Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
How Sweet It Is
What a world! The low-carb craze just won't go away, but a place with the
delightfully unsubtle name
Sugar Heaven
is thriving. The self-serve calorie cas-
tle at 218 Newbury St. (
&
617/266-6969;
www.sugarheaven.us) carries hun-
dreds of confections, makes its own cotton candy, and stays open till midnight
daily. That sound you hear is your dentist whimpering.
Finds
In the Colonnade Hotel, 120 Huntington Ave.
&
617/425-3240.
www.brasseriejoboston.com. Reservations recom-
mended at dinner. Main courses $6-$15 at lunch, $15-$27 at dinner; plats du jour $18-$32. AE, DC, DISC, MC, V.
Mon-Fri 6:30am-11pm; Sat 7am-11pm; Sun 7am-10pm; late-night menu daily until 1am. Valet and garage parking
available. T: Green Line E to Prudential.
INEXPENSIVE
The Boston Public Library, 700 Boylston St. (
&
617/536-5400;
www.bpl.org), is
home to a restaurant,
Novel,
that serves lunch and afternoon tea on weekdays only,
and the self-service
Sebastian's Map Room Café,
which serves meals and snacks
Monday through Saturday from 9am to 5pm.
Café Jaffa
MIDDLE EASTERN/MEDITERRANEAN A long, narrow brick
room with a glass front, Café Jaffa looks more like a snazzy pizza place than the excel-
lent Middle Eastern restaurant it is. The reasonable prices, high quality, and large por-
tions draw hordes of students and other thrifty diners for traditional Middle Eastern
offerings such as falafel, baba ghanouj, and hummus, as well as burgers and steak tips.
Lamb, beef, and chicken kabobs come with Greek salad, rice pilaf, and pita bread. For
dessert, try the baklava if it's fresh (give it a pass if not).
48 Gloucester St.
&
617/536-0230.
Main courses $5-$18. AE, DC, DISC, MC, V. Mon-Thurs 11am-10:30pm; Fri-Sat
11am-11pm; Sun 1-10pm. T: Green Line B, C, or D to Hynes Convention Center.
11 Kenmore Square to Brookline
EXPENSIVE
Ginza Japanese Restaurant
(p. 119) has a branch at 1002 Beacon St., Brookline
(
&
617/566-9688
). Unlike the Boston location, the Brookline restaurant doesn't
cater to a wee-hours crowd; its late nights are Friday and Saturday, when closing time
is 1:30am (which is very late for Brookline).
The Elephant Walk
FRENCH/CAMBODIAN France meets Cambodia on
the menu at this madly popular spot, 4 blocks from Kenmore Square and decorated
with lots of pachyderms. The menu is French on one side and Cambodian on the other,
but the boundary is quite porous. Many Cambodian dishes have part-French names,
such as
poulet à la citronelle
(chicken sautéed with lemongrass) and
mee siem,
a tangle
of rice noodles, sliced omelet, tofu, chicken, and picture-perfect vegetables. My mouth
is still burning from
loc lac,
fork-tender beef cubes in addictively spicy sauce. On the
French side, you'll find
poulet rôti
(roasted chicken) and top-notch steak frites. Many
dishes are available with tofu substituted for animal protein, and this is one of the best
destinations in the Boston area if you can't have gluten. The pleasant staff members will
help if you need guidance. Ask to be seated in the plant-filled front room, which is less
noisy than the main dining room and has a view of the street.
Tip:
Sunday brunch,
which includes the prettiest omelets I've ever seen, is worth checking out.
