This post is long overdue, and a review that is entirely different than the one I would have written a couple of years ago (2014) when I first visited Changsho. That first experience was not a good one, and I’ve not been back.

Fast forward to May 2016. I decide it was time to swallow my little stubborn pride and cross my paws over the threshold of Changsho once more. Instead of dinner, I did their lunch buffet, and while I don’t think everything on the buffet was great Chinese, for the most part, it was an enjoyable experience. The service was what one would expect from a buffet service, the food hot and fresh and the best part is it was only $13.00. Not bad considering what you get these days in Cambridge.

The hot and sour soup was, in my opinion, one of the best I’ve ever had anywhere – paws down. It was spicy, and tart, and smoky, and everything you expect of hot and sour, plus the flavors were perfectly balanced. I only wish the soup was on the all-you-can-eat buffet because that would have been it for me. Next time I’ll just buy the entire pot of soup and call it a day.

The vegetable tempura was deep fried to a light crunch and didn’t hold any of the grease you sometimes get with fried food. The kung pao chicken was cooked to perfection with tender slices of chicken in a delicious brown sauce, and the best part…it wasn’t so spicy that you couldn’t taste the ingredients. My only complaint was that the dish was a bit on the greasy side. The vegetable fried rice and lo-mein noodles were well prepared and packed full of tender vegetables, but again left you with a slight greasy feeling. My least favorite item was the pot stickers. I was hoping for vegetable or even pork, but no it was a big chunk of tough beef inside the perfectly seared wonton wrapper. I’ll pass on that next time.

Overall, my experience with Changsho was a vast improvement over my first impression two years ago. Will I be back? Absolutely. Changsho is not a fancy place, and it may not be the most authentic Chinese food, but for Cambridge, it’s pretty good.

Online at: Changsho
Accepts Reservations: No

Food Rating: 3.5 paws
Service Rating: 3.5 paws

Overall Rating: 3.5 paws

With love from my dog bowl to yours…Happy eating.
Shata

I can’t believe it’s been five months since my last post, so to everyone out there in Shata-land, I’m back! If I’m to be honest with all my fans out there, I took a break from the delicious world of food as this little doggy needed to lose a few extra pounds. You can’t do food and restaurant reviews if you don’t indulge, and I was doing some serious feasting. So with that said, let’s get back to the dog house and have ourselves some fun.

A few weeks ago, I ventured back into Pho House on Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge. I say back because I was there before. It was a few weeks after they opened for business, and it was without a doubt one of the worst meals I’ve ever had, and I swore never to slip my paw inside those doors again. As the old saying goes, Never Say Never…

I went into this meal expecting poor service, and equally terrible food, so my expectations were not high. I ordered the Rad Nah with vegetables. The service was friendly, and the food came out piping hot and in a reasonable amount of time. The noodles were cooked to perfection, the brown sauce had that wonderfully rich, smoky flavor you expect from a stir-fried noodle dish, and the vegetables were all cooked al dente. Was it the best Rad Nah I’ve had? No, but compared to what I was served the last time, it was good.

It was a simple meal, but it changed my mind about this place. Will I go back? Definitely, and this time, I’ll actually dig into their menu and see what other surprises awaits me.

Online at: Pho House
Reservations Accepted: No

Food Rating: 3.5 paw
Service Rating: 3.5 paws

Overall Rating: 3.5 paws

With love from my dog bowl to yours…Happy eating.

Shata

Today’s inaugural Bark Out (my new semi-regular post updating information on some of the restaurants and businesses I’ve blogged about over the years) is for Mix It Sushi Noodle Grill, and it’s not a happy one.

For a little brain refresher you can read my initial 5 paw review from March 16, 2015 here, Mix It Sushi

Two weeks ago, I didn’t feel up to cooking, so we went back to our almost weekly gathering place, Mix It Sushi Noodle Grill. It’s been our go-to place for sushi and noodle dishes since it opened in November of 2014. Oh, how the mighty has fallen in only a year.

The service was horrible. Long waits, with confused wait staff, who didn’t know the difference between vegetable tempura platter or the vegetable tempura maki roll. Yes, we ordered the tempura maki, and received the tempura platter instead. Generally, I wouldn’t mind the mix up, I love tempura, but this was the worst I’ve ever attempted to eat. The vegetable pieces were so large you could not pick them up with chopsticks, and they were swimming in a pool of grease congregating in the bottom of the bowl. They were inedible. We gave up after a while trying to explain to the waiter that we order the tempura maki, while he insisted that is what we got.

Another long wait and we received two of the three additional maki rolls we ordered. The rice was not fresh, and the nori used to wrap the rolls was tough and barely chewable. We never received one of our rolls, when we inquired about it, they apologized and said they would put the order in, but then we were tired of the ordeal and told them not to bother.

This was always my go to place. The service was wonderful, and the food always fresh, but something has happened and this isn’t the first bad experience I’ve had here over the past month.

It will take a lot of convincing for me to step my paws back into this restaurant.

Food Rating: 2 paw
Service Rating: 1 paws

Overall Rating: 1.5 paws

With love from my dog bowl to yours…Happy eating.

Shata

It’s been a few years since I’ve dined at Thelonious Monkfish in Central Square. It used to be my go-to place for lunch when I worked in Central Square. I recently returned for lunch and was amazed and delighted to see that they have expanded their restaurant to include a full bar, at least doubling the seating capacity, and they have a stage for live jazz performances. The new interior is sleek and inviting, warm and comforting just like their food.

I started off with their Asian pickles and vegetable pot stickers. The pickles were what this little doggy dreams of. A blend of Asian vegetable pickled to a crunchy and tangy perfection. And unlike most Asian restaurants, they do not skimp on quantity. The vegetable pot stickers were one of the most interesting version of this dish I’ve ever experienced. Light, thin wrappers stuffed with an assortment of green vegetables.

Now on to their sushi. In a nutshell they were absolutely fresh and flavorful. For the vegetarians out there, they have a huge assortment of sushi options, including one of the most unique I’ve ever seen, and believe me when I say it’s out of this world. It’s called the Snow Queen and is part of their fairy tale selection. Picture it…shiitake mushrooms, green apple, cucumbers and asparagus all wrapped in rice and seaweed, then covered in thin coconut meat, a pineapple mayo and garnished with coconut flakes. This is worth the trip alone. And don’t let this unusual combination throw you, they have the basic and standard vegetable sushi, including sweet potato tempura maki, mushroom maki, and the every popular, cucumber, avocado, and asparagus. All of them, fresh, and delicious.

This place is going to be a regular spot for me, and I can’t wait to get back there for dinner and listen to some fantastic jazz.

Thelonious Monkfish is the best of the best, paws down.

Online at: Thelonious Monkfish
Reservations Accepted: Yes via Ureserv

Food Rating: 5 paw
Service Rating: 5 paws

Overall Rating: 5 paws

With love from my dog bowl to yours…Happy eating.

Shata

I’ve walked by McCabe’s on Massachusetts Avenue more times than I care to count, and every time I do I think, “I should try that place.” So when friends of mine suggested we go there for dinner I was like, “Finally!” And final it will be.

Upon first entering, it seems like a quaint, albeit very busy neighborhood joint. We were greeting with warm smiles and immediately taken to our reserved table for eight. From there on, the evening went down hill.

The waitress, stood at one end of the long table, making it difficult for any of us at the other end to hear what she was saying, she seemed put-off when others asked her to repeat herself. I will preface this next comment to say, that this gathering of friends was sort of a reunion so there was lots of catching up, so we didn’t get around to ordering our dinner for about an hour. When we did, however, the waitress informed us of several of the menu items were either out, or running low. Really? Couldn’t you have told us sooner?

I can understand perhaps running out of a nightly special, but running out of your regular menu items is something only done by amateurs or poor budgeting and planning. So the dish I wanted was no longer available.

My hamburger, was dry, tasteless, and came with only 3 pieces of wilted lettuce. No tomato, no onion, no mustard, or ketchup. I choked down half of the sandwich and gave up. One of my friends didn’t get the food she ordered, but gave up waiting and ate what they mistakenly brought her. The gnocchi was overpowered by the truffles, to the point of not being able to taste the squash or brussels sprouts. The mushroom pizza was so heavy with garlic and grease it was inedible and remained untouched, except for a couple of bites.

And if all this isn’t enough to turn you away, we ordered a slice of cheesecake for dessert. It was deep-fried! Hello, there! Nowhere on the menu did it mention this. The breading used made it takes like we were biting into Southern friend chicken, not something sweet for dessert. It like many of the menu items was half-eaten.

There are a few redeeming features I should mention out of fairness. They have amazing French fries. They were crispy on the outside (skin-on) and soft and tender on the inside, and perfectly seasoned. The other two highlights of the evening were the cheese plate and house-pickled vegetable platter.

My advice to you, go for the drinks, and a couple of appetizers anything, which doesn’t require much in the way of kitchen labor. If you want to try their regular menu go early if you won’t want the kitchen to run out of food.

Online at: http://www.mccabesonmass.com/
Reservations Accepted: Yes via Opentable

Food: 2 Paws
Service 2 Paws

Overall Rating 2.0 paws

With love from my dog bowl to yours…happy eating
Shata