Well, it might not be convenient for you, but Kung Fu Tea just opened up on Moody St. in Waltham.
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We’re regulars at Jumbo. Not sure what you’re looking for, but we love the Jumbo’s Crispy Spicy wings, the Peking Duck, the lo meins, and the chicken with hot garlic sauce.
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Can you share more detail on the Peking duck and how it is served?
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We get the half (as there is just the two of us). The leg is served whole, and the breast meat comes sliced. It comes with the standard sauces and pancakes.
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I’ve been several times 
Buttonwood - Newton Highlands
Food: 4.5
Service: 4.5
Our first time back since they re-opened from the fire, and our second time overall. Much like his fine restaurants Sycamore and Little Big Diner, owner/chef David Punch knocks it out of the park. We had the Whipped Feta, and Onion Dip to start, apps of the Snap Pea Salad, and Crispy Pork Ribs, and the BW Cheeseburger for me and the Tomahawk Pork Rib Chop for the wife. Forgot what we did for dessert.
All the food was amazing. The Pork chop was moist and tender (and too large for my wife, so I got about half for lunch the next day). I like the burger here better than the Sundays only burger at Sycamore. The cocktails were uniformly fine, especially the Queen To Be a mixture of Bourbon, amaro Montenegro, and Punt E Mes.
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BAR a MOR
Food: 2
Service: 3.5
A new gastropub in the former location of Terry O’Reilly’s Irish pub. We were hoping for something better food wise when O’Reilly’s closed, but so far it doesn’t seem like it’s going to happen. Beer selection was good, my wife took a chance on a tequila cocktail that wasn’t too sweet and seemed well made.
We started with some buffalo wings and the “jar of pickles”. The wings were flabby, not the way they get when they were once crisp, and then sat in the sauce too long, but the way they are when they were never really crisp in the first place. The buffalo sauce was thin and not very spicy, as was the blue cheese/ranch sauce they were served with. I love all things pickled, and was excited to try the “jar of pickles”. When you see that term on a menu, you may have a somewhat preconceived notion that there will be some pickled veggies coming your way. What was presented was a pint Mason jar which was filled with vinegar, and what seemed like a whole sliced white onion, three hard boiled eggs, and six slices of salami. Yeah, salami. None were overly pickled, just kind of vinegary tangy, and the eggs showed no signs they’d been in the vinegar very long at all. There was a nice pickled slaw with the wings that would have been far better in the jar, though that too was predominantly onions. We followed that with the shared BAR a MOR burger. The burger itself was fine, if uninspiring, and had a very good, but terribly unappetizing looking bacon jam on it. It was presented open face, as if they were proud to show you this grey/brown blob. I have a friend who makes bacon jam, and hers is amazing in taste and appearance, this tasted quite nice, but you didn’t want to see it. The accompanying fries were single fried, dark, and a little flabby. We’ll go back sometime to try an entree, but unless things turn around 180 degrees, I don’t think they’ll be much improvement.
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thanks for taking one for the team on that place!
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I suggest you try Ellana’s kitchen which is a small, casual, Venezuelan spot that serves breakfast/lunch/dinner. I went twice (albeit this was a while ago), and I found it tasty. I would not claim myself to be knowledgeable about Venezuelan food, though! We tried an assortment of arepas and the Venezuelan Sampler. I remember the green sauce being very good–not sure if it’s a “standard” Venezuelan sauce or not
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I’ve been meaning to try this, but then breakfast/lunch only hours make it a bit harder to get to. I have next Tuesday off, maybe I’ll see if I can get over there.
Ellana’s Kitchen
Food: 4
Service: 4.5
I got to stop in last week on my day off to try this nicely run family place. The folks inside were so nice, nad the food all looked great. I decided to go for an arepa. I had the Arepa Pabellón, which had shredded beef, queso blanco, black beans, and fried sweet plantains. Will head back to try some more stuff, but the arepa was delicious, and quite filling.
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Newton Center Town Pizza
Food: 3.5
Service: 4
Serviceable Greek pizza. My wife and I were walking around Crystal Lake, and we needed a bite. We were both in the mood for a slice, so we stopped into Newton Centre Town Pizza. They don’t serve slices, so we made do with a shared small cheese pizza. Reminiscent of the Greek shop I used to frequent in my home town of New Bedford. Still my least favorite version of pizza, however.
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In better news, the crappy bartender at Central has moved on, and we’ve returned. The food is always good, especially the lamb sliders, and Spainish meatballs, and the drinks are large and potent. Increasing their service grade to a 4.
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Coconut Newton
Food: 4
Service: N/A takeout
Finally got around to trying the other Thai restaurant in Newton Center yesterday for lunch. I had low expectations after being very disappointed with the food at Four Spoons (again, I used to order from S&I Thai so I have high expectations), but Coconut Newton came through. I only ordered some Chicken Krapow, and Country Style Pad Thai, and both were quite good, and quite spicy without asking for any spice adjustments (I always like to order it, and then wait to see if I got the Caucasian spice treatment or not). I look forward to trying some more menu items in the future.
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Thistle and Leek
Food: 4.5
Service: 3
This restaurant from ex-Craigie Street Bistrot alums occupies the space previously taken by Comedor. The food was really nice. The cocktails were good, but not to the level of Sycamore, or Eastern Standard. Service was a bit scattered, but to be expected since they were only open a few weeks when we went last Saturday. We would have had 4 cocktails, but between trying to get our servers attention (we were at an outside table, sort of behind the door) we only had three. They also ran out of both desserts by the time we were done with dinner. For food we had Foccacia w/tomato, Steak tartare, Potato Rosti w/clam dip, Farro Pappardelle w/chantarelles, raw black sea bas w/jalapenos and meyer lemon, lamb meatballs, and young chicken. After dinner we stopped by Sycamore to see if they’d sell us a to-go dessert as they’d technically stopped seating people, but they had us sit at an outside table where we had dessert (an amazing S’More pudding with rich chocolate pudding, torched marshmallow, and Graham cracker crumble and a round of drinks. Dave came out with tequila and we had two shots with him for our anniversary. All in all an excellent night!
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Sounds promising. Hope they can muddle through until it’s safe to ramp up indoor dining again.
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Realizing that it’s been a long while since I updated any of this, I will first post two places I haven’t technically done yet, and then give a brief overview.
Jinny’s Pizza
Food:4.5
Service: 4.5
Dave Punch (Sycamore, Buttonwood, LBD) and Lydia Reichert (ex-Sycamore chef) hit this pandemic opened pizzeria out of the park. Open just over a year now, it rapidly became our go to pizza joint. Everything we’ve eaten so far has been amazing, but we especially like the Picante (with their amazing pepperoni, everything I thought the pepperoni at Bianca would be and more), the Alpine (white pie with potato and speck), the Maui Wowee (ham and pineapple done right, much better than their first stab at this controversial pie), and when we eat in the Spiedini (sticks of prosciutto wrapped provolone, heated in the pizza oven, then topped with Mike’s hot honey. Drinks are great courtesy of Lydia’s partner Paul Manzanelli (ex-Bergamot bar manager), though limited as they only serve premixed drinks. The Dear Elisabetta is a particular favorite. I judge all pizza primarily by the crust, and Jinny’s is sublime, one of the best I’ve ever had.
Dumpling House Newton (Walnut st at Beacon st Newton Highlands).
Food: 4
Service: N/A Take out
Excellent Chinese, with some unusual dishes. We usually end up with the julienned vinegar potatoes, some dumplings (natch), MaPo Tofu (with pork), and Szechuan Stir Fried Chicken. We didn’t love their wings. My wife doesn’t usually like fried rice, but loved theirs as it’s not the uniformly brown with soy version you normally see, but rather white rice stir fried with egg and veggies, and meat. My preffered style as well.
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That is proper fried rice. Does this accompany any dish, or are you ordering it separately? I can’t stand the gluggy brown fried rice, ick!
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Separately.
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Their salads are TO DIE FOR. We often get takeout and my family will get pizza and I’ll get the salads. I also love the bread and the chicken meatballs.
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