You are in Boston for 48 hours. This is where you will eat.
Curator Christine Liu
Christine Liu careens around the city one darling bite at a time. Her writings on local food, drink and fashion have been published in The Boston Globe, Boston Magazine, Budget Travel and DailyCandy Boston. A resident of Somerville, Christine is often seen indulging her penchant for small pleasures, like squirting sriracha on noodles, sipping negronis at midnight, and taking her MacBook for refreshing little walks.
Say hey hey on twitter » @liuliuliu
Tapas at Toro
1704 Washington Street, Boston, MA
Perhaps the best way to encapsulate Toro, Ken Oringer's and Jamie Bissonette's Spanish small-plates lovechild, is simply to describe events that befall under the steely, watchful eye of the wall-mounted namesake bull: A never-ending crush of happy, oil-slicked, ... more →
Late-Night at Hungry Mother
233 Cardinal Medeiros Avenue, Cambridge, MA
Boiled peanuts, salty-soft nibbles. Blackened little curlicues of tobacco onions. Pimiento cheese sandwiches tempered by dainty celery sticks and a fried pickled okra that nary got away. This tiny refuge for Southern-swayed appetites is a local obsession with its ... more →
Cocktails at Eastern Standard
528 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA
Bespectacled, vest-clad, pomade-slicked bar manager Jackson Cannon wrote the book on classic cocktails in Boston; he also probably letter-pressed, hand-stitched, and leather-bound it as well. Eastern Standard's drink menu reads like a restored artifact, straightforward ... more →
Al Fresco at Oleana
134 Hampshire Street, Cambridge, MA
With its deft orchestration of Mediterranean and Turkish-influenced spices, Oleana warms you from the belly out. Dishes are opulent and layered with complexity (and incidentally, most are vegetarian-friendly)—from pomegranate spoon salad, draped with gigante ... more →
Beer at Deep Ellum
477 Cambridge Street, Allston, MA
Pockmarked with all things tasty and sketchy, Allston is like that loyal, slobbery dog that's ugly as hell while remaining unflinchingly indispensable. That said, Deep Ellum is a diamond in the rough, a beer lover's gastropub with an embarrassment of riches, including: ... more →
Dinner at Erbaluce
69 Church Street Bay Village, Boston, MA, 02116-5418
Erbaluce is a downtown gem, a mystical 5-minute walk away from wherever you seem to be, yet tucked away from the madding crowds just so. Drink gorgeously off-the-radar wine, delight in candlelit company, and be stupefied by simple pleasures like unctuous veal ribs ... more →
Ice Cream at Toscanini’s
899 Main Street, Cambridge, MA, 02139
If you haven't learned by now, Boston loves it some ice cream; Toscanini's is ne plus ultra of micro-batch ice creameries. If the sheer list of 40+ flavors doesn't knock you over (burnt caramel, rather dark chocolate, blueberry pancake, &c), the intensely ... more →
Lunch at Myers + Chang
1145 Washington Street, Boston, MA
It's scientifically proven that Myers + Chang will send you into states of shock for both cuteness and yumminess. Distractingly adorable husband-and-wife team of Christopher Myers and Joanne Chang (of wicked-good Flour Bakery - it's right down the street) ... more →
Seafood at Neptune Oyster
63 Salem Street, Boston, MA
The North End is notorious for a lot of things, but Neptune Oyster is a delightful exception to the touristy, overpriced rule. Diminutive, unassuming, and diva-free, this tile-and-mirror-lined paean to la mer serves the most simple, most fresh, and most ... more →
Bakery at Sportello
348 Congress Street, Boston, MA
Yes, there's mind-blowing handmade pasta and precious salads and altogether scrumptious savories at Sportello, Barbara Lynch's ode to Italian lunch counters - but the retail bakery nook deserves full due. Primly organized in fanciful domed plates and stacked on ... more →