June 2017, Boston, MA. Openings and Closings!!!

Haven’t seen it posted here yet - The Blue Room and Belly Wine Bar are closing July 1. A bit torn about this - I was a dedicated fan of The Blue Room, and I think Nick Zappia is fantastic - but once Steve Johnson left The Blue Room seemed to lose its distinctive character. It was a great run, stretching back to 1991. Anyone else miss Reggie behind the bar?

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I went there for brunch a lot in the 90’s when I lived in C. Square (and when that neighborhood was a lot different!). Really enjoyed it there at that time.

That brunch was awesome, ahead of its time. The grilled bananas and Persian rice pudding had my number.

Boston Chinatown blog is reporting that The Juice Bar on Harrison St. is closing.

I just ate there with a few friends yesterday. It was good, but still a little rough around the edges. We ordered:

Diced Noodles - these were good - almost more like very tiny dumplings than noodles. They were served in a spicy, cumin-y sauce with hot peppers, onions, lamb, and little bits of potato. Could have used a little more salt, but the texture and spice were great!

Uyghur Pilaf - this was great! The rice was really rich without being heavy. There were raisins and roasted carrots mixed in, and it was topped by big pieces of beef that was very tasty but a little dry.

Big Plate Noodles - kind of a normal-sized plate, to be honest, but very good. The pieces of chicken were big and very tender, and the potatoes and peppers were great too. It was all served in a rich, spicy stew/gravy, and on top of some very good hand cut noodles.

Samsa - this was a flaky turnover stuffed with what seemed like a mix of lamb, leeks, and some kind of dairy - maybe keifer? I was really juicy and tasted great, and the pasty outside was very tender.

Overall, it was a good dining experience, and very pretty different from anything I’ve had before. The bill was a little more than I expected, though - either the portions are small for the price, or the prices are big for the portions. Neither felt unreasonable on their own, but they didn’t seem to match. Inside, it still very much looks like a neighborhood Pizza place, and the ordering and paying systems were very much still being refined. Still, I’d recommend it to anyone who’s curious, and I look forward to returning when things are a little more worked out.

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thanks for the field report!

Have tried some of their food, too. As BurgerBob says, they’re rough around the edges and their timing is way off. Hope they can get the kinks out. (They’re also confusing people no end by keeping the Pronto name and having the old menu out, but not having any pizza, etc., visible. While I was there, at least two people wandered in, puzzled over the paper Uyghur menu alongside the old Pronto menu, then wandered out.)

The big plate chicken (da pan ji)was good, but I thought a little unbalanced. It smells enticingly of star anise, cinnamon, ginger, etc., and the first taste of the sauce is wonderfully complex, but then a wave of hot spice hits the back of your throat and overwhelms everything. I’ve had a much more nuanced version of the dish at the New World mall in Flushing, and also much cheaper ($12 for a larger “big plate” – called “big tray” there – than $29 got me at Pronto Uyghur). The hand torn noodles that come with the chicken are very, very good though.

The Uyghur pilaf was tasty, but I found it a little on the greasy side, myself. The samsa was excellent, as BB observes, both the pastry and the filling. (The wanderings of the samsa/sambusa/samosa would make a fascinating culinary story.) The naan was awful – clearly out of a packet.

The best dish we had was the dry fried noodles – the noodles chewy (although, to my suspicious mind, a bit like the twisted Ligurian pasta called troffiette), generously coated with sesame seeds, and stir fried with leeks, scallions, and bits of lamb.

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We ate there tonight. They were very busy on top of being understaffed so the food took a while but it was very tasty. The owners apologized for the wait and delays, explaining that they’re the only ones who know how to cook the food at this point and that they usually have more people around to take orders and such.

We loved the dry-fried noodles (chewy and garlicky) and got a second order; agreed that the portions seem a bit small for the price. We also got the kebabs (very good), the spicy chicken app (cold and on the bone, very tender and flavored with sesame oil, peppers, and I think a bit of Sichuan peppercorn), the samsa (really good) and the stir fried/scallion lamb (also delicious, wish we’d thought to get nan with it to wipe up the sauce).

I look forward to revisiting on a less-frantic day when the cook isn’t also waiting tables and has time to make the diced noodles. I also want to try their version of big plate chicken (Home Taste in Watertown does that dish and similar noodle dishes). I expect they’ll come up to speed when they open for real.

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Not that I got there often, but every time I did I learned and tasted something new. Sad to hear this.