North American eateries
Ratings are on a scale of 0 to 24.
The scale used to be 0 to 10, so restaurants written about
before 2012 may have only had their ratings adjusted by formula and
not by hand (hence all the 2s, 5s, 8s, etc.)
The scale works as follows:
PRO 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 |
pro 15 14 13 12 11 10 |
mixed 9 8 7 6 5 4 |
con 3 2 1 |
CON 0 |
An asymmetrical 0 to 24 scale may not be intuitive, I
realize.
But as a rule of thumb: a double-digit score means I liked it, while a
single-digit score… less so.
Also, as you might expect, scores from many years ago may not be very
reliable, so do check the dates.
Eastern New England
I’ll include the addresses for the sake of the database,
but if you’ve ever tried finding your way around in New
England, you already know they won’t help.
Click on the column titles to sort the entries!
Name |
Cuisine |
Address |
Last update |
Score | |
Addis Red Sea | Ethiopian | Trenton btw Waltham/Hanson, Boston, MA | 2003-12-07 | 11 |
Pretty good Ethiopian. I am spoiled in that I have had lots of
Ethiopian food, so I know that this is middle-of-the-pack fare;
if I'd never had Ethiopian before I'm sure I'd consider it
awesome, because Ethiopian is such a tasty cuisine. |
Al-Hassoun | Middle Eastern | Commonwealth btw St. Mary's/Cummington, Boston, MA | 2003-01-25 | 8 |
Was out at Boston University on business, ran across the street to get
lunch, and this was the only place that looked potentially decent. It was
okay. Grape leaves were better than the falafel, which was better than the
hummus. |
Burrito Max | Mexican (burritos) | Beacon & Commonwealth, Boston, MA | 2003-08-03 | 5 |
On the one hand, on a stretch of road with little to offer beyond
McDonald's and Burger King and Taco Bell, it's nice to find a place
serving actual food. But it's still not very good. |
Cafe Jaffa | Middle Eastern | Gloucester & Public Alley 443, Boston, MA | 2001-04-25 | 5 |
Steered clear of the falafel after a couple of bad experiences with
it elsewhere and got the grape leaves with hummus. The grape leaves
themselves were fine, but the pita was inferior and the whole affair
was dominated by roughage that was pure filler. Can't recommend it. |
Laureen's | Bistro | Main & Town Hall, Falmouth, MA | 2005-06-08 | 8 |
It was nice to find a place on Cape Cod that wasn't all about the seafood.
That said, I wasn't too thrilled about the fact that the roasted vegetable
quesadilla on lavosh that I ordered turned out to be mostly eggplant, or
about the fact that the soup I ordered was bland enough that, for the first
time ever, I actually made use of the salt shaker in a restaurant. |
India Paradise | Indian | Union btw Herrick/Langley, Newton, MA | 2003-02-27 | 11 |
I tried this Chinese-run Indian place because it seemed to offer more
than the usual suspects: I tried an appetizer of puffed grains and crushed
pooris (too much like rice crispies for dinner) and some spinach naan
along with my less daring navratan korma. Perfectly fine but nothing
noteworthy. |
JP Licks | Dessert (ice cream) | Beacon & Langley, Newton, MA | 2003-02-28 | 5 |
Okay ice cream, but ridiculously expensive. Three bucks for two
spoonfuls. Gramercy Tavern can get away with that. This place can't. |
Big Sky Bread Co. | Bakery | Union btw Beacon/Herrick, Newton, MA | 2003-02-28 | 2 |
I saw the "free slices" sign in the window and thought, ah, a would-be
Great Harvest. Well, they're never going to be another Great Harvest so
long as they offer stale bread slices and desiccated scones at jacked-up
prices. It wasn't even like I tried it in the afternoon when you might
expect things to be a bit dried out. Awful. |
Pat's Pizza | Pizza | Mill & US-2, Orono, ME | 2004-09-12 | 5 |
This is apparently the consensus choice for best pizza in Maine. So, a
pretty good reason not to move to Maine. |
Sweet Tomatoes | Pizza | chain | 2005-06-09 | 8 |
Okay ultra-thin crust pizza with fresh sauce, but toppings are bad (raw
cubes of green pepper, for instance). |
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