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Boston Magazine’s Jolyon Helterman reviewed the South End’s SRV, calling it a "reliably sublime Venetian bacaro" that delivers a "carnival of Venice-inspired fare." The stellar pastas are made from house-milled flour, and Helterman found the beet-filled casunziei not too sweet because of the smoked ricotta and dried nori. He wrote: "The pacing was masterful, the sequence nimble," and he was left full for a mere $45 (minus drinks) — and noted that the food would have been a bargain at twice that. His favorite non-pasta dish was the fegato alla veneziana, and he recommended the smoked sea trout, lamb-sausage maltagliati, and the calf’s liver and onions. The only downside in the review, which granted the restaurant four stars out of four? The desserts were "uniformly weak."
Ocean Prime received a visit from The Boston Globe’s Mat Schaffer, who wrote that the "seafood, chicken, chops, and steaks receive star treatment." For a chain with 12 restaurants in the US, Ocean Prime serves "decent" New England chowder and "sublime" savory goat cheese ravioli, he wrote. The shrimp in Tabasco cream sauce were "luxuriously rich," he wrote, and the Point Judith calamari was "unexpectedly awesome." Though the swordfish was "disappointingly ordinary," Schaffer praised the Chilean sea bass and crab cakes and noted that "carnivores will be pleased" with either the filet mignon or the Kansas City strip steak.
At Sichuan Gourmet in Burlington, part of a small local chain, the Globe’s Ellen Bhang found that the xiang la fish "showcases the kitchen at its best," and it was fragrant and spicy, as the name translated. Bhang lauded the Chengdu spicy dumplings and juicy filling, as well as the "zippy" dan dan noodles and Sichuan double-cooked bacon. She also called out the baby bok choy that was "crisp and expertly cooked," plus the "sentimental favorite," General Tso’s chicken.
