EGN NEWS DESK
In the Where to Eat: 25 Best sequence, we’re highlighting our favourite eating places in cities throughout the United States. These lists might be up to date as eating places shut and open, and as we discover new gems to advocate. As at all times, we pay for all of our meals and don’t settle for free objects.
Porter Square | Bagels
Bostonians don’t want extra guff from New Yorkers, they usually definitely don’t wish to hear any meals bragging, which appears prone to devolve into vulgarities. When it involves bagels, Boston can’t declare possession of a method, although Bagelsaurus wouldn’t be a foul instance for others within the metropolis to emulate. Using a sourdough starter that’s 4 a long time previous, Bagelsaurus’s bagels aren’t as dense as New York or Montreal variations. Fresh from the oven, they bear a chewy and crackly crust with an ethereal, open inside, like a heat round baguette. It seems that this lighter texture makes including cold-smoked salmon, dill and cream cheese a way more pleasurable sandwich expertise. What’s extra, a Bagelsaurus bagel sitting out for just a few hours doesn’t harden into an object able to blunt-force trauma. KEVIN PANG
1796 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge; 857-285-6103; bagelsaurus.com
Dorchester | Vietnamese, Sandwiches
“Fast meals” isn’t essentially pejorative. At Bánh Mì Ba Lẹ, the sheer amount of Vietnamese groceries, pastries, dessert drinks, noodle salads and sizzling ready meals is an amazing sight. (With many, simply pop the plastic lid and begin consuming — it’s that quick.) But there’s a purpose the bánh mì is its namesake sandwich. The velocity with which they’re made belies their refinement. What makes Ba Lẹ’s model particularly memorable are the house-baked rolls, with a shatteringly crisp crust and a comfortable, open inside. When you chunk right into a freshly made bánh mì right here, be ready for a shrapnel of crumbs exploding in each route, giving method to tender pork chilly cuts, clean livery pâté and crunchy matchsticks of pickled daikon and carrots. Even higher than the flagship đặc biệt sandwich is the barbecue beef bánh mì, its grilled meat bearing the sweetest char you’ll encounter. KEVIN PANG
1052 Dorchester Avenue, Dorchester; 617-265-7171; balebanhmiboston.com
Brookline | Greek
Just as you wouldn’t discover spaghetti alla puttanesca in Venice, there’s no hint of octopus, branzino or horiatiki on the Greek menu at Bar Vlaha. The restaurant tells the story of the Vlachophone Greeks, traditionally shepherds from the mountains of northern and central Greece. Unlike their coastal counterparts, the Vlachs foraged mushrooms and snails from forests, caught eels from streams and trout from freshwater lakes. This is Greek cooking with extra rustic intentions, with crimson wine, beef cheeks and prunes marrying for hours inside clay pots. Undeniably, Bar Vlaha’s flavors are of Greek provenance — the spit-roasted leg of lamb is redolent of oregano, rosemary and char — however even acquainted sauces get Vlachian touches; the tzatziki, for instance, is sweetened with honey. KEVIN PANG
1653 Beacon Street, Brookline; 617-906-8556; barvlaha.com
Winthrop | Seafood
Don’t let anybody inform you being a fry cook dinner isn’t a noble calling. Especially when frying seafood, the place the margin between completely finished and overcooked is measured in seconds. Belle Isle Seafood — basically a waterfront warehouse with views of arriving flights at Logan International Airport — has clearly battered and deep-fried many tons of haddock, scallops and onion rings. A plate of fried pick-your-protein will arrive outsized, with an excellent mixture of nongreasy and satisfyingly crisp. For the fried-averse, the lobster pie is fabulous however hardly extra calorically advisable: a half-pound of lobster meat topped with breadcrumbs and butter and baked till golden, a direct line to the pleasure facilities of the mind. KEVIN PANG
1 Main Street, Winthrop; 617-567-1619; belleisleseafood.web
They say that first, you eat together with your eyes. Even earlier than a single dish hits the desk at Celeste, the encompassing visuals prime you with expectations. The clear strains of the furnishings, the room lit in cobalt blue and the restaurant’s neon signal all make you are feeling you’re at a contemporary artwork exhibition doubling as a Peruvian restaurant. Then the ceviche arrives in an association that appears architecturally engineered. It’s a stunning pavilion of crimson onions, orange candy potatoes, blue cod, squid and shrimp, with clean and crunchy corn kernels scattered via. Then you style it. Lesser ceviches elsewhere are made forward for expediency, turning the fish mealy; the cooks right here add the lime juice marinade one minute earlier than it’s served. I may go on (I’ve by no means had a lomo saltado that allowed me to request the doneness of the meat), however you must simply go to, with open eyes. KEVIN PANG
21 Bow Street, Somerville, 617-616-5319; celesteunionsquare.com
Dorchester | African Diaspora
Is this dish Indian? Jamaican? Senegalese? At Comfort Kitchen, these questions are the entire level. Here, the house owners Biplaw Rai, who’s from Nepal, and Kwasi Kwaa, from Ghana, wish to illustrate simply how related meals traditions are, via components which have traveled throughout continents, both via pressured migration or commerce routes. Duck is dusted with jerk seasoning, served alongside Jamaican rice and peas and served with pikliz, a pickled vegetable condiment from Haiti. Okra is seared in brown butter, topped with fried plantain crumbs and served with yogurt seasoned with garam masala from Mr. Rai’s mom. Despite all this zigzagging via nations and flavors, every dish nonetheless manages to really feel coherent and charming — like a narrative unfolding in a number of elements. PRIYA KRISHNA
611 Columbia Road, Dorchester; 617-329-6910; comfortkitchenbos.com
Brookline Village | Sandwiches
Most sandwiches fall into that midzone of expectations, someplace between acceptable and midway respectable. To come across a spectacular sandwich is uncommon, which makes Cutty’s a unicorn. Since 2010, the wife-and-husband workforce Rachel and Charles Kelsey have engineered sandwiches with a rigor befitting their fine-dining pedigree. They perceive that completely different proteins require completely different breads, toasted to a particular crispness; a luxurious brioche is greatest for roast beef with crispy shallots and Thousand Island, whereas ciabatta can face up to crisp bacon and sautéed Swiss chard. The Kelseys’ sandwich meditations yield bliss in surprising locations: If the thought of a broccoli rabe sandwich sounds dreadful, enable Cutty’s magnificent rendition — with candy tomato jam, provolone, and mozzarella on a griddled sesame torta — to show you dead incorrect. KEVIN PANG
284 Washington Street, Brookline; 617-505-1844; cuttyfoods.com
Union Square |New American
Tucked down an alley, Field & Vine reveals itself as a restaurant in an industrial house slowly being reclaimed by nature. Wisteria and grapevines twist right into a sculptural bramble that hangs overhead, as if about to swallow the uncovered ductwork, and in all places there’s greenery and candlelight. If Sara Markey and Andrew Brady’s restaurant have been merely fairly, that’d be sufficient purpose to return sip some wine on the bar. But there are surprising moments of inventiveness on the menu: a tuna crudo pounded right into a 12-inch LP with candied pistachios and rhubarb French dressing, or potatoes deep-fried right into a hash-brown brick topped with house-smoked mackerel and garlic unfold. To additional the enchanted woodland theme, a fire is put to fantastic use, crisping duck legs and charring cabbage. KEVIN PANG
9 Sanborn Court, Somerville; 617-718-2333; fieldandvinesomerville.com
Porter Square | Italian
Certain eating places turn out to be eternally linked with hallmark dishes, just like the baked alaska at Oleana or the cannoli at Mike’s Pastry. Giulia, recognized for its distinctive handmade pastas, can declare 4 dishes beloved by the Boston eating cognoscenti: the wild boar pappardelle, bucatini all’amatriciana, heat semolina desserts and pistachio gelato. There’s one thing reassuring about strolling into this restaurant with complete confidence that each one 4 are absolutely realized compositions, their deliciousness not up for debate. And that’s no slight to the newer dishes rotated onto the menu by the chef, Michael Pagliarini (he and his spouse, Pamela Ralston, are co-owners). But these classics embody the straightforward, subtle cooking that has endeared Giulia to the Cambridge neighborhood; you’ll nearly want you lived inside strolling distance. KEVIN PANG
1682 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge; 617-441-2800; giuliarestaurant.com
What makes Thai cooking alluring is that its sweet-sour-salty-spicy components are so usually pushed thrillingly up the dial. When these assertive flavors are parceled out onto small plates and unfold over many programs — as they’re at Mahaniyom — a meal turns Technicolor. Dining at this Thai tapas bar units off many sensory pleasures, from the velvety fieriness in a crab crimson curry to fried hen skins that crackle mightily. You style these dishes in cramped seating preparations over loud conversations in a dim house that rattles with kinetic vitality. Chompon Boonnak and Smuch Saikamthorn, childhood buddies turned restaurant house owners, have even captured that spirit of their beverage program: The rye whiskey is steeped with Thai tea leaves, then utilized in a Sazerac. KEVIN PANG
236 Washington Street, Brookline; 617-487-5986; mahaniyomboston.com
Back Bay | Tasting Menu
How many tasting-menu eating places would serve a straight-up grilled cheese sandwich? Mooncusser does, and it’s playful, surprising strikes like this that make its multicourse dinners far much less daunting. In the three years since Carl Dooley took over as chef, the menu has advanced from a give attention to seafood to international eclecticism. Successive programs would possibly journey the world, from a dish evoking Texas (a marinated crimson snapper with smoked pecan tasting like barbecued crudo) to an Ethiopian preparation (snails and injera with inexperienced cardamom koch-kocha sauce), to a Korean American grilled cheese. That mini-sandwich — with kimchi and a dough hydrated with butternut squash juice — turns an afterthought just like the bread course into one thing top-of-mind and sensational. KEVIN PANG
304 Stuart Street, Boston; 617-917-5193; mooncusserboston.com
Quincy | Cantonese, Dim Sum
A rule of thumb for dim sum eating places: Bigger is usually higher. For in-the-know prospects, crowds ready for tables in a big banquet corridor is a validating sight, and an expansive menu demonstrates a kitchen’s confidence. Ming Seafood Restaurant is huge in all these methods. It does the fundamentals nicely — juicy shumai, beef ho enjoyable noodles with the requisite char. But then there’s a piece known as “fusion dim sum,” and right here’s the place issues get fascinating. You may order a sampler of 9 items from the fusion menu that arrive in a partitioned wooden field. There’s a shrimp-truffle dumpling in a cuttlefish ink wrapper. There’s mango pudding set in a rubber-ducky mould and a durian pastry formed like a swan. A bit wacky? Sure. But a little bit whimsy is welcome if you happen to can nail the basics. KEVIN PANG
477 Hancock Street, Quincy; 617-202-5118; ming.bz
North End | Seafood
After 18 years within the North End, Neptune is as a lot part of Boston as tour guides in tricorn hats and “Go, Sawx!” You will wait, usually greater than an hour, however as soon as you might be ensconced in a banquette, or higher but on the bar, you’ll savor the perch. Neptune is among the many highest variations of the oyster-bar type — pressed-tin ceilings, a marble bar, iced beds of bivalves and crab claws — however it is usually extra. Dishes like cuttle-ink risotto with beneficiant chunks of lobster, and Nantucket Bay scallop crudo with Persian cucumbers raise the menu above the merely canonical. There’s a lobster roll, after all, however you didn’t wait all that point for a lobster roll. Or perhaps you probably did. BRIAN GALLAGHER
63 Salem Street No. 1, Boston; 617-742-3474; neptuneoyster.com
Lynn | French Vietnamese
As eating places started digging out of monetary holes after the pandemic, many opted to serve extra accessible dishes, with artistry taking a again seat. Five years in the past Nightshade Noodle bar opened on the North Shore, with half the menu options noodles of some form. But post-lockdown, the chef Rachel Miller zigged when most others zagged: She guessed that company craving for adventurous cooking can be receptive to a French-Vietnamese-Southern tasting menu. Her gamble paid off, each in recognition and culinary ambition. Over 9, 14 or 21 programs, you would possibly encounter foie gras glazed with fish-sauce caramel sitting atop coconut sticky rice (a Vietnamese nigiri), or a wondrous grilled cardinal prawn, the dimensions of an outstretched palm, doused with a Viet-Cajun butter of garlic and lemongrass. KEVIN PANG
73 Exchange Street, Lynn; 781-780-9470; nightshadenoodlebar.com
When Tim and Nancy Cushman opened O Ya 17 years in the past, the thought of introducing ceviche marinades or Vietnamese caramel into Edomae sushi was provocative. But O Ya’s endurance reveals that creative spirit paid off. Like all nice omakases, an evening at O Ya is greater than the sum of its elements: It’s the crescendos and countermelodies that weave between programs. Unexpected therapies of nigiri (a Georgian sauce of apricots and walnuts on bluefin maguro) give method to lighter sashimi. The meal progresses to richer bites like fatty chutoro with inexperienced onions and wasabi oil, earlier than ending on a one-two punch of grilled A5 Wagyu, then foie gras lacquered with chocolate balsamic. It stays an exhilarating trip. KEVIN PANG
9 East Street, Boston; 617-654-9900; o-ya.restaurant
Central Square | New American
Years in the past, Pammy’s obtained loads of good press for including the Korean fermented chile paste gochujang to its Bolognese. It’s scrumptious, to make sure, however that pasta’s success was additionally a curse — Pammy’s was misinterpreted because the funky Italian spot between Harvard and Central Squares. But Pammy’s isn’t any one-hit marvel. Here’s a restaurant the place a starter plate is bread baked with flour milled within the kitchen every morning. There’s a buttery skate wing glazed with Japanese tonkatsu sauce, and a tackle shrimp-and-grits with cardinal prawns and chile crisp. That’s to not say the house owners, Pam and Chris Willis, disguise their pasta acumen. The standout dish is a luscious, smoky pasta that’s equal elements braised tripe and wavy mafaldine noodles, an incomparable bowl of squiggly goodness. KEVIN PANG
928 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge; 617-945-1761; pammyscambridge.com
Fort Point and different areas | Seafood
Chuck an oyster shell in any route in Boston and also you’ll hit a seafood restaurant, from blue-collar fry homes to multistory harborfront properties. Row 34 (with 4 areas throughout Massachusetts and New Hampshire) serves the requisite clam chowder, halibut and calamari, but it surely takes just a few additional steps in advancing the style. It smokes, cures and pâtés a wide range of seafoods, it makes saltine crackers in-house, and lobsters — caught by the chef Jeremy Sewall’s cousin and his son — land on plates inside 48 hours of leaving the ocean. The ensuing lobster rolls value extra right here than at different eating places, however they’re superlative. KEVIN PANG
383 Congress Street (authentic Fort Point location), Boston; 617-553-5900; row34.com
Winter Hill | Mediterranean, Global
Fusion has turn out to be a pejorative time period, evoking passé concepts like Southwestern egg rolls. If you’d prefer to label the chef Cassie Piuma’s cooking as Mediterranean fusion, fantastic, but it surely sells quick how nicely her cross-cultural mash-up at Sarma usually works. The via line of the huge, small-plates menu is Eastern Mediterranean, but it surely would possibly wander away to the American South in a custardy jalapeño cornbread with feta, or to Quebec in a poutine of porcini gravy, fried halloumi curds and celery-root fries. In Ms. Piuma’s methods there’s a respectful nod to custom, however she’s additionally unafraid to interrupt just a few guidelines, all in service of creating the dish work. If you can also make juicy nuggets of fried hen with a crispy coating paying homage to falafel, why not? KEVIN PANG
249 Pearl Street, Somerville; 617-764-4464; sarmarestaurant.com
Cambridge | Turkish, Lebanese and Greek
Come early and order every part. That’s the suitable method to expertise Sofra, whose menu excursions Turkey, Lebanon and Greece, and whose taste mixtures are singular. Here you’ll discover wonderful variations of basic meze like baba ghanouj and muhammara. But pay shut consideration to the pastries, overseen by Maura Kilpatrick. Doughnuts come crammed with a tahini sour-cream custard and brown butter; cinnamon rolls are sweetened with dates and slathered in cream cheese. Nothing is cloying, and the chef Ana Sortun and her workforce put the utmost care into perfecting every aspect, right down to the freshly milled grains. PRIYA KRISHNA
1 Belmont Street, Cambridge, 617-661-3161; sofrabakery.com
Kendall Square | Hunanese
Sumiao Chen had a midcareer epiphany {that a} life in prescription drugs wasn’t proper for her. Longing for the meals of her childhood in Hunan, China, Ms. Chen opened her namesake restaurant in 2017 close to the M.I.T. campus, one which resembles no different Chinese spot round city. From the skin trying in, you would possibly suppose a spot with this vibey coastal aesthetic would serve crab desserts and flatbread, however the restaurant’s adherence to conventional Hunanese cooking is with out compromise. When a dish is famous as spicy, you’d higher imagine it — even a salad as innocuous-sounding as inexperienced pepper and century egg sneaks up rapidly. Those unaccustomed to the slippery texture of fats would possibly flinch on the sheer quantity within the red-braised pork stomach, however this basic sweet-savory dish of Hunan warms and satisfies like few others. KEVIN PANG
270 Third Street, Cambridge; 617-945-0907; sumiaohunan.com
Union Square | Vietnamese
There are a number of exceptional issues concerning the Eaves, starting with the situation. Shoehorned inside a 550-square-foot storage closet at Bow Market, the house was seductively reworked by the house owners, Vincenzo Le and Duong Huynh. More noteworthy is that in lower than a 12 months since opening, the Eaves has demonstrated how Vietnamese cooking in America can evolve past the realm of phở and bún bò huế. Mr. Le and Ms. Huynh, who’re married, belong to a brand new technology of Vietnamese restaurateurs, younger and hungry, presenting dishes and cocktails devoted to their culinary heritage at costs you’d discover on a farm-to-table menu. They pull it off splendidly in choices like chả cá lã Vọng — usually cooked with catfish in its native Hanoi and reimagined in New England with monkfish — fried crisp with turmeric and served atop vermicelli and cashews. KEVIN PANG
1 Bow Market Way, Somerville; 617-996-6954; instagram.com/midnight_eaves
Jamaica Plain | Italian
Unlike many different Boston neighborhoods, Jamaica Plain (locals name it J.P.) is dwelling to few Italian eating places. Tonino fills that void with aplomb; the 28-seater is the embodiment of anyone’s favourite cute neighborhood spot. The pasta- and pizza-focused menu put collectively by the chef and proprietor, Luke Fetbroth, is taut and environment friendly. His greatest trait appears to be taking a handful of components and doing as little to them as doable. The maitake and oyster-mushroom lumache is easy and flawless, its creaminess coming from roasted garlic crème fraîche. Then there’s toasted cubes of housemade bread, every smeared with a borderline inappropriate quantity of butter and draped with a single size of anchovy. It is a salty, buttery, good one-biter. KEVIN PANG
669A Centre Street, Jamaica Plain; 617-524-9217; toninojp.com
South End | Spanish
The Ken Oringer restaurant universe stretches from Japanese to Italian to wine bars, however his South End tapas joint Toro — 20 years on — often is the most beloved. Perhaps it’s as a result of the small parts of Spanish tapas can afford punchier therapies and bolder flavors: A pressed sandwich of miso butter and uni achieves peak crunch and umami. The government chef, Darrell Boles, is a devoted steward of the Toro identify, his kitchen placing out constantly very good roasted bone marrow and formidable platters of paella. These are dishes that by no means fail to obtain envious stares from company at close by tables. KEVIN PANG
1704 Washington Street, Boston; 617-536-4300; toro-restaurant.com
Dorchester | Roman
All Italian-born cooks will declare culinary superiority for his or her dwelling areas; Stefano Quaresima appears impassioned to make the case for Lazio. Named for the road the place he grew up, Via Cannuccia could be the closest Boston will get to a real Roman trattoria. The lengths to which Mr. Quaresima goes to showcase his nook of Italy are spectacular: His workforce prepares cream buns and bombolini doughnuts for brunch, rolls out pasta and pizza doughs, and finds time to roast porchetta and bake sourdough. Lesser cooks would possibly simply use quartered hen for pollo alla Romana. Mr. Quaresima’s model, although, entails a hen ballotine, deboned and sausage-stuffed, then cooked sous vide for 18 hours. His therapy of cacio e pepe, the quintessential Roman pasta, teases out supreme creaminess and nuttiness from simply 4 components. KEVIN PANG
1739 Dorchester Avenue, Boston; 617-506-1877; viacannuccia.com
Porter Square, Seaport | Udon
Yume Ga Arukara makes only one factor and makes it nicely: udon, the thick Japanese wheat flour noodles. They’re extruded from the stainless-steel machine in lovely floured strands, and emerge clean and slippery as soon as boiled, with the barest suggestion of a chew. The purest expression of udon is in a dashi broth — right here, your selections are sizzling or chilly, spicy or not, every accompanied by fatty beef slices, scallions and crisp tempura bits. Take your decide, you possibly can’t select incorrect. While its authentic location occupies a cramped and perpetually busy house inside a scholar middle on the Lesley University Porter Square Campus, the brand new Seaport store is a sit-down restaurant with a bigger kitchen, which in time will supply a bigger menu. KEVIN PANG
1815 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge; 70 Pier 4 Boulevard, Suite 260, Boston; yumegaarukara.com
