Boston Globe’s Best of the Best East Boston Winners

BOSTON, MA, July 9, 2025 — The Boston Globe today released its Best of the Best 2025, its annual list of Boston’s best dining, shopping, and entertainment. This year’s list identifies the best Greater Boston has to offer across 28 categories, including sandwich shops, record stores, ice cream, seafood, nightlife, breweries, and more.  Here are the winners from East Boston!

Best Sandwich – Meridian Food Market

The love is palpable and portions generous at this Eastie staple featuring Italian classics from jumbo arancini (rice balls) to chicken Parmesan. The star here comes off the extensive sub menu: The Meridian Special packs chicken cutlets, prosciutto, mozzarella, roasted peppers, and basil into a perfectly-toasted bun. Locals return again and again for the food as well as the East Boston vibe, complete with family photos that let you know who keeps the place going. meridianfoodmarket.com

Best Bakery – La Sultana

From the time it opens its doors, this Colombian bakery never stops moving. Locals fill the Maverick Square cornerstone in search of freshly baked goods and quick lunch plates. Of the dozens of options this cafeteria-style spot offers, the oven-hot pandebono — cheese bread — is a standout: sweet, moist, and subtly cheesy. It’s the best $2.50 you will spend anywhere.  Learn more here! 

Best Cocktail Bar – Next Door

Flaming pineapple, treasure boxes, bubbles, crystals, and neon lightbulbs. Oh yeah, and cocktails, too. Next Door leans into kitschy decadence. Located a stone’s throw from the airport, this Eastie speakeasy requires reservations, a password, and your best investigator skills. We’ll let you figure out where the hidden entrance is. A limited menu of a raw bar and small plates pairs nicely with the extensive cocktail list.  Learn more here. 

Best Lobster Roll – Belle Isle Seafood

The perfect lobster roll in the perfect urban seaside escape. Belle Isle serves rolls piled high with big bites of super-fresh lobster (the place is also a seafood market), with a view of the water as well as airplanes flying in and out of nearby Logan. What more could you want? It’s a genius place to take kids, and the fried seafood platter is almost as good as the justifiably famed lobster roll.  Learn more here! 

Best cheap eats: 19 places to grab a bite for $20 or less

Mi Pueblito’s

The bonus at this family-friendly East Boston gem is that it offers delights from three culinary traditions. Mi Pueblito’s Mexican food, such as the chiles rellenos and fajitas, is sublime, as are Guatemalan and Salvadoran dishes including a cheese and loroco pupusa that has an intoxicating aroma from its edible flowers. There’s also a wide range of breakfast dishes at each of the restaurant’s two locations.

Best Pizza – Santarpio’s

Boston doesn’t really have its own style of pizza, but this joint, with more than a century in business, creates a unique pie combining the best of New Haven, New York, and New Jersey’s styles. The result is a tangy, saucy masterpiece with an extra crunch from the cornmeal on the crust. The atmosphere is pure Boston with its well-worn booths, gruff servers straight out of central casting, and boisterous locals. There is another location in Peabody.  Learn more here! 

Best Italian – Mida

Get yourself a chef who worked at Radius and Corton, find a sweet little room with a wraparound bar and an open kitchen, and craft a menu filled with handmade pasta: You’ve got a neighborhood winner. It’s no wonder Douglass Williams’ MIDA has expanded from its original South End location to Newton, Fenway, and East Boston. Even simple things like the mixed greens salad are done well. Don’t miss Mangia Mondays, when $80 gets you five dishes of pasta (gluten-free options available), salad, and bread for two. Learn more here! 

Best Things to Do – ICA

There’s so much to love at the Institute of Contemporary Art, you need a ferry to see it all. At its main building in the Seaport, stroll the mix of contemporary works and soak in the breathtaking view from its glass overlook. The ICA Watershed (open from late May through Labor Day) across the harbor in East Boston deepens the experience. Housed in a former copper pipe factory, its seasonal, large-scale exhibits are immersive and free. A water shuttle ($20 for non-member adults, ticket includes general ICA admission) operates between the two.  Learn more here. 

Game Time  – The Tall Ship 

Warm weather in Boston means one thing: your (Tall) Ship has come in. The 245-foot floating oyster bar docked at Pier One also features a large on-shore lawn with food and drink vendors, a big screen for sports, live music, and games including cornhole and giant Connect 4. During the day, enjoy the waterfront with a frozen drink, and in the evening, socialize under string lights with a sparkling skyline view over Boston Harbor.