The Other Critics

Louis DiBiccari’s Green Bean Casserole Will School Your Grandma; Max and Leo Are A Dynamic Duo

• Swanky Storyville gets two stars from the Globe’s Devra First; it’s “more club than restaurant.” You won’t find elderly folks here, that’s for sure, which is too bad, since madcap chef Louis DiBiccari “schools your grandmother with his green bean casserole.” [Globe]

• Newton’s Max and Leo’s feels like a “neighborhood fixture,” Sheryl Julian writes. “If pizza can be described as exquisite, this is exquisite pizza.” Chicken wings, meanwhile, emerge from the oven “moist and saturated with their flavors.” [Globe]

• Robert Nadeau makes dining at Kendall Square’s Catalyst sound complicated: “Portions are small. Prices are serious. You have to ask what half the dishes on the menu are, and then look them up on the Internet and find out what you ate.” The bread, however, is “fabulous.” He gives the spot two stars. [Phoenix]

The Phoenix’s On the Cheap column throws college readers a bone with a round-up of cheap eats near campus. Al’s State Street Cafe, Temptations, and Charlie’s Kitchen make the cut. [Phoenix]

• MC Slim JB schools us in the ways of imbibing: “It’s important to slow your system’s absorption of ethanol so that your social lubrication doesn’t slide into slurry inebriation,” he advises. But, in case you do overindulge, it’s Brick & Mortar’s chicken and waffles to the rescue to sop up the booze. The new Cambridge bar serves up a “confit thigh on a fine, crisp cornmeal waffle dotted with red currants, given a lovely sweet-sour tang with maple gastrique.” [Stuff]

• Man Food’s Richard Chudy nibbles the fish taco at Fenway’s El Pelon, but it’s sadly lime-less: “It’s far from great due to underwhelming seasoning. It won’t knock your socks off, but it’s a satisfying, capable Mexican option if you’re in the neighborhood,” he writes. [Boston]

Louis DiBiccari’s Green Bean Casserole Will School Your Grandma; Max and Leo Are