The Critics Devoured So Much Pizza and Steak This Week

Both The Boston Globe and The Improper Bostonian weighed in on the new brick-and-mortar location of Stoked Wood Fired Pizza, with The Improper's MC Slim JB praising its graduation from food truck to restaurant. He called the Neapolitan-style pizzas "beautiful," with a "bubbly, chewy, lightly charred crust," and he commended how well the pizzas with heavy toppings held up. Slim wrote that the barbecue chicken pie "lands a tricky balance of tang, sweetness, umami and salt" and that the mushroom and onion pie could sway more people to try white pizzas with its "luscious mix of mushrooms, more of those great roasted onions and a drizzle of porcini oil." The appetizers include "fabulous meatballs" and the Stoked salad "dresses up pedestrian greens." Overall, he wrote: "Stoked offers a textbook example of how to build brilliantly on a food-truck success."

The Globe's Sheryl Julian also had high praise for the crust, which is cooked through with a "slowly spinning pizza floor." She also noted that "the chewy, charred pies support top-quality ingredients," and "if you can make an exceptional Margherita, you can do anything else." She said the pepperoni pizza was a fine pie, but that while the optional addition of Mike's Hot Honey offered more heat, "the sweetness seems odd here." Julian said there were some issues with consistency of dishes between visits but praised the meatball appetizers and noted that the Calabrian sweet chile wings were "sweet, salty, and crunchy." Overall, the place has "little flourishes" that make it so likable.

Nestor Ramos paid a visit to the cutlery-optional Flank steakhouse for his latest Globe review, where he found some pretty decadent food displays, including a $75 shellfish tower topped with cured ham. The restaurant is a reinvention of the cutlery-free 19th century-style beefsteak (a meat-centric banquet dominated by men), and Ramos found that that women are still thoroughly outnumbered, but utensils are present, as well as aprons. He tried "The Banker," a three-course meal of shellfish, salad, steak, bacon-wrapped lamb chops and so much more. "Bacon-wrapped lamb chops mean undercooked bacon or overcooked lamb," he said, adding that the flank and strip steak was "criminally overcooked." He was impressed by the "deep and innovative cocktail menu," along with the "deeply satisfying" 16-ounce dry-aged strip loin and the tender filet. Ramos noted that Gronk, who has a "prominently positioned" wine locker there, would be an appropriate "spirit animal" for Flank.