Dining Out Boston

I'm making a serious revision in my prior assessment of Chinese restaurants. In an earlier post I referred to the "Big Three" Chinatown establishments, which I claimed were superior to all others in the neighborhood. It was a foolish and premature judgment given that on Saturday night I had the absolute best Chinese food I've ever had in Boston at Peach Farm.

Of course, my overwhelmingly positive reviews of East Ocean City, Graud Chau Chow, etc. still stand, as it's hardly inconceivable that greater Boston could hold multiple excellent Chinese restaurants. But, Peach Farm trumps all others I've seen and here's why:

Variety: Although Peach Farm specializes in exotic seafood, in addition to lobster with ginger and scallions, sizzling scallops with black pepper, and sliced spicy dry fried salted boneless eel (very good), it also offers hot pot dishes, hong kong and szechuan cuisine, and all the standard American Chinese varieties of lo mein, moo shi, and fried rice. Some other unique menu offerings include deep-fried flounder, sea conch with black bean sauce, sour mustard greens with beef shreds, and broccoli with oyster sauce.

Authenticity: All servers were Cantonese, signs and menu notes were written primarily in characters, and a huge Chinese family birthday party was carrying on at one corner of the basement dining room. Call me naive, but I don't think the majority of Asian patrons were there for show.

Service: Our orders were taken promptyly, our food served within fifteen minutes, and our water glasses continually refilled. Plus, our server and busboy separately offered us tips for ordering in Chinese restaurants. Fried rice, so he says, is only good if you order it "blackened with soy sauce." Huh. At the end of the meal the entire staff thanked our large, awkward group profusely as if we had done them some great service for mispronouncing and devouring an obscene quantity of food.

Value: Seafood dishes are understandably pricier but most don't break the bank (jumbo shrimp with broccoli $12; seafood in a nest $14) with the minute exceptions of seasonal lobster and eel meals. Everything else is ridiculously cheap: sesame chicken $8.55; moo shi pork $8; shrimp fried rice $6; scallion pancakes $2.75….

Portions: Gargantuan. Really, really freakin' huge. Order one entree and one appetizer per person and you've got dinner plus two takeout meals.

The only thing that seems to be lacking is, well, peaches.

The Info
Peach Farm Restaurant
4 Tyler St., Boston
617-482-3332