At Jinny’s, the caponata currently on the menu was eye-opening for our kids, especially my son who doesn’t like ratatouille. They usually have interesting beers in their rotation. Our kids’ go-tos are the McL’Oven and the Alla Norma.
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We’ll often get a salad with our takeout pizza and cocktails for my wife to have for lunch the next day. The chicken meatballs are better than any meatball made from chicken has any right to be.
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After nearly four years of living in Newton Centre, we’ve tried almost every food option open to us. We haven’t tried Cafe St Petersburg as neither of us is particularly enamored of the menu, plus we both find vodka and vodka drinks boring.
Top notch favorites:
Sycamore: our favorite restaurant in the Centre by far. We generally try to eat there 1-2 times a month, preferably at the bar. In our many trips we have had exactly one dish that we didn’t care for, a pancake based dish that was kinda meh when we had it, but the next time we were in our neighbor at the bar had it and it looked much better that when we tried it. There’s been less amazing pasta since Lydia moved to Jinny’s, but that’s the only complaint I could ever have. The current cocktail which contains house infused burnt pineapple rum is amazing.
Thistle & Leek: the only other real fine dining option in the center. They shook off some early opening jitters to burst into second place on our favorites list. The potato rosti w/clam dip is a must, we get two so we don’t have to share the potato.
Jinny’s Pizza: Chef Lydia and Dave Punch have a real hit on their hands. The pizza dough is phenomenal and their wood fired oven cooks the pies perfectly. The side dishes have been uniformly delicious as well as the cocktails. Our go to for pizza now hands down, a once every week or two place for us.
Little Big Diner: Excellent ramen, karage chicken, and LBD burger.
Sold if not Earth shaking:
Coconut Newton: the best Thai in the center (though not as good as our Brighton standby S&I Thai). We’re fans of the spicy wings, country style chicken pad thai, fresh spring rolls, and beef krapow.
Jumbo’s Seafood: very good food, especially the spicy wings, ground pork with green beans (we ask for it spicy), and Peking duck (though we haven’t had that since the pandemic as we’ve just don’t takeout since then)
Tartufo: Solid Italian, but pricy. Our usual order is beef carpaccio, veal marsala for my wife and Bolognese for me.
Lee’s Burgers: solid steak and cheese sandwiches (better than those at Bill’s) and good onion rings (though they’re not my favorite thin sliced type)
Johnny’s Luncheonette: our go to breakfast out joint. Really good house made corned beef hash.
Rosenfeld’s bagels: one of two places I get bagels from, tough I’m more likely to go to Cafe Fresh Bagel in Needham for the variety.
Farmstead Kitchen: solid food, excellent popovers, need to try their brunch still.
Places we like but haven’t been too much:
Jake’s falafel: very good spicy falafel, mostly lunch oriented, so we don’t get there much
Ellena’s Kitchen: same issue as with Jakes, open only for breakfast and lunch. Great food, and amazing apricot squares
Tango Mango: standard US burrito joint, serviceable
Blah:
Bar-A -Mor: stll smarting from our one trip there, we stopped in last summer on a nice day when my wife was in the mood for nachos. She thought they were fine, but i prefer my nachos with salamander melted real cheese and not cheese whiz style cheese sauce. Still a no for me.
Woops bakery: Cannot figure out how this place stays in business. OK macarons, but everything else we tried was pretty meh.
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There’s a new bakery opening soon - Salts Patisserie - and I know that Tatte is a chain but I LOVE their pastries
@kimfair totally aligned with your list except we haven’t tried Thistle and Leek yet. You’ve added motivation. So pleased the boards are back at Sycamore. If I could have only one more cocktail it would be Scott’s Ghost of Mary. How fortunate are we that Newton Centre is so rich in options?
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@MaxEntropy - I’ve been to T&L 4 times, all outside. First time was for my anniversary last July and it was AMAZING. Like, truly mind-blowing. Second time was lunch outside and it was fantastic. Third & fourth times were outside last fall and it was freezing and it definitely was quite a different experience. They also took the lime strawberry trifle off the menu - which is understandable but it truly was the most amazing dessert.
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Looking forward to Salts. I’m not a fan of Tatte. The only thing I really like there is the nut log. It’s like Athan’s to me. Stuff tastes fine, but it all tastes the same to me. I do like Tour Les Jours, but I know their prices are higher than in Allston, as our friend has been to both. I like Asian sweets as they’re not too sweet, and the mango cake is wonderful, but at $9.50 a slice it’s a special occasion dessert. I’m also glad there’s a Blackbird donuts in the center now as well, as I’m a fan of their brioche style donuts. I find all their cake style donuts too greasy.
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VERY fortunate. When our long term rental in Brighton was coming to an end, we decided to increase our scope past Brighton (which we loved), and into Newton since I work in the Longwood Medical area, and the short T ride sounded more palatable than my 35-50 minutes slog on the 65 bus through Brighton and Brookline. Newton Centre has been great in that regard, as my commute now (since we live so close to the T stop), is about 20-25 minutes door to door. We have some Ghost of Mary mix in the fridge right now. Just add vodka! Seriously the only vodka drink I really like are Bloody Mary’s, and Scott’s Ghost of Mary is the only one I’ll order outside of brunch. You really need to try Thistle & Leek. As I said, it’s the only place here in the Center even approaching the food experience at Sycamore. Their cocktails are far more limited, and we generally have a hard time getting the 3 or 4 we’d like during the meal (hey we’re walking!). Lately we’ve had an opening cocktail, my wife has a glass or two of wine, I’ve been having a hard cider or two, then a closing cocktail. My wife is a huge fan of their pavlova dessert, done with rotating seasonal fruit. They had some great take out options for the last Superbowl, and we got fantastic wings and chili. The Cuban sandwich was less successful. We had some friends who were moving out of state (such big fans of Buttonwood and Sycamore they hadn’t tried Thistle and Leek), and we took them there. Brendan the manager came over to talk, and asked me about the Superbowl food and the Cuban in particular. I told him it was fine, but that I thought focaccia was a poor bread choice. He didn’t disagree, and told us he went to college in Miami. It seemed like he was looking for confirmation of what he thought, and wanted my opinion to pass on. Our friends loved it, and were bummed they were only going to have this one chance to try it. I enjoyed Comedor very much, but Thistle & Leek is a big upgrade to the neighborhood.
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I also keep calling Farmstead Table, Farmstead Kitchen which was on Beacon st in the Ivory Pearl space.
UGHHHH their pavlova! A friend warned me against it, but I still ordered it because I love it so much. It’s like chalk. Totally overbaked with the lack of a pillowy interior that is the signature of a great pavlova.
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See, I’m not a fan of pavlova since every one I’ve ever had is too dry. Do you know somewhere in town that makes a good one? I’d love to have my wife try one that’s done right.
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my house? I’ve never had a good one at a restaurant - they’re all a meringue, basically, and as you said, too dry. They should have a crisp exterior with a pillow-y interior.
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Pavlova at Oleana. Only had it once, and it was take out during the pandemic. It survived the trip home. Was too sweet for me in some ways but if you combine everything with the sauce, it evens out. Was amazing. Only I’m now realizing it’s Baked Alaska. The meringue was pavlova-like however, unless I am totally misremembering because of how great it was.
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You could tie together two of your threads and have the chocolate pavlova dessert at Sycamore that’s on their menu right now
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Ding’s Kitchen
Food: 4.5
Service: 3.5
A good friend came over for dinner this past week, and since we all wanted Chinese food, but didn’t want to drive anywhere, we figured we’d go to Jumbo Seafood in Newton Centre. The outside signs still remain, but we found as we entered, that the restaurant is under new ownership and is now called Ding’s Kitchen. The restaurant was busier than I ever remembered it being on a Wednesday night, and the hot pot and lobster in rice seemed to be very popular with the mostly young Asian clientele. We ordered pan fried dumplings, boneless pork spareribs, beef teriyaki, Mapo Tofu (with pork), sliced cumin lamb with cilantro and greens, a sticky rice stuffed chicken wing, and white rice. Everything except the chicken wing was excellent, with the wing having an overwhelming fishiness to the rice. Upon speaking to my Chinese friend at work, he said these are usually made with Chinese sausage, bacon and scallion inside, and don’t generally contain any fish. This one had no meat, just rice inside, which to me had been made with a fish stock. Otherwise, the food was all superior to Jumbo’s, especially the pork spareribs with crispy edges and low fat content, where’s Jumbo’s were often fatty and never cooked enough, even when requested. The Dumplings were also far superior. The MaPo Tofu was similar in style to Jumbo, but the Ding’s version was spicier, which I appreciated. The lamb was excellent, though I only got a small taste, as it was my friend’s dish. Over all, it was a very nice experience, and I wouldn’t hesitate to return. We had been shying away from Jumbo in the past year or so due to inconsistencies in the food, and had been going to either for Coconut Thai or Gourmet Dumpling House in Newton Highlands, to satisfy our Asian food urges. I’m happy to have a higher quality Chinese place within walking distance. Hopefully they will keep the consistency of the food high. Jumbo has moved back to Boston’s Chinatown after nearly 20 years in Newton Center.
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Thanks for posting. Now, that’s what I call an interesting menu! Extensive lunch menu as well. I had a hard time finding the website, so here it is https://www.dingskitchennewton.com/
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Thanks! Good to know, as we had dropped Jumbo out of our rota due to inconsistency.
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Just wanted to echo the sentiment for Pho Viet’s II: it does one of my favorite versions of bahn mi around, definitely my fave – along with the original in Allston’s Hong Kong Supermarket food court, fka Super 88 / 88 Connection – outside of Dorchester.
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Little Big Diner is still excellent, and it’s somewhat easier to eat there with the COVID-era sidewalk seating added to their tiny interior space. For someone earlier in the thread who doesn’t like to eat soup in the summer, they have a really good chilled coconut curry noodle bowl on the menu.
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Had a fantastic meal at Jinny’s Pizzeria last week - their salads continue to be outstanding - Whipped Narragansett Burrata (blistered cherry tomatoes, basil, saba & pane bianco), Marinated Peaches and Cucumbers, Blistered Green & Wax Beans (my favorite), and Heirloom Tomatoes with roasted garlic aioli and bacon-brioche crumbs. I got the zucchini pizza with za’atar. I love their outdoor seating and wish they took reservations!
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