When you find something you love it is easy to keep going back; you know it will never let you down and it gives you that great feeling of satisfaction. This can be said for a lot of places: a clothing store, a coffee shop or a restaurant. It becomes habit; you become complacent and forget to try something new. That’s why it is important to make the conscious decision to try something new.
We are lucky in Boston to be surrounded by many options; the amount of restaurants is endless. The North End has some great Italian and The Thinking Cup has great coffee, but there is so much more.
As the South End continues to develop, it has become a great place to find some unusual restaurants. One that is definitely worth trying is Addis Red Sea, an Ethiopian restaurant. It’s family-style dining with a giant plate of spongy bread that gets topped with the dish you order. This is a great restaurant for all different diets; vegans, vegetarian and of course, there are plenty of options for all the carnivores. All I have to say is follow one rule: order the dish most foreign to you.
Another great place for exploration is Chinatown. It is so close to Emerson, but so different than anything you find on campus. Although it is not technically Chinese, Pho Pasteur, a Vietnamese restaurant, is one of the best restaurants in the area. It specializes in a great dish: Pho, it is noodle soup with your choice of meat and/or vegetables. Sometimes there really is nothing better than a giant bowl of soup. To make it even better, the value is insane; for 10 dollars, there is enough food for three meals.
With three locations, in Cambridge, Boston and Waltham, Elephant Walk is definitely a necessary experience. The restaurant has three menus, a traditional French menu, a traditional Cambodian menu and a French-Cambodian fusion menu. The unusual fusion is based on the former owner’s heritage. They have everything from steamed mussels to curry to soba noodles to chocolate mousse; there are too many choices to make. My recommendation is to go with a lot of people and eat family style because you will want to try something off every menu.