Metro Boston Restaurant Revue

This is just a sample of some outstanding restaurants
both Malcolm and John have found during their visits to Boston

Taste Of:
Bob the Chef's
604 Columbus Ave.
South End, Boston, MA
617-536-6204

At the busy corner of Columbus Avenue and Northampton Street the sign on the restaurant bruits Bob The Chef's as "Home of Soul Food" and another on "Glorified Chicken." Hardly a place one can pass without going in. The restaurant's New Orleans crab cakes a not overly hotted-up but still vivid flavored version mixed fresh Blue Crab, onion, breadcrumb and Cajun spices into cakes, sautéed them well and served them on a bed of greens with taste-tingling mayo, relish and Tabasco zippy dip. If your capacity for food is unlimited and your wish is to set standards for unabashed excess, try Bob's Peach Cobbler and Sweet Potato Pie. Then try rolling out of the place.

Recommended and Reviewed.

Opened Tuesdays through Saturday: 11 a.m. to Midnight, Sunday Brunch: 11a.m. to 3 p.m., Dinner: 5 p.m. to Midnight.

Taste Of:
The Ritz Carlton
Arlington Street
Boston, MA
617-536-5700

Boston, a first class city, has not often been cited as the Olympus of good food or for its unrivaled hospitality and more often than not, has accepted its delusion of adequacy. However, in very recent years it has worked with a certain bold enthusiasm to improve its image on the world stage.

Henri Boubeé, general manager of the sedate Boston Ritz-Carlton, is bent on matching the star quality and electricity of the oh-so-elegant Ritz Hotels in Paris and Lisbon right down to fresh posies in blown glass vases at every dining room table. Assisting the dynamic Frenchman in his attempt to raise the hotel's hospitality profile, and not so incidentally the culinary department's rating as well, are PR chief Nancy Pappas and chef's Didier Rosa and Richard Rayment, a rare combination of conscientious and creative professionals.

An absolutely-this minute Ritz affair is the weekly Degustation Table under the signature cobalt prism chandeliers in the main dining room, when fourteen diners seat themselves at a large and beautifully set table to enjoy a lively main-course event. The Ritz kitchen's Lamb Loin was a small masterpiece of taste: a deft and unpretentious work of perfectly grilled sliced lamb loin in a chopped mushroom, shallot and crème fraiche ragout, the lamb juice a simple mixed gravy, roast and poached carrot touched with rosemary.

Matching this marvelous lamb was excellent '93 Californian Caymus Cabernet Sauvignon, an intense, robust, mauve-pink foil of the lamb. Certain to satisfy the sugar-cravers are dessert chef Bruno Biagiant's dolces, to him the climax to the ritual prelude of dinner. His Pear Tatin: poached pear set on a dark lacquer-crackle base of chocolate, caramel and honey provided an elegant example of his philosophy.

Paired with the dessert was an excellent quality match of a luscopis sweet '89 Sichel Kirchheimer Schwarzerde Beerenauslese. Cafe-filtre made in a chrome and glass Melior coffee was excellent.

Open 7 days: 5:30 p.m. 'til Midnight.