very little yolk (an odd thing I thought).

The Boat House in Tiverton serves up fairly standard fare in a gorgeous location overlooking Narragansett Bay. I had the tuna salad (flavorless) with their own handmade chips (tasteless and oily). Susie had the Jens & Marie veggie burger, which was also bland. Not an exciting meal to be sure but it was a gorgeous day to sip a glass of Rose by the water.

Then there is Sofra Bakery & Cafe in Cambridge. We'd been here once before and after a stroll through nearby Mount Auburn Cemetery Sofra is just the place to have a delicious lunch. It's chaotic to be sure and the seating can be interesting to say the least. But it's worth the wait and patience.

Even if you don't want lunch you have to try one of their incredible and incredibly delicious pastries, most of which are Middle Eastern in origin, like the twice baked brioche (left below) with custard actually baked into the filling (how'd they do that?). I had the chicken Shwarma stuffed flat bread and Susie had a concoction of three cheeses with grated fresh squash on top wrapped in a burrito-like hint of dough.

The Boat House in Tiverton

The question has often been asked at our dining table: why are there so many restaurants along the water serving so much mediocre food? Here we are, living smack in the middle of a state largely on the water and yet you'd be hard pressed to find decent local fish let alone fish that was well-prepared at most of the waterfront restaurants. (But then this is not a phenomenon unique to RI but we've seen this over and over again: Maine, Vermont, Virginia, Michigan, the list seems endless.)

To New England foodies it's no secret that the Newport Restaurant Group has the lock on picking gorgeous locations to site their eateries tempered by uninspiring menus. Every time we get the urge to sit by the water, sipping an aperitif while spending a relaxing evening dining out we find ourselves at either Waterman Grille (the "e" at the end is a giveaway) in Providence or the Boat House in Tiverton (both NRG properties). And every time we remark afterward that the best thing about the dinner was the water.

Our latest outing to the Boat House was a case in point.

It was a gorgeously warm evening this past Monday when we headed east to Tiverton and the Boat House for waterfront dining. We had been here once before a couple of years back for brunch and were impressed by the location -- and the food as we recall was not bad then either. But this was to be a much more challenging experience.

The wine -- a vinho verde -- was crisp and nicely chilled. The Point Judith calamari app was delicious to be sure but my fish and chips bordered on appalling: a piece of cod trapped inside an enormous rock-hard shell of something that had probably once been bread or some flour-base derivative. The cole slaw was warm, in fact nearly hot, the tartar sauce was so thin it would've made a tartar switch to beef and the fries were heavy, soggy and pretty much devoid of flavor. Susan's salad was thin and the quinoa was sparse although her crab cake was OK, yet still unremarkable.

The wine prices we thought about average here but the selections seemed weighted in favor of those jug wines that would be familiar to people not generally familiar with wines in the first place. In all fairness, we had two glasses of the vinho verde and I almost sprang for the bottle: the price was a very good value at $26. Otherwise be careful about your choices and don't count on the staff to be of any more help than the nearest marketing department.

Service was hit or miss -- again, in all fairness the volume these kids have to handle is quite overwhelming so you should have to take that into consideration. Still, our server never asked us about the food nor did the other server comment when she removed my largely uneaten plate of food.

When going to either the Waterman Grille or the Boat House, the important thing is to focus on salads (generally OK) or, an even smarter move, the burgers.

The Boathouse in Tiverton

Barely a 20 minute drive from the west side of Providence, the Boathouse is located along the eastern side of Mount Hope Bay with views facing due west toward Bristol. It was a gorgeous Sunday morning and we could only imagine the dramatic sunset views one would get in the evening.

There was plenty of outdoor dining was available at both ends of the restaurant, while all the windows facing the bay opened – through a very slick mechanism – to give the inside diners a sense of being outside. It reminded us of Paris in fact, where many of the city’s bistros do the very same thing in the summer months. We opted to sit inside and chose a table with a grand view of the water. The overall feel of the place was cozy and relaxing.

After we sat down we ordered a pair of Mimosas and savored the views while we examined the menus. Susan ordered a cheese omelet.

I chose the sandwich special: fried egg on a brioche roll with sweet red peppers, caramelized onions and cheese. Both plates came with hash browns.

With tip the meal came to $43.

We both agreed that the service was friendly, attentive without being overly familiar, and that the food was tasty and seemed to be just the right size portions. The views were also very nice. No question we would go back.

I should also point out that reservations at The Boathouse are made through the Open Table dining reservation website. Very slick and easy to use they also send you a confirmation via email within minutes of making the reservation.

You can find out more online by clicking here!