This Week, All The Big Boston Critics Weigh In

The historically-inspired recent South End addition Kitchen gets a largely favorable review from Corby Kummer in Boston Magazine. Despite the inspiration for the menu, which lists dishes' dates of origin, "You don't have to care about the provenance of the food served here." Because it's good independent of legacy. And even though mushrooms under glass fails as a dish, "it fails in an interesting, ambitious way that makes you wonder what his [chef Herritt's] next historical adventure will be." [BM]

The little Thai North gets four stars out of five from B.N. Lee for The Improper Bostonian. Lee wonders why "cookie-cutter places serving New American fare" are so busy when establishments like this can have seats to spare. As others have similarly noted, "order from the chalkboard or the photos, and you'll be rewarded with spicy dishes from Thailand's Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai regions that you won't find anywhere else in Boston." For instance, the pork salad, in which "crackling, shredded pork and offal bits combined with the fiery fish sauce for an intense larb." [TIB]

Park in Harvard Square triumphs despite its basement location in MC Slim JB's latest review for The Phoenix. "With attractively dim lighting throughout and a raucous noise level, the space feels like a busy, inviting, genteel tavern, neither cramped nor gloomy." The beer list is "geek-worthy" and cocktails "run to the complex and crafty." Like all Slim's reviews in this publication, this one picks a single dish to serve as the restaurant's edible mascot. In this case, it's "the massive, gorgeous slow-roasted brisket, a daunting slab of beef with a beautifully tender texture, served with caramelized root vegetables and a cunning iron crock of white-bean cassoulet with goodly bits of pork sausage." Park is "a worthy and value-priced addition" to the neighborhood, falling somewhere on the same spectrum as "the dreamy gastropub heights of big brother Russell House Tavern." [TP]

Who thought they would ever read a Globe review that ends with this sentence: "Now, together with me: legs apart, lasso motion, and gallop Gangnam style." That's the departing word by Devra First in her review of Sh?j?. She gives the Chinatown restaurant two stars out of a possible four for this "hangout that should be busier than it is." However "Small plates are stronger than main courses," and so Sh?j? "serves its purpose best as a delightful spot to drink and snack." [BG]

Tiny Urban Kitchen's review of O Ya will do little to dissuade you from thinking that this is an incredible restaurant. The post functions as a tour through O Ya's infamous Grand Omakase including dishes ranging from Kumamoto oysters with watermelon pearls and cucumber mignonette to the seared Petit Strip Loin of Wagyu. " I don't think there's another tasting menu in this city that's grander, more sophisticated, and more impressive than this one. Just the sheer number of different tastes, different presentations, and variety of ingredients is mind-boggling." [TUK]