Michael J.
Yelp
This is it: for my money, the queen of the PTown dining scene, which has been elevating itself in leaps and bounds for the past decade or so. I keep waiting for Helltown Kitchen to miss, but in the three summer I've been there, it never does.
Helltown feels like a place where everyone is trying their very best. Not in a pretentious or self-satisfied way; in a scrappy underdog, let's-stick-it-to-the-juggernauts type way.
It starts with warm, personable service, a maître d' who knows your name before you announce your reservation, and a friendly waiter who avoids the common PTown waiter tropes (overly bored or overly flirtatious. Seriously, I once asked an obviously straight waiter in PTown how big a meal was and he said "it's about eight inches, you can handle that right?" Gross, dude. But I digress...)
The menu is refreshingly international, while taking note of the kind of things you would actually want to eat on a seaside vacation. If you're a vegetarian like I am, this place is a special treat. I can't decide between the tofu vindaloo and the Caribbean stew; I just go back and forth between the two each year.
There's always a little something extra, like chocolates for the table (no desserts available) or freshly baked bread.
The outdoor seating is tucked away off commercial street, intimate and yet not cramped. Cocktails are perfect, and the wine list is thoughtfully curated and reasonably priced.
A dinner at Helltown, booked a month ahead of time via phone so you can actually get in at peak hours, is my happy place. If you get there at 8 pm, you sit in a garden in summer time with your special person as the sun goes down, sip your cocktail, laugh along with the waiter, and feast on the best PTown has to offer.