Brown Sugar Cafe (Boston, MA)

Brown Sugar Cafe (and its sister-restaurant in Cambridge, the Similans) is quite possibly the best Thai restaurant in the greater-Boston area, and it has all of the awards posted in its entranceway to prove it.

Brown Sugar Cafe is located on the west side of the Boston University campus, and is very easily accessible on the B-line (MBTA green line) - Babcock Street station. It appears to be very small in size, but the restaurant is actually quite deep and service is quick, ensuring that you won't have more than a 15-20 minute wait.

The menu is so long that it resembles a book. You might think that if a restaurant has a menu this long, that none of the food would be good. However, every item that we have ordered from the menu at Brown Sugar Cafe has been phenomenal. Not only does the food taste great, but the food presentation is also quite nice - with some dishes being served in pineapple shells or with flower garnishes.

The Brown Sugar Cafe Pad Thai has yet to be beat by any other restaurant in any other city. This is one of our favorite dishes, and it is difficult to venture from it, even though we know we should try something different. However, we have also tried:

• Brown Sugar Fresh Rolls - a good starter - comes with shrimp, but can also be made vegetarian
• Seafood Volcano  - a mixture of different seafoods and vegetables (comes with a burning flame!)
• Bird of Paradise - another mixture of different seafoods and vegetables (comes in a cute aluminum foil bird)
• Siamese Twins - sweet and spicy chicken, shrimp, and vegetables (comes in a pineapple shell)
• Soft Shell Crab Pad Thai - for when we want the Pad Thai, but would also like something different than the typical chicken and shrimp variety

Service at Brown Sugar Cafe is quite good - on most occasions, the servers will repeat your order right back to you, which is very helpful to ensure that you will receive the correct food. Also, there is always someone walking around with a water pitcher, so your glass never runs empty. Not once have we had an issue with finding our server when we needed him/her, which is something that we can't say about many other restaurants.

We have not tried too many of the different drinks available at Brown Sugar Cafe. We don't know if they have a full liquor license (as they don't advertise mixed drinks on their menu), so it might just be beer and wine. However, they do make an excellent limeade and shirley temple.

The desserts at Brown Sugar Cafe are excellent. We have tried a couple of them: the fried ice cream is quite good, complete with a dollop of honey and sesame seeds on top. We have also tried the Brown Sugar Banana Dumpling, which is a warm banana dessert served inside a banana leaf. However, our favorite is the Mango with Sweet Sticky Rice. Unfortunately, the mango dessert is "only available seasonally" - which is something that we don't understand. We can purchase mangoes in the supermarket all year round, so why is this dessert seasonal? hmmm

A couple more comments:

• As mentioned previously, there is a sister-restaurant called The Similans, in Cambridge - near the Cambridgeside Galleria. The menu choices and food quality there are essentially the same. Unlike Brown Sugar Cafe, The Similans has a full liquor license (we have ordered some mixed drinks there).
• We would highly recommend going to Brown Sugar Cafe for someone's birthday. The way in which birthdays are celebrated at this restaurant cannot be compared to any other restaurant....you must go there yourself to understand this. (HAPPY BIRRRTHDAY TO YOU!)

Overall Rating (Brown Sugar Cafe): 10 out of 10
Positive: Hands down, the best Thai food that we have ever had.
Negative: Keep the Mango with Sweet Sticky Rice on the menu year-round!

Max and Dylan's (Boston, MA)

Max and Dylan's is a surprisingly affordable restaurant located in downtown Boston (near the Park St, Boylston, and Downtown Crossing T stops). We say "surprisingly affordable" because the quality and quantity of food, diverse menu, matched with a great location and superb service could demand much higher prices. Each time we go to Max and Dylan's, we are surprised at how low the tab is.

The menu at Max and Dylan's would be categorized as "American." They have your typical starters, soups and salads, burgers, and flatbreads. However, they also have a wide selection of macaroni and cheese (which are creamier and taste better (but alas - are more expensive) than those at Mr Mac's, and a decent selection of other fish and steak entrees. In essence, this is the perfect place to go to when you're with a group of people who can't decide on what they want to eat - there is something here for everyone, all of the food will taste great, and people will not be angry when the bill comes to the table.

For appetizers, we've tried:

• Buffalo Chicken Dip - a cheesy and spicy dip that comes with tortilla chips. We would highly recommend this as a sharing appetizer. One order of this dip could easily be split between three people. Any more than three people, and you might want to order a second one.
• Steamed Shrimp Dumplings - just what it sounds like. These dumplings are not as good as what you could get at a Chinese restaurant, but they were still tasty and satisfying.

For the main course, we've tried:

• Lobster Mac and Cheese - extremely creamy, and contains large chunks of lobster meat. Not a fan of lobster? Based on our experience with the buffalo chicken dip, we're sure the Buffalo Chicken Mac and Cheese will also be quite satisfying.
• Mini Kobe Sliders - three small hamburgers made with Kobe beef, and dressed with cheese, onions, and greens. The sliders were satisfying, but unfortunately, they didn't come with any sort of side dish - it was solely three small burgers (all dressed exactly the same) on a plate. It would have been more interesting if the three sliders had different toppings, or if there was some sort of side dish (french fries? anything?) to go along with them.
• Grilled Salmon Fillet - a standard entree at many restaurants, served here with asparagus and mashed potatoes. While the description of the dish sounds quite plain, it tasted quite good - the dish never had a chance at our table - we ate it up that quickly.

One of the big surprises at Max and Dylan's is the quality (and in some cases, quantity) of the desserts. We have tried two of them:

• Cupcake Trio: As mentioned previously, we believe that the cupcakes here come from Sweet. They are just as good as (and look quite similar to...) the cupcakes at the cupcake bakery. At Max and Dylan's, you will get three cupcakes: one vanilla cake with vanilla bean frosting, one chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, and one "lemon meringue" with lemon cake and meringue frosting. This dessert is easily split, and at $9, it's actually cheaper than buying three cupcakes alone at Sweet. So, if you're in the mood for cupcakes and in downtown Boston, go to Max and Dylan's.
• Chocolate Chip Cookie Sliders: When we heard the name of this dessert, we thought that we were going to get three chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwiches, with each chocolate chip cookie being the size of a Chips Ahoy cookie. To our utter amazement, what comes to the table was two HUGE ice cream sandwiches, with each cookie being the size of one of those large chocolate chip cookies that you could get at a supermarket bakery. At $6, this is the best "bang for your buck" dessert ANYWHERE in Boston - we believe that they could charge $6 for one of these, but they bring you two. Although it doesn't say it on the menu, this dessert is very easily split between two people.

Other comments about Max and Dylan's:

• The restaurant accepts reservations over the phone (unfortunately, they are not on Open Table). We would recommend making a reservation for any party of 4+ people, as the tables fill up rather quickly, especially around theater show times (as the restaurant is located near the Theater District).
• There is very limited waiting area inside the restaurant - the bar area is immediately at the entrance, and is quite tightly packed. Therefore, if there's a wait, have a game plan as to where you're going to go, because you may not be able to wait inside the restaurant.
• The restaurant has a full bar and a rather significantly sized mixed-drink menu, which we would recommend exploring.

Overall Rating (Max and Dylan's): 9 out of 10
Positive: Fabulous food at extremely affordable prices, in a very central location.
Negative: Always busy, with no waiting area (difficult on inclement weather days). Could be improved by offering reservations on OpenTable.