Recent Dining Out reviews
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AURA RESTAURANT 1 Seaport Lane, Boston. 617-385-4300. When chef Rachel Klein was at Om in Cambridge, her food polarized diners. Some loved it for its originality, whimsy, and bold flavor combinations. Some did not, finding it pretentious. So take Klein and drop her into the kitchen of a hotel, one complete with breakfast buffet and out-of-town conference-goers, and the results are bound to be interesting. Klein's been at Aura in the Seaport Hotel since March. How do the individualist and the institution fit together? It seems Aura brought in Klein to utilize her strengths, not to squelch them. But there are compromises. Some come in the form of dishes for conservative diners, others in execution: Aura's kitchen staff still seems to be adjusting to a new set of expectations and skills.
HOLA FLATBREADS AND TAPAS 1849 Ocean St., Unit 10, Library Plaza, Marshfield. 781-837-2900. LOCO TAPAS & WINE BAR 
520 Foundry St. (Route 106), South Easton. 508-230-5626. Two restaurants are bringing an exceedingly welcome alternative to the suburbs. Hola's tapas are its strength, with its flatbreads coming in a less interesting but tasty enough second. The surprise, unbilled in its name, is a selection of Mexican-influenced dishes. The restaurant is run by the folks who used to own Saporito's in Hull, and they're pros here too. Loco offers larger plates such as paella in addition to its tapas, plus a selection of grilled items. A lounge area makes this South Easton's most happening spot by a mile.
HUNGRY MOTHER 
233 Cardinal Medeiros Ave., Cambridge. 617-499-0090. When Rachel Miller Munzer and Alon Munzer ran Rachel's Kitchen in Bay Village, they made everyone feel at home. Now they've partnered with chef Barry Maiden and former Sel de la Terre manager John Kessen to open Hungry Mother, a not-quite-as-small marvel of a restaurant that expertly brings together Southern dishes and French technique. The restaurant is refined, in a hip, vintage-jacket-and-mint-julep way, but it's also comfortable. The hosts still make everyone feel at home. Maiden's food, too, is refined yet comfortable. His skills are straight out of the kitchens of L'Espalier, Sel de la Terre, and Lumiere, where he's worked. But his menu is straight out of Virginia, where he's from.
CENTRAL 37 21 Broad St., Boston. 617-263-0037. Famously peripatetic chef Rene Michelena is now cooking at Central 37, a new restaurant in the Financial District, as well as the adjoining lounge, MKT. Central 37's menu sounds interesting, featuring the likes of sandalwood brined squab and lamb kebab with cauliflower falafel. But on each visit, with the exception of a few dishes, the food was mostly mediocre and occasionally poor. If Central 37 were just another Financial District stop for the after-work drinker, well, that's what it would be. But with a known talent in the kitchen, it becomes something more, or less: a disappointment.
