Downtown/Chinatown/Theater District dinner?

[blink617]

I'm looking for a place to take some visiting colleagues downtown for dinner on Thursday night. They're staying on Tremont St. in the Theater District, so somewhere in that vicinity would be good.

I used to have a lot of favorite restaurants downtown, but haven't actually made it to most of them in ages so I'm not sure what's good these days. Depending on what kind of food they're up for, I'm thinking about Montien, Penang or Legal Seafood, or possibly Gourmet Dumpling House for Chinese. Any thoughts on those or other similarly priced places that might be worth a visit?

[pemma]

I've enjoyed Market in the W hotel. The food and service are very good and it is not as expensive as you might think.

[samsoon]

I was looking through the refs and thought they were all good choices until I read pemma's post. I have been there only twice but thought Market were really good.

Personally prefer Troquet over Teatro.

[KWagle]

For Chinese I'd go to "New Shanghai" which is now a Beijing+Sichuan place (and whose new Chinese name reflects that.) I haven't had their Beijing-style food, but their Sichuan food is very good.

[9lives]

New Shanghai has become 1 of my favorites in Chinatown..definitely in my regular rotation.

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New Shanghai Restaurant
21 Hudson St, Boston, MA 02111

[melon]

New Shanghai is awesome. I have lunch there a few times a month, and can vouch for their numbing (dizzying) hot bamboo shoot (MA LA all caps), flaky leek "case" (pie), dan dan noodles, ma po tofu (with leeks, nice!), "green bean tofu with szechuan style" (which I think is usually called "cold jelly" or something like that - it's actually noodles with no green beans or tofu involved as far as I can tell) and savory, addictive chongqing chicken. I usually take leftovers back to work which I then proceed to eat covertly at my desk 2 hours later. Plus, they're nice.

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New Shanghai Restaurant
21 Hudson St, Boston, MA 02111

[KWagle]

"green bean tofu" is probably a jello-like substance made from mung bean starch. The Chinese call mung beans "green beans", and they call green beans "four season beans." If it's noodles, they're usually rectangular in cross section; you can also get it in cubes.

[Nab]

Back at the New Shang this past weekend, they were hitting all the notes, fu qi fei pian striking perfect balance and near perfection, gongbao chicken delivering a one-two punch of Tyson-esque magnitude, spicy bok choy with chinese vinegar was sending the umameter off the charts. When they're on, they're on.

[Pegmeister]

I'm always up for Penang or Montien as they are solid choices. I would add Shabu Zen for hot pot, Troquet for more upscale or even the Intermission Tavern for pub fare.

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Shabu Zen
16 Tyler St, Boston, MA 02111

Troquet
140 Boylston Street, Boston, MA 02116

Intermission Tavern
228 Tremont St, Boston, MA 02116

[9lives]

Living nearby, I've eaten or gotten takeout from Montien, Penang, and GDH in the past week. Enjoyed all/ Pigalle is going through some changes.

TZ choice of Erbaluce is great.

[onrushpam]

When we stayed in that area in August, we had a very nice meal at Teatro. I don't remember what we had... I think we just shared several of their small plates and dessert.

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Teatro
177 Tremont Street, Boston, MA 02111

[teezeetoo]

more expensive than montien and penang (and I like both of those) but also excellent and more upscale: erbaluce and pigalle.