Category Archives: RC

September RC was a little bittersweet as we had to wish one of our founding members and dearest friends a bon voyage as she heads off to Las Vegas.

As usual, we started out with several appetizers for the table:

• Caprese salad
• Chicken meatballs ($2 a ball)
• Littlenecks in white wine, garlic, and olive oil
• Arancini
• Stuffed artichoke

My favorite appetizers were the arancini and the littlenecks, and I think that was because the sauce with each of these dishes were so fantastic. Definitely worth saving some room for dipping bread into both the marinara sauce and the white wine, garlic, and olive oil. The stuffed artichoke was confusing to eat (as artichokes usually are), and the chicken meatballs were an odd color.

Littlenecks

Arancini

For dinner, I ordered the chicken bracciola with homemade fusilli (chicken breast stuffed with prosciutto, Swiss cheese, and homemade sun-dried tomatoes). The fusilli was my favorite part of the dish, so next time I should probably just order pasta. We also heard that the fried mashed potatoes were delicious so we ordered a few side orders to really put us in a food coma.

Chicken bracciola

Fried mashed potatoes and veg

Some other comments from the RC’ers included

• “cheap beer”
• “don’t get the stuffed veal chop”
• “chicken marsala was fair”
• “sturdy to go bags” (I can’t make this stuff up)…helpful since the portions are huge

Great pick Paetra…we will miss you! Here’s hoping for a RC reunion in Vegas sometime soon!

The damage:
$43 per person, including gratuity (and we did have a $50 Groupon)

The rundown:
Vinny’s Ristorante
76 Broadway, Somerville

RC went on a field trip to Rhode Island this month, for an all-you-can-eat lobster buffet at the Nordic Lodge. Now I’m not usually a fan of buffets, but I was all in for a lobster buffet.

Driving down to Charlestown, we were having second thoughts about the idea of driving two hours each way for dinner. And when we got off the highway, we were all wondering “Where are we?” But we made it, and you could tell this was quite a destination place as there was a big tour bus in the parking lot when we got there at 5:30 and it was already pretty crowded. The grounds were beautiful, complete with a pond and some sort of petting zoo area (though we didn’t see what types of animals were available for petting). There were also hammocks that would have been nice to stretch out in for a food-coma-induced nap.

It is $85 per person for an all-you-can-eat buffet, with a two hour eating limit. This includes tip and non-alcoholic beverages. We splurged on some wine as well.

The placemats had a map to help you navigate the buffet, which was super helpful. Though I spent most of my time at the seafood bar (lobster, crab legs, peel-and-eat shrimp), there was so much more than that! I didn’t even make it to the grill room which had prime rib, filet mignon, and other fried seafood goodies.

The map

Some of us had grand ambitions to attempt to eat three lobsters, but I maxed out at two, plus a visit to the dessert buffet as well!

Round 1

The bear did not join us for dinner, but we had a pretty good crew who made the trip. Great pick Julie!

The Rundown:
Nordic Lodge
178 E Pasquisett Trail, Charlestown, RI

This month we headed to The Painted Burro for Restaurant Club, which is in the space where Gargoyle’s on the Square used to be. It was probably the noisiest RC we’ve had, which made it a little difficult to hear each other…but it was nice to not be the only loud and lively group. Sometimes we get dirty looks for being too loud.

• Fundido – one with chorizo, one with veggies
• Guacamole “el mero mero” with pork belly and roasted grape tomato
• Empanada with local goat
• Ceviche del mar
• Appetizer special – shrimp with house-made cocktail sauce

• Yucatan Meatloaf – sirloin stuffed with chorizo, ham, chicharron, green olives and toasted almonds, topped with 2 fried eggs, and served with housemade mole sauce (that’s a whole lotta meat)
• Chicken enchiladas
• Chile rellenos filled with peaches, apricots, and cheese and topped with toasted walnut mole

The rundown:
The Painted Burro
219 Elm Street, Somerville (Davis Square)

We went to PARK Restaurant and Bar in Harvard Square for June RC. Not only did we eat well (as we always do), we also drank well as they had Triennes rose on the menu. Delicious!

After some reminiscing about The Redline, which was previously in this space, we started by sharing the feta-watermelon salad, lobster and crab dip, salt and pepper shrimp, and bacon three ways.

Feta-watermelon salad

Bacon three ways

For my entree, I ordered the “meat pie of the day”, which was short rib and mushrooms. It looked like a loaf of bread and was ginormous. I definitely had those leftovers for a few days. Unfortunately, I was not a fan of the mushy peas on the side.

Meat pie o’ the day

And since there is always room for dessert we shared a fruit crumble, chocolate dessert (I’m sure it has a fancier name than that), and a local cheese board.

Great pick Wanda!


The rundown:
PARK Restaurant and Bar (I couldn’t find a web site, so this links to their Facebook page)
59 JFK Street, Cambridge

This month we traveled all the way to Southie for RC, to Local 149. There also happened to be a Best Buddies silent auction and raffle going on the night we were there. One of the silent auction items was a year’s supply of Kashi cereal…and I immediately knew who was going to “win” that.

We ordered several starters to share, including fried brussel sprouts, tater tots poutine (with a fried quail egg and bacon), fried mac and cheese fritters, fried pickles, and chicken and waffles. I think there was a “fried” theme to this meal! Of all the fried goodies we tried, the mac and cheese fritters were my favorite.

I was excited to try the chicken and waffles since it has become quite popular and is even on the Food List Challenge (100 foods to eat before you die). I wouldn’t have wanted to eat a whole plate of it (it was on the menu as an entree), but I’m so glad I got to try it. And now I only have 32 foods left on the list to try.

Chicken and waffles

For dinner, I had the chicken statler with preserved lemon BBQ, Boston lettuce, apple, blue cheese, and walnut. I liked this chicken better than the chicken and waffles chicken.

Statler chicken

For dessert we tried the Dark and Stormy ice cream sammie (ginger ice cream, lime sugar, cookies and rum), S’mores pie, and Fried fluffer nutter. The ice cream sammie was my favorite.

Fluffer nutter dessert

If I lived in Southie, I’d probably be a regular at this spot. Great pick Kendrin, and congrats on winning all the Kashi cereal!

Winner winner chicken dinner

The rundown:
Local 149
149 P Street, South Boston

This month it was my turn to pick the Restaurant Club spot and I made everyone cross the river into Cambridge to try Moksa.


What do you do when there are 10 people who want to try everything on the menu? We decided that everyone would get to choose one dish and we’d order two of everything and share. We ate all of that and then ordered a couple of extra items that we just couldn’t leave without trying. It was an Asian street-food feast! No Patricia Yeo sighting, but we did have a lovely server named Jonathan who gave us dessert on the house. Here’s what we tried (hopefully I remembered them all)…


Raw & Chilled
Thai Green Mango & Papaya Salad, Peanuts
Vietnamese Rice Paper Roll, Spicy Tuna


Dumplings, Wraps & Other Goodies
Crab rangoon (real crab! no cream cheese!)
Vegetable dumplings
Berkshire pork potstickers
Chicken and mushroom wontons


Stuffed Roti
Shortrib roti


Noodles
Silver pin noodles, Snow Tofu, and Snow Peas
Kim chi noodle knots & shellfish


Rice
Bi Bim Bap: Korean Baked Rice & Pork Belly


From the Grill
Lamb meatballs
Liver wrapped in bacon
Grilled pork belly


Sides
Sauteed watercress with garlic


Desserts
Gingerbread cake with mascarpone cream and sake spiced pears
Brownie sundae (I know there was cardamom involved, but I can’t remember all the details)
Ginger molasses ice cream


The rundown:
Moksa
450 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge

Tikka Kabob

Another tasty tradition my friends and I started circa 2006 is Restaurant Club, also known as RC. Every month we take turns picking a new, newish, or new to us restaurant to try. It’s given us a chance to explore different neighborhoods, try new foods (grasshopper! haggis!), and have an excuse to get together. Someday I’ll post the list of restaurants that we’ve been trying to recreate.

Crumbs!

March was Mark’s pick and we traveled to Ariana, an Afghan restaurant in Allston. We started by sharing the Kaddo and Aushak appetizers. Kaddo is baby pumpkin and it’s featured pretty regularly on the menu. For my entree I had the Tikka Kabob (beef prime rib marinated in a puree of onions, sundried baby grapes and garlic, then grilled and served with sauteed lentils and pallow rice) for my entree, and I cleaned my plate!

We also tried the Sheerberaing (rice pudding) and Bucklawa (baklava) for dessert…but the best dessert was the Crumbs cupcakes Wanda brought for everyone to try!

The rundown:
Ariana Restaurant
129 Brighton Ave, Allston

Crumbs Bake Shop
176 Federal Street, Boston