Milena P.'s Profile

I went here last night after failed attempts to get tables at the Cheesecake Factory and the Cactus Club or whatever that place is called. My friend and I were STARVING and wanted tons of food asap, so we ended up here. We'd never been so we had no idea what to expect.

The food was AMAZING, the portions were pretty big, and the prices are quite reasonable. Most of the stuff I saw on the menu was less than $10; I got pad thai and spring rolls for like $13. Not bad! I used to be very loyal to Pepper Sky's in Cambridge, but I noticed that their food doesn't taste the same every time. I think this place will become my new go-to Thai take-out place!

I came here for restaurant week with a friend, and we'd been both looking forward to it (especially me). We were seated promptly even though we were a couple of minutes early, but we weren't feeling our table. I hate being stuck in the back corner! It's easy for the waiter to miss you.

Still, the service was very good. Our glasses were always full and our plates were removed as soon as we were done, but we never felt rushed. As for the food, I had the bruschetta to start off. They come as a pair, with some zucchini and squash and tiny tomatoes that were sweet yet a little acidic. Totally perfect and they whetted my appetite quite nicely; I was looking forward to the rest of the meal. For the second course, I had the bistecca, which came with a wine sauce and some onions and a butter sauce on top. It was a huge hunk of steak, again cooked perfectly (I had it medium rare), very tender and juicy and turned to nothing in my mouth. Hands down, best steak I've had in a while. It was so big, I could only eat half of it, and I had the other half packed up so I can eat it when the mood strikes in a bit. We'd also ordered the eggplant gratinata and the waiter forgot about it, but when we pointed it out, he promptly went to the kitchen to get us one and didn't charge us for it, which I thought was a nice gesture.

Before our dessert, we ordered some coffee, a cappuccino for me and an espresso for my friend. They were both nice, and the foam on my cappuccino was so good and thick! For dessert, I had the panna cotta, which in my opinion was a big portion-- not that I complained, obviously. It was nice and creamy but I wish it had been a bit richer. However, it was complemented very well by the fresh berries on top. I enjoyed it but didn't finish it because I found the portion to be a bit big.

Overall, it was a very enjoyable experience and a place that I'd love to go to on a date. The ambiance was very nice, the place is elegant and simple and sexy, if one could say that about a place. Very solid experience!

I went here last night after about three months. Big disappointment, seriously. If I ever come back here, it definitely won't be my choice.

We had a reservation for 7:30, and we got there about ten minutes early. We checked in with the hostesses, and they said it'd be about 5 minutes. Which is fine, but these girls were A MESS. They got a party of 4 from the bar and were about to sit them, but then told them to wait and gave their table to someone else. That is quite unprofessional. Then, they sat these two girls who got there after us, and I stood there just brooding over having to wait. Finally, the hostesses got their act together and sat us.

Our waitress was a hot mess, and I mean that quite literally. It seems that whomever hires these waitresses (all girls) just goes for goo-looking girls, regardless of them being able to do their job. It took about 10 minutes for her to come over and take our drink order, and about another 10 to get our drinks. Then we ordered our entrees, and waited and waited. The people next to us got there later and ate first. I do not exaggerate when I say that a good 40 minutes went by from the moment we ordered to the moment we got our dishes. I had to loudly say that the food was taking FOR-EVER in front of the waitress so that she popped into the kitchen and came out with our food.

And when we finally got the food, it wasn't as good as I've had it before. I mean, Match is not terrific food, but this was far below their usual level of quality, I guess. My plate looked messy and sort of hastily thrown together. When we were done eating, it took forever for someone to clear our table.

By this time, it's probably around 9, and we really just want to get the hell out of there. The place was extremely loud, the service was horribly slow, and the food was less than satisfying. So we called our waitress over and asked for the check. Except it took her like a good 15 minutes to bring it over. Printing a bill takes no more than a minute and there was nobody else at the register (so it's not like it was busy), but she was just running around waiting for drinks at the bar, or serving entrees or something. I seriously wanted to just get up and leave without paying, because why the hell would we have to wait 15 minutes to pay?! Needless to say, girl did not work for her tip.

Overall, I'd think about it twice before coming back here again. The menu is just so uninspired and simple, and yet they can't get it right. The mashed potatoes are bland and lacking seasoning. The chicken I had was tender and juicy, but the "mushroom" sauce it came with-- well, that was just atrocious. That was like baby vomit or something, totally flavorless and chunky and gross. We got some fries to share, and these tasted like they came out of a bag in the freezer. Frozen fries are OK at the Cheesecake Factory, but for a place this trendy and expensive, I would've hoped for something more homemade-looking. If I were to pay regular price for this food, I would be very, very upset by the end of my meal.

I doubt I'll go back.

I came here last week with my Jewish food connoisseur friend for some friendly dinner time and to get some paperworkish stuff done for our dorm. He swore up and down the food was worth the commute, and talked about their potato pancakes for the entire 40-minute commute from MIT.

Well, I get it now. The bagel crispy things they start you off with are very good, and I thought it was creative and stuff. I had never seen those. The potato pancakes were a bit expensive in my opinion ($8.95 for 3 patties), but they were thick, perfectly browned and crispy on the outside, and deliciously soft on the inside. Paired with the sour cream, these were a dream.

For my entree, I got a Reuben sandwich. It was pretty good, although I must admit I like my Reubens a bit on the greasier side? But I guess that's not kosher here. The sauerkraut tasted different from what I've had before, but in a good way: it was a bit sweet and worked well with the corned beef!

My friend got a veggie burger, which, if you ask me, is totally boring when there's so many delicious sandwiches to get. But he's a vegetarian, so there you go.

The bill came up to $40 for the potato pancakes, our entrees, and drinks and tea for me. Not bad at all!

My only complaint is that apparently this place gets too packed. I don't think it's worth the wait at all. Also, a bit far for me, but that's my fault. Overall, I'd definitely go back if I was in the area and it wasn't packed.

Eating at the food trucks is an MIT tradition that I, as a rising junior, had never experienced and was never planning to. The food trucks look absolutely disgusting and unsanitary, so I always stuck to the student center food.

Until I tried Clover this week. I was a bit sick and didn't have the energy to go get real food, so my friend suggested we tried Clover, the nicer-looking food truck around here. We were greeted by a pretty young girl who explained everything to us and took out order. We both got the chickpea fritter sandwich which, she explained, was sort of falafel-ey, and to drink we got a lemonade.

The sandwich came out very quickly and was quite tasty and HUGE. It had some shredded carrots, some red cabbage, some onioney, tomatoey, cucumbery stuff that was weird but tasty, and the actual chickpea fritters were pretty damn good. The lemonade I was not a huge fan of. I had wanted to get the lavender lemonade (I am OBSESSED with anything and everything lavender), but they were out, so we got some other kind, and I was not satisfied. But still, it was a good lunch. We were stuffed by the time we were done eating.

The only downside (but not quite) is that Clover is expensive for food truck food. I mean, $5 at Goosebeary's gets you an entire meal-- rather disgusting food (I speak from experience, although some people actually like it), but food nonetheless. Here, $5 gets you a sandwich, and you have to pony up $2 for a drink, and $3 for fries.

Still, I would VERY MUCH rather eat at Clover, with their squeaky clean truck, their tasty and creative sandwiches, and knowing that my food is (relatively) far healthier than anything else I can get at a food truck. Also, it is still cheaper than most alternatives around, and ABP and Cosi have nothing on Clover. I will surely be back, since it's close to my building!

I am in LOVE with this place after having been introduced to it by my best friend. He took me here one Friday afternoon for lunch, which was a nice change from the UBurger we usually get.

The place is TINY. Like, 4 tables tiny. There is no booze. It looks like a take-out joint. The menu is laminated and you get a marker to circle your choices on it. The music is a crappy Top-40 station playing all day long. Everything about this place should be wrong.

But the sushi.... oh my, the sushi. It's cheap and tasty, and it comes out really fast. The lunch specials are very cheap, and they're also served on weekends (which a lot of places won't do). They also have weird-sounding appetizers and my friend and I always try a new one. Our faves for now are the tempura-ey papaya and the salom-wrapped banana thingies. Seriously, they sound weird, but I have dreams about those.

As for the sushi, I was not a spicy tuna girl until I came here. Theirs is chunky and not too mayo-ey, with the perfect amount of the bread crumbey things. The tuna carpaccio roll is out of this world. The yellowtail and scallion is also quite good. The mango wonton-wrapped shrimpey one is also quite good. The crazy roll is delicious, but I'll just eat anything with shrimp tempura anyway. The spicy scallop is also quite deelish.

And you can't beat the prices. I've walked out of here seriously stuffed (as in, can't-even-get-up stuffed) and having spent no more than $20 including tip. The normal rolls range from $4ish  like $9ish, and then there's the "special rolls" (all the fancy stuff) for a few bucks more.

But don't bring a girl here if you're on a first date. If a guy brought me here for our first date I'd get all WTF and want to leave. This is the sort of place to come to when you reach the point where you can fart next to each other and not be bothered by the hot gas warming up the bed right next to you.

I had walked past this place a couple of times but I'd never been in there. I tried it today, and liked the food but didn't really like the service. It seemed rushed and too busy/understaffed. Some people who got there after us got their dishes first. Oh, and they bring out the dishes as soon as they're ready, so your dining companions may get theirs before or after you and it's really awkward.

Still, if I was shopping at the Prudential or something, I'd go there for lunch.

So I found this place thanks to a former fling from Harvard who insisted on us meeting here for a beer. A couple of weeks later, I ditched the dude but kept this little gem of a place. Since my best friend/tutor lives in Porter, and I live in Kendall, this was a good meeting place for us to work on homework together. And working on homework over a nice (cheap) pint of beer can't get any better.

The waiters/bartenders are friendly enough. The food is just pub food, but they have half-price food between 5:30 and 7:30 and then later at night again (I think). So that works pretty well.

So I heard last semester about this mythical place where one could find $0.10 chicken wings doused in the nectar of the gods and cheap(ish) beer. And this mythical place was less than a mile away from my dorm. Unfortunately, the wings only made an appearance on Mondays, and I had horrible problem sets to turn in on Tuesdays. Which means that my Mondays were mostly spent double-fisting Red Bulls rather than Carlsbergs.

But the semester was over, and so my friends dragged me over to said place. We ordered a round of beers, and then 80 chicken wings magically appeared on the table. We got some honey-bbqish wings, some Asian-ey wings sprinkled with sesame seeds (because, you know, anything with sesame seeds is Asian), some Buffalo wings, and some weird ones that were still good. This place is pretty casual, so feel free to be messy. There's a roll of paper towels on the table and everything, and they have the wet wipey things. And, while the service is slow when the place is packed, you can't beat pigging out in a nice pub with your friends for cheap.

They also have a full menu, in case you don't feel like winging it. But I come strictly for the wings.

I had never tried either of MIT's pubs til this week. Muddy is literally next to my dorm, so I decided to go on Wednesday for the free wings and the cheap beer. I missed the wings, but the beer is super cheap. This is the sort of place to come with a crowd, though, so don't come and try to meet people because it probably isn't going to happen as easily as in other bars.

But you can't beat a cheap bar less than a minute away.