Praise for 'Piggy Goodness' at Cinquecento

South End newcomer Cinquecento has been racking up a variety of positive chatter around the internet lately; most recently, MC Slim JB added his own praise in The Phoenix. Already an admirer of "the smooth professionalism and crowd-pleasing instincts of the Aquitaine Group," MC Slim JB doesn't share many complaints about the group's newest member. Appetizers include "beautiful" and "delicately tender" salumi selections, "gorgeous" young octopus (marred only by overwhelmingly briny olives), and "only faintly offal-y" tripe. The pasta dishes are "uniformly strong" (although the portions are "oversized"), and various entrees are "sensational" and "stunning," particularly the porchetta arrosto, "a staggering overload of piggy goodness." [TP]

In his quest to find the best burgers around town, Richard Chudy (Boston Burger Blog) visited Farmstead Table in Newton to give their grass-fed burger a try. While waiting for the burger to arrive, he wondered whether he'd ever actually had an exceptional grass-fed burger, a musing which set up the Farmstead Table burger to be either a pleasant surprise or perhaps an unsurprising disappointment. Unfortunately, it was the latter; "the meat to bun ratio and over-packing of the burger are the eventual downfall." It wasn't entirely bad, though, as the patty was "fairly juicy and modestly seasoned," and the bacon was "well prepared." [BBB]

Reviewing 75 on Liberty Wharf for the Globe, Dan Zedek finds the small restaurant to be a "nice surprise" amongst its huge Seaport neighbors. While he doesn't gush with praise for anything, most cocktails and dishes are enjoyable. Of the seafood stew, for example, he writes: "This is home cooking that's actually hard to make this well at home." There are a few issues, like the "unmelted and rubbery" mozzarella and the "unexpected and unwelcome," "slightly soggy" fries. Nonetheless, Zedek looks forward to trying "a warm sunny winter lunch" on the patio. [BG]

"Newbury Street's Cafeteria needs to go back to school," according to Luke O'Neil, reviewing cocktails at the Back Bay spot for his "Thursty" column in the Metro. The Straight A's cocktail (Applejack, Aperol, apricot brandy, and Angostura bitters) seemed promising but left O'Neil regretting his decision: "What should have been a fruit-forward, lightly bitter stirred cocktail was a dominated by — ugh — DeKuyper brandy, which is essentially the equivalent of eating the little jelly packets they leave on the table at diners." The Bee Student wasn't much better, tasting like a "cocktail of sugary heartburn." He enjoyed the atmosphere well enough, particularly the new 12-seat bar on the second floor, but if you're going to go, "stick with wine or beer." [Metro]

Jennifer Che (Tiny Urban Kitchen) revisited the famous Craigie on Main burger for Sunday brunch, finding it to be "one heck of a burger." It was "as delicious as [she] remembered it" from a few years earlier, "horrendously messy to eat" but "totally worth it." But possibly even better than the burger? The grass-fed beef cheek, brisket, and smoked beef tongue hash. Now that's a lot of beef. [TUK]