New restaurant
May. 10th, 2006 05:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magidTaam China opened a new location in Newton, near the intersection of Rtes. 128 and 9, not far from my ex-office. Last night Queue and I had dinner there. (Thanks, Queue!)
First of all, the parking situation is a bit dire, with angled parking on the left, leading to a small dead-end lot. There might be parking beyond that (a gate had a sign saying restaurant parking, but it was only half open), but I wasn't going to try to manoever in there. A bit more than a dozen spaces, but not likely 20; not enough, especially if people come in separate cars. However, it won't always be raining, and there's likely other parking about.
Noted: blue railings on the steps, with a star of David worked into the design; this wasn't a quick redoing of the space.
There wasn't anyone at the front desk when we went in, so it was unclear where to go: there were some tables in front of us and a stairway leading upstairs. Eventually we were seated downstairs, but I peeked upstairs, where there were perhaps 15 tables and a nice drawing of goldfish. Downstairs has fewer tables (only 8, but one is a larger round one) and the kitchen. There are bathrooms up and down, too.
I recognized our waitress from the Brookline location, but everything else was different, including the plates (with green dragons :-), the lighting, and the menu. Well, the menu was rather similar to Brookline, but there were some items I hadn't noticed before, such as curry chicken (no idea what that means at a Chinese restaurant), and the obligatory entertaining typos.
We ordered scallion pancake (very hot when it arrived), Szechuan crispy beef (its very crispy, but I didn't notice the spiciness), and I requested spicy chicken with broccoli (not on the menu), which was on the high end of my spiciness tolerance (a surprise, since in the past I've gotten 'spicy' food that barely bit at all, but a good one). Yummy. The one odd glitch in service was when something that looked like crispy beef was temporarily delivered to our table, the rerouted to another one.
ETA As far as I can tell, they've broken with tradition: no live fish./edit
The fortune cookies, alas, are still aphorism cookies.
All in all, worth going back, and it's great to have options (well, option) out by 128.
Two other pico food reviews:
First of all, the parking situation is a bit dire, with angled parking on the left, leading to a small dead-end lot. There might be parking beyond that (a gate had a sign saying restaurant parking, but it was only half open), but I wasn't going to try to manoever in there. A bit more than a dozen spaces, but not likely 20; not enough, especially if people come in separate cars. However, it won't always be raining, and there's likely other parking about.
Noted: blue railings on the steps, with a star of David worked into the design; this wasn't a quick redoing of the space.
There wasn't anyone at the front desk when we went in, so it was unclear where to go: there were some tables in front of us and a stairway leading upstairs. Eventually we were seated downstairs, but I peeked upstairs, where there were perhaps 15 tables and a nice drawing of goldfish. Downstairs has fewer tables (only 8, but one is a larger round one) and the kitchen. There are bathrooms up and down, too.
I recognized our waitress from the Brookline location, but everything else was different, including the plates (with green dragons :-), the lighting, and the menu. Well, the menu was rather similar to Brookline, but there were some items I hadn't noticed before, such as curry chicken (no idea what that means at a Chinese restaurant), and the obligatory entertaining typos.
We ordered scallion pancake (very hot when it arrived), Szechuan crispy beef (its very crispy, but I didn't notice the spiciness), and I requested spicy chicken with broccoli (not on the menu), which was on the high end of my spiciness tolerance (a surprise, since in the past I've gotten 'spicy' food that barely bit at all, but a good one). Yummy. The one odd glitch in service was when something that looked like crispy beef was temporarily delivered to our table, the rerouted to another one.
ETA As far as I can tell, they've broken with tradition: no live fish./edit
The fortune cookies, alas, are still aphorism cookies.
All in all, worth going back, and it's great to have options (well, option) out by 128.
Two other pico food reviews:
- I noticed asiago at the Butcherie before Pesach, so I had to get some. It's amazing, totally wonderful! How could I have lived this long without it? Dry texture, intense flavor, I believe it has lots of umami. Yummy. (I'm on the second wedge of it since Pesach...)
- I had one of the Kitchens of India brand shelf-stable meals, the black gram lentil curry, which I like more than any of the Tasty Bites I've had, because it wasn't over-the-top burn-my-mouth must-have-bread spicy, so I could taste it and enjoy the lentils and so on. Glad I've got a couple more of them stashed at work.
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no subject
Date: 2006-05-10 09:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-10 10:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-11 12:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-11 02:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-11 01:24 pm (UTC)I was already going out to Wellesley, so there was less opportunity cost. If I remember correctly, it is on a bus route (the one that goes to Needham; I don't remember the number, but it runs from Watertown Square, meanders through Newton, and ends up in Needham), so theoretically possible car-free, though inconvenient for you.
no subject
Date: 2006-05-11 01:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-11 09:50 pm (UTC)