Restaurant Reviews

Chuck and I have been really good the past two weeks about staying home and cooking dinner rather than eating out. Yes, I know, some of you who know me well probably just fell out of your chairs. WE'VE COOKED. Real food! Not one box of shells and cheese (my college dinner of choice) has made its way into our kitchen yet. But, with that being said, we have also allowed ourselves to get out an explore the local Boston cuisine a few times too. While nothing has been comparable yet to my beloved Havana Rumba, we've had some pretty tasty meals. Here is the run-down of where we've been thus far.

Legal Seafoods: Legal Seafoods is a chain restaurant that a lot of people have probably heard of before. However, the first Legal restaurant was opened here in Cambridge, so I like to pretend it's a Boston-only place even though I know you can get it all up and down the east coast. Chuck and I went here with our parents on our first Sunday in town. I had shrimp and it was pretty great. My mom and Chuck's dad both went all out and got huge lobsters which they both seemed to really enjoy. Personally I think they just wanted to wear the cool lobster bibs. ;)

John Harvard's Brewery & Ale House: Chuck and I have been here twice already since we moved in. Once we were with his parents, and the second time we were with a lot of the LGOs on their final Saturday night before classes started. The food is OK but I think most people go there for the beer and atmosphere. The place is located right in the middle of Harvard Square and has a cool history. (Click on the link for the history). If you are ever in Cambridge and touring around Harvard, you should stop in at John Harvard's, mainly just to say you did.

Joe's American Bar & Grill: So the night before Chuck started class, I told him we should go out to eat to celebrate his last night of freedom for the next two years. He agreed, so I started looking into restaurants in this area of town called Back Bay. We were kind of craving Italian, so I found a place called Ciao Bella that sounded good.  Well when we finally got to Back Bay and found it, the place was closed and had a sign that said "Ciao Bella is currently under renovation and will re-open in September," or something along those lines. Figures! Since we were starving we decided to just eat at the next closest restaurant we found, and that turned out to be Joe's. Joe's is a chain but only in the Northeast I'm pretty sure. The food here was DELICIOUS. Especially the bread they give you while you wait for your food. I ordered an angel hair pasta with thinly sliced peppers, carrots and other vegetables, all covered in some kind of  light, lemony sauce. It was SO good. Chuck ordered a spicy pasta with vegetables and it was also very good. I think there's a good chance we'll visit Joe's again. Especially because they give you so much food, we both brought home boxes and ate the leftovers for lunch the next day!

Border Cafe: This restaurant, also in Harvard Square, was also found by accident. One of our best friends, Branden, came in town on Thursday and it was my duty to entertain him until Chuck was out of class. We went to Harvard Square and looked for a place to eat. We turned a corner and saw a sign that said "Mint Julep," so we naturally felt drawn to it, sure that it was a restaurant whose specialty drink was the Official Kentucky Derby drink, the Mint Julep. Well, apparently they are confused about the drink up here in Boston because the place turned out to be a women's clothing boutique. So we asked the employees of the falsely advertised boutique where we could get a good bite to eat, and they recommended Border Cafe, right up the street. Border Cafe was good, but I'm not sure how to describe it. They describe it on their website as "authentic tex-mex and cajun cookin.'" It seems they may have a slight identity crisis going on like the Mint Julep people, but oh well. It's not every day you can go somewhere and order a chicken quesadilla with a side of jambalaya! The food was good, so I'll definitely make Chuck go back with me so he can try it.

Five Horses Tavern: Another restaurant we just happened to stumble upon. We found this one yesterday while exploring an area of Cambridge off the T stop at Davis Square. Chuck was drawn to the word "horses"in the name because it was the day of the Belmont Stakes and well, we are from Kentucky so we naturally just gravitate towards anything that might make us feel like we are in the Bluegrass State.  (See previous Mint Julep incident.)  The place is definitely more alcohol oriented than food oriented, which was unfortunate for us because we didn't feel like drinking. Their drink menu is probably ten times the size of their food menu. They have any type of Whisky you could ever ask for and all of their cocktails are named after race horses. For instance, one of their temporary cocktails was called "I'll Have Another." Their food is all modern american food and locally sourced. We got a cheese plate and the waitress told us exactly what farms the cheese came from in Vermont.  Our food was just OK and service was pretty slow, so I don't think I'd go back to this place unless it was just for drinks with a group of people or something.