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ROBERT NADEAU
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A dining hall with food not worth fighting for
In a year of bad restaurant ideas done surprisingly well, Vapiano is a mediocre idea done disastrously.
Sure-handed sushi, all jazzed up
The name bit flipped all the cats and kitties and the squares and the cubes, but it ends up jive; don't jibe with the vibe.
Persian classics and outstanding kebabs
From the point of view of fine dining, a key benefit of America's foreign interventions is the stream of incoming refugees and immigrants with slow-food-cooking skills.
Southern success via strong statements
First Printer is located on the site of the former home of Stephen Daye — reportedly the first printer in British North America — and commemorates the craft with a wall of old type cases and some framed historic newspapers.
A sports bar grows in the North End
This column often deals with good ideas gone wrong. Vito's Tavern, in yet another proof of subatomic symmetry, is a cascade of bad ideas gone largely right.
Cal-Mex meets New England in Chestnut Hill
So what makes a one-star restaurant?
All-day delights near Kendall Square
Area Four's Web site describes it as "Coffee, Bakery, Bar, Oven."
Another worthy take on Vietnamese beef and noodle soup
Dorchester's Pho Hoa offers quite a lot on the menu besides the eponymous soup, and no one should miss the roasted quail appetizer
Ride the energy and go with what works
What works at Trade is the hard part: transforming a difficult industrial space on a street without foot traffic or parking into a lively dining room that lightly alludes to the mercantile past of Boston's Waterfront area, and invites the chatter of the marketplace.
A New Kind of Hot
You be careful what you ask for, and I'll be careful what I write.
A small-plate menu that goes full boar
A number of restaurants have failed in this odd multilevel space, stuck in a kind of cultural canyon between the Copley Place mall and the Tent City apartment complex.
Some wonder sprinkled amid the uncertainty
So you have this very high-end chef, William Kovel, running a fancy hotel dining room, Aujourd'hui at the Four Seasons.
A skillful take on 'fake' Mexican
Papagãyo is the last of a group of tequila bars that has opened in Boston in the past couple of years, and I would not be overly sad to close the book.
Tasty new flavors from Ethiopia
Either this is the best Ethiopian food in Boston, or the whole scene has advanced greatly since the last time I got to review in this genre.
Challenging Boston's restaurant scene to a year that tones down the bacon, ramps up the desserts, and comes up with a new word for "gastropub."
Memo to new restaurants: follow the 10 pieces of entirely new advice below and I will keep that hungry/friendly feeling come typing time.
The year in restaurants
This past year was so simple. It was the year of the gastropub, and if you didn't paint the ceiling black and put the menu or the beer list on a blackboard, you were old school.
All-American barbecue with a subtle, steady touch
What happens when a name chef decides to open a barbecue joint?
Jazzing it up with old-school cocktails
There must be some readers out there who remember the original Boston Storyville, a jazz nightclub.
Not the old Ritz, but still very useful for many needs
Pretending that the Artisan Bistro wasn't inside the Boston Common Ritz-Carlton, I would say this is a pretty good gastropub with an emphasis on food and unusually good service with a few old-school trimmings.
Gourmet bits in Back Bay, never mind the history
The Brahmin is a useful restaurant with a bad name.
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