SEAReview
Included In
Updated December 15th, 2021
Once, we saw someone at Seatac airport eating raw brussels sprouts from a Ziploc as if it were a bag of popcorn. It was pretty traumatizing. Airports are bad enough—we don’t need to see anyone gnawing on mini cabbages while someone else is already clipping their nails into their toiletry satchel.
Vegetables usually taste better when lots of other ingredients are involved (and when they’re not eaten out of a plastic bag). Homer, a Mediterranean-inspired restaurant on Beacon Hill, understands this. The vegetables here are as good as a free upgrade to first class.
It’s like a Hidden Valley commercial here, only indoors and with more alcohol. There’s a lively buzz of happy people with glasses of pét-nat in their hands and kohlrabi on their plates who are likely debating whether the pattern on the wallpaper depicts ostriches or emus (we’re pretty sure they’re ostriches). You can smell whiffs of pita baking at all times, and watch the staff strolling around refilling water and giving out samples of homemade soft serve. We’ve never seen so many people with such high vitamin A levels outside of the imagined paradise created by a ranch dressing company.
Though Homer isn’t a vegetarian restaurant, the vegetables outnumber the meat dishes (3:2 to be exact), and are the clear winners of the menu. There’s a grilled beet dish with poppy seeds and a green tahini sauce that made someone we were dining with go from irrationally fearing beets to loving them in a matter of bites. The winter squash with fermented poblanos and fried bread nuggets soaking in a pool of herby almond broth is fantastic, too. And as for the small plates that do involve meat or fish, fresh produce is still the star of the show. Sliced country ham graciously supports a turmeric-y apple salad with walnuts and creamy smoked ricotta. A seemingly-boring wedge of burned cabbage is made exciting by a thin smear of spicy-sweet salmon ’nduja and nutty sesame seeds. That’s right—cabbage can be thrilling.
photo credit: Nate Watters
That said, it doesn’t mean that your most carnivorous friend who merely dabbles in plant-eating won’t love this place too. The meat dishes are satisfying, but we recommend you use them to complement the vegetables, rather than the other way around. There’s a pile of tender lamb ragu on buttery tahini that requires space on your table and real estate on some hot bread. And the roasted chicken that comes with a bright fruit sauce and pita absolutely sopped in jus is phenomenal. We would definitely keep watch of its luggage while it runs into Hudson News for a $40 neck pillow, and then let it have the aisle seat on the flight to Punta Cana.
If you already eat lots of vegetables willingly, you’re going to love Homer. If you only eat them to fulfill your daily quota, you’ll be pleasantly surprised. If you literally hate the sight of a rutabaga, you’ll still have an excellent meal of meat dishes and things that came out of the ground. Who knows, it might even inspire you to try some raw brussels sprouts afterward.