OT: Boston Restaurant Week

[MattTuck]

Bostonians and metro-bostonians....

As you may know, I've returned to the Boston area after several years away.

In picking the restaurants for this year's restaurant week, I was wondering if anyone had any recommendations or suggestions?

Thanks.

[alancw3]

depending on what you are looking for my two favorites, which are like boston landmarks, durgin park and the union oyster house. both in the faneuil hall area. if you go to durgin park and like beef get the prime rib.

[fierte_poser]

I'll have a David Deca-Burger and a Manny Ramirez Restarter Shake. :p

[false_Aest]

Zon's in Jamaica Plain.

Best effin turkey burger and mac'n'cheese E V E R!

[duke]

For the North End Italian thing I like Carmen in North Square. Intimate (read small) great food, and ambiance. Next to Paul Revere's house if that kind of thing interests you.
duke

[paczki]

I've had many meals at Boston restaurant week and I've never had a really good one. Restaurants bring out boring food, in my experience, and make it inan assembly line fashion which gives you bad seasoning and rubbery fish.

That said my favorite restaurants in Boston are:

Neptune Oyster House (North End)
Salts (Cambridge)
Shiki (in Brookline, amazing)
O-Ya (Leather District)
Oishi (in Newton)
Lumiere (in Newton)

I don't know if any of them are participating, but they are worth trying if they do. I won't name the restaurants that I think are overrated!

[paulandmonster]

ive been working in restaurants and nightclubs for the past28 years and all i can tell you about restaurant weeks is DONT GO. many places give watered down menus smaller portions, do hugee volume so quality is not the same. many servers are brought in for that week and are not up to speed. and of course speed you will be rushed your food will take a long time. just remeber you get what you pay for.

[johnnymossville]

For something a little different than already mentioned,...

Emperor's Garden in Chinatown for Dim Sum. Overall The Finest Dim Sum I've had in the USA.

[slugbottle]

+1 on the Dim Sum. Should have been the McDonalds of America. Much better model and much better food.

[MattTuck]

That said my favorite restaurants in Boston are:

Neptune Oyster House (North End)
Salts (Cambridge)
Shiki (in Brookline, amazing)
O-Ya (Leather District)
Oishi (in Newton)
Lumiere (in Newton)




Cross Lumiere off the list. We had a great dinner there tonight! Need to go ride 50 miles tomorrow to burn it off though.

Thanks for the reco, my wife had found it and been wanting to go. Your reco sealed it for me and I made reservations tonight.

We'll have to check out the Dim Sum place that folks are recommending next.

[tylercheung]

individual dim sum places tend to fluctuate in quality. emperor's garden has gone south a while back, ceding top crown in Boston to china pearl, which went south and let Hei Lai Moon take up the slack. It's been slipping recently, and for now, the best dim sum in Boston is Windsor, on Tyler St, between Beach and Harrison.

Overall, the best dim sum in the USA is either in the SF bay area (in particular Millbrae or Cupertino), or in the San Gabriel Valley near the USA, with a possible contender being in Flushing, Queens. There just isn't as much of a concentration of Cantonese in Boston to compete, although there certainly is more of a choice than average for an American city.

One burgeoning oasis of asian food is Alston, where you will find Yoma, a little Burmese hole in the wall (corner of cambridge st and brighton av) which, IMHO, might actually be the best restaurant in Boston, although you'd never know just by looking at it, plus the super 88 food court (although super 88 has run into some hard times lately....)

That being said, there's no need to save those places for restaurant week because your bill is going to be well under the $33 special anyway. For this, I second all of Paczi's choices (especially Neptune over Union Oyster house), but would add for Cambridge/Somerville:
-Rialto (eat at the bar, the table service is slow but culinarily probably the most amazing restaurant in the Boston area aside from O-ya or L'espalier),
-Sandrine's
-Harvest,
-Hungry Mother
-East Coast Grill
-Muqueca
-Craigie St Bistrot (i think maybe they are now "Craigie on Main" now that they have moved to Main St...)

in Boston, I would add L'espalier or Sel De La Terre, and maybe Eastern Standard. In the South End, Aquitaine, Hammersley's, Banq


I have to say, though - in general, I haven't really been impressed w/ the restaurant week menus...better food to be found on the regular menus....

[Climb01742]

the best restaurants in boston are in new york, san fran or LA. food in boston, i'm very sad to say as every weekend my wife and i keep looking, is so far behind the truly great food in america. as an example, hungry mother has been tauted as the best new place in town, but with the exception of one appetizer, the food there would not merit even a ripple in any city mentioned above or even in healdsburg, CA.

for the life of me i can't figure out why this is. why is food here so unremarkable? just for comparison, betelnut in SF would tower over any asian restaurant here, but in SF it is one of many. ***?

[Bob Ross]

if you go to durgin park and like beef get the prime rib.

...and be sure to ask for an end cut; your dining partners -- as well as the folks at every table around you -- will think you're a god when they bring that sledgehammer to your table.


Is The Village Catch still on Harvard Street in Brookline? That gets my vote.

[keno]

Always enjoyed No Name for voumes of fried clams and fish.

[paczki]

the best restaurants in boston are in new york, san fran or LA. food in boston, i'm very sad to say as every weekend my wife and i keep looking, is so far behind the truly great food in america. as an example, hungry mother has been tauted as the best new place in town, but with the exception of one appetizer, the food there would not merit even a ripple in any city mentioned above or even in healdsburg, CA.

for the life of me i can't figure out why this is. why is food here so unremarkable? just for comparison, betelnut in SF would tower over any asian restaurant here, but in SF it is one of many. ***?

I sort of agree and sort of don't. I've lived in NYC and Chicago for long stretches of time and been to SF many times. Chicago is the best ethnic food restaurant city I've ever been to, by the way, and the fine dining is as good as anywhere but more affordable.

That said, I think Shiki and the Neptune Oyster House are as good as any restaurants I have been to anywhere. They are simply fabulous. And O-Ya certainly is considered as good as anywhere, it was the NY Times best new restaurant last year.

I do think in Boston NEW restaurants get frenzied Chowhound/Phoenix reviews and they are undeserved. Salts is far better than Cragie on Main or Hungry Mother but much less recognized because it's a bit older and not as trendy. And so on.

Speaking of Super 88, go to the Vietnamese restaurant and get a Bahn Mee. You'll thank me.

No Name sadly is now inedible, the memories of my childhood were dashed. Village Catch is no longer on Harvard, although a fantastic and very authentic (hot) Thai restaurant is where it was. The location of the Village Catch on the waterfront is mediocre although great setting. If you liked it on Harvard you will love Neptune Oyster.

[tylercheung]

the best restaurants in boston are in new york, san fran or LA. food in boston, i'm very sad to say as every weekend my wife and i keep looking, is so far behind the truly great food in america. as an example, hungry mother has been tauted as the best new place in town, but with the exception of one appetizer, the food there would not merit even a ripple in any city mentioned above or even in healdsburg, CA.

for the life of me i can't figure out why this is. why is food here so unremarkable? just for comparison, betelnut in SF would tower over any asian restaurant here, but in SF it is one of many. ***?


puritans that's why.

[Climb01742]

puritans that's why.

ya think? could be. it really is a mystery to me. is there just not enough of an appreciation of truly great food here or not enough knowledge/experience of it?

[Climb01742]

I sort of agree and sort of don't. I've lived in NYC and Chicago for long stretches of time and been to SF many times. Chicago is the best ethnic food restaurant city I've ever been to, by the way, and the fine dining is as good as anywhere but more affordable.

That said, I think Shiki and the Neptune Oyster House are as good as any restaurants I have been to anywhere. They are simply fabulous. And O-Ya certainly is considered as good as anywhere, it was the NY Times best new restaurant last year.

I do think in Boston NEW restaurants get frenzied Chowhound/Phoenix reviews and they are undeserved. Salts is far better than Cragie on Main or Hungry Mother but much less recognized because it's a bit older and not as trendy. And so on.

Speaking of Super 88, go to the Vietnamese restaurant and get a Bahn Mee. You'll thank me.

thanks for the tips. we'll go. there's a lot to dig about new england but as someone who loves having a happy tummy, beantown is a bit of a disappointment, or maybe i just got spoiled by living in nyc so long. ;)

[tylercheung]

+1 on the Dim Sum. Should have been the McDonalds of America. Much better model and much better food.

This is really OT now, but there was actually an article written by someone comparing the development of General Tso's Chicken with Chicken McNuggets. I believe the metaphor was that General Tso's was the "open source" community development model of fried chicken bits covered in unhealthily sweet sauce, vs Chicken McNuggets which was developed with billions of corporate research dollars. There was some discussion whether General Tso's originated in New York or California, not sure if that's been resolved...w