I was going to suggest Judy’s Bay in the former Bondir space for a full-circle thing-y. It leans towards seafood but not exclusively. I haven’t been there and frankly, I’m probably not qualified to make any suggestions because I don’t eat anywhere except pubs these days. 
I think got too excited by seeing you mention so many restaurants that I used to frequent in my yoot.
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Maybe La Brasa in Somerville? I think of their wood fired cooking as being excellent for non-seafood options.
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Two possible suggestions could be Tallula and Catalyst. Tallula had pre-covid a nice 5/6-course tasting menu which they don’t seem to have currently but in our experience you can often just connect with the chef and ask them to put onr together and their food was very good
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Sycamore in Newton is one of our date night spots. (The others are weighted toward seafood.) If you liked Eastern Standard Kitchen you might like Branch Line in Watertown. Rumor has it that Garrett Harker is returning with a couple of new spots.
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Lots of great suggestions from people in these posts.
Love Sycamore, love Catalyst, and Branch Line as well. Because of the “I want to try something new” requirement, here’s my shortlist of considerations so far:
SRV
Little Donkey
Tallula
La Brasa
No decision has been made yet but appreciate all of the great thoughts and recos!
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We had a really good dinner at Little Donkey, it can be loud but the food was excellent.
Reviewed it here:
The menu changes often, which is good IMHO, and its on our short list to return to, if we can ever get ourselves past Sarma.
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If Cambridge isn’t too far, we like Urban Hearth for special occasions. Also, Forage - really interesting wine things going on there.
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Little Donkey IS a lot of fun but I don’t know what @JeremyK’s idea of “romantic” is. Little Donkey, at least when we last went 2-3 (?) years ago, is loud and lively, maybe not stereotypically romantic, but I’m the last person to ask about that…when I first read the post, I thought to myself, “hell, ‘romantic’ to me used to mean sitting at the bar of a non-pub while watching a Sox game.”
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Check out today’s Globe, 10 new places reviewed by Devra First.
They all looked good, a few might be considered Date Night material.
I don’t lean into romance too heavily; don’t really care for quiet/intimate. Fun sounds way better 
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Romantic sounding !
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Totally agree. Have not had time to post about it here, but their Tuesday wine-paired dinners are winners.
For a cozy, decidedly non-trendy place with great wine, I love Washington Sq Tavern in Brookline. Haven’t been in what feels like ages, but I always felt like an adult when I used to go.
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La Bodega in Watertown. Love the train car space, and the food is great. If you like duck, call in and pre-order the duck (2 days notice required).
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Oh! So you can get the famous duck they had at Salts with pre ordering! I always regretted not experiencing Salts, so this is great news for me. Thank you!
It’s amazing. If you’re planning a trip, definitely go for it. They vary it a bit depending on the season. I went during the summer a few years ago and it was paired with roasted stone fruit. I see their menu now has more fall appropriate sides. I uploaded a picture on a recent thread about must order items when you dine out.
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I did not know about La Bodega in Watertown but after looking it up, and asking the wife, we both love the menu and it looks like a cool spot. It may very well be our front-runner - great suggestion thank you! And it allows us to pop into Branch Line nearby for drinks too which is neat
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I’ll add to the love for La Bodega and that duck is out of this world delicious if duck is your think. Nice vibe, very laid back owners. Where else around Boston can you enjoy Uruguayan-style cuisine.
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So I’ve been calling La Bodega slightly before they open and during service every few days, multiple times a day and they have yet to pickup. They don’t appear anywhere online either so we’re going to forego it since we can’t get a reservation.
The wife and I settled on Matadora in Woburn because it looks like a cool, fun spot and getting a reservation was super easy. Another contender we explored, which is way out of the way, was Forge & Vine but it ended up being too far and the only available table was too late.
With that said, we will make it a point to check out some of these recommendations over the course of the next year because a lot of them seem awesome, even La Bodega
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Their website says you can text them – did you try that?
