Mooo replaced the Federalist, which was one of my favorites in Boston, as the in-house restaurant of the XV Beacon hotel on Beacon Hill.  It’s a modern, expensive steakhouse.

Overall we had a fine time, but some things stood out as strange and sub-optimal.

The steaks are fairly expensive, but average for top Boston steak houses: $40-$50 each for the most part.  And this does not include sides, which is also common.  The cut was generous, and the steaks were cooked perfectly to order.

What was really  strange is that Mooo charges $1-$2 extra for steak sauces (Bearnase, Bordelaise, etc.) on top of the steak.  Does this make sense to anyone?  It seems cheap to the point of being insulting.   Wouldn’t you want to charge $41 for the steak and eliminate that whole section of the menu?  It feels like you’re nickel-and-diming the audience.

Service was OK.  Not amazing.  The guy was friendly and knowledgable, which is good, but a bit slow to get started, and stayed at that pace.

The decor is very nice, but the place is loud.  It was also strange that the servers placed the trays on which the food came (itself a weird touch) right next to the diners.  I mean like less than a foot away from me.  Weird.

The wine list is impressive, especially with some old vintages.  The highlight is a bottle of 1907 “Gout Americain” champagne, which Mooo lists for $14,000.  Yes, that’s also not a typo.  Extra os abound at Mooo.  I wonder if it’s part of the famous sunk batch that was recovered from the bottom of the sea 11 years ago.

Overall, we had a good time.  It was certainly worth trying.  But it’s no Federalist.  Heck, it’s not even as good as KO Prime or Grill 23.  Better service and eliminating the steak sauces would go some way.