The kitchen, overseen by chef and owner Jeffrey Fournier

The rose is the recommended wine with lobster pot pie, which is indeed a good idea. Also classified as a "sharing" plate, the dish is really very small, better for one person. Creamy and richly sauced, tiny black-eyed peas are an earthy surprise tucked in with the sweet lobster meat. Unfortunately (and this was one of very few problems at this place, but a persistent one), the dish's crust on top of the pie is chewy instead of crisp, hard to cut, and not pleasing.An appetizer that gets it all right, including the size for sharing, is mussels with housemade chorizo. The sweet heat of the sausage tastes better with every bite, and keeps you coming back to the heap of mussels and fresh tomato-garlic sauce. One dining companion finds a limp leaf in her "Perfect Green Salad" one night, but my strongest impression of the dish is that beets, which are used to flavor the dressing, really do work in vinaigrette, giving some heft to its other main flavor, red wine vinegar, and making the dish very pretty.
The kitchen, overseen by chef and owner Jeffrey Fournier and chef de cuisine Jakob White, again displays its careful attention to detail with "Chef Fournier's Famous Bolognese." The serving is enormous, incredibly fragrant, and, arrives at the table radiating heat. But with the unique scent of sauce made from veal, pork, beef, and pancetta, plus lots of rosemary and thyme, it's hard, in fact, to wait for your first bites to cool before eating them. It's the only main dish (there's also a spinach sid) on the menus of both Waban and its sister, 51 Lincoln, less than two miles away in Newton Highlands. If you order only one thing here, make it this.
Steak isn't surprising, it's just a good example of its ilk: a chewy cut, flatiron, with plenty of beefy taste. On the side, celery root puree is rich and a great match for the beef, and the roast potatoes one night have a perfect crust created by the chef's finishing them in a cast iron pan over a high flame, then in the oven. The handful of green beans on the plate mean you actually get to eat your vegetables here, a concept that seems an afterthought in some kitchens, even those restaurants charging in the $20 to $35 range, where it seems like a square meal is due. Roast chicken is juicy and coated in five spice powder (this half-bird could feed two), and though star anise dominates the juices that pool and run into the garlicky mashed potatoes, it's great with the poultry and with the potatoes.Two fish entrees are lighter and more inventive. Delicate fried fluke, dusted with semolina, salt, and pepper, is flaky and tasty for the first several bites.