Best of Cambridge

[KatieLoeb]

Hi All:

A coworker of mine is in Cambridge this weekend and most of next week attending a class at Harvard. He's a former restaurant owner and a big foodie. I thought I'd ask those of you in the know for any suggestions in Cambridge or that are accessible by public transportation for him to enjoy during his stay. Anything goes from down and dirty ethnic to white tablecloth fine dining. Interesting menus and wine list are a plus, a great value is ALWAYS a plus.

Thanks in advance for your assistance.

[Peter B Wolf]

Harvest , 44 Brattle Street, Cambridge, 617-868-2255.

Finale Desserterie , 30 Dunster Street at Mt. Auburn , Cambridge, 617 441 9797

SANDRINE'S BISTRO 8 Holyoke Street Cambridge, 617-497-5300

Don't know many more, but 'Sandrine's' is preferred by me.

"Desserterie" is similar to "Chickalicious" in NYC

[sammy]

East Coast Grill should not be missed. Sit at the bar, have a cocktail made with fresh squeezed juices, a trayful of oysters, and the grilled fish of the day.

They also have a great beer selection.

[bigwino]

Craigie Street Bistrot is a great spot. Walking distance from Harvard Square. http://www.craigiestreetbistrot.com/

[VivreManger]

Here is a range of recommendations from around $10 to $75 per person, all within about 25 minutes from Harvard Square on foot.

In Harvard Square on Mass Ave.

Mr. Bartley's Burger Cottage.

Excellent burgers with an aroma that grabs you off the street and pulls you in for a nosh, irresistible. And the smell of grease and meat will last on your clothing for days afterwards. The french fries are nothing special, but the thin and light onions rings are worth ordering along with a lime rickey.

Good value.

Around the corner from the Burger Cottage is the Pamplona Cafe at the corner of Bow & Arrow Streets, across from Adams House. For lunch they offer an excellent garlic soup, tamales and salad, and a variety of well-made Basque inspired sandwiches as well as schlagged fruit, chocolate, and coffee drinks. When the weather is good the cafe moves outside.

Toscannini's ice cream, a local purveyor has a branch on Mass Ave. Their burnt caramel is one of the great ice cream flavors in the world. Herrel's around the corner on Holyoke St. is the local branch of the original Steve's that established the high-end smoosh-in ice cream craze of the 70s. It is one of three locations extant.

I am not a great fan of Harvest, but it has been years since I ate there.

There are two Indian restaurants in the Square which I have tried. One is the Bombay Club (I think) on the second floor of the Boylston Galleria on JFK St. (formerly Boylston St.) It is located in a two-story glass building, on the right hand side heading toward the river. Their buffet lunch is dull and generic, but they have some interesting south Indian dishes, that are worth trying.

The other place offers a buffet that is better, but the rest of the menu is not as unusual. This place whose name I can't remember is on the left hand side of Brattle Street (walking away from the square) close to the very fine chocolate shop Burdick's which prepares excellent cocoa and hot chocolate. It is also close to High-Rise, a local baker whose Harvard Sq. branch has a full-line of sandwiches to go.

My preference for more up-scale food in the square is Casabalanca, located in the basement of the Brattle Theatre on /Brattle Street near High Rise.

East Coast Grille does excellent fish, better than their bbq. Cheaper and further down Cambridge St. is Moqueca, specializing in Brazilian fish dishes in a simple store front cafe, unfortunately no licence. Both are located in Inman Square which is about a 15 -20 minute walk from Harvard Sq. Bus connections from Harvard Square are available.

For an upscale place, you might try Dali and EVOO. The first is Spanish with a good tapas menu. The second does an upscale multicourse tasting menu at $50 a person, with wine for $75, a good value, though the cooking is uneven. Some of the courses I had there a month ago were excellent, others just okay. However for the price, it is definitely worth a splurge evening. Both are located at opposite corners of Kirkland and Beacon Streets near the Somerville-Cambridge line, about 5 to ten minutes from Inman Square.

By the way the best foodie delight in Cambridge is Formaggio on Huron Ave, about 15 to 20 minutes from Harvard Sq. on foot. They stock a superb range of well-stored cheeses, domestic and imported. Their Caswell stilton is exceptional. Their baked goods are superb. I particularly like the bread pudding. The charcuterie is good, but not as striking as the cheese. On Thursday they get their weekly shipment of Poilane bread. And if you are hungry, but want to save some money, you can get a good sampling of the three or four cheeses they they leave out for tasting every day.

Edited May 24, 2004 by VivreManger (log)

[Suzanne F]

Mr. Bartley's is still around? That's one of the places HWOE (M.I.T. '69, SB Course 16) talks about, still. Also Jack and Marion's (where the asterisks on menu items led to this at the bottom: "High Markup Item").

[KatieLoeb]

Thank you everyone! This has been most helpful. I've been e-mailing your suggestions to my colleague and will hear back which places were tried upon his return on Friday. I'm certain your suggestions will be taken as those from the experts you all are! Thanks!!!!

[VivreManger]

Mr. Bartley's is still around?    That's one of the places HWOE (M.I.T. '69, SB Course 16) talks about, still. Also Jack and Marion's (where the asterisks on menu items led to this at the bottom: "High Markup Item").

Bartley's is just about the only 60s classic that has survived. Elsie's, and the inferior hangouts Tommy's Lunch, Wursthaus, and Tasteee have all disappeared. As has Cronin's a beer and steak place near the Loeb Drama Center that made its own brew. The owner's son went to Brandeis and got a PhD in history, how have the mighty fallen.

J&M diasppeared decades ago in the aftermath of a nasty divorce. I loved their so-called triple-decker deli creations, even though they were really only double.

Edited May 24, 2004 by VivreManger (log)

[mdibiaso]

This was very helpful to me too. I am going back to Cambridge this summer and it is 20 years since I was last there. All I can say is that it is good news that Elsies, Tommy's Lunch and the Wursthaus are gone. I frequented the first two for pinball machines and late night food after lots of beer. And I worked at the Wursthaus for a while (health and labor officials should have closed it down years ago, only placed I ever worked as a bartender where the waitresses were not allowed to share tips with the bartenders even through 95% of the drinks we poured and beers we opened where for table not bar customers, I stopped showing up for work when I did not get the Harvard/Yale football game weekend off even though I requested it 1 month in advance ). The fact that all 3 survived for so long is proof that getting into Harvard is no proof of your intelligence. (goes for me as well, I feel much of my intelligence came long after my 4 years in Cambridge).

PS when I was there the best food around was Locke Ober's, but there seating policy for women was from the middle ages. But god, the Lobster Therimador

[9lives]

Locke Ober is still here..after a nice face lift a few years ago. Did a great job and retained the old feel. Lydia Shire runs the restaurant and the food is great too. Seating is more in tune with modern times.

[Moopheus]

All I can say is that it is good news that Elsies, Tommy's Lunch and the Wursthaus are gone.

I worked at Widener Library for a couple of years and sometimes Elsie's was the best lunch you could get on a library assistant's salary (the falafel truck that hung out on the other side Yard was good too). It was a sad day when Elsie's closed. I don't miss Cambridge so much now that Harvard Square has been completely converted to a suburban mall.

[mdibiaso]

Being a student most meals before 8 PM were skipped or taken in the student dining halls with one big payment per year for all the meals whether you ate them or not. Those were really bad as well. But you could always laugh when the vegetarian option of the day was "meatless chile con carne". The food hall staff that were Spanish and Portuguese speakers must have had a great laugh for years on their more "intellectual" managers that made the menus!

But when I had to spend "extra" out of the pocket money on food Cafe Aventura (decent thin slice pizza, all other pizzas in the area were a joke) in what was a small mall on Dunster Street or Bartley's burger was the place for me. Come on, you cannot really compare a burger at Bartleys with an Elsie burger. And even if Bartleys reeked of grill smoke it was more appetizing than the hygienical challenged surroundings in staff at Elsie's. And God, the staff at both Elsie’s and Tommy were totally rude to anyone under 25.

Locke Ober was the place once every year to 18 months for a special meal when family was in town and I wasn't paying. Even though I was never short of beer money (I worked nights 30 hours a week) it always seemed crazy to pay a lot of money for food knowing what I was already paying per year for the free pass to the student dining room. They should have given us free beer instead and let us cook in the rooms (which was a total "no-no").

[9lives]

I moved to Boston in 1978 and fine dining was pretty much limited to Lockes, Maison Robert, Ritz Dining Room and Cafe Budapest. Lockes and the Ritz are the only survivors.

[Saucy Girl]

I have to agree about the East Coast Grille - go there! It is excellent.

Other places that are good are for Mexican, the Ole Mexican Grille, in Inman Square, and Henrietta's Table, at Rialto, which also is a great spot - Jody Adam's place. Food is wonderful....

Have fun!

[VivreManger]

Thank you everyone! This has been most helpful. I've been e-mailing your suggestions to my colleague and will hear back which places were tried upon his return on Friday. I'm certain your suggestions will be taken as those from the experts you all are! Thanks!!!!

We never got the report!!!!

[VivreManger]

Come on, you cannot really compare a burger at Bartleys with an Elsie burger. And even if Bartleys reeked of grill smoke it was more appetizing than the hygienical challenged surroundings in staff at Elsie's. And God, the staff at both Elsie’s and Tommy were totally rude to anyone under 25.

Eating burgers at Elsie's is like eating bagels at Dunkin Donuts. Bartleys BC rules there.

While the BCC burgers were much better, I did enjoy the burger with Swiss cheese and grilled onion at Elsie's, a great greasy treat. No fries there.

The best to order at Elsie's were the roast beef special and king of the sandwiches, the landsman special, a sandwich filled with thick greasy Rumanina pastrami cut into huge chunks. The potato salad was good. And where else could you get a C tripled -- caviar and cream cheese -- sandwich?

When exactly were you in the Square? I arrived in the sixties when Henry & Elsie Bauman still ran the place. In the seventies they sold it to their manager -- Phil Markel (????) and he managed to run the place into the ground. He dropped the landsman special and much else declined. I wonder if your dispeptic memories date from that period.

Edited June 23, 2004 by VivreManger (log)

[mdibiaso]

I was there from 79-84. That explains our different experiences. When I was there the only thing worth spending money on at Elsie's was Space Invaders and eventually that got removed too.

[VivreManger]

In the 60s there was no Space Invaders et al.

[bluekale]

I realize the purpose of this post has probably expired, but for the sake of any visitors with the same request, my favorite restaurant in Cambridge, which happens to be extremely reasonable, is Atasca, a small tapas bar in a hole in the wall on Broadway between Harvard and MIT. (I think they have another less intimate location nearer to MIT, though it is certainly not what you could call a chain.