Exchange Street Bistro, Malden

We've had our eye on this restaurant in Malden for at least a year now and finally found an opportunity to check it out the other week. It's right by the Malden Center T stop on the orange line - and parking is easy too. The Exchange Street Bistro is a lovely place, nicely decorated and tons of delicious sounding meals on the menu, which made making decisions very difficult! They were telling us about New Years eve there, and it sounds like they go all out - decorating with black and silver balloons covering the ceiling. You can even see the big '2012' numbers still hanging through the window below. I think this is definitely a special occasion option - prices are a little on the higher end, but the food was definitely worth it in our minds.

Exchange Street Bistro
67 Exchange Street, Malden Center


After taking a bit of time to look through the menu, we decided on individual soups and salads to start rather than sharing an appetizer for the table. There was a cream of mushroom soup special that night, which both of my parents opted for.

I, instead, went for something a little lighter - their Bistro Salad with wild-baby greens, dried cranberries, toasted almonds and pineapple dressing ($7), knowing that I was going for a richer, heavier main dish. The salad was a little basic, but I liked the different greens they used. The soup was far too creamy and rich for my taste, but it was a generous portion and my parents both loved it.

The menu here is the kind that makes you think very heavily about what you want to order because there are so many things that sound amazing. Everything from veal to seafood to chicken to flatbreads, vegetarian dishes and red meat. Something for everyone here!

I ended up deciding on the Veal Saltimbocca - buffalo mozzarella, prosciutto de parma over wild mushroom ravioli, topped with wilted baby spinach and sage butter sauce ($24). It was a big portion - I ended up taking one of the veal cutlets home with me. The sauce was rich, but not too much, you could definitely tatste the sage and the ravioli with this dish were delicious - I probably could've just eaten a bowl of those and been happy. None of those made it home! After tasting everyone's dishes I announced that I liked mine best, leaving no room for order envy!

My father opted for the Lobster Baked Stuffed Haddock - stuffed with fresh Maine lobster and asparagus, over garlic whipped potatoes, sauteed baby spinach topped with newburg sauce ($20). I'll admit I didn't do a good job with this shot - but the portion was good size and you can see a whole lobster claw sticking out there. They probably could've been a little more generous with the vegetables, but my dad really liked it - though announced that he liked my mom's dish the best ...

And she chose the Potato Encrusted Atlantic Salmon - butternut squash risotto, swiss chard, port wine cranberry glaze ($22). the potato crusting on the salmon wasn't quite right for me - not as crusty as I thought it should've been and some of the salmon wasn't cooked enough for me - I never understand when they ask you how you want your salmon cooked. I want it very cooked - if I wanted it uncooked, I'd be ordering an Alaskan roll at my favorite sushi spot. Still though - all the flavors were there and funny enough, while this was my dad's fave, his dish was my mom's favorite.

We don't usually have room for dessert when we eat out, plus my mom and I are convinced that we can always make it better at home ourselves. We had seen a couple other tables order dessert though and it just looked so pretty that we couldn't stop ourselves. The Homemade Apple Crisp was beautiful, but a bit too sweet for our tastes ($7). I loved the added extra fruit, but for the portion size of apple crisp there just wasn't enough vanilla ice cream. At home you can easily add another scoop, but not out.

You'll also find an extensively fancy Martini List here with over 50 unique martinis - so be sure to take a look at those too. The passion fruit one jumped out at me, though I wasn't in a drinking mood so I'll have to remember next time! Despite the prices being a bit higher than we would usually go for, the food was of high quality, and we had so many wonderful options that we all agreed we would go back again. I think next time I have my eye on the Pan-Seared Sea Scallops over lobster ravioli or the Center Cut Pork Chop with gnocchi, swiss chard and peach compote.