Article 74 of ne.food: Path: bloom-beacon!bu-cs!botteron From: botteron@bu-cs.BU.EDU (Carol J. Botteron) Newsgroups: ne.food Subject: Chinese Restaurants: the canonical collection (LONG) Message-ID: <24658@bu-cs.BU.EDU> Date: 31 Aug 88 01:20:05 GMT References: <24534@bu-cs.BU.EDU> <1507@cloud9.UUCP> <3747@panda.UUCP> Reply-To: botteron@buit3.bu.edu (Carol J. Botteron) Followup-To: ne.food Distribution: ne Organization: Boston Univ. Lines: 463 I've collected all the postings on Chinese restaurants (and Vietnamese etc.) so I may as well post the list. Enjoy! Some of these restaurants have been mentioned by more than one person. If they agree I have just lumped the comments together, but if they disagree I have inserted [1], [2], etc., to show when a different person is commenting. Also I have edited for length and to get a consistent format, e.g. name of restaurant first. Of course I'm not trying to end the discussion of Chinese restaurants; I'll be as pleased as everyone else to see further comments. Maybe we shouldd all get together to decide which place REALLY has the best hot and sour soup? BOSTON (CHINATOWN) Carl's New China Pagoda - Not very trendy, but I think he understands seafood better than any chef on the east coast. His steamed sea bass is superior, and the periwinkles are outta sight. Chinatown Mall: 5 booths, common seating. Serves the locals. Good food, prices. Recommended: Rice plates, other seeming mundane things. No Peking Duck type stuff. Dynasty for Sunday Dim Sum. Golden Palace 423-4565. Also good Dim Sum. Lots of unusual things on the menu. This seems to be a local hang out. Ho Yuen Ting: in Chinatown near the archway. A little place in the lower level with some of the best Chinese food in Massachusetts. Noodle dishes are superb (noodle factory next door). Mongolian hot pot dishes are excellent. Imperial Tea House, 70 Beach St. 426-8543. Great Dim Sum. Things you won't recognize. Ask to sit upstairs. Looks like a tourist trap but isn't. Can get real crowded on weekends. Kam Lung 77 Harrison Ave, 542-2229. This is really a bakery, one of many in Chinatown. But the things they sell! Get the pork buns. Get the spicy rice noodles. Even get a whole baked Luck Fish! Little Hong Kong, basement of the "Chinatown Mall": Good, very cheap, no tipping. Be adventurous. I like their hot&sour soup best of any that I've had. Also, they ask that you do not leave tips -- what you see is what you pay. They make a good "minced beef" and bean curd dish which is NOT on the menu. The "minced beef" is sort of a key if you attempt to order it. Rainbow (pretty sure of name) Vietnamese, quicker and less expensive than the Viet, pretty good as well. My favorite there is the duck noodle soup. It's on the first inside corner of Chinatown when you come from the Boylston T stop and walk through the combat zone. If not, there's another good restaurant there. Viet Restaurant: the best Vietnamese restaurant I've been to in Boston. Also the most expensive, but still quite reasonable (about $10/person for food). Especially good are beef ball soup and something with the menu-name of 'fish-in-a-pot' or something like that -- i can't remember the Vietnamese name but a Cambodian name for a similar dish is something like "pla jearn". It's opposite that really gaudy Chinese restaurant with all the dragons ... the one with the hairdresser's at basement level. Next to a parking lot. (?) Vietnamese restaurant near the China Trade Center, a real holeinthewall type place. "NIME FRIED - $1.00". Not the normal spring roll but a rice- wrapper roll filled with unidentifiable red meat, along with strings of narrowly-chopped onions. It tasted okay, but kind of uncooked. When I asked ingredients, all I could get was that it contained "Vietnamese ham," a term I have heard only that once. CAMBRIDGE/SOMERVILLE/BELMONT Cafe China: Inman Sq. A different taste (combination of Chinese and Western). Only went once. Cafe Fortuna on Dunster Str. in Harvard Square. It's really a bakery and take-out place. [1] Good Peking Ravioli, and passable pork-buns, beef-buns, etc. Not as good as riding the red line to Chinatown, but not as time-consuming, either. [2] most unhappy. Pork-buns had the consistency of Pillsbury dinner rolls. The House Special Peking Noodles was overly peppered, not very good. Peking Ravioli undercooked; generous with the soy sauce. In future if I need a fix of pork-buns I'll just travel to Chinatown. Chang Feng - 289 Beacon St., Somerville (near Star Market), 864-6265. A personal favorite. Szechuan cuisine. Noodles with garlic sauce! Good food, good prices, generous portions, good stuff all 'round. They only have about a dozen tables and at "rush" hour you might wait a bit. At "off-peak" hours the wait is usually no more than 5 minutes. Changsho: Mass. Ave., near the Law School. Very good food, strange modern interior, a tad expensive ($20). Dim sum tends towards greasy, so one doesn't get one's money's worth. Chef Chow's: Church Street, Harvard Sq. Pretty good. I go there all the time because it's soooo convenient. $12-15. Chi-Lin, Concord Ave. in Belmont, on the Cambridge border. A block west of Blanchard Road. Family owned and run. Good food. Closes early (about 9 PM). Prices very reasonable. More accommodating than most to families with small children. Ching-hua Garden: Harvard Sq. Same as Chef Chow's, but smaller. Hong Kong, Quincy Square: Passable to good food. Even on a Saturday night the downstairs is not over-full with the drunk college partiers from upstairs. Recommended: Famous Orange Beef Joyce Chen: Fresh Pond Parkway, near Alewife T-stop. Like Chef Chow, but more commercialized. Some nice fish dishes. Kam's Palace, Cushing Square, Belmont--a good neighborhood rest., family-run, very unpretentious. Excellent food. I especially recommend their Neptune's Platter and orange flavored beef and chicken. More accommodating than most to families with small children. Prices very reasonable. Mandarin, another notable restaurant right across the street from Mary Chung's. Good lunch specials, and good buffets during the week. They have the BEST Hot and Sour soup. All other HSS is ranked (in my book) relative to them. Mary Chung's in lower Central Sq. near Toscanini's. [1] They have menu items I've not seen anywhere else, and I've rarely had a less-than- memorable meal there. The service is terrible, but the food more than makes up for it. Suan La Chow Show: "A very famous Szechuanese appetizer. Plump meaty wontons on a bed of beansprouts with a special spicy, hot and sour sauce." Also, don't miss the Dun Dun Noodles, but be sure to get a pitcher of water first. [2] disappointed except for the Suan and the raviolis, which were HOT [3] Mary's is wonderful, but you should stick to the hot dishes. I recommend Dry Cooked Sliced Beef, Kung Pao Chi Ding, and Yu Shiang Pork. Expect a wait anytime after 5:45 pm. New Asia: Union Square, Somerville. Decent food, quite inexpensive, nice airy dining room (rebuilt after a fire a few years back) and a parking lot. The lunch specials are OK, but I like the regular menu available at dinner and on weekends better. Royal East (formerly Colleen's) Main St. and Windsor, near MIT, Central Sq, Cambridge. A personal favorite. A good fraction of Chinese diners and everyone looked happy. Exemplary service, neat dining room. We ordered the Suan, Sweet-and-Sour Wontons, Shredded Pork with Szechuan Pickled Cabbage, and Fish Fillet Fried Noodles. Excellent and inexpensive. Ta Chien: JFK St? Harvard Sq. They try to rush you, but they *do* have a lunch special on Sunday. $5-6 (lunch). A fine restaurant for dinner. Yenching: Mass. Ave., Harvard Sq. [1] Lunch special: $3.70. Nothing gourmet, but fine fare. [2] I've heard horrible rumors. [3] I ate there once. Just once. :-( Not recommended. Young & Yee's: Church St. A greasy chopstick. Were it not for freshmen, and people from flyover country, this place would be long out of business. Still can't figure. ALLSTON/BROOKLINE/NEWTON Cao Palace (owned by the Cao family): excellent Vietnamese restaurant in Allston, on Brighton Av., around Harvard St. The successor to an old fish store and still looks like one, with pictures of giant fish on the walls. Still sells fresh fish and has lots of Vietnamese, Chinese, and American-style seafood dishes; you can get your scrod broiled, fried, caramelized, or cooked hot-pot style. Lots of other good stuff, too. Like other S.E. Asian places (execpt for Thai), no atmosphere and very cheap. Chef Chang's, Brookline (Beacon St near Park Drive which is between Coolidge Corner and Kenmore Sq., just down the street from the Brookline Ta Chien.) Excellent food. Highly and justifiably recommended. Really good "General Gau's Chicken", slightly more expensive than Ta Chien, nicer atmosphere. Chef Chow's House: on Harvard Street, Coolidge Corner, about a block south towards Brookline Village from the T stop. Almost as good as Chef Chang's, and better in some ways. Smaller but usually not as crowded, and the prices are much more reasonable. If you really want it spicy and you make sure your waiter understands that, you'll get it HOT. My favorite non-spicy dish is the Duck with Lychee in Sweet Sauce -- I think they've changed the name a few times and it's not always on the menu, but get it if you can. The service is quick, they'll leave off the MSG if you ask, excellent variety and reasonable prices. China Garden: Brighton Ave., Allston. Just discovered it this summer. Fairly good food, inexpensive ($10). My housemate and I love the dinners for 2, 3, or 4 specials. Chung Wah: Harvard Ave., Brighton (just around the corner from China Garden). We practically live there. Good prices, very fast, and you can always get a table because they do about 75% of their business in take-out . Ghengis Khan, Walnut Street, Newtonville. Pricier and fancier than average. Serves Mongolian fire pot: a giant bowl of soup served at your table, into which you put whatever combination of raw meats, seafoods, and vegetables you order. They don't serve hot pot in the summer, or at least didn't last year, because the place gets way too hot. Each table at which you can get hot pot has a heating apparatus in the center, so I don't recommend getting this if you go with small children. Sally Ling's, 10 Langley Road, Newton Centre, 332-3600. Pretty good food but outrageous prices; $10 minimum charge per person. Pretentious service; the better dressed you are, the better service you get. Seven Star Mandarin House, 22 Union Street, Newton Centre, 527-3841. Very good food. Try the Strange Flavor Chicken. The service is occasionally slow, but the effort is there. Ta Chien, Beacon Street in Brookline; just a little way out of Kenmore Square, just down the street from Chef Chang's. Lunch special every day from (?) 11:30 - 3:00; they have dim sum on the weekends from (?) 10:00 - 2:30. The dim sum at the Beacon one has gone downhill lately, I think, but the regular dinners are still quite good. They've never rushed me, but I usually go during off-hours. V. Majestic (I think the V. stands for Viet, but I've never asked): Excellent Vietnamese restaurant in Allston, on Brighton Av., around Harvard St. In its last incarnation, this place was an Israeli-run falafel and sub shop. It now serves an assortment of Vietnamese, Chinese and "Amercian" foods. One can eat quite satisfyingly for about $5. LEXINGTON/WALTHAM/ WATERTOWN Hunan Palace, Galen Street, one block out of Watertown Square. Terrific food (better than any I've ever had in Chinatown, and many friends, including Singaporean friends, agree), decent prices... Some friends were unimpressed with the veggie options, though I'm fond of the Family Style Eggplant. Peking Garden, Lexington Center: All-you-can-eat lunch, but food is better at Yang-tze. Taiwan Garden, Waltham Center: Same ownership as Ta Chien, Harvard Sq and Brookline. Good food, prices. Decor is 1890's wood paneling with 1950's formica tables. Yang-tze River, Lexington Center: Excellent food, expensive. Recommended: Peking Ravioli. Lunch: One pass (2 entree) buffet: $5.95; Dinner: All you care to eat, including Peking Ravioli, $10.95 Generic takeout in the Arsenal Mall: Arsenal St., Watertown. I confess to having gone there a few times, but it's only $5! NORTH/WEST MASS. Aahn Thai, Sutton: Super Thai. Beijing -- Route 125 (Chickering Road), North Andover, just south of the AT&T Merrimack Valley works and near Ward Hill. Only a few years old. Probably about the best bet in the lower Merrimack Valley. Very good Sichuan, on a par with Yangtze River for quality, but not as pricy. Beijing Ravioli are very good there, and the Scallion Pancakes are especially good. Cheng Du's, Westborough: Good Chinese. Chez Siam, Marlborough: Good Thai. Chopsticks, Worcester and Leominster. [1] Good authentic food far from Boston. Worcester: [2] The one in Worcester was voted the best Chinese restaurant in Worcester one year. Don't bother. [3] the food here is excellent. Much of their food is Szechuan or Hunan (i.e. hot). My favorite dish from here is Jordan Chicken. [4] The Chopsticks in Worcester is in Webster Square, on the southwestern end of Main St. This Chopsticks has an excellent reputation. As of several years ago it had no liquor license. Leominster: [2] at the Searstown mall. This site was for many years stock Polynesian/Chinese style resturant with a big trade in drinks. Searstown establishments typically get rowdy soldiers from Fort Devens. We quit going to Leominster after we found May Ling. [5] Chopsticks in Leominster. Right off Rt. 2. Next to a Papa Gino's and a Wendy's and in sight of Searstown mall. Large bar with noisy bands on weekends but on a weekday you might not even notice there is a bar. Food varies depending on the dish. The hot & sour soup, spring rolls, and some of the chef's specialties are good. Their Lo Mein and Mo Shu are not particularly good. Fung Wong, in Clinton: [1] the worst "Chinese" food I have ever had. [2] But, but, but, they have the only crab rangoos I can find in the area. Chopsticks doesn't. ( Himalayan in Lowell: great Indian food. Hunan Garden : In Billerica, used to be a "Colonial Inn." The appetizers are disappointing, but the main courses are delicious. The garnishes are really beautiful. Be sure to ask to sit in the old front room -- the main room is tacky. Recommend: Peking Duck, General Tso's Chicken. The Hot & Sour soup is too small, but good. Hunan Garden in Merrimack (off route 3 - find the roadworks and follow the signs). Owned by the same people who own the Billerica one (and also the Osaka Tea Garden in Nashua). Even better than the Billerica one. They never use MSG. If a dish you want isn't on the menu, just order it anyway. Especially good - the pan-fried dumplings; Peking Duck; Crispy Beef. The Crispy Beef does not survive take-out very well, but eaten at the restaurant it alone is worth the trip. Try the Dragon & Phoenix soup. May Ling, Maynard, MA: Has been the destination of choice from Alliant. Midori: Rte. 101A in Amherst (not far past the Merrimack line) maybe 5 or 6 miles west of Rte. 3. A place to avoid as of a year ago, maybe it's OK again now. Combination Japanese / Chinese (wife is J., husband C.); has sushi bar and both types meals on the menu. Never tried the Japanese food, but the Chinese started out good and went way down hill. (Right near Midori, by the way, is the latest Joyce Chen oriental food store. Yum!) Royal Mandarin, Marlboro: On Rt. 20 east of town. Good luncheon buffet, all you can eat (with Peking Ravs too). The owner (Naomi) is the ex-owner of Chopsticks. Dinner is excellent; I've found the quality for lunch to be a little lacking though. Southeast Asian Restaurant, in Lowell right near city hall. [1] my FAVORITE place. Not Chinese; run by an ex-engineer/pilot who lived in Cambodia and married a Thai (Cambodian?) woman. The restaurant grew out of a market in the same building, which you have to visit. NO decor, incredibly cheap (~$5/dish) the hot things will blow your head off. The food is the original recipies -- not "Americanized," as it is pretty much everywhere else except some parts of Chinatown. Recommend: Lhat Na (mild), or ask Joe to set you up. [2] not impressed; it was cheap and spicy but the food, service, and decor merely average. Thai Orchid, Commercial St. Worcester, near Centrum: Very good Thai, on a par with Cambridge's Siam Garden, very stylish setting. The food here is excellent. When it gets busy (concert at Mechanics Hall or something at the Centrum) service tends to degrade to the point of being unacceptable. Excellent wine list: the wines are well thought out to go with the food and the descriptions are excellent. (I do have a bias on this note though, their wine salesman is a good friend of mine!) Toy Huang, on D.W. Highway (Rte. 3) in Merrimack, maybe a mile north of the toll booth exit from the Turnpike. Lower price (and quality) than Mandarin but several good dishes and a good place for a nice filling feed. Uncle Cheung's: Framingham. The favorite of our engineering department. People regularly drive for 30 minutes at lunch time to go there. Some of the best Hot & Sour soup around. General Gau's chicken and Orange Flavor Beef are the favorites. Yangtze River, Littleton, MA: Just opened. Early word is too mild, but people figure they want to introduce the locals before they turn the spices up. SOUTHERN MASS. Chang Feng, 379 Belmont Street, Brockton, 587-5993. A branch of the one in Somerville. Haven't been there but it should be worth a try. Mandarin House: Rt 138 in Stoughton. [1] I thought it was just OK: too much cornstarch and MSG. [2] This place has many good dishes. The mongolian beef, strange flavor chicken, and chicken velvet cream corn soup are excellent choices. NEW HAMPSHIRE Bangkok on the DW Highway in Merrimac, just south of the Sanders plant (a stone's throw from the Hunan). Great Southeast Asian, quite a selection, great decor also. Ding How: on Rt 3 on the Merrimack/Bedford town line. Another good restaurant, worth the trip! Giant of Siam: in Nashua, NH, worth a visit. Mandarin (Nashua?) about 2 miles west of Rte 3 on 101A (exit 7) near the NH Voc Tech School. I have had good luck at this relatively new place. Their takeout has always been good. General Gau's Chicken is excellent! A little pricier than I like, but not extravagant. I tend to go here for regular dinners, and would recommend it to anyone. Ming Gardens in South Nashua, NH: [1] Fairly good, especially for the area. Very robust, chewy Peking Raviolis, not to everyone's tase, but I like them. Good lunchtime buffet. [2] Quality has gone down the tubes. [3] Best on the list, as far as I'm concerned. Good, full sized Hot & Sour soup portion (smaller if you get the buffet). One person goes there so often he warns the manager when he leaves on vacation so they don't worry. [4] Excellent dinner Buffet that runs from Sunday to Weds (I think I got this right). My wife has been there for the lunch buffet, not as extensive, but good also. Dinners are good also, but ... [5] has a few excellent specialties in the evening (try the Tangerine Beef, and their Hunan Eggplant). But it is spotty, and they often serve the worst Hot and Sour Soup I've ever tasted. New Peking House on Rt.28 in Derry: Great Szechwan food (but a limited menu). The world's best Hot and Sour Soup can be had there, especially if Peter is cooking. Also don't miss their Sizzling Beef and their Strange Flavor Chicken. They are not open for lunch and they're closed on Tuesdays. Singapore in South Nashua, right on the state line on "old Rte. 3", the D.W. Highway: [1] I like it but I'm not too picky about Chinese food. They have a huge lounge and have good bands, occasionally. [2] Mostly lounge and music, and if you are primarily interested in good food, stay away. It's the only Chinese place I went to where standard brown sauce dumped into typical dishes (e.g. beef with broccoli type things) tastes like it came straight out of a Heinz bottle. [3] with regard to Singapore and some others in the Nashua area, I tend to stay away from Chinese restaurants that serve rolls with their meals. Taj of India: in Nashua, NH, worth a visit. Tiki Lau, Littleton, NH: Avoid at all costs. RHODE ISLAND Apsara Asian Restaurant: Vietnamese/Cambodian restaurant in Providence on Broad Street, near Trinity Church and CD City. The first time I had duck noodle soup there endeared me irrevocably to the place and to the dish. Other excellent food there includes: -- Cambodian-style whole fish, very spicy and served on a bed of tomatoes and lettuce -- several types of rolls: nime fried, nime chow, lort: Lort are tiny tiny pork-and-stuff filled, deep fried rolls. You eat them with hoisin & tuong ot toi; four for a dollar and very tasty. -- rice-wrappers in which you put the ingredients you choose: cucumber, mint leaves, plantain, lettuce, and pork balls (and a few others) Then you dip them in wonderful crushed-peanuts, carrots, and rice vinegar sauce. -- something with the amusing name of "Vietnamese teriaki"... it's a shishkabob, beef and vegetables with a sauce that I don't think is regular teriaki. -- soup with shrimp, pineapple, and tomato: it sounds a bit unpleasantly strange, but it's VERY good. Almost anything you order there will be wonderful, especially the soups. $10 should cover you for food & tip, unless you get a lot of appetizers or some of the more expensive dishes. The most expensive dish is about $12, and the least expensive about $4 or $5, but most of them are around $6-7. Appetizers cost from $1 to about $2.50 or so. Closed on either Sunday or Wednesday, I can't remember. Next to the restaurant is a Vietnamese market; it's a good source for rice noodles & sauces & munchies. There's also a butcher-type shop nearby, constantly displaying dead animals such as chickens and ducks. China Sun, near Apsara, has been closed for a while, but may reopen. Their Vietnamese stuff wasn't all that hot anyway, and they didn't pay attention to the vegetarian requests of my friends. Saigon Inn (2nd word uncertain): on the other side of Apsara (after the Harley Davidson shop). Go there only if Apsara is closed. Their Vietnamese stuff is decent, but if/when you go there, don't order anything Polynesian. Polynesian-style chicken was glowing bright pink and tasted awful.