Best in South Boston?

[nasilemak]

Do you have any recommendations for good food in south boston? thanks in advance.

[bclarke25]

Olympic Pizza on Broadway is surprisingly good. Pepperoni under the cheese. Calzone's and breakfast sandwiches from Sidewalk Cafe are good (M & 4th). Junction has good wings (.25 during Sox games). The other good stuff has been covered already in the thread.

[saltyair]

Unfortunately, South Boston is not a dining destination. Once it continues to populate with younger people, perhaps the food options will improve.

[Prav]

Heh, I wouldn't count on it... considering how packed the very mediocre pubs are with young diners. :(

[Fort Point]

Persephone (lumiere chef) has opened on Summer St; Renaisance Hotel restaurant is being developed by the chef from Radius. Barbara Lynch is opening a restaurant on Congress at A Street.

[saltyair]

I always hate to inlude the Seaport District as South Boston, its really not yet the same neighborhoods

[joth68]

I'm going to bump this to mention Liberty Bell. I've ordered delivery from here twice. Once I went with the king beef with sauce and horseradish- delicious. The second time I ordered a pepperoni pizza. By far the best pie I've had delivered to me in southie.

[teezeetoo]

little seafood place on dorchester between D street and andrews square makes decent fish especially their fried stuff. Eastern Pier I guess is technically in Southie and is excellent chinese, particuclarly sea food. Salsa isn't bad (ok, "isn't bad" isn't an accolade). Would you count Cafe Polonia and the Polish deli on Boston or Dorchester Street as southie? both good.

[Ralphie_in_Boston]

That seafood place---is it the one around the corner from the Hess station? If so I've been meaning to try it. I always remember when I fill up my car at Hess *just after eating somewhere else!!*

[ChickenBrocandZiti]

Sal and Bettys has great Italian style subs and food. The eggplant parm at Sal and Bettys may be the best I have ever had. Granted I haven't been there in probably 8 years but it was great back then.

[joth68]

I don't think southie really has any places that I could recommend as being good overall. There are lots of places that do certain items well with the rest of the menu to be avoided.

kelly's landing- Very good fried seafood. Fried scallops are done particulary well there.
L Street- Fantastic calzones and good breakfast items.
Playwright- Good brunch and standard pub fare.
Galley Diner aka rumpys roast beef- If you can get past the gross appearence it has a pretty good breakfast. The hash is good and the ham is carved to order.

[C. Hamster]

Mexican? Agree that there is a dearth of good mexican in Dot/southy area, but ...

Perhaps I am alone in thinking that Salsa's is not THAT bad. Certainly 1000 times better than La Paloma, who I suspect gets their menu delivered fromthe Stop and Shop's frozen food case.

[Ralphie_in_Boston]

Yankee Lobster company near the ConcertTentWhichChangesItsNameAfterEveryBankMerger has pretty good made-to-order seafood stuff, decent soups and chowders.

Pete's Dockside used to be a good old, stick to your ribs diner place, but isn't the same since it was sold.

And Olympic Pizza, yeah get delivery, that way you won't notice all the rodent droppings in the front of the dining area of this place (nearest the windows on Broadway). Yech.

[bosloft]

Cafe Porto Bello. The lobster ravioli in amaretto cream sauce is an appetizer that should also be known as a dessert. omg. For those who like it, you will want to dredge your bread in the sauce or lick the plate when no one is looking. WARNING: It will kill you. Pretty good chick. marsala. Good pizzas.
Joseph's bakery is not good, unless you like your cannoli filled at 8:00 AM and nice & soggy at 4:00 PM.
Farragut House: They fixed it up, but the food is still dreck. A place that you wish would be better. Ask them to get a new chef. It would be a great genuine neighborhood pub (with a funky table height bar) without the obnoxious junior financial district types getting drunk & loud at the Playwright.
Mul's: dirty. I was there when the wait staff was going down a list of items to clean after they hand been inspected, by whom is not known, but they were grumbling about having to clean the place and the list was long.
Best delivery pizza: Olymic. on E. Broadway.
Like others have pointed out: Stay away from Chinese, Mexican. Also stay away from Kelly's Landing. They served canned corn the army would reject.

[Fort Point]

I wouln't say there are any gourmet places in the area but there are a number of places where you can get good food.

Amrheins - West Broadway
Cafe Porto Bello - East Broadway
Salvatore's - Northern Ave
Eastern Pier - Northern Ave
Teriyaki House - West Broadway
St Alphozos (sp?) - A Street
Legal Test Kitchen - Northern Ave
Flour - Off Congress
Lucky's - A Street ant Congress

That is a sampling. Is there a type of food you are looking for? Also suggest you do a search on South Boston.

[MC Slim JB]

I'm also curious about finding great chow in the older residential parts of Southie (as opposed to the Seaport District). I know and like St. Alphonzo's, Mul's, and My Diner. I didn't think much of Amrhein's, but understand a new chef has improved its food. I've heard terrible things about Teriyaki House, haven't tried Cafe Porto Bello.

I'd be curious to hear opinions, good and bad, about other places around Southie, which I suspect will mostly be at the cheap-eats level.

[wilbanks]

+1 on My Diner. Killer cheap diner food, especially the turkey and the sausage plates.

There's also Sal's on 7th, which has good red sauce pasta, and Cafe Porto Bello on Broadway near the Playwright, which is a more-than-acceptable little italian place with good boston-style pizza and red sauce dishes. The Fish Pier on Broadway used to be great for the fried stuff, but it's under new management and I haven't eaten there since. Liberty Bell has good roast beef sandwiches, at least they did two years ago (I left southie in 2006, caveat eater).

The Junction has good pub food, as does the Playwright. There's a decent italian bakery behind the local stop and shop on broadway.

Avoid all Chinese food in Southie. Ditto all Mexican food in Southie. Teriyaki House is passable only when drunk or snowed in (get the lettuce cup chicken if anything).

[wilbanks]

oh yeah - in the summer, the hot dogs in the snack shack at castle island are pretty dang good too. grilled nicely, high quality sausage, good top-slice bread...take a camouflaged bottle of wine, grab a couple and some clam bellies and sit and watch the cruise ships go by.

[Guinness02122]

The snack shack on Castle Island is named Sullivan's, or Sully's to the locals

[bachslunch]

Took one for the team recently at Teriyaki House. Given that seemingly the entire kitchen staff (including the sushi prep person) were either chewing gum or feeding their face (or both!) and the place looked none too clean, I decided to skip any raw stuff.

Decided to go with the BBQ eel teriyaki rice bowl, advertised as having rice and veggies. Rice yes, veggies not really. Had four sashimi sized pieces of cooked eel on a bed of brown rice, small bits of some kind of pickled veggie and what appeared to be cooked egg, and a big plop of wasabi on a couple tiny lettuce shreds -- rice was OK, the rest nothing special and not especially warmed up (and why all the wasabi?). Also ordered a "fruit flavored bubble tea" (mango) -- the fruit flavor overpowered everything else and was way too sweet, there was no discernible tea flavor, and oddest of all no tapioca bubbles are provided unless you want to pay extra for them. Service was perfunctory at best.

I don't plan on returning.

[joth68]

For americanized chinese, I think south ocean on east broadway is the best of the bunch. I have yet to have a peking raviloli that is better then what they serve.

[Prav]

King's on E. Broadway (up the street from the Broadway T stop) isn't bad for Am. Chinese either, if you order smart and stay away from pink sweet & sour stuff. Peking ravioli aren't bad either.

[Fort Point]

I believe the Seaport District is technically part of South Boston. In fact I believe the Southie politicians negotiated that it be officially called the South Boston Seaport District.

[MC Slim JB]

You are correct: that area has always been part of Southie, though the Seaport designation is relatively new. I was just more interested in the little places in what is traditionally thought of as the residential part of Southie, roughly speaking below 1st Street. No disrespect to the Fort Point Channel crowd.

[hiddenboston]

It's not in the older residential parts of Southie, but Eastern Pier on Northern Avenue has what many consider to be some of the best Hong Kong-style seafood in the Boston area. I'm personally not big on that kind of cuisine, but their other entrees are at times outstanding, including the duck lo mein, curry noodle, and sizzling beef in black bean sauce.

As far as restaurants in the older, more residential parts of Southie, I think you have already found the best of the lot, MC. There are a number of dives and pubs in those neighborhoods, a few of which I have been in, but they tend to be more for drinking than anything else.

[MC Slim JB]

It's been a while, but I recall L Street as serving a decent turkey dinner (Southie seems to love its turkey), and its burger is allegedly good.

Can anyone comment on Terrie's Place?

[Prav]

Been there for Sunday brunch a few times when I used to live in the area. Very average - not worth going out of your way for.

[Pegmeister]

Cafe Porto Bello is charming; the staff is friendly and they make a great seafood pizza with clams, scallops and shrimp. They also make a pretty decent antipasto. Amhreins has been great since Richie took over the kitchen about a year ago. The menu is varied but I generally order off the specials because they are the most creative dishes. As for Terriyaki House, IMO it's more of a take out type of place. Food is ok, but it's not really a comfortable place to dine in. I also like the Junction which isn't mentioned very often on these boards. It does tend to be a younger crowd, but for an early dinner it's nice. Most always I go for their shepards pie.

[CocoDan]

Mul's is still good; Amrhein's I've tried recently and found it to be much better than when it first reopened, but don't expect to say Wow! Cafe Porto Bello is nice for a change and would go back anytime, but again, there are so many great Italian spots that are better. CPB has cheaper prices than most intown places. Worth a try.
CocoDan

[admiralackbar]

heard today that the old chef from OM is working on a restaurant in the seaport district in one of the hotels.