When my boyfriend and I walked in late on a Monday night, it was completely empty, which made us a bit uneasy, but it was an odd time for dinner, after all. The location is fairly hidden as well; Zoe’s takes up residence on the stretch of Beacon St. where you can find Petsi Pies, Pho ‘n Rice, and R.F. O’Sullivan’s, probably the busiest part of the neighborhood but still relatively unknown to outsiders.

We decided to split our order between something a bit adventurous from the more authentic-sounding dishes and something more Americanized. We settled on an order of Hunan-style spicy fried frog and and an order of strawberry chicken, preceded by steamed juicy pork buns. When we ordered the frog, our server seemed hesitant and asked how spicy we wanted it, warning that it could be really hot. It took a little convincing, but I think we persuaded her that we wanted it as spicy as it was meant to be served.

One messy bite into the buns and we were hooked on Zoe’s. By the time we finished the thin dumplings, which were packed with pork and seasoned broth, we were already feeling pleasantly full. The strawberry chicken arrived; it was very much like the American-Chinese staple General Gau’s chicken, but with strawberries. I’ve had plenty of tasty General Gau’s before, but this was a huge step up. It was so light and airy and perfectly crispy that it must have been triple-fried or made with a magical mystery ingredient. It was very sweet, which countered the spicy frog well. As requested, they didn’t hold back on the spice in the frog dish. It was right around our upper comfort level as far as heat goes, just the right amount of challenge balanced with good flavor. The heat was also high temperature-wise; it was served in a metal pot heated from below, so it kept sizzling for a long time after it reached the table.

Uncomfortably full by the end, we waddled home thoroughly satisfied. The service was very friendly – hopefully not just because we were the only ones there – and the food was so good that we definitely overate. The menu is a good balance of the “Chinese” food that Americans have come to expect as well as more authentic dishes, and I look forward to venturing further into the Sichuan and Hunan dishes, although admittedly the pork kidneys, tripe, and intestines are a bit beyond my comfort zone. There’s also a small dim sum section of the menu which I plan to eat my way through entirely.

Even before our meal ended, we decided that we’ll be regulars at Zoe’s.

Catalyst is the brainchild of chef/owner William Kovel, a fisherman and environmentalist with a heavy focus on sustainability and local food. Before opening Catalyst, Kovel was chef at the esteemed Four Seasons restaurant Aujourd’hui; he has also worked on the West Coast and in London.

We walked in to find a sleek, modern ambiance, perfect for Catalyst’s name and Technology Square location: geometrically interesting hand-blown lamps, ultra-high ceilings, floor-to-roof windows, a glossy bar, and a perfect view into the bright, wide-open kitchen. Lest the classy ambience make you feel too under-dressed, the reclaimed barn wood and omnipresent rooster logo help keep things comfortable.

We got off to a less-than-stellar start with our cocktails; two out of three really fell flat, but one was good. (If you’re feeling daring, trust the bartender and order ‘The Undecided.’) Our server was fantastic and graciously offered a replacement when one friend gave a mediocre review of the cocktail, but we stuck with what we had and moved along to the food, which was fantastic all around.

Chef Kovel’s focus on seasonal, sustainable food really comes through in the simple but elegant preparations. My dish, tournedos of beef (with rainbow chard, taleggio ravioli, garlic, and parsley bordelaise sauce), was delicious; I only wish there had been more ravioli. There were two pieces of (deliciously rare) beef and one little ravioli atop each. I could have had a whole bowl. Perhaps I should have ordered a separate bowl of house-made pasta, conveniently available in half portions. One of my friends ordered a full portion of the Georgia candy roaster squash tortellini (with braised escarole and parmesan), and it was heavenly.

Another friend ordered the organic rotisserie chicken (with chanterelles, haricots verts, pearl onions, bacon, and thyme jus “dripping potatoes”); based on my small taste of it, I’d pin this as the least exciting of the entrees. The final dish at the table was a tasty pork chop daily special accompanied by spaetzle, a big hit.

We finished the evening with a root beer float (Eva’s chocolate mint, sassafras-ginger syrup, and crushed blueberries). Nice restaurants seem to be drawing from childhood desserts in a major way all of a sudden. Over the past few months, I’ve had a milkshake at Blue Inc., cotton candy at Bokx 109, and caramel popcorn at Market. To be honest, I’m enjoying this trend!

Catalyst is good for a nice night out. The prices fairly reflect the high quality of the ingredients, although one dish on the menu gave us sticker shock – spiced chickpea fritters. “$22 for falafel?” exclaimed one of my friends. We found most of the food to be very good, and I look forward to giving the cocktails another chance some night after work.

Looking for more delicious adventures? Check out SpotDash, CBS Boston’s FREE interactive phone app available for Android and iPhone. SpotDash is a fun new way to eat your way through Boston. Download it at SpotDash.com.

Perhaps the best way to experience the restaurant is by ordering the Ultimate Craigie Experience (their name, not mine, although – spoiler alert – I definitely agree). At $115 per person, the tasting menu includes eight generously-sized courses of the chef’s daily creations. Plan to devote a night to it: my table of five diners spent around four and a half hours enjoying the experience. The non-vegetarian tasting menu is heavy on seafood and meat, but you can request a vegetarian menu instead. We had both non-vegetarians and vegetarians at our table, and both sequences of dishes were equally fantastic. You’ll likely want to add on a drink or two, as well. The creative cocktail list and award-winning wine list were both carefully crafted with the overall food philosophy in mind in order to effortlessly pair with the ever-changing menu. The wine list is especially notable for its focus on lesser-known wines at very reasonable prices.

The wonderful thing about the food at Craigie is that you can absolutely taste the high quality of each individual ingredient, and they all come together seamlessly in dishes that play off the freshness and flavors of the season. Our late October meal, for example, touched on rustic autumn ingredients such as local beets, cheese pumpkin, wild hare (in a ragout with lentils), wild boar (sausage), local forest mushrooms, cock’s combs, and quail.

Boudin Noir-Stuffed and Pork Belly-Wrapped Quail with Autumn Olive Coulis, Farro, and Matsutake Mushrooms (credit: Rachel Leah Blumenthal)

The quail was the savory highlight of the meal, strikingly presented with a leg and claw reaching upwards from the plate. In a deliciously Frankensteinesque mash-up of animals, the quail was wrapped with pork belly and stuffed with boudin noir – blood sausage. On the sweeter side, everyone received a different dessert. The chocolate mint affogato was a big hit, particularly due to the hot espresso poured over it at the table.

The service at Craigie on Main is impeccable, and the ambiance is charmingly rustic while still giving off a special-night-out vibe. You’d feel equally comfortable in jeans or a suit jacket; we saw both. The view of the kitchen is spectacular. In fact, it’s really the centerpiece of the space, always interesting but never distracting.

If the Ultimate Craigie Experience is a bit too much of a commitment for your next night out, try the slightly smaller Craigie Experience (six courses) or a three-course prix fixe, or just order straight off the menu. There’s also a well-loved brunch menu for your Sunday morning needs.

Rachel Leah Blumenthal is a Somerville-based writer, photographer, and musician. She writes about food on her blog, Fork it over, Boston!, and runs Boston Food Bloggers, a networking community. For more information, visit RachelBlumenthal.net. 

Porter Exchange provides one-stop shopping for whatever type of Japanese food you’re craving: huge and steaming bowls of ramen, bento lunch trays, sushi, bubble tea, donuts with red bean filling, mochi ice cream, and my personal favorite, those adorable koala-shaped chocolate-filled cookies.

Most of the restaurants are tiny cash-only joints with a few tables and a long wait during peak hours. The longest wait tends to be at Café Mami; you may have better luck at Chocho’s, which is larger and less popular (though still delicious). Masa Sushi is quick and easy – just lurk nearby until you can grab a counter seat – or head over to the largest restaurant, Blue Fin. (It’s also the most expensive.)

My personal favorite? Ittyo. It has fantastically hearty udon and soba noodle bowls that make my dining companion happy, and it has bento boxes for me. The donburi teriyaki-style bowls are also a great option – your choice of meat over rice and greens.

I’m also a big fan of Tapicha, the bubble tea stand in the lobby. You pick your flavor, then your tea, and then your addition (tapioca “bubbles,” for example) – or just pick your flavor and go with whatever the lady working there tells you. On a recent visit, my order went something like this:

“I’ll have the green apple with…”

“Green tea.”

“Ok, green apple with green tea and…”

“Bubbles.”

“Well, ok then!”

(It was great.)

Porter Exchange is steps from the Porter T station, so if you live in the area, it’s a perfect place to grab dinner on the way home from work, especially in the winter. Pure comfort food. A ramen bowl as big as my head? Yes, please. (You can get that at Sapporo Ramen.)

Rachel Leah Blumenthal is a Somerville-based writer, photographer, and musician. She writes about food on her blog, Fork it over, Boston!, and runs Boston Food Bloggers, a networking community. For more information, visit RachelBlumenthal.net. 

The great beer is hardly a surprise as Five Horses’ owner used to be a manager at one of Inman Square’s best beer havens, Bukowski Tavern. Nonetheless, I was still excited to receive my La Fin du Monde with its matching glass. Also awesome? The giant chandelier made of tap handles that graces the front of the restaurant.

The food is a mixed bag, but the restaurant’s still young, and I’m hoping it’ll work itself out. While we were quite impressed with all of our appetizers and side dishes, the entrees themselves fell short. On the starter side, we initially balked at getting a $4 order of bread and butter – something most restaurants give for free – but it turned out to be well worth it, as the creamy goat cheese butter was divine. (One of my dining companions ended up adding some of the leftover butter to his cheddar jalapeno mashed potatoes, which brought them from good to excellent.) We also started with the fried calamari (perfect texture and nice addition of mangoes, but could have used a bit more salt) and pork belly tacos (I’ll take a few more of those, please).

My tater tot obsession weighed heavily on my choice of a burger; the burgers and sandwiches all come with a choice of the tots, the cheddar jalapeno mashed potatoes, fruit, or greens. As expected, the tots were perfect, comparable to my other favorites at Cambridge Common. The burger, though, was disappointing. It was cooked perfectly rare, as requested, which many restaurants never seem to get right, but it was still somehow dry and bland. Three of us ordered burgers or sandwiches served on the shiny country bread roll; it looked so good but tasted so dense and dry. Quite a letdown after the great appetizers. My dining companions fared similarly with their entrees.

There’s a lot that Five Horses Tavern is doing right, though, and its location might help keep it a little quieter than some of the nearby night spots, like The Burren and Joshua Tree – until word spreads about the fantastic beer selection, that is. I certainly intend to give the food another try; there’s plenty of potential here. And you know I can’t resist those tater tots.

Hours: Mon – Sun, 11:30am – 1am

Rachel Leah Blumenthal is a Somerville-based writer, photographer, and musician. She writes about food on her blog, Fork it over, Boston!, and runs Boston Food Bloggers, a networking community. For more information, visit RachelBlumenthal.net.

Although it mostly feels like a takeout joint, Blackstrap does have a small seating area, and it’s more hipster-adorable than gritty Southern BBQ. Sure, it doesn’t give off an authentic vibe, but it’s bright, cheery, and fun – and impeccably clean. From Christmas lights to a shelf of books for swapping to the chalkboards covered with the menu scrawled in pastel chalks, the ambiance is immediately welcoming, as is the staff.

As for the menu, well, it’s obviously a whole lot of meat. Classic BBQ sides. Lemonade and ice tea. For some reason, we thought we needed an appetizer, so we ordered the BBQ fries, crispy and golden and topped with brisket burnt ends, cheese, and sliced jalapenos: Southern poutine. Probably highly addictive.

Amongst the four of us, we demolished a substantial amount of Texas brisket, dry-rub pork ribs, and a variety of sides, and we tried every sauce available (our favorites were the spicy guava and the sweet BBQ). With the right sauce on top, the brisket was fantastic, and my dining companions tore through their portions of ribs. The weak spots? The mac and cheese (tasteless), the cornbread (very dry), and the lemonade (bland).

If your arteries are in the mood for a workout, Blackstrap offers a dish called the Hog: a bacon-wrapped sausage, smoked and fried, served on a roll. We couldn’t bring ourselves to do it. We also weren’t able to squeeze in dessert, but the cornbread pudding with blackstrap rum might tempt me on a return trip.

I want to love Blackstrap – I really do. The dishes I’ve tried so far are good, and this is the best I’ve had in the Boston area so far, but I feel like there is more ground to cover on my BBQ mission, both at Blackstrap and beyond. I’ll certainly be back, though, and maybe that Hog will one day make it to my plate. For now, I’ll file this one under ‘worth the occasional drive from Somerville’ and ‘mostly awesome.’

Hours: Mon Closed; Tue – Thurs, 12pm – 9pm; Fri 12pm – 10pm, Sat 11am – 10pm; Sun 11am – 9pm

Rachel Leah Blumenthal is a Somerville-based writer, photographer, and musician. She writes about food on her blog, Fork it over, Boston!, and runs Boston Food Bloggers, a networking community. For more information, visit RachelBlumenthal.net.

While the theatre’s amazing acoustics make it an ideal setting for serious choral and orchestral performances, Mangum is only one example of the numerous less traditional acts that are booked there as well. In late September, for example, the theatre provided a home for the 2011 Nobel Prize Ceremony, honoring improbable research (“research that makes people laugh and then think.”) The ceremony included the world premiere of a mini-opera called “Chemist in a Coffee Shop,” an appearance by a 2007 winner who co-authored a study on the side effects of sword swallowing, and many other curiosities.

Sanders’ Theatre’s intimacy is remarkable: any seat puts you close to the stage  A sold-out show puts you extremely close to your neighbors as well, but it’s easy to tune out your surroundings and hone in on the music, which is perfectly amplified due to the meticulously designed acoustics. The extraordinarily large chandelier might bring about some anxiety if you’re familiar with The Phantom of the Opera, but nonetheless, it’s a lovely piece of decor.

Sanders Theatre’s design is modeled after the Sheldonian Theatre at the University of Oxford in England, and the building was intended to be a lecture hall and a spot for commencement ceremonies. Lectures and college courses do still take place in Sanders, although it’s a hard podium to fill: Sanders’ history includes lectures by Theodore Roosevelt, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Winston Churchill, among many other notables.

Eclectic but above all beautiful, Sanders Theatre has a rich history of music, theatre, and academics, which continues into the present. See for yourself: among other upcoming events, the renowned yearly Christmas Revels will be occurring throughout the second half of December.

Rachel Leah Blumenthal is a Somerville-based writer, photographer, and musician. She writes about food on her blog, Fork it over, Boston!, and runs Boston Food Bloggers, a networking community. For more information, visit RachelBlumenthal.net. 

The Boston Wine Festival was created by Daniel Bruce, Executive Chef of the Boston Harbor Hotel (which houses the festival). Over the lifetime of the festival, Chef Bruce has created over three thousand original dishes to pair with the wines.

(credit: Thinkstock)

The festivities kick off with an opening reception on January 6th which includes tastings of more than 50 wines from featured vineyards as well as tastings of some of Chef Bruce’s creations. At $100, this is the least expensive event in January. On the higher end, the month ends with “Super Tuscans,” a $295/person four-course dinner paired with Tuscan wines, such as Ornellaia, Brancaia, and Sassicaia. Another January pick is the Battle of the Cabernets (January 12 or 13, $225/person): Napa Valley cabernets, food pairings, a blind tasting led by a cabernet expert panel, and a vote for the favorite. Châteauneuf-du-Pape more your style? A seminar and dinner on the 20th highlights this region; the event is hosted by Ambassador Alain Junguenet and his son, John ($185).

Moving onwards into February, dinners and seminars feature winemakers such as Castello di Ama, The Telmo Rodriguez Wine Co., Robert Foley Vineyards, Markus Huber Winery, and more. For a perfect Valentine’s Day celebration, try the all-Champagne dinner dance on February 10th, featuring wines from Charles Heidsieck, including the signature 2002 Rare Millésime, or the Valentine’s brunch on the 12th with Piper Heidsieck Champagne, a buffet from Chef Bruce, and live piano music. The dinner dance will set you back $195 per person; brunch is $75. Another highlight is the Rising Stars dinner on February 17th, featuring two Sonoma winemakers, George Levkoff of George Wine Co. and Eric Flanagan of Flanagan Vineyards ($145).

(credit: Thinkstock)

By the third month, the festival continues right along with 18 more events. Featured wineries include Thackrey & Co., Burgess Cellars, Elyse Winery, Failla Wines, and many more. Don’t miss the Wagner Family of Wines seminar and dinner on March 20th, at which Joseph Wagner will present the entire portfolio from the fifth generation winery ($215). The Italian wine reception on March 2nd will also be a treat: sample 45 wines from around Italy, paired with Chef Bruce’s creations ($75). The festival ends with a closing reception on March 30th, featuring a selection of the year’s best wines, complemented by a buffet ($75).

To browse the full schedule, learn more, and purchase tickets, visit the Boston Wine Festival website.

23rd Annual Boston Wine Festival
January 6 – March 20, 2012
Boston Harbor Hotel
70 Rowes Wharf
Boston, MA

From wild king salmon to Kumamoto oysters to smoked unagi and everything in between, the seafood at O Ya is flawlessly fresh, unblemished, and gorgeously prepared, often with non-traditional or unusual toppings. The hamachi, available on the standard menu as well as the Omakase, is served with spicy banana pepper mousse. Our eighth course, salmon, was topped with Vietnamese dashi caramel and spicy rau ram salsa. The “Fabergé” onsen egg arrived towards the end of the meal, embellished with white sturgeon caviar and gold leaf.

But my favorite course by far was not even sushi: a seared petit (and they do mean petit) strip loin of wagyū. It quite literally almost brought tears to my eyes twice: once, as I ate it, because it was the best beef I had ever tasted, and a second time, when I finished, because, well, there was no more of it left. At $61 if ordered à la carte, this minuscule portion of heaven is sadly not likely to have a repeat performance in my near future, but I can still vividly remember the taste – and the texture. Velvety, salty, lightly seared, perfectly rare. And a hint of white truffle oil.

Maine Sea Urchin and White Sturgeon Caviar, Course 4 of 22 (credit: Rachel Leah Blumenthal)

Speaking of truffles, let’s talk about fungi. Honestly, I hate mushrooms. I keep trying them, though, because I know I’m missing out on lots of interesting dishes, but I’ve barely made progress on this distaste. Our meal included alba white truffles, burgundy truffles, and grilled chanterelle and shiitake mushrooms; I worried that my friend who was paying for dinner was wasting his generosity. I ate every bite. Does this mean I like mushrooms now? Probably not. But it is a pretty good indicator of the extremely high quality of everything that leaves O Ya’s kitchen. Need some perspective from someone who isn’t anti-fungi? New York Times food writer Frank Bruni named O Ya the best new restaurant in the United States in 2008 – and, “at the risk of putting [his] credentials as a carnivore in doubt,” he pinpointed the grilled chanterelle and shiitake dish as the best on the menu.

The ambience is quiet and — please excuse the cliché — quite zen-like. The space is small but never feels cramped, and the service is friendly and extremely accommodating, especially with regard to food allergies. To be honest, I think this meal would still be worth it even if the ambiance and service were mediocre; it’s just an added bonus that they are fantastic.

While this meal will utterly destroy your wallet, if food is your luxury of choice, you’ll likely find O Ya’s Grand Omakase worth your money for a truly special occasion. Or, skip the chef’s tasting and order à la carte – still pricey, but not quite as extravagant. And if you happen to have an extra $61 available, please send an order of that wagyū my way.

Rachel Leah Blumenthal is a Somerville-based writer, photographer, and musician. She writes about food on her blog, Fork it over, Boston!, and runs Boston Food Bloggers, a networking community. For more information, visit RachelBlumenthal.net. 

The cocktail menu, brainchild of bar manager Tricia LaCount, goes along with the theme with some bizarre combinations. The fat boyz margarita, for example, includes beef stock and smoked chili sea salt. I opted for the cheffy: Grand Marnier, a big blue rock, and orange glitter. More exciting on paper than in the glass, the cocktail was an unattractive blue-orange mess that tasted like straight Grand Marnier with a little bit of sugar added. And five cocktail straws. Not off to a great start – but I’d give some of the other cocktails a chance in the future. I’m not exactly sure what a “chilled chocolate afro puff – blonde or brunette? – with one giant marshmallow” means… but I want to find out.

We ordered a variety of appetizers for the table, and all were enjoyable, especially the scallion pancakes and the spicy tuna tacos. While the tacos were not actually spicy at all, they were cool, refreshing, and served well to whet our appetite for the main course.

One of my dining companions ordered the signature honey and hoisin-glazed duck confit (with sweet sticky rice, mango, cashews, and coconut milk), and it was just as I had remembered it from a long-ago visit to Gargoyles on the Square. This is a solid choice, and I hope it will remain on the menu, which changes frequently. My main course was excellent: cabernet-braised short ribs with St. Andre, pistachios, fresh figs, prosciutto crumbs, and crunchy onion rings. The meat was tender and full of flavor, and those onion rings? Delicious.

We had our hearts set on liquid nitrogen milkshakes for dessert. Turns out they’re actually only on the lunch menu, but we asked, and our wish was granted. While the liquid nitrogen is mainly a gimmick, one that we’d all seen before in college chem labs, it still made us “ooh” and “aah” – and it resulted in a light, fluffy, super-chilled milkshake. (As I waddled out of the restaurant, I realized that the milkshake wasn’t nearly as light as it initially seemed.)

Blue Inc.’s ambiance is predictably blue-themed, but subtly enough that the color doesn’t hit you over the head. The restaurant actually looks quite nice, a small and upbeat space. The noise level is high; pick this one for a fun night out with friends but probably not a first date.

Like the milkshakes, the overall experience at Blue Inc. is a little gimmicky, a little fluffy, but overall, definitely enjoyable. While my cocktail left something to be desired, on the food side, everything was good, and some things were great. Bonus points for the blue lollipops delivered with the check.

Rachel Leah Blumenthal is a Somerville-based writer, photographer, and musician. She writes about food on her blog, Fork it over, Boston!, and runs Boston Food Bloggers, a networking community. For more information, visit RachelBlumenthal.net. 

The ambiance immediately made us smile: the walls were beautiful white stones in some places, bright red paint in others, and light wood everywhere else, a perfect match for the sturdy and glossy wooden tables and chairs. Bunches of garlic and grains decorated the walls and doors, and a row of Polish beer bottles was on display – Tyskie, Lomza, Warka, and more. Before we had even ordered, my dining companion decided that he definitely wanted to return to Café Polonia. (Fortunately, the food didn’t change his mind.)

A bread basket arrived with a couple toppings, one of which was lard, studded with bits of what seemed to be pork. “Lard” is still a dirty word in American food culture, but as it turns out, it’s considered to be a tiny bit healthier than butter – it has less saturated (“bad”) fat and more monounsaturated (“good”) fat. But when you add pork into the mix, I suppose that tilts the scales back the other way…

We shared the beef tripe soup as an appetizer, a somewhat risky choice since neither of us are particularly enthusiastic about tripe. When “strange” meats are offered, though, it’s often the best way to experience a restaurant. After enjoying a few big spoonfuls of the broth, we hesitantly started on the tripe (which was better than expected).

“How’s the tripe soup?” asked the waiter.

“Great!” we responded enthusiastically.

After looking at our bowl of tripe, minus most of the broth, he asked, “Have you tasted the tripe?” Amused but a little embarrassed, we tried more, and it actually grew on me as I ate more of it.

The entrees were heavy and heavenly. “I could see surviving a Polish winter on this,” said my dining companion as he tucked into his stuffed cabbage. As for me, I immediately fell in love with the pierogi, which were on the same level as – or maybe even better than – the legendary pierogi at Veselka in Manhattan’s East Village. Fortunately for me, South Boston’s a bit closer than NYC.

We will definitely return, and we will definitely make reservations.

Rachel Leah Blumenthal is a Somerville-based writer, photographer, and musician. She writes about food on her blog, Fork it over, Boston!, and runs Boston Food Bloggers, a networking community. For more information, visit RachelBlumenthal.net. 

Central Kitchen’s upscale American cuisine shows plenty of Mediterranean influence, a reflection of the owners’ travels through Spain, France, and Italy. Accordingly, the seafood dishes are the standouts on the menu – and the cocktails are a must-try as well. A meal could easily be enjoyed at the bar thanks to the tapas-style bar snacks and appetizers on the menu.

On a recent visit, a dining companion and I enjoyed the Parisian-style filet mignon tartare to start; the portion size was huge. Almost as exciting as the meat were the accompanying slices of toast – soft, buttery grilled bread perfection. We also couldn’t resist the cocktail list and thoroughly enjoyed the drinks we ordered, a rosemary collins (Plymouth gin, rosemary-infused simple syrup, lemon, soda) and a passionfruit caipirinha (Ypioca cachaca ouro, passion fruit, lime).

Our entrees – monkfish for him and mahi mahi for me – were cooked exceptionally well, seared on the outside and juicy on the inside. We agreed that this was the best seafood we’ve come across in awhile. The sides were flavorful and appropriate complements to the fish.

While the fallen Belgian chocolate cake was tempting, we didn’t have time to wait for it (although the server noted that it takes more like 10-15 minutes, not 30 minutes as the menu says), so we ordered the Tahitian vanilla crème brulee instead, which we definitely did not regret. Central Kitchen knows how to handle a pastry torch. The creamy inside was smooth – no signs of curdling that you’ll see in the crème brulees of less-experienced pastry chefs – and the plate was large, leaving plenty of surface area for the best part, the burnt sugar crust.

Central Kitchen’s service is friendly and knowledgeable; a tag team of servers took care of us and seemed to genuinely want us to enjoy the meal. (Strangely enough, not all restaurants share that trait.) While Central Kitchen is at a higher price point than most of its neighbors, the quality of the food and the relaxed but chic ambiance are clearly worth the cost.

Rachel Leah Blumenthal is a Somerville-based writer, photographer, and musician. She writes about food on her blog, Fork it over, Boston!, and runs Boston Food Bloggers, a networking community. For more information, visit RachelBlumenthal.net.

- By Rachel Leah Blumenthal

Sandwiches are the ultimate nostalgia food. One bite can bring you right back to that daily brown bag lunch packed by your mom, or the squished sandwich pulled out of the cooler on the annual beach trip with the family, or your favorite guilty pleasure greasy food truck sandwich during late night study-a-thons in college.

Nostalgia led me to two of my favorite Boston-area roast beefs.

(credit: Rachel Leah Blumenthal)

The Classic Roast Beef Sandwich

Jimbo’s Famous Roast Beef & Seafood

40 Bow St.
Union Square, Somerville, MA 02143
Website

From growing up in Sharon, my childhood culinary memories consist of Chinese food at Mandarin Taste, ice cream at Crescent Ridge, pub-style pizza at Town Spa in Stoughton, and…ridiculously rare roast beef sandwiches at the now-defunct Stoughton shack, Mur-Mac’s. The Mur-Mac’s roast beef sandwich – just thinly sliced beef on a toasted bun with a little bit of A1 – has achieved epic status in my memory, probably because I haven’t been there in ages (and now that it’s closed, I’ll obviously never return). In truth, the place was pretty creepy and grimy. Something about those sandwiches, though, has ruined all other roast beef for me.

Finally, recently, I decided to find a replacement, and after some intense Yelp research and taste-testing, I’ve found a winner. The ambiance is completely different, but the sandwich – well, it’ll do. Jimbo’s piles extraordinarily rare beef high on a soft bun and tops it with their sweet-and-sour BBQ sauce, if you’d like. (Personally, I get a plain sandwich to go and add A1 at home.) It’s not quite Mur-Mac’s, but since Mur-Mac’s is gone forever, Jimbo’s is the place to go.

(credit: Rachel Leah Blumenthal)

Buffalo’s Beef on Weck

All Star Sandwich Bar

1245 Cambridge St
Inman Square, Cambridge, MA 02139
Website

I went to college in Rochester, New York, and I loved the city – which tends to confuse others who have lived there. To some extent in Rochester and even more so in nearby Buffalo, there was a ubiquitous sandwich called Beef on Weck: thinly sliced, rare, juicy roast beef on a kummelweck roll (like a bulkie roll but topped with coarse salt and caraway seeds) served with hot au jus (like a French dip). As a lover of all things carb and beef and without too many condiments or toppings, I immediately fell on love with beef on weck.

Once I came back to Boston, I sadly never saw it again… until All Star Sandwich Bar opened in Inman Square. (Rumor has it you can also find it at Bleacher Bar at Fenway, but I have not been there to try it out yet.) All Star does a more than satisfactory job: the beef and au jus are spot on. The bun is a bit crispier than I’d like, but until I make it back up to Rochester or Buffalo, All Star helps me relive those cold, snowy and wonderful college years.

Long church benches, exposed brick, mini cafe tables, and chalkboard menus make up the quaint ambiance. The space is tiny but never feels uncomfortable, probably because everyone inside is in such a great mood.

My ideal Sunday afternoon: a pressed and grilled Rustica special – fresh mozzarella, tomato, and pesto on a baguette – with a bag of chips and a bottle of San Pellegrino Aranciata, enjoyed on the hidden patio, surrounded by willows, potted plants, and bird feeders. I’m a bit obsessed with tomato and mozzarella sandwiches, and after eating a lot of them around town, I wholeheartedly endorse this one as my favorite. Other lunch sandwich options cover the standard deli meat range: salami, turkey, roast beef, ham, prosciutto, and more, and you can customize to your heart’s content. The menu board suggests adding prosciutto to the Rustica special – go for it. The breakfast menu includes egg sandwiches, bagels, and variety of pastries, muffins, and croissants.

I can’t vouch for the hot beverages as I’m not a coffee drinker, but the selection of juices and Italian sodas is solid, and all beverages are more reasonably priced than most other cafes in the area. The coffee drinks are from Seattle’s Best and Lavazza.

No matter how you’re feeling when you walk in, Rustica will put a huge smile on your face. Good food, drinks, and ambiance aside, the service is phenomenal. The men behind the counter are the friendliest I’ve met at any cafe – genuinely friendly, not plastered-on-fake-smile friendly. They’ll remember you and your order after just a few visits. The vibe is mellow: you’re more likely to find people chatting quietly with friends over a cup of espresso or relaxing with a magazine rather than typing away endlessly on a laptop with headphones on. If you’re looking for that, go to the nearby Starbucks. For everything else, you want Rustica.

Café Rustica

356 Beacon St
Somerville, MA 02143
(617) 491-8300
Hours: Mon – Sun, 7am – 4pm
Directory Listing

Rachel Leah Blumenthal is a Somerville-based writer, photographer, and musician. She writes about food on her blog, Fork it over, Boston!, and runs Boston Food Bloggers, a networking community. For more information, visit RachelBlumenthal.net.

“TONIGHT! We’ve got a littly piggy named IRENE and she is all yours! First 12 people to call Posto and book a spot can help devour her! It will be one large table so come prepared to have fun and meet new peeps! $25pp. Piggy, Salad, Sides and Dessert.”

I turned to my boyfriend. “What do you think about eating a whole pig with strangers at Posto tonight for $25 each?”

A few hours later, we sat down with a friend who saw me talking about the dinner on Facebook, a bunch of strangers, and – by sheer coincidence – a couple I had met at a birthday party of a mutual friend months ago. Somerville is a small world.

The food soon began to roll out. First: insanely delicious grilled bread, fresh out of the pizza oven. Then, some salad. Finally, pig. Just pig. Oh, and a giant bowl of potatoes. Before it arrived on our table in parts, the whole pig was paraded around the table and I had a long moment of regret. The whole idea of eating this seemed barbaric, in a way. But then I concluded that if I couldn’t face the whole animal that I would be eating, I probably shouldn’t be eating it.

(credit: Rachel Leah Blumenthal)

First, plates arrived with giant slices of pig filled with stuffing containing…more pig. A delightful herbed sausage stuffing. This seemed somewhat manageable; we each took a slice. Barely into our portions, we were presented with the kind of thing you’d see at a medieval feast: the pig head and feet on a raised platter. A strange mix of excitement and revulsion could be felt around the table. While much of this platter was ignored, some diners did dive right in to find the cheek meat.

Several other plates of pig appeared at the table as well – ribs and other assorted parts. The amount of food could have fed an army. To top it off? Cannoli for dessert.

While this was a special event, a whole pig roast is typically available Mondays through Thursdays with two weeks’ notice for $425 – up to 12 people. The locally raised pig is roasted in Posto’s fantastic wood oven and accompanied by potatoes and salad.

For the less porcinely inclined, the rest of Posto’s menu is extraordinary. Try the classic bolognese or gnocchi with short rib (half sizes are available!) – or a wood-fired pizza. Posto is New England’s first Certified Neapolitan Pizzeria, so pizza aficionados are sure to be satisfied.

Pizzeria Posto

187 Elm St, Davis Square
Somerville, MA 02144
617-625-0600
Hours: Mon – Sat, 5pm – 11pm; Sun 11am – 11pm
Website

Rachel Leah Blumenthal is a Somerville-based writer, photographer, and musician. She writes about food on her blog, Fork it over, Boston!, and runs Boston Food Bloggers, a networking community. For more information, visit RachelBlumenthal.net.

“We’re definitely more than a store – it’s almost like a movement,” said Maria Molteni, Assistant Manager of Special Projects, describing various outreach efforts – everything from promoting awareness of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) to supporting fair trade to celebrating female beekeepers. Maria is also a beekeeper herself.

The store is just the physical manifestation of a bigger story, and the fact that it’s full of pretty things is “the icing on the cake,” explained sales associate Lizzie Curran, who is an artist. In fact, nearly everyone who works at Follow the Honey is an artist, and it shows. The details in the decor are flawless and charming. Owner and founder Mary Canning’s daughter Caneen serves as the Artistic Director and brought together all of the vintage pieces of furniture and decorative items. Artsy items are also on sale – everything from delicately sheer vintage aprons to bee-themed graphic tees to honeycomb-patterned rings and necklaces.

But the most important merchandise is the honey itself. The selection touches on local sources (such as Jamaica Plain and Cambridge) to the US to the entire globe. One variety that I tasted was harvested on a boat in Louisiana; another was a lavender whipped honey from France. A few honeys are harvested from wild bees, although there are very few left in the world now. If you’re able to spend $50 or more on a small jar of honey, you might want to try the special Manuka variety from New Zealand, thought to be one of the most medicinally effective honeys. It has even earned its own rating scale, the Unique Manuka Factor (UMF), that describes its antibacterial strength.

Follow the Honey has a fantastic back patio that serves as the setting for many events – lectures, cheese pairings, musical performances, and more.

So why a store focused on bees? “Its genesis is truly organic, from the inside out,” said Mary, who lost her first husband to bone cancer and then found solace in beekeeping, an activity she discovered thanks to a family friend. “Honey and bees took me back to the land of the living as it does anyone who comes in contact with our generation’s “canaries in a coal mine.” Slow down, they tell us, smell the flowers in bloom, sip the nectar, live fully and love.”

Follow the Honey

1132 Massachusetts Ave
Cambridge, MA 02138
(617) 945-7356
Website

Rachel Leah Blumenthal is a Somerville-based writer, photographer, and musician. She writes about food on her blog, Fork it over, Boston!, and runs Boston Food Bloggers, a networking community. For more information, visit RachelBlumenthal.net.

Rumor has it that the Taza owners are sick of the Wonka comparison; so I’ll refrain from describing the factory store that way. It doesn’t give off a whimsical vibe, anyways, and it’s not the type of sweet treat that brings out the kid in all of us. No, Taza Chocolate is of a different variety – a more complicated, acquired taste like a fine wine or liqueur – and as you sample your way through the store, you’ll find that you want to move slowly to figure out the intricacies of each flavor.

(credit: Rachel Leah Blumenthal)

Taza’s 45-minute factory tours bring you along the entire bean-to-bar process. On the way you’ll learn about Taza’s direct trade sourcing of ingredients from places like Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic, and, of course, you’ll try some samples as you get a glimpse at production. Perhaps most interesting to learn about is the cause of the most noticeable difference between Taza Chocolate and many other well-known chocolates: the texture. Taza is granular rather than ultra-smooth, a quality some find off-putting when first tasting it. This is the hallmark of the Mexican stone-ground tradition. The more common Swiss or European style of production includes a step called conching, a process that turns a bar of chocolate into a smooth, creamy mass of homogeneity. The stone-ground method has a much more rustic feel, something many chocolate lovers are surprised to find that they prefer. Taza co-founder Alex Whitmore spent time in Oaxaca City learning the craft with a master stone miller.

Like all factory tours, it ends right back in the gift shop—fortunate, because you’ll definitely want to stock up. So many flavors, so little time. My favorites: chipotle chili, guajillo chili, and ginger. While I’m fixated on the chilis, most other people seem to pick salted almond as their favorite. The prices are higher than the average candy bar – but then again, these aren’t average candy bars.

If the short factory tour leaves you wanting more, Taza actually runs international trips every year or so to really get a deep understanding of the chocolate-making process. The next trip is in March—a week in Belize exploring chocolate’s Mayan origins, led by Whitmore.

Taza factory tours cost $5, which includes a $1 donation to Sustainable Harvest International. Tours run at various times Thursdays through Sundays. For more information, visit the Taza website.

Rachel Leah Blumenthal is a Somerville-based writer, photographer, and musician. She writes about food on her blog, Fork it over, Boston!, and runs Boston Food Bloggers, a networking community. For more information, visit RachelBlumenthal.net.

Sometimes I think it comes down to an argument over the definition: I’ll allow for favorites in a variety of pizza genres, like the pub-style pies at Town Spa, or the fancy combinations at places like Emma’s or Zing or Za, or the good old-fashioned Italian-style pizza. The snob, a Connecticut native, will only accept pizza as “good” if it fits into that narrow New Haven-style genre: cooked at ridiculously high temperatures (preferably with coal) to result in a crust that perfectly balances chewy, doughy and charred; a sauce that is flavorful but not too sweet; a golden ratio of cheese to sauce.

While I’ll gravitate towards different types of pizza depending on my mood, my boyfriend always craves this specific specimen. Fortunately, after much searching, we’ve found a version that comes extremely close – and it’s not even in the North End. No, our Boston pizza quest has ended in Cambridge at Porter Square’s wonderfully divey bar and restaurant, Newtowne Grille.

It’s the type of place where, if you’re not a regular, you might get looked at as you walk in past the bar. The servers tend to ask if you need a menu rather than handing it to you right away. It’s easy to see how you’d become a regular at a place like this; we would be if we didn’t typically just order take-out. Newtowne Grille has been going strong since a guy named Socrates opened it in 1966; his family has opened up a second branch in Billerica.

Beyond the bar, the dining room tends to be filled with a younger crowd watching sports and enjoying the cheap food and beer, and there are often specials that make everything even cheaper (half price appetizers during many sports games, for example). Our favorite special, which seems to be perpetually occurring and will hopefully never end: $12 for a large cheese pizza and a pitcher of PBR. Perfect.

Newtowne Grille Food & Spirits

1945 Massachusetts Ave
Cambridge, MA 02140
(617) 661-0706
Hours: Mon – Sat 11 am – 10 pm

Rachel Leah Blumenthal is a Somerville-based writer, photographer, and musician. She writes about food on her blog, Fork it over, Boston!, and runs Boston Food Bloggers, a networking community. For more information, visit RachelBlumenthal.net.

First, some things that do not count as bad art: young children’s creations, paintings on black velvet (in particular, velvet Elvises), paint-by-numbers, and latch-hook kits. No, insists MOBA: these are actually “probably better suited for the Museum of Questionable Taste, The International Schlock Collection, or the National Treasury of Dubious Home Decoration.”

While the aforementioned genres are not included under the bad art umbrella, a very wide range of “art” is included. Some pieces will make you smile, such as All Things Must Pass and Woman Riding Crustacean (which, notes MOBA, “appears unfinished” and is “possibly inspired by Debra Winger riding a mechanical bull in Urban Cowboy (1980).”) Others will make you wonder whether you accidentally consumed hallucinogenic drugs before arriving at the museum, such as An I for an Eye, a tree made of a naked woman and covered with crying eyes. Others will bore into your psyche and haunt you for the rest of your life (you’ve been warned): In the Cat’s Mouth and, even moreso, Jerez the Clown (“a perfect depiction of pure evil in the guise of childhood’s friend. This blending of big top themes with a piercing study of the dark side of human nature, elevates the well worn clown genre to a new and exhilarating level.”)

(credit: Rachel Leah Blumenthal)

Once you are sufficiently nauseated from viewing this spectacular collection of horrible art, turn your attention to the guestbook, which is often almost as amusing as the art itself. “I feel weird after seeing all this bad art,” writes Maya. “The one wif da baby move me,” comments an unnamed visitor. And, perhaps the summation of everything for which MOBA stands: “This ART may be BAD but it is PERFECTLY GOOD at it!!” exclaims Rhodzilla with two exclamation points worth of excitement.

The first two MOBA locations are housed in the Dedham Community Theatre and the Somerville Theatre, appropriately hidden in the dankest basement corners (and conveniently located near the restrooms, points out the MOBA website). Admission is free with purchase of a movie ticket. The newest location sits on the top floor of Brookline Access Television, where admission is also free. Would you pay to see terrible art?

If a visit to the museum triggers the uncanny sensation that you’ve seen bad art in your very own home, perhaps created by your weird uncle or mean grandmother or even yourself, fear not – you can dispose of it by a simple donation to the museum. The guidelines? “The pieces that we look for would never hang in a museum or commercial gallery, yet they have some quality that draws you to them — or perhaps grabs you by the throat and won’t let go.“

Locations:

Dedham Community Theatre
580 High Street in Dedham Square
Dedham, Massachusetts 02026-1845

Somerville Theatre
55 Davis Square
Somerville MA 02144

BATV
46 Tappan St., Top Floor
Brookline, MA 02445

Website

Rachel Leah Blumenthal is a Somerville-based writer, photographer, and musician. She writes about food on her blog, Fork it over, Boston!, and runs Boston Food Bloggers, a networking community. For more information, visit RachelBlumenthal.net.

The beer: With 31 beers on tap, 16 of which are constantly rotating, you’d have to be pretty picky to not find one you’ll like. There’s always at least one organic option, and plenty of local microbrews get featured. For the permanent selections, Cambridge Common has the basics (Guinness, Miller Lite, Harpoon IPA) as well as the somewhat more exciting (Victory Golden Monkey, Berkshire Coffeehouse Porter, Ommegang BPA). On a recent visit, the rotating tap included selections like Pretty Things Jack D’Or, Rogue Double Dead Guy, and Mayflower Summer Rye. You’re not going to find a book-sized beer menu here like at Brookline’s Publick House or Allston’s Sunset Grill & Tap, but the selection is strong and reasonably priced. Indecisive? Try the staff’s daily picks in a sampler of four small pours, or create your own sampler.

The tots: Almost every time I visit Cambridge Common, it’s precipitated by an intense tater tot craving. “Oh yeah – just like you remember them,” says the menu. These are the tots that graced your school lunch tray every day for twelve years. The only difference is that Cambridge Common’s version is consistently awesome. None of that soggy stuff you’d sometimes end up with at school. $4.95 gets you a basketful. Go ahead, order seconds. I won’t judge. (You might want to save room for sweet potato fries or curly fries, though. Bottom line: Cambridge Common does potatoes really, really well. Starch- alicious.) As for the rest of the food, it’s solid pub fare – nothing innovative, but pretty tasty, especially when you’re washing it down with beer. Stick with the sandwiches and burgers, which are a bit better than the other entrees.

The music: The Lizard Lounge is Cambridge Common’s basement music venue. Small and cozy and draped all in red, it feels like your especially awesome hippie friend’s living room. The Lizard Lounge brings in excellent bands from near and far, and – great news! – the food is available down there as well. Snag a table – they’re all very close to the musicians, because the space is tiny – and enjoy the show. Preferably with a basket of tots and a big glass of beer.

Cambridge Common

1667 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
(617) 547-1228
Hours: Mon – Wed 11:30 am – 1 am; Thu – Sat 11:30 am-2 am; Sun 10:30 am-2 am
Website

Rachel Leah Blumenthal is a Somerville-based writer, photographer, and musician. She writes about food on her blog, Fork it over, Boston!, and runs Boston Food Bloggers, a networking community. For more information, visit RachelBlumenthal.net.

Just over three years old, Hungry Mother has already made quite a name for itself (or herself?), serving up beautifully constructed Southern-style dishes with a Northeastern flair: Chef Barry Maiden (also an owner of the restaurant) uses local, sustainable ingredients whenever possible, and draws from Virginian Appalachia and surrounding areas for specialty items that aren’t available up here. Maiden hails from Virginia, where, by the way, there is a state park called Hungry Mother.

The restaurant fills up a house on a Kendall Square corner, twisting and turning through multiple levels and rooms, a quirky and charming maze that feels like you’re in somebody’s home. The decor is simple and pleasant: empty picture frames house bare light bulbs, other light comes in the form of lamps made of jars and glasses, and the walls are painted in muted whites, blacks, greens, and browns. The Hungry Mother logo is gorgeous: a brilliant red cardinal (the state bird of Virginia) perches atop cursive (renewing my hopes that handwriting will not die), and the bird theme repeats subtly throughout the restaurant in small prints on the walls.

Chef Maiden’s cooking combines his Virginian background, love of grits and fried food, training in French cuisine, appreciation for local and seasonal ingredients, and a talent for canning and preserving, resulting in a menu that bursts with flavors, fine ingredients, and artisanal items made in-house. The choices are few, but every single one will lead to utter bliss. (And due to the local and seasonal focus, you can never go wrong ordering a daily special. On a visit in the height of fiddlehead season, I enjoyed an appetizer of the best fiddleheads that I have ever tasted.) The juxtaposition of north and south are apparent in nearly every dish. Take the deviled Maine crab appetizer, for example, which is served with onion confit, pan de mie croutons, and bourbon-smoked paprika, or look at the grilled Rhode Island squid with hm tasso ham, yellow hominy, pickled peppers, and sherry vinaigrette.

Be sure not to miss the side of skillet cornbread with sorghum butter, listed under the “Can You Pass That?” section of the menu. (No, this one will be staying on my side of the table, thank you very much!) Thin, crispy, heavenly – you’ve never had cornbread like this before, and it won’t spoil your appetite. Another must-try: no. 99 on the drink menu, bartender’s choice. You mention a type of liquor that you like, and the bartender will concoct something for you.

If you’ve ever had a hard time equating fine dining with words like grits and hominy, now is your chance to get over it: Hungry Mother is well worth the price, and it will complete change your perception of Southern dining.

Hungry Mother

233 Cardinal Medeiros Ave (Kendall Square)
Cambridge, MA 02141
(617) 499.0090
Hours: Tue – Sun 5 pm – 1 am
Website

Rachel Leah Blumenthal is a Somerville-based writer, photographer, and musician. She writes about food on her blog, Fork it over, Boston!, and runs Boston Food Bloggers, a networking community. For more information, visit RachelBlumenthal.net.

Part store and part restaurant, Max Brenner offers an extensive dessert and drink menu that will make you gain weight as you flip through the pages. Many of the cocktails are actually “chocktails” — chocolate-based. If you’re in the mood, go for the “chocolate aphrodisiacs” section of the drink menu. Based on the waitress’ recommendation, I tried the Satisfaction Guaranteed: peanut and caramel liqueur and milk chocolate served in a stemless martini glass balanced in a bowl of ice, accompanied by a tiny beaker of more of the same drink, plus a little dish of chocolate-roasted peanuts. (Satisfaction? Achieved.)

For colder weather, try one of several hot chocolate options, served in a Hug Mug, “a specially designed mug for the hot chocolate drinking ceremony…shaped so that you can hug it in both hands to create the ultimate experience of coziness, warmth and fragrance.”

As for dessert, you’ll find everything from waffles to fondue to milkshakes to crepes, not to mention a generous selection of cakes, cookies, and ice cream. Indecisive? Try the “Sharing” – a tasting for two which includes small portions of fondue, a banana split waffle, chocolate sponge cake, and the most intriguing, a crispy chocolate eggroll.

There’s non-dessert food available as well, but let’s get real. You came here for a chocktail and dessert. That’s what Max Brenner is here for: to give us chocolate. Everything else is irrelevant.

Much like Willy Wonka’s world, nothing at Max Brenner is quite what it seems on the surface. Once you get beyond the beautiful presentation, the desserts range from standard to pretty good, but nothing is truly awe-inspiring. When it comes down to it, it’s comfort food with a fairly high price tag (and a disastrous sugar crash once you head home). It’s certainly fun and romantic – it’d be a perfect spot for a first date or a girls’ night out – but better (and cheaper) desserts can be found elsewhere. A suggestion: make it a date night and leave the kiddies at home. Think you can bring children here and get out with your sanity and wallet intact? Pure imagination.

Max Brenner

745 Boylston St.
Boston, MA
(617) 274-1741
Hours: Mon – Fri 11:30 a.m. – till very late night.; Sat – Sun (Brunch) 10 a.m. – 3 p.m.; Sat – Sun (Full
Dining & Bar) 3 p.m. till late
Website

Looking for more delicious adventures? Check out SpotDash, CBS Boston’s FREE interactive phone app available for Android and iPhone. SpotDash is a fun new way to eat your way through Boston. Download it at SpotDash.com.

Rachel Leah Blumenthal is a Somerville-based writer, photographer, and musician. She writes about food on her blog, Fork it over, Boston!, and runs Boston Food Bloggers, a networking community. For more information, visit RachelBlumenthal.net.

Reviews of the former Revere spot raved that the hole-in-the-wall had truly authentic Khmer cuisine, a wonderful experience despite the dingy exterior and through-the-kitchen route to the unisex bathroom. The Cambridge location is completely revamped in a way that makes me wish I’d made it out to Revere while it was still there. Now, it’s a glossy lounge with televisions at the bar, trivia and karaoke nights, and dishes that seem much closer to Americanized Thai food than true Cambodian.

That’s not to say that it’s not good; the food is enjoyable and the service is fantastic. Soups are available in small and large portions, which is perfect for when your dining companion discovers how delicious the sweet and sour soup is and tries to eat all of yours. Ahem. Everything is made to order, and anything can be made vegetarian by swapping fish sauce with mushroom sauce and chicken broth with vegetable broth. Most entrees are rice- or noodle-based. I particularly enjoyed Mee Ka Tang, a wide noodle dish with Chinese broccoli and lightly fried tofu, very similar to the Thai Rad Na, although I wish I had tried one of less familiar dishes on the menu, such as Amok, a catfish fillet in spicy coconut milk and curry sauce.

(credit: Rachel Leah Blumenthal)

The vibe, the food, and especially the cocktail list are reminiscent of lounge-style Asian restaurants like Golden Temple in Brookline. The drinks are strong and fruity, and they have the requisite kind of tacky, kind of fun names: Plum Surprised. The Phenom of Phnom Penh. Farmer’s Mind Eraser.

Floating Rock will have broad appeal in Central Square, and I know I’ll be back for the soup, but it’s a shame that the gritty authenticity appears to have been left behind in Revere in favor of half-priced appetizer college nights and sports games on the big screen. (A note to the college students: they have sake bombs. Enjoy.)

Floating Rock Restaurant & Bar

485 Mass. Ave
Cambridge, MA 02139
(617) 455-4009
Hours: Mon – Sun 5 p.m. – 1 a.m.
Website

Rachel Leah Blumenthal is a Somerville-based writer, photographer, and musician. She writes about food on her blog, Fork it over, Boston!, and runs Boston Food Bloggers, a networking community. For more information, visit RachelBlumenthal.net.

The gargoyles are part of the slightly medieval ambiance. Heavy red velvet curtains and candles help round out the theme. Large windows let in the sun during the day, and at night Church becomes moody and romantic.

Church’s cocktails are truly a religious experience. Try one of the ‘Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse’ – my favorite is Death. The descriptions are riddles to be unraveled. Death, for example: With this cocktail we have dressed Death in velvet, walked her down the cobbled streets of Toledo, where she to this day dances with “la fee verte,” locked in a perpetually effervescent prison. The key is yours now. If you deduced absinthe and champagne from ‘la fee verte’ and ‘effervescent,’ you are correct.

The small menu is strong all around, a solid selection of seasonal comfort foods with little innovative twists here and there. (Fried bowtie pasta showed up as a side to sliders once, for example.) Many ingredients are locally sourced. You can always find different types of sliders and flatbreads, along with larger entrees. The mac and cheese is the best I’ve ever had at a restaurant. The secret? Truffle oil and Ritz crackers. Classic.

(credit: Rachel Leah Blumenthal)

You can choose from a variety of dining experiences: on the restaurant side, there’s the bar, high tables near the bar, low leather couches, and regular tables. You can also order from the full menu at the bar on the music club side. (The club, by the way, brings in an excellent selection of both local and non-local talent. It’s one of the best venues on this side of town. There are pool tables, too.)

A word of warning: parking is a nightmare if you go during a home Sox game. If you really feel the need to visit this part of town on the day of a home game, take public transportation or walk. And as for the Church thing? Recently, a real church actually began renting space on the club side every Sunday morning. Whether you find salvation in food, drinks, music, or religion, all of these await you at Church.

Church

69 Kilmarnock St.
Boston, MA 02215
(617) 236-7600
Hours: Mon – Fri 5 pm – midnight; Sat – Sun 11 am – midnight
Website

Rachel Leah Blumenthal is a Somerville-based writer, photographer, and musician. She writes about food on her blog, Fork it over, Boston!, and runs Boston Food Bloggers, a networking community. For more information, visit RachelBlumenthal.net.