The Critics Ate Pasta, M’Anoush, and Noodles

Reinvigorated Home Cooking

Devra First’s latest full Globe review features Pammy’s in Cambridge. She finds an enchanting restaurant, with its namesake herself behind the bar and a menu of “everyday dishes made better.” The mushroom bruschetta is “special,” as its “flavors and textures pack a complex punch,” and the bay scallop crudo is served with yuzu jam mixed with grapefruit and lime. First dubs the pork chop deserving of its own paragraph, describing the brine, rub, and accompanying cream of wheat and calling it “darn near perfect, both in design and execution.” For dessert, the coco nib cake is a must. Pammy’s earns three stars out of four (“excellent”) in First’s book.

Versatile Dining

MC Slim JB writes about Anoush’ella for his latest in the Improper Bostonian. The fast-casual restaurant in the South End serves Armenian-Lebanese cuisine, and the mezze play a big role as both appetizers and fixtures in the main dishes, Slim writes. Most are familiar, including what he calls “excellent renditions” of hummus and baba ganoush, plus labne, “a fierce take on muhammara,” and pickled turnips. There are also “pristine, herb-heavy salads,” and warm mezze that feature items like braised beef, roasted chicken, and spiced ground lamb. “An assortment of these plates makes for nonpareil grazing,” Silm writes, while also noting that he would “gratefully wolf down another egg roll m’anoush” at any time. Other highlights: the monk salad bowl with roasted eggplant and a lentil rice grain bowl, along with the sweet s’mores rollup with Nutella, graham crackers, and marshmallows.

Noodles pack a punch

Marc Hurwitz visits Chili Square in Quincy for his latest in the Dig and finds some dishes that are “not for the faint of heart.” The restaurant serves Chinese dishes, and some, like the spicy duck heads and pig’s ears in chili oil, may be a little intimidating to those more used to Chinese-American cuisine. “There are definitely a number of options here for the less daring, however,” Hurwitz writes, including the biang biang noodles, which are hand-pulled, wide, and flat at Chili Square, served in soup or alone, with accompanying meats or non-meat options. The spicy oil in the dish has a kick that will “sneak up on you as you continue to eat it.” Other offerings include a Lanzhou beef noodle soup and a Wuhan hot dry noodle dish that also packs a punch thanks to sesame paste and chili oil. Another highlight is the crispy Korean chicken wings, Hurwitz writes, along with scallion pancakes. The restaurant is cash-only.

• At Pammy’s, Pleasure Is the Principle [BG]
• Fast-Casual Fab [IB]
• Chili Square in Quincy [DigBoston]