Don’t Tell Aunty Review: Nothing to Write Home About

Billed as “Boston’s first Indian gastropub,” Don’t Tell Aunty serves “tapas-style” dishes in an upbeat environment, with Bollywood dance clips playing on the TVs behind the neon bar and a fake, leafy tree stemming from the center of the space. With an untraditional contrast of green neon lights and dimly lit wicker lanterns, Don’t Tell Aunty attempts to fuse Indian street staples — kati rolls make up an entire category on its lunch menu — with twists — French fries accompany the kati rolls, for instance. However, while promising and unique in its mission, Don’t Tell Aunty has a lot of work to do before it can thrive in Boston’s competitive culinary scene.

The recently opened restaurant occupies a prime location near the popular Newbury Street, poised to lure in Boston’s shoppers. The restaurant is hard to miss, with bright plastic marigolds adorning its facade. The host, servers, and manager welcome guests with warm smiles, happy to offer help with the menu and curate a selection of dishes for diners to try, and dishes arrive to the table speedily.

What is on the dishes, unfortunately, does not live up to expectations. For lunch, what arrives are not “tapas-style” dishes — nothing is light, shareable, or small in portion. Rather heavy, oily, and substantial dishes dot the table one-by-one. The menu is divided into sections, which vary from lunch to dinner menus. For lunch, emphasis is placed on “Happy Bowls” and kati rolls, while dinner seems to focus more on dishes in the “Classic Curry Corner” and “DTA Specials” categories.

For a menu with a fairly wide variety of vegetarian offerings, one would expect Don’t Tell Aunty’s plant-based options to shine. The kale chaat — a kale fritter dish — does not. The excessive oiliness of the dish works against the kale’s naturally thin texture — leaving behind flimsy leaves. The sogginess of the dish is exacerbated by a mix of sauces that manage to be one-note, failing to cover up the overall sense of cold oil and leaving one wondering why kale was expected to anchor a chaat dish in the first place.

Beyond the vegetarian offerings, one strong appetizer is Don’t Tell Aunty’s lamb ghee roast. This dish was tender, balanced, and light — with a strong spiciness that only elevates the dish further. The pieces of lamb, both in shreds and chunks, fall apart under the fork and are complemented nicely by the subtle ghee flavor.

For main courses, one option is the paneer kati roll, which is served with bell peppers and the restaurant’s DTA sauce. Arriving wrapped in foil and served with a side of fries and ketchup, the paneer filling is grainy and dry, and the few slices of bell peppers and sauce fail to add depth to the flavor. Sadly for an Indian establishment, the fries themselves — classic, thin, nothing special — are one of the stronger points of the meal.

Last, but not least, a further entree option is the South-Indian daal, which comes in three flavors: mango, tomato, and spinach. The mango daal is overly watery, and, featuring the occasional small chunk of mango, the lentil-based dish is bland and unimpressive. With a subtle yet present undertone of vinegar, the daal and rice are separated by a bland barricade of vegetables, which may leave diners unsatisfied with visual presentation and taste alike.

Ultimately, Don’t Tell Aunty does not live up to its self-described title of “gastropub.” While the service is the high point of the experience, the food disappoints at each turn. However, having just opened in March, Don’t Tell Aunty is at the beginning of its culinary journey. While the food is not nearly satisfactory, the restaurant is brimming with potential.

—Staff writer Thomas A. Ferro can be reached at thomas.ferro@thecrimson.com.

—Staff writer Isabelle A. Lu can be reached at isabelle.lu@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @IsabelleALu.