Where to Dine - Boston 2009 - page 118

your server. On Friday after 8pm, a live pianist leads sing-along night, which has
something of a chicken-and-egg connection to the huge selection of beers on tap.
31-37 Stuart St. & 617/338-8586. www.jacobwirth.com. Reservations recommended at dinner. Main courses $8-
$28 (most items less than $20). AE, DC, DISC, MC, V. Tues-Thurs 11:30am-11pm; Fri-Sat 11:30am-midnight; Sun
11:30am-8pm. Validated parking available. T: Green Line to Boylston or Orange Line to New England Medical Center.

Peach Farm SEAFOOD/CANTONESE/SZECHUAN Chinatown's go-to place
for fresh seafood is a subterranean hideaway with no decor to speak of. You won't be
looking around much anyway—the service is so fast that just saying “calamari” seems
to make spicy dry-fried salted squid appear on your table. Gobble it up while it's hot,
then turn to the delicious dishes that follow in lightning-quick order: messy clams with
black-bean sauce, braised chicken hot pot, an emerald-green pile of stir-fried pea-pod
stems. Spicy salt shrimp—you can eat them whole, shells, heads, and all—is only the
most recent commendable dish I've tried here; my favorite is that same spicy salt prepa-
ration applied to meltingly tender scallops. Fair warning to the soft-hearted: Order the
Cantonese classic fresh fish steamed with ginger and scallions, and the waiter brings the
poor creature to your table thrashing in a plastic bucket; it reappears moments later,
perfectly cooked. Peach Farm is virtually indistinguishable from the rest of the little
restaurants that dot Chinatown's narrow side streets, except that it's so crowded—savvy
locals and celebratory groups fill both compact dining rooms every night.
4 Tyler St. & 617/482-3332. Reservations recommended for large groups at dinner. Main courses $5-$34 (most
items less than $15); fresh seafood market price. MC, V. Daily 11am-3am. T: Orange Line to Chinatown.
INEXPENSIVE
Buddha's Delight VEGETARIAN/VIETNAMESE Fresh and healthy
intersect with cheap and filling at this busy restaurant. Brave the run-down stairwell,
ask for a table near the window, and be ready to experiment. The menu lists “chicken,”
“shrimp,” “pork,” and even “lobster”—in quotes because the kitchen doesn't use meat,
poultry, fish, or dairy (some beverages have condensed milk). The chefs fry and bar-
becue tofu and gluten into more-than-reasonable facsimiles using techniques owner
Cuong Van Tran learned from Buddhist monks in a temple outside Los Angeles.
Between trying to figure out how they do it and savoring Vietnamese cuisine's strong,
clear flavors, you might not miss your usual protein. To start, try fried “pork”
dumplings or a delectable salad. Move on to “shrimp” with rice noodles, any of the
house specialties, or excellent chow fun.
3 Beach St., 2nd floor. & 617/451-2395. Main courses $6-$13; lunch specials $6.50. MC, V. Sun-Thurs 11am-
9:30pm, Fri-Sat 11am-10:30pm. T: Orange Line to Chinatown.

Value

9 The South End
VERY EXPENSIVE
Hamersley's Bistro FRENCH/AMERICAN This is the place that put the
South End on Boston's culinary map, a pioneering restaurant (it opened in 1987) that's
both classic and contemporary. It's one of the most beloved special-occasion restaurants
in the Boston area yet somehow manages to feel like a neighborhood hangout, mostly
thanks to the huge volume of repeat business. The husband-and-wife team of Gordon
and Fiona Hamersley presides over a long dining room with lots of soft surfaces that
absorb sound, so you can see but not quite hear what's going on at the tables around
you. That means you'll have to quiz one of the courteous servers about the dish that
just passed by—perhaps a starter of rabbit pâté or smoked-trout salad with beets.