Uni
Eliot Hotel, 370 Commonwealth Avenue, 617-536-7200

The city is thick with restaurants that say they serve flopping-fresh seafood, but few are brave enough to dispense with the plastic bibs and drawn butter.

In its low-slung confines, the chef Ken Oringer serves sublime fish with inventive accompaniments that actually work. Peppery onion seeds and Amarillo vinaigrette cut the richness of sea urchin and hamachi ($16); the Chinese black beans on wild king salmon come off like caviar ($14). No reservations, and no humdrum soy sauce either.