Time for your monthly thread of spanking clean hope springing eternal and deathly demise. Whatta ya got?
Eater reports that Shanghai Fresh, the sister restauarnt of quality outlet Shanghai Gate is now open in the old Picante space in C. Square. Might be worth a look.
Uni reopens today. I was let down by the original more than once, but will be interested to try it at some point.
http://uni-boston.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/unimenu_1.29.16.pdf
http://uni-boston.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/UNIDRINK.1.29.16.pdf
sweet kingdom dessert on beach street in chinatown is open
a note on the window at best little restaurant in chinatown reads “closed for maintenance and repairs. our food and staff has moved to china pearl at 9 tyler street, boston until completion 617-426-4338”
sai gon one restaurant has opened in the old thao ngoc location on dot ave in dorchester
The old Quincy Dynasty spot on Billings Rd in Quincy has transformed itself into L&C Asian Restaurant (Chinese name “dragon village”) with “authentic Sichuan”. I think it technically re-opened at the end of January. The menu is a mish-mash of Chinese American appetizers, Cantonese standards, and then a lot of Sichuan dishes, with sushi and mala pot thrown in.
I ordered a few Sichuan items for lunch today and was pleasantly surprised. The spicy fish filet was not the saucy version I expected - fried filets but with plenty of dried peppers, onions and garlic. Nice mala taste to it. The fuqi feipian is one of the better versions I’ve had locally. Could use more kick but topped with cilantro and nice chopped peanuts, and had great flavor. I also had a sip of hot and sour soup that was a tad salty but not bad.
Not open yet. But would-be patrons of Pink Samurai ‘are pounding on shop windows and barging inside to demand dumplings even though the storefront remains closed and covered with paper. Some have gone as far as yelling at staff about opening delays.’ according to a piece in the Globe.
Stop it you all! 
Sounds someone at Pink Samurai is prone to hyperbole.
Has anyone here tried The Table at Season To Taste in North Cambridge? We are thinking of going later this week.
Barely newsworthy, but anything to drum up business on this thread: the Subway on Elm St between Davis and Porter squares has been closed for a few weeks. There’s a sign on the door that they suffered weather damage and will reopen soon.
Driving by the other day, I saw that The Firebox (347 Great Road, Bedford) was gone. I don’t know when it closed but its Indian replacement, Virsa de Punjab, is supposed to open shortly. Their FB page says early March, and offers free lunch on opening day, but the exact date is unspecified (not that a free opening day meal promises to be anything other than fraught).
In waltham - the space that was “Tom Can Cook” (pretty sure that was the name) is now Pho #1 Waltham. Seems like that happened overnight.
The servers were very nice, the food was good, and there were probably twice as many people in there than I had ever seen in Tom Can Cook.
It was a pretty big menu, did they just relocate from another location?
Hmm. Looks like this change happened back in December. Guess I haven’t been paying attention
Funny, I saw that today as well. Glad to hear that the food was good. Old Tom was looking pretty tired. I noticed the window still advertises InBoston Korean Fried Chicken. The one time I had it I thought it was very good but that was probably a year ago.
And anyone know what Margarita’s is up to in Waltham? They seem to be closed for some type of renovation…
This has probably been mentioned elsewhere, but lately, I have been spending a fair amount of time in Arlington.
Punjab in Arlington Center is closed for Renovations. Boston Globe is reporting that they had frozen pipe issues.
Comella’s [is that spelled correctly?] has closed and there are now signs posted that the Otto pizza chain out of Portland ME will be opening in Comella’s old space.
I was surprised, but not sad, to walk by Panera in Harvard Square today and see a sign that is was closed. I am happy to read (http://www.boston.com/food-dining/2016/03/01/the-harvard-square-panera-closed-and-tatte-will-take-its-place/9UhcMJ6kJSxwb8z6hYqzRL/story.html) that a(nother) Tatte Bakery will be replacing the Panera. I really like their sandwiches & salads, etc. Tatte >> Panera.
Has anyone been to Juliet yet? I’m really intrigued but have not had a chance to get over there. I live in the neighborhood but just switched my work schedule to earlier so am scrambling in the am to get the bus. Can’t wait to try and am curious if others have thoughts. http://www.bostonmagazine.com/restaurants/blog/2016/02/26/juliet-somerville-open-menus/
Nice! Now if we could just get rid of Qdoba next door…
Absolutely. I almost typed that exact sentiment at the end of my post. Baby steps.
I also read that Sweetgreen is opening somewhere on JFK street. To me that’s another welcome addition.
