"Coming to Ilona might make you sad about all the mismatched Ikea furniture in your apartment. But this place doesn’t just look good - start eating and you’ll discover that even more effort was put into the menu than the color scheme and selfie-bait murals. It’s an Eastern Mediterranean restaurant in the South End that serves a lot of saucy, meaty small plates. And while the menu has a few things that seem ubiquitous, everything is perfectly cooked, and somehow unique, like the roasted chicken livers in spicy hummus or halloumi with grapes, sesame, and honey. Given that it’s from the same people behind Kava Neo-Taverna, we had a good feeling when it opened up, but it’s even better than we expected." - dan secatore