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Restaurant Reviews

Conga's

Faking it, just not quite making it
The first clue to a fake restaurant is a phony name. Conga's isn't owned by an Afro-Cuban dance rhythm, and doesn't serve drums. Instead, it has a Spanish and South American menu cooked by Central Americans for Thai owners whose previous Japanese restaurant in this space didn't catch on.

By: ROBERT NADEAU | February 24, 2010

Lord Hobo

This convivial corner of Hell is actually beer Heaven
What act could follow the B-Side Lounge, beloved home of craft-cocktail scholars? Well, how about a bar-restaurant for beer geeks?

By: ROBERT NADEAU | February 17, 2010

Bistro du Midi

Fine, but not necessarily French
Bistro du Midi purports to serve "authentic Provençal" cuisine, but Midi actually refers to all of southern France.

By: ROBERT NADEAU | February 10, 2010

Skara Grill

Satisfying a Grecian yearning
Having longed for an all-out Greek dining room in metro Boston since, well, almost since the Phoenix was reviewing plays by Euripides and protesting the Peloponnesian War, I finally hit Dionysos in Cambridge about a year before it closed in 2007.

By: ROBERT NADEAU | February 03, 2010

House of Chang

A welcome change in the neighborhood
For more than 30 years, this location housed Lucky Garden, one of the first neighborhood Mandarin-Szechuan restaurants in Greater Boston, and one of the best in stretches.

By: ROBERT NADEAU | January 27, 2010

Post 390

Walking a narrow path to success
Another week, another gastro-pub. Okay, Post 390 technically bills itself as a Back Bay "urban tavern," and is bigger and glitzier than most, but it has the same combination of comfort food with a twist, a few bits of high cheffery, serious drinks, and playful desserts found throughout the city so frequently these days.

By: ROBERT NADEAU | January 20, 2010

The Regal Beagle

A quirky neighborhood that puts all the pieces together
The Regal Beagle is making a quick success doing what almost all the new restaurants want to do: small plates; comfort food with a gourmet twist; a mixture of high and low; a bit of locovore, green, and slow fare; some salty fast food; interesting drinks; and scrambled nostalgia.

By: ROBERT NADEAU | January 13, 2010

Il Casale

Nothing quaint and everything delicious at Belmont's 'country house'
Il Casale — the "country house"— may be more rustic than Chef Dante de Magistris's magisterial and experimental restaurant Dante in the Cambridge Royal Sonesta, but it ain't no hometown spaghetti shack.

By: ROBERT NADEAU | January 06, 2010

Ginger Park Kitchen & Bar

The second time's the charm
One of my frustrations with restaurant criticism is that restaurants do not usually respond to it.

By: ROBERT NADEAU | December 30, 2009

2009: The year in dining

My year in food
This was an unusual food year for me, in that the recession did not have the expected effect on the local dining scene.

By: ROBERT NADEAU | December 28, 2009

Pairings

Artistry and taste combine — but perhaps not often enough
At breakfast and lunch, Pairings serves as a basic hotel restaurant, which the Park Plaza has lacked for about 10 years.

By: ROBERT NADEAU | December 16, 2009

Myung Dong 1st Avenue

Can a Korean dive bar serve the masses? Certainly, with alcoholic melon drinks.
Myung Dong refers to a high-rent, youth-oriented shopping district in Seoul, thus "1st Avenue" is a kind of evocation of both Fifth Avenue and SoHo. This restaurant has a variety of Japanese and Korean dishes, but the idea is to appeal to a young crowd, more specifically a drinking crowd.

By: ROBERT NADEAU | December 09, 2009

Pasha Turkish & Mediterranean Cuisine

A fantastically long list of Turkish delights
Even without enormous evidence, the Nadeau family has decided that "Turkish food never lets you down." Louise likes to grab lunch downtown at Boston Kebab House; Maurice prefers Allston's Saray; and Stephanie and her school friends enjoy Brookline Family Restaurant.

By: ROBERT NADEAU | December 02, 2009

Gennaro's 5 North Square Ristorante

A former tourist trap proves its worth
The owners of Caffé Vittoria and the Florentine Cafe took over this venerable tourist trap that looks out on North Square a year ago, renamed it for their son last May, and quietly spiffed up the rooms and the menu.

By: ROBERT NADEAU | November 25, 2009

City Table

Sampling the perks of a recession
I'm enjoying this restaurant recession more than the last one.

By: ROBERT NADEAU | November 18, 2009

ArtBar

A pleasantly unpredictable treat sneaks out of the shadows
How do we find hidden gems? You can't just look under the radar. Sometimes the hiding place is behind a famous name, as is the case with ArtBar.

By: ROBERT NADEAU | November 16, 2009

Jade Garden Seafood Restaurant

Fresh as can be and well-priced. What’s the catch?
Ready for some reasonably priced lobster after years of paying too much? You’re in luck, since a price war seems to be unfolding on the streets of Chinatown, with various window signs advertising twin lobsters in ginger and scallion for as low as $14.95.

By: ROBERT NADEAU | November 04, 2009

Sofia Italian Steakhouse

Versatility and competence go a long way
I have to admit I giggled when I got a press release describing this restaurant as being located in the “white-hot West Roxbury-Dedham dining scene.” After all, the space had already killed a reasonably good steak house, Vintage, after a long closure in which it tried to upscale, then ended up downscaling by adding red-sauce Italian dishes.

By: ROBERT NADEAU | October 28, 2009

Bubor Cha Cha

Some call it inauthentic, but this is Malaysian fusion done well
I’m not an enthusiast of fusion food, but I do like the cuisine of Malaysia, where history has developed a four-way fusion cuisine.

By: ROBERT NADEAU | October 21, 2009

Punjab Palace

A quality Indian bargain spot deserving of multiple visits
Punjab Palace — by the same owners of Kenmore Square’s India Quality — “proves to be the kind of kid brother that would make any older sibling proud,” my colleague MC Slim JB wrote last year. That’s true, but this is also another second-tier Indian restaurant. So why do Slim and I like it so much?

By: ROBERT NADEAU | October 15, 2009

Con Sol

Shining light on a secret Iberian bargain
Three-year-old ethnic bargain spot Con Sol snuck under reviewers' radar with an Iberian menu that draws mostly on Portuguese-American food — a cuisine that feels native to long-time Cantabrigians, but otherwise is little known north of New Bedford and Fall River or west of Provincetown.

By: ROBERT NADEAU | October 14, 2009

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