New Moon Villa and Cafe Lu Lu, Chinatown
I've recently confirmed that I had been to every restaurant / bakery in Chinatown except three and remedied two of them this week. New Moon Villa has been there for years but just far enough away that it hadn't crossed my mind to go. It is standard Cantonese fare with the occasional northern dish and prices seem a dollar or so more than comparable places. It is well appointed and larger roomm but at noon it was absolutely empty and I was a'mighty scared. Keeping true to my chowhound creed, i ordered anyway. I had the Singapore Noodles which were actually pretty good. As I was leaving, two busloads of tourists came in for lunchtime banquets and I realized that the business model for this place is to cater to tour groups. So overall, the food is OK and it survives based on outside/local business. This morning, I tried Cafe Lu Lu, a Hong Kong style snack bar in the basement of Chinatown mall. I had the pork and preserved egg congee and fried noodles with bean sprouts breakfast special ($3.95). The taste was very good with a lot of pork and thousand year old egg in the jook and a proper thickness. The noodles were freshly stir fried and had a good wok kew flavor especially for first thing in the morning. Lots of rice plates, spaghetti, and noodle soups to choose from for lunch or dinner.
I thought I had only one more restaurant to complete the set (Hot Pot Buffet) but noticed a new sushi place in the same building as Lu Lu. Anyone tried it?
a dollar more than comparable places. Nicely appointed room but when i arrived at noon it was ab
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Moon Villa Restaurant
19 Edinboro St, Boston, MA 02111
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Returned to Cafe de Lu Lu for a specific item, Silver needles which are the thick 1 inch wormy shaped noodles that taper at the end. Some on this board might remember this at Gitlo's when they first opened. I ordered this and saw the package of noodles to confirm they were the right noodle. They said they needed to charge 6.95 instead of the menu listed 5.50 because the cost of the fresh noodles had gone up. Fine. They stir fried them with shrimp, egg, pork, bean sprouts and onions but they overcooked them and unfortunately ruined the texture of this delicious noodle. So... I'm torn on this place. Some hits and misses and certainly Hong Kong like in its intent but just so-so on execution.
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Gitlo
164 Brighton Ave, Allston, MA 02134 -
I've been to the Sushi place, it is called Avana Sushi.
The quality of sushi is a below average, but not so much where you feel like you will get sick. On the plus side, it is ridiculously cheap. For $5 I got a spicy tuna roll, a salad, seaweed salad and miso soup.
It's not the type of place I would recommend unless you insisted on going to the place with the cheapest sushi. Or if you wanted to go to every place in Chinatown, then I would definitely recommend it.
Out of curiousity, would you list every restaurant you've been to in C-town? I want to see how many more I need to complete my list.
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re: tysonmcneely
Thanks tyson for the Avana review. I will probably try it just because i try them all once. I don't have a list but I believe it is every restaurant in C'town except Hot Pot Buffet and Avana Sushi. If work lighhtens up, I will try to make an annotated list sometime (See Striper's more ambitious project on another thread).
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re: StriperGuy
galangatron
Jul 7, 2010 09:31 AM
in the avana lofts building on the corner of beach street and harrison ave. cafe de lu lu is in the basement and the sushi place is upstairs in the same space as mike's banh mi and the egg waffle stand
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re: y2000k
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re: y2000k
galangatron
Jul 7, 2010 10:00 PM
the entrance on beach street. take a left and go down the stairs. there's a giant sign with arrows and flashing lights that reads "cafe de lu lu." you can't miss it
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trufflehound
Jul 7, 2010 07:06 AM
I've only been to Moon Villa at 'cold tea' time and then, who cares about the chow.
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Moon Villa Restaurant
19 Edinboro St, Boston, MA 02111›1 Reply
