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MC SLIM JB
MC Slim JB is a Boston-based restaurant critic and freelance food and drinks feature writer. A New England native, he lives (as he has most of his life) in Boston. He has written for Boston Magazine and Maxim Magazine. For more of MC Slim’s work, visit his blog.
Latest Articles
Cantonese roast meats and much more
Constrained by a small word count, I often choose restaurants with relatively short menus. I correctly took Vinh-Sun to be a Cantonese "BBQ" specialist, a retailer of roast pork, whole suckling pigs, ducks, and chickens. But it's also a spanking-clean Chinatown restaurant serving a broad Cantonese and Hong Kong menu.
Nice surprises in a warm, pubby package
They say there's no accounting for taste, though most folks will agree that if your tastes and mine are similar, then we both have good taste. This occurred to me as I scanned the jukebox at Charlestown's Tavern at the End of the World, a neighborhood bar/restaurant just outside Sullivan Square.
Eggs, coffee, and salty conversation
Some meals can bring you back vividly to your childhood, perhaps because your sense of smell and long-term memory are centered in adjacent areas of the brain.
A worthwhile old-time roadside-stand experience
Boston has hundreds of food blogs, with new ones appearing every day.
Soul-satisfying, authentic Azorean specialties — oh, and sub-shop fare, too
Despite frequenting East Cambridge, I’m abashed to admit I overlooked the Snack Bar for years.
Good Italian-American pies and cheap drafts: any questions?
My old boss liked to say that people are happiest when reality exceeds their expectations.
A gifted new chef prompts a rare critical reassessment
With so many worthy unreviewed restaurants out there, it’s difficult to re-review a place the Phoenix has already covered.
An oasis of fresh Turkish and American food in the Financial District desert
Dozens of lousy fast-food chain outlets dot the Financial District. (If I worked there, I'd frequent Chinatown for lunch.)
That increasingly rare bird: the honest-to-goodness old-time diner
The modern truck stop typically sits in an interstate-adjacent service area with a parking lot that can accommodate scores of big rigs.
Old-school, groaning-platter Italian-American meets authentic Italian in Eastie
I often chat up local chefs about their favorite restaurants, usually over drinks at late-night watering holes.
An old friend in new digs still slings an outstanding gyros sandwich
There are many reasons to silently mourn the closing of Filene's in Downtown Crossing, but I know I vociferously wailed at the accompanying evictions of several worthy take-out restaurants that operated at the famed department store's sidewalk level.
An Indian food-court stall delivers the home-style goods
Hooking up with a great cheap-eats restaurant can be like finding romance: you can scour the wide world in vain, then one day discover something terrific right under your nose.
A great Vietnamese sandwich for both beginners and advanced eaters
Someday I'll be able to review a bánh-mì joint without providing a primer. But as a raft of new college students are arriving from the provinces, I'll once again offer Bánh Mì 101.
A cozy Eastie spot for Colombian snacks and more
Few Boston neighborhoods are as blessed with affordable restaurants, or as unfairly overlooked, as Eastie.
A little slice of mid-century American heaven
Asked what I thought about Stella's the other day, I went on at some length about the swank South End fine-dining Italian destination.
Braving the early crowds for street-food flavors from Baja and Puebla
Braving the early crowds for street-food flavors from Baja and Puebla
A taste of Trinidadian love, with echoes of the Punjab
Watching folks eat at national fast-food outlets depresses me. Not only are they paying for advertising, but they're getting so little give-a-damn in their food. You sense that acutely after dining at a neighborhood place like Ali's Roti, a 22-seat counter-service Trinidadian restaurant at the western edge of the South End.
A place to dance, drink, and maybe get a little Puerto Rican nosh
I keep finding good, inexpensive food in Boston in unlikely places: a commercial shipyard, a construction-company lot, a mall food court, and what looks like someone's house in a residential neighborhood.
Back-yard barbecue made extraordinary by a seasoned pro
In America, there's barbecue, and then there's barbecue. For most of us, barbecue means direct, high-heat grilling over a gas flame or charcoal, the method used in most back yards. To the growing cult of authentic-barbecue aficionados, only slow, indirect cooking of meats using hardwood smoke at low temperatures (200 to 220 degrees Fahrenheit) is the real deal.
A small-plates concept elevates a veteran Thai place above the pedestrian
For more than 10 years, the Great Thai Chef held forth in Somerville's Union Square.
