Reviews for Market, Ecco Pizzeria, Roast Beast and More

Rachel Leah Blumenthal takes us to Market in the W Hotel in the latest Scene Boston. She warms up with a gush about the space's "sleek angles" and "real" candles before diving into the creations of chef Matt Barros, who has been at Market for four months and cooked at Myers+Chang before that. The simple, Market salad is "surprisingly outstanding," oysters have a pleasant horseradish and mustard kick, and slightly crunchy lobster with jalapeno and ginger is "awesome" (in the words of a companion). For dessert, salted caramel sundae and Grand Marnier soufflé are so good that no one speaks. [Scene]

Richard Chudy's Chowder write-up of the the roast beef sandwich with “secret beast" sauce at Roast Beast leads with a sloppy, drippy, meaty visual that is perhaps the most food porniest food porn ever. The beef is "divine—it’s succulent, moderately beefy, impeccably fresh tasting, and carefully sliced" and is served on an appetizingly grilled onion roll. This "one-trick pony" knows a pretty good trick. [Dishing]

Cassandra Landry begins her On the Cheap column about Ecco Pizzeria in the Phoenix skeptically. "I'm not sure when Allston woke up and decided it needed a new pizza joint on every other block," she muses. A caprese salad is made with tomatoes that "should be hibernating" and is overall bland, but the bianca pie, "a simple pairing of prosciutto and arugula resting on a layer of asiago cheese and olive oil" is "a much-needed break from the average grease-laden slice." Sounds like quality trumps Allston's pizza quantity. [BP]

Daisy from the blog Indulge Imbibe Inspire visits Piccola Venezia, a fairly typical North End eatery and finds it to be a fairly typical North End eatery, which is to say unimpressive. Her experience is mixed and largely done-in by disappointing spaghetti carbonara, and in the end she concludes that "it was still a good meal at a very reasonable price point that left me satisfied but not necessarily eager to return." [III]