Shojo in Boston's Chinatown
Shojo in Boston's Chinatown
So, the wife and I decided to do a weekend at home for the first time in a while and went and had a couple of date nights right here in the Boston area. On Friday we went to one of my two favorite Medford local haunts Semolina (near Tufts on Boston Ave., Medford, MA).
Semolina is a solid restaurant with good out door seating, a decent beer list and a great vibe. Take this as what it is, if you live in the area it is an excellent place to walk to and avoid the waits and crowds of Davis square and I think it is better and more affordable than many places in Davis Square, but it is very much a neighborhood spot, not a place worth traveling for more of a place that is just a solid place when you don't want to travel all the way into the city via T or Uber/Lyft.
We had a great time sat outside in the sun and split two pizzas one was the daily special and the other was the Swiss Chard-Caramelized Onion white pizza with herb ricotta and Parmigiano Reggiano. My wife typically likes to go one white pizza and one with red sauce to keep it balanced out. We decided to go with two white pizzas this time as the selection of red sauce/ traditional sauce pizzas was kind of lacking creativity except for the Eggplant basil pizza which we both agreed had the potential of being to heavy on a hot summer day (I have not had this pizza before and am only assuming it has thicker breaded slices of eggplant on it as that appears to be the local style). The star of the show though was the Vinho Verde we had from Raza. As I have explained previously my wife and I will be going to Portugal soon and other than the massive amounts of port we are sure to drink we are looking forward to having the local white wine called Vinho Verde. When we saw it on the menu here and it seemed like the prefect type of day to have it we decided to give it a try. It was light, refreshing, fruity, sweet (but not too sweet), and had a slight effervescence. It was perfect to sit in the sunshine sip that wine and chat about our weeks. Overall a wonderful evening.
We spent the majority of Saturday by the local pond in Medford and then ventured into Boston to try a restaurant in an area of the city we unfortunately do not make it to often before we attended a show near by. We decided to go to Shojo in Chinatown (9A Tyler St. Boston, MA). We went relatively early (I have found that if you want a chance at getting in to the more popular places and you are a two top you can typically slip in if you are willing to eat earlier or later than the crowds.) We walked right in and were seated immediately we decided to split the Cold Tea for Two which is a tea based cocktail served in a old school metal teapot similar in style to the teapots you would get at any standard Chinese restaurant but this one contains delicious, and strong cocktail goodness. It was not overly sweet but it was drinkable and balanced. Before I get far into the food more, I just want to go over how cool this place is on the inside and out. Shojo is on Tyler Street a narrow cramped little street with a lot of great restaurants all with very cool curb appeal and then you walk in and your hit with this graffiti wall and modern bar. It is just a cool place to be and hang out.
I would definitely recommend a dinner at Shojo and that people check out the neighborhood it has a lot to offer. After dinner we went to the Schubert Theater and saw the Try Guys perform and it was an amazing show. If you haven't checked out their YouTube channel you definitely should check it out. Overall, it was an amazing evening and weekend checking out what Boston has to offer. My next post will be about visiting another local Maine brewery and a few new Portland, ME spots.
So, the wife and I decided to do a weekend at home for the first time in a while and went and had a couple of date nights right here in the Boston area. On Friday we went to one of my two favorite Medford local haunts Semolina (near Tufts on Boston Ave., Medford, MA).
Semolina is a solid restaurant with good out door seating, a decent beer list and a great vibe. Take this as what it is, if you live in the area it is an excellent place to walk to and avoid the waits and crowds of Davis square and I think it is better and more affordable than many places in Davis Square, but it is very much a neighborhood spot, not a place worth traveling for more of a place that is just a solid place when you don't want to travel all the way into the city via T or Uber/Lyft.
We had a great time sat outside in the sun and split two pizzas one was the daily special and the other was the Swiss Chard-Caramelized Onion white pizza with herb ricotta and Parmigiano Reggiano. My wife typically likes to go one white pizza and one with red sauce to keep it balanced out. We decided to go with two white pizzas this time as the selection of red sauce/ traditional sauce pizzas was kind of lacking creativity except for the Eggplant basil pizza which we both agreed had the potential of being to heavy on a hot summer day (I have not had this pizza before and am only assuming it has thicker breaded slices of eggplant on it as that appears to be the local style). The star of the show though was the Vinho Verde we had from Raza. As I have explained previously my wife and I will be going to Portugal soon and other than the massive amounts of port we are sure to drink we are looking forward to having the local white wine called Vinho Verde. When we saw it on the menu here and it seemed like the prefect type of day to have it we decided to give it a try. It was light, refreshing, fruity, sweet (but not too sweet), and had a slight effervescence. It was perfect to sit in the sunshine sip that wine and chat about our weeks. Overall a wonderful evening.
We spent the majority of Saturday by the local pond in Medford and then ventured into Boston to try a restaurant in an area of the city we unfortunately do not make it to often before we attended a show near by. We decided to go to Shojo in Chinatown (9A Tyler St. Boston, MA). We went relatively early (I have found that if you want a chance at getting in to the more popular places and you are a two top you can typically slip in if you are willing to eat earlier or later than the crowds.) We walked right in and were seated immediately we decided to split the Cold Tea for Two which is a tea based cocktail served in a old school metal teapot similar in style to the teapots you would get at any standard Chinese restaurant but this one contains delicious, and strong cocktail goodness. It was not overly sweet but it was drinkable and balanced. Before I get far into the food more, I just want to go over how cool this place is on the inside and out. Shojo is on Tyler Street a narrow cramped little street with a lot of great restaurants all with very cool curb appeal and then you walk in and your hit with this graffiti wall and modern bar. It is just a cool place to be and hang out.
Back to the food, Shojo does small fusion plates and my wife and I split three dishes the chicken and waffles, Kimchi fried rice, and the special of the day a Chinese style fired chicken. I got so focused on the eating that I failed horribly at taking photos but I did get a picture of the Kimchi fried rice which was a large portion, pleasantly spicy, with a wonderful fried egg on top it was wonderful. The star of the show was the Chinese fried chicken which was moist, spicy, and sweet. The chicken was cooked perfectly with a wonderful crunch on the outside and served over rice with sauce that was delightfully sticky sweet and spicy all at the same time. It was a wonderfully delicious meal.
See you out there
John
Comments
Post a Comment