There’s a little bit of everything at this neighborhood spot in Eastie’s Orient Heights; it’s open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day of the week, and it draws inspiration from Italy as well as Latin America. Start the day with chilaquiles or dulce de leche stuffed French toast — perhaps with “Luna’s iced coffee” (it’s got vanilla bean gelato and chocolate fudge in it) on the side. Lunchtime is for bread bowls of chowder, salads, arepas, and “lunawiches.” And for dinner, there are pastas, paella, steak tips, and more.

Tangierino had been around forever (well, approaching two decades), but owner Samad Naamad decided that it was time to change things up this year, moving away from the Moroccan and French menu and rebranding the restaurant into Madera 83 Tapas Bar and Kitchen, a Spanish restaurant. (Tangierino sort of lives on; the downstairs hookah bar remains open under the name Tangierino, but it serves the new tapas menu, not the old Moroccan and French menu.) Naamad snagged Townsman alum Matthew Leddy to be executive chef, and the team is “getting most of the venerable Spanish tavern formula comfortingly right,” The Improper Bostonian’s restaurant critic, MC Slim JB, wrote, noting that it’s the type of place “guaranteed to launch a few thousand successful first dates.”

Once in a while, the North End sees the opening of a restaurant that is not Italian. In 2017, it was North Square Oyster, and it’s one of the best new spots in the neighborhood — and the city as a whole. (Chef Douglas Rodrigues was a nominee for this year’s Chef of the Year category of the Eater Awards.) Steps from the Paul Revere House, this sibling restaurant to Ward 8 serves up a taste of classic New England with enough modern spins to keep things interesting. Don’t miss the French onion soup, lobster roll, or lobster and oxtail bolognese. And Game of Thrones fans should keep their eyes peeled for Maisie Williams, who really seems to love the place.

Boston doesn’t have nearly as many Jewish delicatessens as it should. Mamaleh’s upped the city’s game in 2016, and 2017 brought the arrival of Our Fathers, the latest from the group behind Tasty Burger, Citizen Public House, and Franklin Cafe. Our Fathers features two sections: a takeout deli and a full-service restaurant (complete with a gin-focused bar). Note: The full-service restaurant’s menu veers more modern Israeli than deli, aside from a couple sandwiches, so if it’s bagels and lox you’re after, head to the takeout side.

Beacon Hill had a quiet year; aside from the reopening (finally) of Figs post-fire, there was only one other opening on our radar, New Sushi, Inc. 2017 was a year of poke bowls and sushi burritos, and the small, counter-service New Sushi, Inc’s got ‘em both. The restaurant comes from the owner of a Medford all-you-can-eat sushi spot, Nijiya, as well as Hoshi-ya in Brighton.

The Shōjō team can do no wrong, opening modern, high-energy spots that add to the neighborhood without taking anything away from it. The team’s latest venture, Ruckus, describes itself as a pan-Asian noodle house, although most of its dishes are a play on Japanese cuisine, particularly ramen. Ruckus doesn’t take itself too seriously, offering up a menu with dishes called “Miso Lit Ramen!!!” and “The Dope Yolk,” not to mention “swag” such as “umami bombs” that diners can add to dishes.

Boston technically lumps the Leather District in with Chinatown, but the little neighborhood near South Station has its own distinct personality — and several of its own new restaurant openings in 2017 — so we’ve separated it out here. If you’re going to run out to one new Leather District restaurant, make it Amateras, a Japanese restaurant that was first announced way back in 2014. It’s finally open, serving a few kinds of ramen, along with maze soba and more. “Some of the best bowls of noodles in town,” per Catherine Smart in a Boston Globe review.

The Seaport District seemingly had more openings than any other neighborhood this year — mostly expansions of chains, both local and non-local, some good and some less so. There were big clubs, there was vegan food, there was coffee, there were bagels. If you only have time to visit one new Seaport District spot in the near future, it should be Tuscan Kitchen for upscale Italian. It’s part of a small local chain that just has a few locations in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. The space is quite stately and spans a massive 14,000 square feet, and the ambiance lends itself to power lunches as well as date nights.

Out in Concord, 80 Thoreau has been serving up sophisticated New American cuisine for the better part of a decade, so Bostonian fans of the restaurant were excited to learn that 80 Thoreau would get a Boston proper sibling. First announced in late 2015, Mooncusser Fish House debuted in Back Bay in summer 2017, harnessing a good deal of 80 Thoreau’s magic and serving it in a stately upstairs space looking out onto the Castle at Park Plaza. It’s certainly worth a visit, but its prices veer into special occasion territory; for many diners, the more fun — and less pricey — option is its casual wine bar on street level, Moon Bar. Eat a lobster roll and drink wine at the bright, triangular bar, and don’t worry about reservations — walk-ins are always accepted.

There are very few places to get Yunnan-style rice noodle soups — “crossing the bridge” noodles — in Boston; South of the Clouds is one of them (and the only other local spot to really specialize in the dish is Wen’s Yunnan Noodle & Ramen in Back Bay). South of the Clouds replaced Umai on Market Street over the summer and serves a few different rice noodle soups, as well as appetizers such as five spice roast beef, spicy pork ear, and Chinese yam with blueberry.

Probably the most highly anticipated opening of the year, Eventide Fenway is the fast-casual sibling to Portland, Maine’s ultra-popular Eventide Oyster Co. There are brown butter lobster rolls (and brown butter soft serve), plenty of oysters (not to mention fried oyster buns), crudos, lobster stew, a burger, and more. While it’s a low-key, counter-service spot, servers do roam around so that you can place additional orders once you’re settled in. You’re obviously going to need some more oysters and another round of bubbly.

Publico is one of the most attractive openings of the year — especially its greenery- and fire-bedecked courtyard — and its menu hits plenty of fun, comforting notes, from fish tacos to bolognese to steak frites. The beer selection is non-pretentious and stays under $10, and the wines by the glass don’t go too much higher than that.

The tagline is “Thai by day, sushi by night,” but you can get either one whenever you’d like at Laughing Monk Cafe, which opened this year in the former SoulFire BBQ space. Sushi lovers should skip right to the “Nickiri” section of the menu, featuring signature nigiri from sushi chef Nick Korboon, an O Ya alum. Plus, keep an eye out for the return of Laughing Monk’s “hybrid omakase” option, which is currently on hiatus. Also coming soon: beer, wine, and sake.

Jamaica Plain was all about the beer this year. The one opening to know is Turtle Swamp Brewing, which joins only Sam Adams in JP beer territory. (Sam Adams also made some changes this year, debuting its first real taproom as well as a barrel-aging cellar.) Turtle Swamp opened in the spring and has been a bit of a work in progress all year; while its seasonal patio was in full swing in the warmer months, the indoor taproom wasn’t quite ready, but it’s all open now, serving up pints of JP Porter, All Ears Golden Ale (made with all Massachusetts ingredients), Toll Gate (an IPA), and more. Dog-friendly and kid-friendly.

This Southeast Asian dessert shop — which especially focuses on Vietnamese sweets, such as chè, a soup-like dessert — has a chef with a pretty serious resume. Somath Om has worked at Boston’s acclaimed sushi destination O Ya, as well as Spain’s El Celler de Can Roca, which holds three Michelin stars and routinely ends up at or near the top of “world’s best restaurant” lists. Head to Coco Leaf to see what a fine-dining chef can whip up in a fast-casual, cozy cafe atmosphere. 

For a sweet taste of Sicily, head to Zia Gianna, a cafe that serves up several types of tiramisu, a variety of espresso options (including one made with a housemade Nutella pastry cream), omelets, breakfast and lunch sandwiches, and salads. Ticketed dinner events may arrive in the future as well, along with Sicilian street food, booze, and more. Chef Nino Barbalace comes from an architecture background and earned a PhD in the history and conservation of historic heritage. “At some point architecture was no longer enough for me,” he previously told Eater. “So instead of working on how to assemble buildings, I decided to start assembling cakes, pies, sandwiches, lasagna, and arancini.”

Roslindale suffered a string of disappointments this year: the closing of Seven Star Street Bistro; Exodus Bagels’s change of plans to open a storefront in Jamaica Plain instead of Roslindale (at least for now); the cancelation of the three-year-old plan for Ashmont Grill and Tavolo’s Chris Douglass to open a restaurant at the old substation. But all was not lost, especially at the substation, which is now home to a temporary Trillium Brewing outpost. The Trillium Garden — a winter version of the brewery’s popular summer spot on the Greenway — will likely remain open into the spring. (And come spring, Roslindale may get a new brewery called Distraction Brewing Company in the former Emack & Bolio’s space on Belgrade Avenue. Like Jamaica Plain, Roslindale seems to be more about beer than food at the moment.)

Yellow Door Taqueria — located in a space that was once home to an antique shop and an apothecary — serves Cali-Mex cuisine from a chef who hails from Southern California, Colton Coburn-Wood. If you’re seeking fruit-flavored margaritas, tacos, and ceviche, this is the spot. There’s a pretty substantial tequila selection too.

Mattapan sees very few new restaurant openings each year — and doesn’t have any liquor licenses — but one 2017 restaurant debut was a franchise of the fast-casual Golden Krust Caribbean Bakery & Grill, which has over 100 locations spread across a handful of states. (Massachusetts has one other location, which is in Springfield.) Golden Krust serves a variety of meat- and vegetable-stuffed patties, jerk chicken and fish sandwiches, braised oxtail, curried goat, bulla cakes, and more.