The Other Critics

Stoddard’s Worth the Wait; Tasty Burger Dependent on Toppings

• Mat Schaffer gives Stoddard’s Fine Food & Ale a B: “With its historic craft cocktails, lengthy beer selection and surprisingly sophisticated food, Stoddard’s has become a deservedly popular haunt with the Government Center workers, shoppers, theatergoers and tourists who frequent this neighborhood. Be prepared to wait for a table. Kudos to chef Mark Cina (Central Kitchen, Rendezvous, Craigie Street) for his ambitious menu that mixes reinvented saloon classics with gourmet dining eats.” [Herald]

• Cheap Eats drops by Tasty Burger and finds that “toppings make all the difference with such lean meat; among common choices are elevated originals.” [Phoenix]

• Robert Nadeau bestows two stars on Rafiki Bistro where the food is hit or miss, but the music is “so great that at times it actually distracted this music-loving critic from his appointed rounds.” [Phoenix]

• Cheap Eats drops by Eastie’s Topacio: “The lighting could be better. Fluorescent ceiling squares with frosted plastic diffusion panels give the cavernous dining room a bright bluish pall. And the TV is hard to ignore. The mounted television blares a telenovela’s low-fidelity ebb and dramatic flow: moue, slap, cue crescendo. Then sopa de mariscos arrives and suddenly nothing else matters. [Globe]

Stoddard’s Worth the Wait; Tasty Burger Dependent on Toppings