The Critics Ate Fried Chicken Sandwiches, Sashimi, and Ramen This Week

Japan Meets Peru

Reviewing Ruka for The Boston Globe, Mat Schaffer dives into Nikkei cuisine. “The place is beautiful,” he writes, and “the food echoes the room.” With six menu categories, Ruka’s highlights include “wonderful” scallops tossed in yogurt and citrus marinade, as well as crunchy salmon tacos. The chicken thighs are drizzled with piquant yellow pepper sauce, and the octopus lomo saltado is “a riff on a classic Chinese-Peruvian stir-fry of beef, onions, soy, rice, and French fries.” Schaffer also writes that the tea-smoked Long Island duck “is a spectacular presentation,” and the Japanese sea bream sashimi is “pristinely fresh and delicious.”

Fried Potatoes and Skeeball

Catherine Smart visits Roxy’s Central & A4cade for her latest Globe piece, and finds a spot for “deliriously happy” hipsters. The place is “part counter-service and takeout restaurant (in the front) and part raucous game room (in the back),” and she recommends starting with crisp fries and a dipping sauce flight while figuring out drink orders. Cocktails come in non-traditional containers (like R2-D2 cups), and “there is a whole section of the menu devoted to fried potatoes.” Smart writes that the LTO burger is “a tasty, think griddled patty,” and the Double Fried chicken sandwich comes with Grillo’s pickles and hot honey, but notes that the food is a “player’s bonus” alongside getting the chance to play 25-year-old arcade games.

A “Real-Deal” Ramen Place

Boston Restaurant Talk’s Marc Hurwitz checks out Hakata Ramen in Quincy this week for Dig Boston. The “simple but attractive” restaurant “has a lot more than just ramen, including yakitori, sushi, teriyaki and curry dishes, tempura, and sushi burritos.” Some of the ramen highlights include a spicy miso version “that gets increasingly hot as it is eaten,” he writes, and a chicken teriyaki version with a zesty marinade, along with pork katsu ramen, hot kimchi ramen with braised pork belly, and a spicy tofu version with chashu. “This Quincy spot feels like a real-deal place,” Hurwitz writes.

• When Japan Meets Peru on the Plate [BG]
• Roxy’s Central & A4cade Get the High Score [BG]
• Hakata Ramen (Quincy) [Dig Boston]