The portion control from Highland Fried is definitely an easily avoidable mistake that should never had happened. And there are lots of options for take out now. I understand why you don’t want to waste your time talking with them. We’ve enjoyed HF mostly for the North Carolina style pork barbecue, which is about as authentic as we’ve found here since 1989…except at Jake and Earl’s/East Coast Grill, which site Highland Fried occupies. I’ve never tried their fried chicken or anyone’s fried chicken in several decades… I had way too much fried chicken growing up.
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yeah, myself I would say the same about Semolina Kitchen in general. This last meal of mine was bad, but everything else I have gotten from them over the last few months has been excellent and their service is always top notch. Everyone has a bad day once in a while, so though my burger wasn’t great I’m sure not writing them off over one mistake. I am generally positive about the place and won’t really hesitate to order from them again even though this one experience was negative.
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happy anniversary, digga! me, i eat oatmeal in the morning with scallions, furikake, kimchi and Indian crispy onions so I know where you’re coming from 
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Happy Anniversary! Sounds and looks like quite a feast.
Here’s to many more! 
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I neglected to mention that this place also has elote (which not a lot of local places do) and it was really good.
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Congrats!
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Congratulations @digga! I can’t think of a better way to celebrate your happy anniversary. Here’s to many more.
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Linda’s Donuts in Belmont is still a good value ($9 for 6 donuts). No designer donuts here, just good renditions of the classics. The kids were happy. I tried a bite of the honey dew glazed (cake) donut and enjoyed it.
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Follow up to an earlier post, but Cafe Sushi continues to spin up their fastball during the summer of hell. We haven’t had a disappointing take from them yet. Ordering via ToastTab and outdoor pickup are very easy. The food is always well prepared and packaged. The salmon donburi I had last night was very satisfying (3 different kinds of salmon including belly, roe, pickled vegetables). Their schedule is still Wed-Sat for now.
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Truly lovely !
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Happy anniversary @digga! Sounds like a fabulous (and delicious) celebration.
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last Saturday night, the s.o. + I went back once again to the local takeout well that is Chilli Garden. This place has been good for us all the way through the pandemic (I had some reports from friends in the height of the madness that food was taking two plus hours, but I never experienced that) and they delivered steadfastly once again. Good Sichuan style string beans, crispy salted shrimp that was not as crispy as you’d get it at the table (let’s be fair, there’s no packing crispy salted shrimp into a takeout container and driving it around that’s gonna help this dish) but was plump and full of flavor, a spicy red chili studded wild fern stir fry with pork and a cool and oily Sichuan style cold noodle.
Threw on top an old Chinese-American favorite: crab rangoon. These things were delicious and somehow did not suffer the soggy fate of the shrimp–they retained a crunchiness throughout the hard run of delivery and their likely industrial cream cheese and fake crab interiors were just what I wanted.
Crab Rangoon is a dish that I think you could actually make a great high end version of–think homemade wrappers, real crab, a better cream cheese and some duck sauce made with local plums and apricots. But wow: does the industrial cream cheese, pollack filled, overly sweet duck sauce version deliver for me? It does for me when it comes to Chilli Garden.
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Love every aspect of this report. American Chinese food done well is near and dear to my heart.
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Great report, so glad to have you writing here again! Chilli Garden never disappoints.
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We had a very dear old friend by last evening to share dinner (sitting as far away from each other as possible). She lives in Watertown, so we ordered Americanized Chinese from our favorite place for that China Rainbow in Watertown. They make the best Scallion Pancakes ( they suffered a bit of sogginess from the trip - NEVER soggy at the restaurant, which I find is rare), boneless pork ribs (which I always order well done, so that fat renders more, and you get the crispy edges), pork dumplings (not their finest item, but Iove even so-so dumplings), Orange flavored beef (asked for extra spicy - they throw in Schezuan peppers), and Kung Pao Chicken (also spicy).
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Last night was Ramen takeout night from the 1981 Ramen Bar in Lowell. Would definitely recommend a stop if you enjoy ramen.
Three of us and we ordered the gyoza (ok) sweet & spicy wings (very good), duck confit baos (very very good) and 2 ramens. One was the smokey chicken with corn, egg and greens, level 2 spiciness of a 1-3 range and the other was the tonkotsu with spice on the side. This came with egg, mushroom, greens not sure what else cause DS was not in a sharing mood. But we ate well, plenty of food, really rich deep broth on both soups.
Very easy order and pick with FOH staff pretty helpful. Did manage a couple of pictures.
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Looks great. We ate there only once, due to an unfortunate experience in the dining room (behavior of another patron) that made us reluctant to return. Takeout is another matter altogether.
Thanks for the tip. 
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I like the sound of these!
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I had surprisingly good delivery from Winsor Dim Sum in Quincy on Wednesday, but no pretty pictures. I ordered two dishes, and two dim sum dishes (tripe with ginger, peppers and the soy wrapped crispy vegetarian rolls). I don’t live that far away, but almost all deliveries end up taking about 50-60 mins to get to me. This order came within 35 mins and was still hot. The dim sum dishes were really tasty and hit the spot.
I also ordered Gu Lo Yuk ( 咕噜肉) – Cantonese sweet and sour pork and seafood pan fried noodles. The pork was a very solid rendition of the dish, noodles were meh. They got the crispiness of the noodles perfect, and even knew to separate it from the saucy seafood topping. The choice of seafood left much to be desired, fish balls (??), and then a few smaller pieces of shrimp and scallops and faux crab.
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here’s an oddity about this place that i found out about last weekend when i wanted to get a torta campechana when i went by my friend’s place to water the plants: they’re open Sunday through Friday, but totally shut down on Saturday.
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