Restaurant Reviews
Galway House: Where 1950s specialities live at 1980s prices
Getting tired of reading about $40 steaks, $60 steaks, $120 Japanese Wagyu beef steaks?
By: ROBERT NADEAU
The Beehive: Boho chic never tasted so good
This is the kind of restaurant that I’ve always loved and haven’t found in a long time.
By: ROBERT NADEAU
All Star Sandwich Bar: A star is born in Inman Square
The All Star Sandwich Bar has the greatest cornbread I’ve ever tasted.
By: ROBERT NADEAU
Zenna Noodle Bar: Regional stability in a bowl of soup
What’s three times better than a Vietnamese restaurant?
By: ROBERT NADEAU
Mooo . . . .: Yet another steak house with cash-cow dreams
This week’s victim: the Federalist, recently recast as Mooo.
By: ROBERT NADEAU
Potbellies Kitchen: With food this good, you won't mind the bulge
Two trends are currently sweeping through the food universe: lavishly upscale steak houses and modest bistros featuring local produce.
By: ROBERT NADEAU
Red Sky: At night, delight. But take warning.
The pitch for Red Sky is that it’s nicer, more upscale, and appeals to a slightly older crowd than the other nightspots around Faneuil Hall.
By: ROBERT NADEAU
The Mission Bar + Grill: It’s not impossible to find good food in a bar
So this is bar food, and it has its own rules.
By: ROBERT NADEAU
Sage: Bistro on the verge of greatness
It’s already quite popular, so don’t wait till the fall rush.
By: ROBERT NADEAU
KO Prime: Steak: well done
KO stands for Ken Oringer, of Clio, Uni, Toro, and La Verdad.
By: ROBERT NADEAU
Garden at the Cellar: This Cambridge gastropub is blooming with local flavors
You can hardly eat better in Boston than you will here.
By: ROBERT NADEAU
Vernissage: Russian around for decent Siberian food
I was working on the Russian paradox, when it slapped me right in the column!
By: ROBERT NADEAU
Flat Iron Tapas Bar: Big tatses, small packages
You can assemble small plates that add up to protein, vegetable, and starch, but it won’t feel like dinner.
By: ROBERT NADEAU
Geoffrey’s Café: Scores with low prices and upscale comfort food
I was asked recently why all the new restaurants are so expensive.
By: ROBERT NADEAU
Rocca: Small plates rock big taste in SoWa
We don’t always want to be stunned; otherwise more of us would keep electric eels as pets.
By: ROBERT NADEAU
Phuket Thai Restaurant: Hard-hitting fusion food both novel and traditional
Now, later generations of Thai restaurateurs are beginning to re-fuse Thai cuisine with dishes more familiar to American customers.
By: ROBERT NADEAU
Brownstone: A new identity for an old home
A lot of good but fake Mexican food has been made under the bridge where Prairie Star used to be located.
By: ROBERT NADEAU
Grain and Salt: From the earth, with love
There are three holy grails we seek on the restaurant-review beat.
By: ROBERT NADEAU
Sauciety: What happens when you apply lit crit to a restaurant?
Hotel dining rooms are a large investment poured over a contradiction.
By: ROBERT NADEAU
O Ya: Pomo Asian with some of the best sashimi around
This is the New York–iest restaurant we’ve ever had in Boston, and it’s not for the faint of wallet.
By: ROBERT NADEAU
Green Street Grill: Ditching the Caribbean for New England? Surprisingly, it works.
People always send me press materials about new chefs and new menus, but it’s my experience that restaurants are what they are.
By: ROBERT NADEAU
King Fung Garden II: Are you ready to join the cult?
It was with considerable interest that I noticed a new King Fung Garden had opened in Brookline.
By: ROBERT NADEAU
Burtons Grill: Who says chains can't be enterprising?
The menu says Burtons has upscale-casual dining, contemporary American cuisine, and atmosphere.
By: ROBERT NADEAU
Trattoria di Monica: Everything old is new again
I can do North End nostalgia with the best of them.
By: ROBERT NADEAU
Gari Japanese Fusion: Not just another fish face in the crowd
There are only, what, 452 sushi bars within three blocks of Coolidge Corner?
By: ROBERT NADEAU
Miel Brasserie Provençale: A little bit of everything, with honey on top
What does it mean when Boston’s leading daily doesn’t review a major new restaurant until three months after it opens?
By: ROBERT NADEAU
Pops: Delicious, well-priced food is music to our ears
Are you ready for fusion comfort food?
By: ROBERT NADEAU
Sagra: Third time brings the charm
This is my third trip to this space in as many years.
By: ROBERT NADEAU
Deep Ellum: Good Food + Drink = Boho Chic
Deep Ellum is a one-room pub with 22 draught taps and a great collection of bottled microbrews, specialty mixed drinks, and wine.
By: ROBERT NADEAU
51 Lincoln: Creative cuisine in Newton
I last reviewed Jeff Fournier when he was chef at the Metropolitan Club.
By: ROBERT NADEAU
Tartufo at the Brickyard: Bringing the North End to North Cambridge — or trying to
The first Tartufo in Newton Centre was described as an attempt to reproduce the North End in the suburbs.
By: ROBERT NADEAU
Sasso Restaurant and Bar: New ownership looks good on you
The way the present economy is playing out, a lot of small restaurants are now taking over larger and more expensive spaces.
By: ROBERT NADEAU
Greek Isles: Something for the mortals, something for the gods
Greek Isles is owned and run by the former staff of Nikos, in Brookline Village, which lost its lease.
By: ROBERT NADEAU
Phò Hóa: Good soup, fo' sho'
Since the original Pho Pasteur opened in 1992, Boston and Dorchester have become home to numerous small restaurants whose names begin with “pho,” the beef noodle soup of Hanoi that is now one of the most popular crossover dishes in Vietnamese-American restaurants.
By: ROBERT NADEAU
La Brace Italian Grille: Grilled to perfection
La Brace is a small, splendid North End restaurant featuring grilled foods with just enough red sauce to satisfy the neighborhood.
By: ROBERT NADEAU
Mela: Traditional Indian food, on the rocks
When I heard that this space had been taken over by One World Cuisine, I knew it would end up handsomely decorated, with above-average food.
By: ROBERT NADEAU
Goody Glover’s: The new North End? Irish and fusion and witches . . . Oh my!
Reviewing an Irish pub in the North End?
By: ROBERT NADEAU
Rustic Kitchen: Long, complicated story. Good, accessible food
Rustic Kitchen is actually the third restaurant of its name in Boston (with another in Hingham).
By: ROBERT NADEAU
Z Square Restaurant + Bar: Nostalgia tastes good
Remember when Harvard Square had all-night cafeterias filled with procrastinating students and desperate local bohemians?
By: ROBERT NADEAU
Anise: An ‘A’ for effort, but not a perfect sum
Be careful what you wish for. I have been asking Chinese restaurants to upscale their service, shorten their menus, make clear what the chef’s specialties really are, and offer the more-authentic dishes on the English-language menu.
By: ROBERT NADEAU
Petit Robert Bistro: Meet the new Robert, same as the old Robert
This is Petit Robert Bistro #2, or II, or deux. Or, since this space, formerly Rouge, is smaller than the original Petit Robert, maybe it’s Plus Petit Robert.
By: ROBERT NADEAU
Zoe’s Gourmet Chinese Cuisine (Brookline): Twice isn’t always as nice
There were extreme reactions to the news that Zoe’s, which has another location in Somerville, was taking over Shalom Beijing (formerly Shalom Hunan).
By: ROBERT NADEAU
Bin 26 Enoteca: Whine and whimsy in Beacon Hill
The little space that used to be Torch has been taken over by Babak Bina and Azita Bina-Seibel of Lala Rokh.
By: ROBERT NADEAU
Bouchée: Standardized French fare, done well
Bouchée does so many things well that even some of its drawbacks may be successful.
By: ROBERT NADEAU
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