Que Padre's Sonora Hot Dog Worth the Toll to Eastie

The Globe's Catherine Smart will "not think twice about paying the toll to Eastie to get another" Sonora hot dog at Que Padre, which she featured in this week's Cheap Eats column. While there's plenty of great Mexican food in East Boston, Que Padre differentiates itself with specialties from northern Mexico and Bolivian pastries like saltenas, which are similar to empanadas but with a thin gravy inside, "best eaten like Chinese soup dumplings." Other highlights: the chicharron plate, "primal food to eat with your hands," and tortas, "one messy, delicious meal." [BG]

Corby Kummer follows Chef Chris Parsons to his newish Milton restaurant, Steel & Rye, for Boston Magazine; Kummer, like many in the area, was a fan of the chef's previous project, Parsons Table in Winchester. With the new, huge space, Kummer finds that Parsons is trying to do too much with the menu. "Maybe as insurance against empty tables, he's trying for bar food, seafood, and steakhouse- and family-style fare all at the same time," Kummer writes. But all is not lost. On dishes that show more focus, "he creates things that are so good, so at once complex and homey, that you want him to pull back, cut the menu in half, and prepare it all the same way." Kummer's favorite dish is the broccoli casserole with wild mushrooms, Comté cheese, and homemade Ritz crackers, a perfect example of his conclusion that when Parsons is at his best, he "makes food that tastes like the home you never had." [BM]

The Big City pool hall in Allston has transformed into Patron's Mexican Kitchen & Watering Hole (under the same ownership), and Luke O'Neil checks out the drinks and the ambiance for the Metro. "You might have expected a classier update on the fratty Allston bar in line with many of the other recent, flashy tequila-centric bar openings," writes O'Neil, "and you'd be half right." Tequilas are certainly the focus, but you can still find "a Jagermeister shot machine behind the bar, and an encouragement to ask about tequila jello shots on the menu under the list of mezcals." The $4 margaritas may distract most guests from the good stuff, but O'Neil concludes that "if they can introduce the Allston nightlife crowd to the wider world of agave, like [the owner's] bars have done with beer over the years it's a welcome change." [Metro]

In the latest installment of Boston Magazine's Man Food column, Richard Chudy investigates the off-menu burger at Drink. The vibe (bartenders with "swagger," a disinterested hostess, a long line) is off-putting, but Chudy declares that waiting for a cocktail and the burger is necessary: "the stomach and liver want what the stomach and liver want." Only fifteen burgers are available each night, but it's "about as mainstream as it gets, doing its best Big Mac impression along the way." That's not a bad thing. "It's the best version of a mimicked fast-food burger I've ever had," writes Chudy, "and nails exactly what it needs and tries to be," from the "impeccably fresh" bun to the "moxie" of the two patties. But it'll cost you $13 - and that doesn't include an order of $7 fries. [BM]