Terramia Ristorante   

With its stucco walls and beamed ceilings, Terramia manages to evoke the atmosphere of a rustic hideaway in the overwrought North End. The tables are packed close (and always packed) in this boxy, 39-seat trattoria, but Terramia is worth both the wait and the tight squeeze. While its interior design is pleasant enough, it's clear that the draw here is the merger of traditional and 'nuovo' Italian cuisine, which is thoughtful and complex without lapsing into unnecessary excesses. The seasonally changing menu is always rife with inventive, calling-all-taste-buds medleys like grilled marinated octopus (with fresh ceci and fennel salad) or chestnut ravioli (with date mascarpone puree, pork medallions and caramelized onions). You'll never meet a salad you don't like here, either, but for dessert you'll have to adjourn to one of the many pastry shops on nearby Hanover Street, since Terramia has no "dolci" on its menu.