Masa (Woburn, MA)

One of the things that I miss the most about working in the city is all of the fun lunch dates I would have with my friends.  While we may all lead such busy lives, everyone has time for a lunch date here or there to catch up on each other's lives.  My friend Abby was definitely one of my regular lunch companions and I have desperately missed her company.  After several failed attempts to get together in the past few months, we finally had dinner this week at Masa in Woburn.

Abby and I hadn't seen each other in awhile so we caught up over a lot of laughter and conversation.  This kind of conversation requires beverages.  Abby started out with a seasonal spiced apple and cranberry margarita.  I opted for a glass of sauvignon blanc.  We noshed on the house bread basket, as we eagerly anticipated our meal. 

We started by splitting the spicy tuna tartare with soy ginger cilantro vinaigrette. 

The tuna melted like butter in your mouth and was topped with a chunky avocado puree and crispy totopos.  This dish had a good amount of heat in it, which contrasted nicely with the tuna and avocado.

For my entree, I went with another seafood dish - the grilled mahi mahi with papaya slaw.  This spicy dish was served with banana mole, green beans and a sweet potato puree.  I seriously started to sweat a little because of the heat in the dish, which only made me love the dish even more.

Abby went with a roasted pork loin, which was served with an adorable potato torta.

Since we were also celebrating Abby's belated birthday, we couldn't resist ordering dessert.  The caramelized banana diavlo bread pudding caught our eye with the spicy burnt sugar ice cream and the caramelized bananas.  Divine.

I have been to the Boston location several times before but this was my first visit to Masa in Woburn.  I was definitely impressed with the attentive service from both our server and the manager, who didn't hesitate to fill our water glasses when he noticed they were low.  But the food is what impressed me the most.  I loved the heat in the dishes that didn't overpower the unique flavors in each dish.  Since this location is so much closer to where I live, I'll definitely be making a return visit to Masa in Woburn again!

Masa is located at 350 Cambridge Road, Woburn, MA.