For entrées we stuck with tradition. The Wiener schnitzel ($15) was well-pounded fried veal (the old steakhouse secret would be sharper knives) on an enormous bed of flat noodles, with an orchid on top. A special on fried belly clams ($16) proved the old rule that most kitchens can fry either seafood or potatoes well, but not both. As one might predict, the French fries were excellent, with a little seasoning and a little skin on. The clams were good but not great, although dill mayonnaise is a nifty dip. The chicken-pot-pie entrée ($10) also featured the yuppified puff-pastry top, made even more vertical with a roof of mashed potatoes. I’m not so sure about the potatoes. They didn’t have the roasted-milk flavor of obvious instant potatoes, but they didn’t have much fresh potato flavor, either. Seafood linguine ($18) isn’t strictly traditional, but it has become that way. The weak spots of ours were too much red pepper in the sauce and overdone pasta. The mussels, scallops, and shrimp were just fine.
The wine list isn’t impressive, but 10 taps of draft, including two local Harpoons, make up for it. Harpoon Summer Ale ($4.50) has a tart quality, like a German wheat beer or half-wheat, maybe a little spicy — certainly a good food beer. The decaf ($1.75) was above average, too.
Desserts are weak here: portioned and priced like old-Southie desserts, but short on the intense flavors of yuppie desserts. Boston cream pie ($6), for example, has been revised into a large vanilla cake with a bit of custard in the center, and chocolate sauce poured over the top. I prefer the original. A special peach cobbler ($6) was served in a drinking cup, and the peaches might have been crisp enough to have been fresh, but tasted boiled in syrup, as if they were canned. The crust was a lump of biscuit dough. The same dough was used for the enormous strawberry shortcake ($6), which rested on a triple scoop of strawberry ice cream. The strawberries weren’t fully seasonal. A tiramisu tower ($6) might have been the best; the tower was three awkwardly stacked pancakes, but the flavors were there. The one real yuppie dessert, chocolate cake ($6), was a small, intense cylinder of chocolate with a double scoop of pedestrian vanilla ice cream. Ignore the ice cream, and there’s your dessert.
Service in a crowded bar (but with the quieter dining room out of service) was excellent. Our server remembered all our orders, got them out in good time, and cleared across an awkward high table. The bar seating is stratospheric; there is also booth seating just off the bar, and a dining room beyond that. Décor is a blend of old and new: historic pictures of seaside Southie and a few politicians on one side of the room, and modern paintings on the opposite wall. A Celtic whistle tune was plaintive in the background. This typifies a remarkable transition in what was once a national symbol of urban intransigence.
Amrheins Restaurant, 80 West Broadway, South Boston | Mon–Thurs, 11:30 am–10 pm; Fri, 11:30 am–11 pm; Sat, 4–11 pm; and Sun, 9 am–9 pm | AE, DI, MC, VI | full bar | street-level access from private parking lot | 617.268.6189
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Robert Nadeau: RobtNadeau@aol.com
