In a city teeming with seafood restaurants, it can be hard for any one to stand out, but Select Oyster Bar in the Back Bay, opened by chef-owner Michael Serpa in 2015, manages to do just that. Serpa, who earned wide acclaim as executive chef of Neptune Oyster in the North End, operates a sleek and sexy restaurant, where the focus is squarely on fresh seafood, not just the oyster it's named for. While dishes like an enormous Maine lobster salad and tasty seafood bouillabaisse are outstanding, raw seafood is where it's at. A ceviche of the day or hamachi crudo taste exceptionally fresh and bright.

Editor's note: This guide has been updated with the latest information on these restaurants as of July 2021.

Since 1926, the family-owned Regina Pizzeria has served tasty pies in North End’s Little Italy. Now run by the third generation of the Polcari family, Regina has outposts throughout Massachusetts. Happily the signature brick-oven pizza tastes the same at each location, though dining at the "original pizzeria," where time seems to have stood still, is an experience all by itself. The pie is so beloved, the Boston Red Sox named it the team’s official pizza. Regina’s claims its secret to success is in its centuries-old crust recipe, light but tangy sauce and aged whole-milk mozzarella. Whatever it is, it’s pretty hard to stop at just one slice. Pizza aficionados love that you can order your crust according to preference, from light to well done, with no hassle.

This snug little bistro in the South End is as authentically French as it gets, with owners who grew up in France, and a staff that seems imported straight from Paris, complete with accents. White-brick walls, tile and marble floors inside — plus a patio and a solarium strung with twinkling lights — make for an utterly charming atmosphere. The wine list features a generous number of wines by the glass, most of them French, and the menu boasts dishes like escargot garlic toast, which will make you forget avocado toast was ever a thing. Follow it up with delicate mussels in a white wine broth, perfectly cooked drumstick coq au vin, silky foie gras and classic steak tartare. If you didn’t know you were in Boston, you’d swear you were in a little bistro in the City of Lights.

Clams, garlic, salt pork, onions, flour, clam broth, fish stock, potatoes and light cream: Nine simple ingredients make up one of New England’s most-iconic dishes, offered at one of New England’s best-known restaurants, Legal Sea Foods. The first Legal’s, as locals call it, opened in 1968, next to the Berkowitz family’s fish market (which opened in 1950). Still family-run, Legal’s now has restaurants up and down the East Coast, but its chowder, which was served at almost every Presidential Inauguration since 1981, is probably its most-famous dish. Rich and creamy, chockful of clams, it is essentially New England in a bowl.