The Critics Ate Korean Fried Chicken, Seafood, and Indonesian Food This Week

Puzzling Over Chicken

Catherine Smart keeps coming back to BB.Q Chicken, the restaurant that replaced SoulFire Barbecue in Allston, but she can’t exactly say why in her latest piece for the Boston Globe. Sometimes menu items aren’t available and the decor is odd at this international chain, she writes, but “every time a friendly server brings you a perfectly cooked basket of fried chicken,” you’re reminded what you came in for, and that’s the “compelling crunch and juiciness” of Korean fried chicken. She recommends the Gangnam-style wings that are flecked with black pepper and garlic and have a crackly coating, as well as the Golden Olive Chicken. “Good luck trying to decode the Cheeezling Chicken,” Smart writes, recommending the “salty-sweet morsels” nonetheless. Don’t miss the dukbokki, or “springy little rice cakes,” which can come sprinkled with cheese.

Ship or Restaurant?

The Globe’s Kara Baskin visits the brand new ReelHouse in East Boston, where she describes the scene as “a glamorous ocean liner straight out of an Agatha Christie mystery.” There’s seafood here, including crab and tuna rolls, shrimp toasts, steamed mussels, and sea scallops with Brussels sprout tabouleh. Baskin writes that there are some “interesting details,” like Kobe beef and foie gras dumplings and General Tso’s chicken tacos, and brunch features items like smoked salmon Benedict and a French dip.

Taste of Jakarta

The Improper Bostonian’s MC Slim JB checks out the Kaki Lima pop-up at Wink & Nod in his latest review, finding impressive plates like the “deeply satisfying” beef rendang, which has “nuanced, rich flavors” that “encompass sweet spices, aromatics, nuts, ginger, coconut cream and mild chili fire,” he writes. Kaki Lima provides “a beautifully vibrant, happily traditional introduction” to Indonesian food, a rarity in Boston, and Slim hopes that chef Retno Pratiwi “will find a more permanent stage” once this pop-up concludes.

• Korean Fried Chicken You Can’t Stop Going Back For [BG]
• Is It a Luxury Yacht or a Restaurant? [BG]
• Surabaya Symphony [IB]