Smothered it with A1 and cooked it in the oven on broil... actually turned out pretty good. Steak is not hard to make though. Probably gonna start making them more.
pork garlic
"Pork garlic" as they call it... also with scallions and mushrooms. A little heavy on the scallions for my taste. The lettuce turned out to actually be a pretty good balance for the sauce. I still wanna try this green curry fried rice thing they have there some time.
calamari fritti
penne with chicken and broccoli
fettucine marysa - veal, prosciutto, peas, onions, fresh tomato sauce
Solid again. Calamari was good... not too greasy, and good texture. The penne was alright. Tender chicken and pretty good sauce. The fettucine was pretty interesting with 2 kinds of meat. Sauce was pretty tomato-ey but like I said before, Carlo's does tomato sauce pretty well. Pretty sweet and tangy. The fettucine itself was very good. I saw a tortellini with pesto on the table next to me, and it looked really good... probably gonna try that next time.
general gao's chicken, crab rangoon, fried rice
Lots of food for about $5. Strictly Americanized Chinese, but it's good for what it is. I like their hot and sour soup too, as compared to many of the other Chinese places around here.
pot roast
Good stuff. He thinks the meat was too soft but it was fine with me. I look forward to mooching off more home cooking in the future.
chicken caesar salad with herb-grilled chicken
white cheese pizza with grilled mushrooms, caramelized onions & mushroom brie
When we got there we were surprised to see a menu with just a few salads and pizza. I guess it's because we went at such an odd hour (4pm or so) between lunch and dinner. Anyway, the food was pretty good. We didn't get one of the tables directly in front of the street, but we were by the front. The salad was solid all around... chicken was tender. Croutons could have been better. The pizza was good, but as you can see squarely in the "fancy pizza" style. Crust wasn't ultra-thin. Enough to have a little chew to it. I heard brunch is good there so I may try that some time.
I'm going to Montreal this weekend with Dave, Keith & Yuen. Hopefully I'll eat some good stuff up there.
egg salad on baguette
I recently discovered this menu item there and it's GOOD. I get it like once a week now. If you feel like food there and you don't want brick toast, go for this... it rocks. My new favorite drink now is lemon green tea with coconut jelly. It also rocks. Very refreshing as the weather gets warmer. Infusions is a lot better than the two Lollicups nearby. Try it out if you haven't.
sauteed foie gras au poivre, glazed cherries, broccoli rabe, veal glace
pan fried crispy cod, braised oxtail, parsnip puree, ramps
homemade tagliatelle, ragu of five hour braised wild boar, olives, and goat cheese
ginger-lemon panna cotta with raspberries
These were the 4 courses included on the menu. A great deal for $40. The foie gras was well executed, with a right amount of pepper and smooth texture. The cod and oxtail was the most interesting dish, and mixed together very well. The tagliatelle was good too. My dad brought back this store-bought wild boar ragu from Italy the last time he was there, and that was really good, which got me a bit excited for this dish. The pasta was great and the sauce had a nice tangy flavor. The panna cotta was great - not too gingery, which is what I'm usually scared of with any ginger dessert. Very refreshing.
rabbit stuffed with figs and olives, with polenta and veggies
crispy chicken with mushrooms, mashed potatoes, and gravy
pan-roasted salmon
Here's a few of the other things around the table. I only got a real taste of the chicken, which was very good. Surprisingly tender. Honestly can't remember what was in the sauce of the salmon. All around, it was a great meal, and I hope to go back some time.
duck liver p�t�, pork rillettes, country p�t�
pork milanese with lemon, capers, tomato and field green salad
roast leg of duck with angel hair pasta
Not a bad meal at all... The pates were all pretty good, though the brioche toast could have been better. My pork milanese was a little on the dry side, as with most pork dishes, but still tasty. Pretty good deal for lunch. They also have a $19 prix fixe thing that seems to be a good deal.
jam bong
This place has good noodles. Jam bong is a slightly spicy seafood soup noodle. The noodles are kinda like ramen, but thicker, and have a good amount of "bounce" and firmness to them. The soup tastes really good too. The seafood is mainly squid and some shrimp, along with a lone big mussel (buried in the photo). Good stuff. Dad's visiting again tomorrow... Don't know what we're eating for lunch yet, but I booked Grotto for dinner. I've been looking forward to trying it after reading countless raves on Chowhound.
gyoza
shoyu chashu ramen
After eating a lot of instant noodles here in Boston, I've been longing for some of the ramen I had while I was in Sapporo over the summer (pictured on the nav bar to the left)... Of course, I knew there was no way to satisfy the craving on this side of the planet. Men-Tei was pretty good... of course a step up from instant noodles. The noodles were notably better, though not spectacular. The soup and the pork left something to be desired though. The gyoza was alright... Skin is a bit thicker and firmer than usual. Tampopo in SF is better all around, but Men-Tei is still the best I've had in Boston.
chiang mai noodles
Deep-frying is like butter - it makes everything taste better! I have no idea how authentic this dish is, but it's good... It's like a kind of chicken curry (almost a soup) with deep fried noodles, which get drowned so they're not actually as crispy anymore. Good stuff.
The highlight of the meal though was Mike vs. Dave, round 2. After we ate, they decided to have a rematch eating contest. During one of our meals in Cancun (the all-you-can-eat seafood at Joe's Crab Shack), Mike embarassed Dave with a convincing victory. Dave tried to play it off and blamed the need to crack crab, but Mike clearly won. Dave's shame after the event has been building up quite significantly over the past month, and it all exploded at Den's Cafe. They went straight up on a plate of pad thai, loser to pay for both pad thais and the other person's original meal. Dave finished in one minute and twenty seconds. Mike gave up for the most part after his second bite when everyone noticed Dave was swallowing spoonfuls of pad thai without even biting. Mike got owned, but he claims he does not like pad thai and wants to pick the food item for the next round. Now we're waiting for round 3... This will likely have to go to Game 7.
lingui�a
mandioca (yuca) frita with carrot sauce
steak for two
It was very good. The lingui�a was tasty, and of course I love the onions. The mandioca was interesting... Very light and greaseless. The carrot sauce was surprisingly good - not something I'd expect to like. Becky and I shared the steak for two, which wasn't spectacular but still good. Mike had another steak, Keith had a kebab dish, and Val had a tilapia... everything was pretty good. And it was a great deal - we got out for just under $20 a person.
pineapple fried rice
Went with something pretty standard. It was good, but the portion was a bit smaller than I'd hoped since I was really hungry. Also, in case you're wondering, that's minced pork (yok soung) on top of the rice, which is something I haven't seen before. It was a nice addition I guess... nothing spectacular. I do want to go back though some time and try a few other things. Turns out they have a 10% student discount too.
As you may have noticed, I've been trying to find links for each place I put up. If the restaurant has their own site, I'll link to that... If not, I'll link to the Citysearch page, and if even Citysearch doesn't have them listed (as is the case with Den's), I'll just link to a review. I'd do the Globe but they don't seem to have one... so I linked... the Phoenix.
nigiri - tamago, suzuki, hirame, sake, hamachi, o-toro
maki - Paula's roll, Ben's roll, shrimp tempura roll
It was quite good. Nothing spectacular compared to Vancouver or SF, but definitely a cut above what I've had here in Boston. Apparently they usually keep chu-toro around, but when we went they had o-toro (imagine our luck). his meant a price hike of 8 something to I think 10.95 per 2 piece order. It was pretty good though. The salmon was nice, and I'd say a much better deal than the toro or hamachi. Suzuki and hirame were also good deals, but I doubt I'd eat more than a piece of each in one meal. The Paula's roll was interesting - it was some combination of tuna, salmon, avocado, roe, and those thin lemon slices. Good but next time I'll try something else. Ben's roll is just unagi, tamago, and avocado, and was as expected. And of course I'm a sucker for tempura rolls... Rice was well-done all around.
I'll probably be going back some time... prices are actually less than what I expected. Got out for just under $100 for 2 people, which is not bad considering we ate a ton, and Becky sacrificed one of her pieces of toro to me so I actually got 3... Only thing is that the Chestnut Hill stop turns into a $3 T ride back. Bleh.
penne with salmon
chicken marsala
I actually came here once last year... It was good then but for some reason I never went back until now. The penne was very tasty. The salmon and sauce had plenty of flavor. The chicken was pretty good, but I think I like the Carlo's version better. This one had less of a sauce to it (which I love with marsala) and the chicken was a little on the dry side. The place only had one waitress working all 7 or 8 tables in the restaurant. Service was slow, but no because of lack of effort by her... She seemed so overworked that I actually started feeling bad for her despite Becky's empty glass of water. I remember the same thing when I went last year. I think management should invest in another waitress, even though it was a weeknight...
puff pastry with shrimp and salmon
linguini frutti di mare
chicken marsala
This place is pretty good. The only thing I don't like about it is that it seems to lean toward red sauces over white ones, although I admit their plane marinara sauce that comes with the chicken marsala is actually pretty good. The seafood puff pastry was a special and was very tasty - just wish they gave us more. Frutti di mare was alright. The chicken marsala is good, but I'm a sucker for anything with wine and mushrooms.
crispy chicken with pad thai
Crispy chicken with pad thai is probably the most Americanized Thai in the history of mankind... but damn it's good. I realized when I took this picture that I've never posted this up before. Crazy considering the amount of times I went to Nud Pob last year when I lived on Bay State. And I ordered this half the time at least.
chicken cordon bleu
It's a pretty reliable sub/sandwich place. They always have random daily specials and I decided to try this one out. Turned out pretty tasty... and it was a lot of food for the $6 I paid.
appetizer platter
Hue style noodle soup with beef and pork
The appetizer platter is a thing you need 4 people to order. Pretty big thing. It came with fresh and crispy rolls, shrimp toast, chicken & beef teriyaki, the orange shrimp thing which I dunno how to describe, and a chicken salad in the middle. We usually get the rolls. I liked the shrimp toast a lot, actually... teriyaki wasn't that good though. I also went with what they listed as "Hue style noodle soup" which has both beef and pork. The guy said it was spicy (it wasn't really, even though it was reddish). It used a different noodle.. thicker than the usually ones and rounded, but still not thick. It had a pork leg, and I don't know what part of beef. It was alright, but I like the normal stuff better.