The Critics Housed Some Pizza and Fish This Week

An old staple and a new pizza place were the focus of The Boston Globe’s Catherine Smart this week. She first visited La Cascia’s is Medford, which got its start in 1926, and found Sicilian slices for $1.75 a piece. "The crust is substantial, with a pillowy center but crisp on the bottom," she wrote, "the antithesis of the cracker-crust trend." She recommended rounding out the meal with chocolate-covered almond rainbow cookies.

Over in Malden, Smart stopped by the new Sillari’s Pizza, where she ordered "the works" with anchovies. All the toppings "don't overwhelm the pizza, but meld together into a super-savory concoction even purists will love," Smart said. The sausage pizza was flavorful, and the simple cheese pie proved "the crisp-chewy crust; savory, oregano-flecked sauce; and mozzarella can stand on their own."

The Globe's Kara Baskin popped into Back Bay’s Saltie Girl this week to sample "fish in all its supple glory." This new eatery features seafood that’s been tinned, smoked, and fried, as well as raw options, Baskin wrote. She ate toasts with crab, sardine, and smoked salmon, as well as hamachi loin and tuna carpaccio crudo. Baskin called the raw platters majestic and said the tinned fish menu offered squid, octopus, mussels, mackerel, and cockles, served with sea salt butter and jam. "This is the type of place where one extra Prosecco might find you ordering beyond your means or comfort zone — and leaving happier for it," Baskin wrote.