Late Lunch on a Friday or Early Supper

[luci]

Am meeting out of town guests in June and want a great late lunch or early supper venue. Nothing hugely pricey, ethnic might be nice (North End or Chinatown)....healthy is preferred so sushi or Asian vs fried seafood...in fact NO NO to anything friend or heavy. We will be in the Copley / Back Bay/ Public Gardens area but are not opposed to taking the T to the North End or walking to Chinatown.

Thanks!

[Dr.Jimbob]

At the corner of Berkeley Street and Columbus Avenue in the northern reaches of the South End, there are a few excellent (possibly pricey) options. B&G Oysters and Butcher Shop are two outposts of Barbara Lynch's No. 9 Park empire; they do lunch until 4:30 and dinner starting at 5 <http://www.no9park.com/>. Hammersley's Bistro and Sibling Rivalry across the street do dinner only, starting at 5:30 or 6.

There are a number of possibiltiies for Chinatown, depending on your comfort level (do you want a funky place where you only get the good stuff if you speak an obscure dialect of Chinese and can read the Chinese hand-written menus, is there a specific style of Chinese cuisine you seek, or would you prefer a fancy dining with linen tablecloths sort of thing?)

[limster]

In general, Chinatown restaurants are quite accessible without being able to speak any of the obscure Chinese dialects. At all the Chinese places I've been to, I can communicate just fine in Mandarin; I can't speak Cantonese, Foochow or Shanghainese dialects to save my life but it's never been a problem. Even at Taiwan cafe, where my Minnan dialect should work, Mandarin works like a charm.

I think one of the most important points about chowhounding at some places in Chinatown here is that it might take a bit a of convincing the waitstaff that you want the real deal. But It shouldn't be too hard to point to a tank and insist on a steamed bass or fried eel, and those dishes tend to be the strengths of many places. Moreover, at some places e.g. Penang, Shanghai Gate or King Fung Garden (as well as nearly all the Vietnamese places), most, if not all the dishes are offered in the English menus. Ditto for the Vietnamese places. So while the language barrier can be real, it's shouldn't be treated as something insurmountable, especially to an intrepid chowhound.

[Food4Thought]

Brasserie JO in the Colonnade Hotel (120 Huntington Ave.) might fit the bill. French with an Alsatian slant.

[Joanie]

Petit Robert Bistro serves lunch til 5PM. Eastern Standard is open all day. Atlantic Seafood in Copley Sq. Douzo for sushi has lunch til 3, not sure what time dinner opens but probably by 5:30.