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Places I’ve been to recently:

Island Creek Oyster Bar: This is a new addition to the Hotel Commonwealth. It has an amazing selection of oysters and extremely good cocktails. Their cocktails are reminiscent of those at Craigie on Main and their oyster selection rivals that at B&G or Neptune. Reportedly, their cooked menu is supposed to be good as well, though I didn’t get a chance to try it. That being said, I think B&G and Neptune are on average cheaper than this place, depending on the type of oysters ordered. They both do a flat rate (something like $2.65 or so) per oyster while at Island Creek the prices vary between $2 and $3.50. However, Island Creek is a significantly larger space, so it’s more likely to have seating on a Saturday night.

Oishii Boston: I believe I’ve mentioned this place before, but I’m bringing it back up again because I went there recently and had fugu for the first time. I haven’t died yet. I was underwhelmed with the actual taste of fugu, but I think it was worth it for the experience. Some of the tastier pieces of sashimi I had this time included baby hamachi and fatty salmon.

EVOO: Innovative, tasty food. The fried oysters were delicious, as was the “Duck, Duck, Goose” entree.

Katana-ya: Yes, this place is in San Francisco. I’ve been in California far too much recently. I waited almost an hour on a Saturday night for a seat. Their Katana-ya ramen was pretty interesting, but I think I’ve had better miso broth elsewhere. Also, the lack of vinegar as a ramen condiment made me sad.

I recently went to Basho, an izakaya near Fenway. The interior was very large and trendy looking, complete with a crazy light display behind the sushi bar and fake bamboo. The overall effect was somewhat disconcerting, as I generally expect izakayas to be smaller, more intimate spaces. Also, as is typical for an izakaya, it had a long, confusing menu with a lot of different options with a lot of small plates and appetizer size portions. However, this place tried really hard to make its long confusing menu not as confusing by including a lot of explanatory text and had a note assuring the reader that he could summon one of the wait staff to explain the options and help plan a meal. I imagine this was a feature for the largely non-Japanese clientele but I personally found it rather confusing, probably because it was a confusing reversal of expectations.

Confusion about the ambiance aside, the food was very good. We ordered a bunch of skewers of various meats and vegetables, and they were all delicious, though could have benefited from a heat lamp to keep them warm before serving. We also got some special rolls and the foie gras teriyaki, which were also quite tasty. Also, there was a good selection of sake at what looked to be pretty reasonable prices. Overall: confusing atmosphere, tasty food.

There used to be this hot pot restaurant in Quincy called Little Q. Last year, they closed down because they lost their retail space. However, they’ve recently reopened as Q Restaurant in Chinatown. I went and checked it out today.

The space is extremely trendy, which I find very strange for a Chinese hot pot place. It’s probably because I’m used to Chinese hot pot being in hole in the wall locations or buffet places like the one I’ve written about previously. I was pretty curious about how Q Restaurant would be able to compete with Hot Pot Buffet, seeing as it’s at a significantly higher price point. The answer appears to be higher quality meats (the USDA prime beef practically melted in my mouth), serving sushi, and generally being a trendier place. For example, there was an extensive cocktail menu and a full bar. The cocktails I tried were extremely tasty and quite innovative. Also, the service is way more attentive.

As for the food, the meats were all very good. The seafood platter had some fish cuts that looked like they were secretly supposed to be for nigiri and I wonder if they use the same fish for it. The broths were varied and interesting. Overall, it was delicious and I’ll definitely be going back.

This weekend, I went on some food adventures.

On Saturday, I had some traditional Rhode Island food. I started out with some pork pies and then moved on to grilled pizza. I then finished with some frozen lemonade.

On Sunday, I went up to Salem and went to A Passage to India which apparently also has a branch in Somerville that doesn’t get nearly as good ratings. However, this discrepancy may be caused by the apparent lack of Indian food on the north shore. I then got a drink at The Old Spot, which had an excellent selection of draft beers.

I sort of forgot to blog until just now, so this is going to be a short entry. I went to a hot pot buffet place on Friday. It’s somewhat new, is in Chinatown, and is called (rather unimaginatively) Hot Pot Buffet. It’s a buffet, so you can order as much food as you want, generally in the form of raw stuff that is cooked in the hot pot at the center of the table. They give you a menu to order items off of. The menu is generally pretty comprehensible for ordering things, but does contain some strange translations, demonstrated in the picture below.

After some use of google, I learned that Benincasa Hispida is winter melon, Pleurotus Eryngii is a type of mushroom, and Crowndaisy Chrysanthemum appears to be some sort of green.

They have another version of the menu that makes more sense and it’s currently sort of nondeterministic which one you get. I think the other version of the menu has better translation but has some questionable organizational choices. However, aside from this fairly minor issue, this place is very good. It has tasty hotpot and a reasonable tactic to avoid being confused by the menu is to just order one of everything.