Burgers on the cheap in Harvard Square

One of the things I like almost as much as savings (SAVINGS!) is a good burger, and though the name Flat Patties held me at bay for a while, I’m pretty glad I stepped into The Garage that fateful day a few years ago and plopped down some dollar bills for what turned out to be a pretty fantastic burger for under $5!

While a friend of mine was working at a local tea shop around the corner in Harvard Square, he constantly talked up the new burger joint, Flat Patties, and their delicious cheese fries. The name Flat Patties didn’t get me interested, and for a while I held off. One day, however, I was craving a burger in Harvard and wasn’t in the mood for the Charlie’s experience (reading: me spending more money than I need to on cheap beer) and chose to stop into the Flat Patties and had a wonderful meal.

Now the menu is pretty basic, but has some cool offerings. Burger or double burger (cheese too!), chicken sandwich, fried fish sandwich, pulled pork, Portobello mushroom, and grilled cheese are the main attractions, with the proper extras (bacon, avocado, onions or mushrooms) available as well. They have salads (like I get those), some sides, and homemade desserts. The fries are fresh fried potatoes, and if you wanna get real good get he chili cheese fries. Fattening? Sure. Delicious? Of course!

Now the cheeseburger is a pretty fantastic for just a basic cheeseburger, and its only $3.20! Seasoned well fresh ground beef  topped with a cheese of your choice, lettuce tomato and the house sauce, all on a buttery “brioche style” bun, it is way better than the fast food fare you find at most inexpensive burger joints. It never takes very long to get one, and you can watch the guys in the back cook them right after you order. If you have a few extra bucks in your pocket, get one with a Root Beer float and some cheese fries. It will still be under $10 with tax!

As much as I love a quick, cheap meal from a place that is locally owned, I also love it when those meals are delicious. Not only do you get all three of those checked off at Flat Patties, you also have condiment bar that has jalapeno slices, and how can you not love a place that has that!

Flat Patties
81 Mt. Auburn St,
Cambridge, MA 02138

Pizza Specials Make The World Go Round

I think it is becoming more and more obvious that I like places that seem to be from a time past. Places that seem out of place in this modern era of text messaging and twitter, places that want you to slow down, relax, forget about your troubles, and just enjoy what is going on around you. To me, The Paddock is a perfect example of this type of place, and I cannot wait to go back as soon as I can.

The Paddock is semi hidden in a residential neighborhood, this family restaurant and bar is dimly lit with a charm not often seen these days. There is horse and horse race imagery throughout, and the staff is adorned in black vests and pants, adding a touch of class. While the Paddock offers a wide range of menu options and specials, Lizz and I stopped in for the $6 large cheese pizza (available Tuesday-Thursday).

This pizza was far better than I had expected, and for $6 it was a steal! While it is only available three nights a week for dining in or take out, it was cheesy and cooked to a perfect crisp crunch. The pizza wasn’t greasy as some of the local orange cheese joints, and it made me wish I had ordered two of the specials (what can I say, I LOVE PIZZA). Though we had taken the pizza to go, there was a special that night for a pitcher of beer with a large cheese for only $15. While that is a good 3 dollars more than the pitcher/pie special at one of my other favorite joints, the pie at the Paddock is worth double that.

Other specials and desserts top off the items at the Paddock, as well as homestyle menu mainstays (such offerings as lasagna and baked ziti) offered at reasonable prices. They have a few long running specials for things like football games at the bar (25¢ wings, $5 for a beer and two slices), and pasta dishes that will feed a family of four (Chicken Parm and ziti or linguine for $30). So while this old timey place invites you in to sit back and relax, it also offers up great deals and meals to keep you coming back time and time again

The Paddock
249 Pearl Street
Somerville, MA 02145
Phone: (617) 628-6525

Dollar Tacos!!

La Verdad’s $1 Taco Tuesday really isn’t all that much of a secret these days, but it sure is still a deal! I was talking to my friend Ben about trying to write a review on the place and I was like “well, the tacos are a dollar. And damn good. Totally worth a dollar, but I don’t know what to write about them.” He was like, well, you have your review right there or something who knows. Well, on a recent Tuesday me and my buddy Aimee made our way over to the La Verdad to feast on tacos that seriously only cost a dollar. While I had been there before, there were a few surprises that made this trip especially enjoyable.

So there are some ups and downs to the dollar taco night. The big plus is, of course, you can get some awesome tacos made with fresh home made tortillas for only a buck. The biggest downsides though are these, the 3 varieties that you have to choose from never change, they don’t have a vegetarian option in the $1 options, and there is a limit of only 5 $1 tacos. The three that you can choose from though, are all very very good, and those are the Chicken (Pollo Pibil…Achiote BBQ chicken with pickled red onions, sour orange), the Pork (Pastor Traditionale…”El Farolito” pork adobo, roast pineapple, lime, cilantro, and onion), and Carnitas (yes I know it is also pork but come on [Roast pork, cilantro, onions, salsa verde]). My favorite is the carnitas, but I am unusually drawn to their salsa verde, so I just keep going back for more. Now you can get up to 5 of these for $5, but I do recommend experimenting with other tacos in the very reasonable $2.25 – $3 range. I’m a big fan of the Chorizo y Papas, but wasn’t that huge on the Shrimp.

The star of the night though, for me, was the chips and salsa. Yeah, just your plain old chips and salsa. But they weren’t. They were extraordinary. Freshly made tortilla’s were fried and topped with a bit of salt and cojito cheese, brought out with salsa verde and their pico de gaillo, as well as some pickeled jalapenos and carrots. At first I was all $4.95 seems like a lot for just chips and salsa, but afterwards I figured out what a deal it was. 3 tacos and splitting an order of these with a friend is the way to go. A big shock for me going back to La Verdad was the lack of people. I quite liked how quiet it was, how attentive the staff was, and the music was at a great volume that seemed to encourage conversation but didn’t force anyone to yell.

If Tuesday rolls around and you find yourself saying “Its only Tuesday?” to yourself, maybe hitting La Verdad after work might not be such a bad idea. The food is great, it’s cheap if you stick to items like dollar tacos and chips and salsa, and walking distance from 2 green line T stops if you need a break from the crowded rush hour train.

La Verdad
1 Lansdowne St
Boston, MA 02215

Dollar Deals in Davis

I am a big fan of Diva Lounge in Davis Square, if only for the fact that hanging out inside of it is like hanging out in a bar envisioned by the set designer from Barbarella. But it offers so much more than just a tragically cool setting to knock back $3 Miller Lite pints, they offer some pretty great deals on food as well. And I have to say, the food is pretty darn good!

The food at Diva Lounge has always been pretty similar to the menu at the much larger, less bar focused Diva directly next door (and sometimes when Diva gets too full, they seat folks in the lounge). One of my favorite bar snacks is the mozzarella and green chile stuffed naan. At $4, it’s hard to beat, and its filling and delicious! Recently though, the owners decided to start offering $1 tapas in the lounge, so sampling some of those was on the agenda this visit.

While the staff was a little flustered at the onset of this Saturday night due to the sudden surge of folks hitting the lounge, they never once lost their composure. The tapas are not your traditional Spanish style tapas, and neither are they something you would find on most Indian restaurant menus. The dishes don’t come out all at once, and this is one thing I think could be fixed, BUT I also kind of enjoyed the one or two plates coming up at a time.

So, a buck for individual tapas? It is actually a pretty great deal as some of the tapas are pretty filling. The Chicken Takatini Pizza, while a bit on the cold side, was sweet and savory at the same time. The Cheese and Mushroom Samosa was one of the better things I’ve eaten in a while, but do yourself a favor and order 2 as they are a bit on the small side (Hey, it is a DOLLAR!). On the other side of things though, the mini cheese dosa, a crispy crepe filled with potato and cheese was a pretty hearty size, much bigger than I would have expected for the price, and pretty tasty too! The dollar dish that stole my heart though was the Shrimp Chat, which was a cold shrimp and cucumber salad served in a crispy roti bowl, that was about 2-3 bites big. While that was my favorite, the lamb slider was fawned over by everyone else in my party, and was compared to a mini version of the Cellar burger I had written about previously.

So if you want to hang out in a futuristic setting and eat not quite traditional tapas that only cost a dollar a piece, Diva Lounge is your spot. It gets pretty crowded on weekends, so I would say if you want a mellow experience, hit em up on a weekday!

Diva Lounge
248 Elm St
Somerville, MA, 02144

Chicken Fingers……..yeah.

Finding out that there was a new chicken finger restaurant (really!?) opening up near my work had me, well I kinda didn’t care much at all really. Then to find out that it was a national chain, something that I am inherently against (unless you are Taco Bell or Popeye’s Chicken, I will love you both forever), I was just kind of disappointed. However, the Raising Cane’s now located on the BU west campus decided to hand out a coupon for a free meal the day before open so of course I am not going to pass that up, right?

Right.

Me and some pals and a complete stranger went in and were greeted by a super friendly staff who was eager to make each person’s trip enjoyable. I mean, these folks were anxious. If the sweet tea doesn’t give you diabetes, they just might! Anyway the menu basically consists of 4 combo meals. That is it. They have 3 times the beverage options, but only 4 meals to choose from. Each combo comes with side of coleslaw, some fries, texas toast, and their famous “Cane’s sauce”. The combo options are 4 chicken fingers, 3 chicken fingers, 6 chicken fingers, and a chicken finger sandwich. Notice a pattern? They don’t have anything else. But they do have fountain drinks, sweet tea, unsweetened iced tea, and “fresh squeezed” lemonade. Even though our meals were free, the meal I got would be over $10, and all of the combos were in the $7-10 range.

So the food wasn’t all that bad, or not nearly as bad as I had expected, but it really wasn’t as good as the people who were working there were building it up to be. The downside was the “Cane’s Sauce” which really didn’t add much flavor to the pretty darn juicy chicken fingers. I would have much preferred a ranch or a honey mustard (which, while they have it, someone at our table got it and an employee was so distraught about her not trying the Cane’s sauce that he went and got some so she could try it). The chicken fingers themselves, yeah they were really moist and with a really good crisp, but the flavor just wasn’t there. It needed some more seasoning in the batter. The fries were right out of your oven, McCain style, or out of your high school cafeteria. The cole slaw, well I rather liked it but you would be hard pressed to find one that I wasn’t that into. Again, it could have used a bit more seasoning but what can you do. The texas toast, though, this was the winner. I wish I had gotten 6 pieces of this rather than the 6 pieces of chicken that I did eat (yeah I got the big one).

In the end, is Raising Cane’s a viable lunch option? Sure, if you REALLY crave chicken fingers and not much else. Its hard to tear down their idea though, as they have locations that apparently have been successful all over the country. Only time will tell if the city will embrace this type of a place, but as for now I think I’ll keep my distance, knowing full well the best chicken fingers in the world are in Manchester, NH.

Raising Cane’s
945 Commonwealth Ave
Boston, MA

Sushi in Allston

I wanted to like the place. Then I wanted to hate the place. In the end, I left satisfied. Fish Market is a new mid-range sushi joint located in Allston, providing pretty damn good quality sushi for a decent price. I was surprised the place wasn’t more packed when I went, but I guess it was a Wednesday night.

My buddy Omar recommended Fish Market to the internet and spoke wonders of their Crispy Spicy Tuna roll. As I walked into the nicely decorated restaurant and took my seat at the sushi bar, the waitress handed me a menu and I was a little shocked at the prices. Granted, I’ve mostly been eating at Bluefin and the sushi counter in Porter Exchange, so I’ve gotten to be a bit spoiled when it comes to price. I decided to choose the Sushi Deluxe entrée, which is 8 pieces of sushi and a spicy tuna roll. I asked the waitress if I could upgrade the spicy tuna roll to the crispy spicy tuna, and she was a bit hesitant. Eventually she asked the sushi chef, and he said he didn’t know, so she went to the back and came out saying “Sorry.” I was a bit confused. I had offered to pay extra to have the upgrade, and as far as I could tell (since I could see everything) none of the food was pre-made. How hard would it be to charge me $4 extra to get the special roll? And what about next time if I’m not in the mood for the spicy tuna roll? No where on the menu did it say no substitutions, but rather than get up and leave I stayed hoping that the food would make up for the minor inconvenience that had me stewing.

And it did in a big way. The gyoza (fried) were outstanding. And the regular spicy tuna roll was pretty good, but the Sushi itself was what really sold me. I cannot think of a better piece of salmon sushi. I honestly was blown away by the quality of every piece I ate. I took a risk in ordering the entrée as I usually just stick to the same 5-6 things, but my world was expanded into new things. The 8 pieces that came were tuna, salmon, sea bass, surf clam, yellowtail, fluke, squid and unagi. The squid was one of my favorites, coming wrapped in Japanese mint which was pretty awesome. The unagi was just the way I like it, drizzled in the sweetened soy sauce and sprinkled with sesame seeds (something that neither Bluefin nor the sushi counter do and it always makes me sad). The fish was fresh. Again, I’ve eaten sushi all over the place and I can’t think of a better meal at a local place, low end or high, that could top the meal that I had at Fish Market. Even the new sushi chef, who came over halfway through, apologized for not making the upgrade (yet still offering no reason as to why not). To finish the meal off, the crispy fried sesame ice cream hit the spot.

So, not a perfect visit to a new restaurant, but it seems like they are still working out some kinks. No matter what issues I had with the substitutions not being made, the food really stood up for the place as a whole, and I don’t think you can find a better sushi place for the price anywhere in this city.

Fish Market
170 Brighton Ave
Allston, MA 02134

I ate this, you want it, shut up.

I feel like a fool. I hate to admit it, but I do. I’ve been hearing about Speed’s Hot Dogs for oh I dunno at least 5 or 6 years now. As a notorious hot dog fanatic, I brushed off everyone’s claim that it was the best hot dog in town. Pfft, I thought, I make a better hot dog at home than I’ve ever gotten at a restaurant.

I was wrong.

Speed’s cart is famous. I’m not going to go into a ton of history, it’s all easy enough to find, but I will say it is the best hot dog I’ve had outside of my own home. Nah, scratch that, ever. This oversized beef dog is sweet and salty, split down the middle on a grilled bun, and (if you get the loaded dog as I was instructed to by Jared [HI JARED]) just loaded with raw onions, home made mustard, relish, and their special sauce. The special sauce is a bean-less chili like you would expect in the Midwest and is great. The real treat here besides the dog and, oh I dunno, everything else, is the relish. I haven’t had anything like it. Super sweet and fruity, not a pickle based relish like I am used to, and hell the darn stuff was purple! I loved it so much I made a comment and the guy behind the counter came over and loaded my dog down with even more of the sweet syrupy stuff, only adding to the mess this dog makes.

I’m not playing games, don’t be like me. Go to Speed’s and eat the best hot dog in the Boston area.

Speed’s
42 Newmarket Square
Roxbury, MA
617-839-0102

Italian done right in Cambridge

I recently completed a course on the History of the North End in Boston, and with it came me eating at a variety of different eateries there. While the quality was pretty hit or miss, the high prices were pretty much the same all across the board.  One day as a treat, we had a guest speaker named Stefano Selimbeni, an Italian born journalist covering the news in America for an Italian news station.  Everyone in the class had one thing in mind for the native Italian, and that was “Where is your favorite place to eat in the North End.”  Stefano kept dodging the question until he said something along the lines of “I won’t say which places to go or not to go in the North End, but the best Italian food I’ve had was at Gran Gusto in Cambridge.”   My interest peaked, I set out for a meal as soon as I could, and was not let down.

The friendly and knowledgeable staff helped us decide by offering up some awesome sounding specials.   We started with some Italian cheese on a bed of spinach, and then hit the main courses with much fervor.   The Pappardella In Polpa D’Astice (homemade pasta with lobster in a fra diavolo sauce) was pretty much one of the best things ever.  The lobster meat was very fine, but also very flavorful and added a great texture to the dish.  The Risotto Nettuno, their seafood risotto was creamy and rich, with calamari, shrimp, and scallops finely mixed into the rice.  The item that won the table over though, was the Lasagnetta Di Melenzane.  The al dente lasagna noodles were baked to a nice crispiness that complemented the eggplant, mozzarella, and tomato and basil sauce.  The dish had a comforting creaminess that isn’t often found in a baked pasta dish, but it was there and the flavors were just spot on.  Also be aware that they have gluten free pastas for anyone you know who has an allergy.  The desserts were no laughing matter, but seeing as they change almost daily, I’ll just say go and give them a shot on your own and take my word for it.

The thing about Gran Gusto that makes them stand out is their attention to the details.  Every dish was presented in an elegant but homey way that just begged you to eat it.  The location, while a bit odd as it is in a mall of sorts, was great.  Their outdoor patio dining during the warmer days was a great option, but the inside is decorated pretty rustically as well.  While it wasn’t the North End, the food was some of the best compared to the dozens of restaurants I’ve had there, the prices were a lot less than most of the places in the North End.

Gran Gusto
90 Sherman St
Cambridge, MA 02140

The burger that teaches you how to love again

After years and years of eating burgers, you get accustomed to the flavor. Sure most of them are juicy, the cheese melty, the buns soft yet buttery, but after a while you just kind of take the burger for granted. You forget to tell it how you feel, you start playing more video games, maybe pay a bit more attention to the hot dog place down the street knowing full well that the burger just isn’t going to go anywhere.

But then, seemingly out of nowhere, a burger pops up into your life that shows you how wrong you were. Burgers aren’t just burgers, they can be SO MUCH MORE! And really, the burger at The Cellar in between Harvard and Central squares has taught me how to love again.

The expectations were high, as I had heard many MANY great things about this burger. Some said it was the best in the city, others the world. So after much hype I went in, ordered a Boddingtons and one these burgers I’ve heard so much about.

When it came over, the $10 masterpiece looked amazing (I wish my photo represented it better, but let me tell you the thing looked like a work of art). Made of grass fed local ground beef, topped with Vermont cheddar, arugula lettuce, a garlic aioli and set onto a beautiful brioche bun, I could not wait to bite into this thing. The aioli, let me tell you, holds this sandwich together, but as a whole the overall package really was just something out of this world. It was a burger like no other I had ever experience. I sat and ate it slowly, really getting into the complexities of the flavor. Cooked perfectly as per my specifications, medium rare, it was juicy and I wouldn’t let any of the juice get wasted. The arugula adds a great crispness, sure, but it also adds a whole other flavor profile that blends in so perfectly with the just right melted cheddar on top. While I am not really one to talk about fries, the rosemary truffle fries that came on the side were a welcome addition to the whole plate. The only complaint was that the dish came with ketchup to dip the fries in instead of say more of the aioli.

If a burger has broken your heart recently and you are reluctant to let another burger in, or if you are just tired of the same old super processed, uber lackluster meat and cheese burgers that are out there, shake your booty all the way over to the Cellar on any night but a Monday (those nights you should hit up the Plough and Stars anyway [shameless plug shameless plug]) and let this tasty little patty into your heart and let it show you that a burger can be, and is, so much more than just some meat stuffed between a bun.

The Garden at the Cellar
991 Mass Ave
Cambridge, MA

Tempura Fried Savings!

This past week my parents, aunt, cousin, some family friends and I took a trip to the pretty crazy Medieval Manor in the South End for my Dad’s Birthday.  We got to the area about two hours before doors started and we needed something to do so hey, why not get some snacks and some drinks and get a bit full and loose before a 5 course meal loaded with beer, right?  Oishii, on Washington Street, provided us a pretty nice patio and a treat I did not expect from such a fancy place; a really inexpensive tempura menu!

While I would have loved to have had some sushi, this meal was totally on the folks so I wanted to stay relatively cheap, and I have never been one to turn down anything fried, so we hit the menu pretty hard, getting everything from the tempura fried avocado (which was really good) to the lobster (which unfortunately, was my least favorite).  The best one we had though had to be the Sweet Potato, which was just perfectly fried and provided a salty crunch and a sweetness that played really well together.

The best part about these crispy little guys was the price, with most of the veggie items costing around $2 , and the seafood ones being around $5 (though the shrimp runs you $10, you get 2 pieces).  So if you are a little light in the wallet but want a good snack on a pretty nice patio full of all kinds of awesome people watching (and some radical dogs too), Oishii might be the spot for you.

Oishii 3
1166 Washington Street
Boston, MA 02218