Fire & Ice
205 Berkeley St.
Boston, MA 02116
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Try this or other locations!)
This stylish chain spot may seem like an exclusive club for teens and people below thirty-five but it really is a fine establishment where patrons of any age and come and enjoy. To be honest, it is almost overrun with college students and some very young professionals but you get the occasional family in there as well. The restaurant boasts a bar on the ground floor and a Mongolian style restaurant on floor two. I can't say much about the bar as I've only had one drink there. My Boston-dining companion, however, seems to enjoy it despite once being in the line of fire for an exploding mixer. The strawberry daiquiri that I had didn't seem all that refreshing. It was a bit too pulpy and the alcoholic aftertaste ruined the taste of the berries.
The food, on the other hand, is just great. Here's the set up. You get up to a bar with a bowl and you start scooping raw materials into it. Their seafood selections include big scallops, shrimp, mussels, squid, and fish. (Too bad that their salmon was frozen.) For meats, you get a few varieties of sausage, marinated chicken, different cuts of beef, and full-sized beef patties for burgers. The salad is a bit small with only a few choices for the vegetable lover. The dressings are good though as are the vegetables that one can place in one's bowl to have cooked. There are peppers, mushrooms, peas, etc. Nothing special in the vegetable realm, I'm afraid but they do have a heavenly bowl of chopping garlic from which you can take as much as you can. Noodles are also available for those who are interested though you should note that they bring out a whole bowl of rice for you at the table.
Diners then get to choose from a variety of tasty sauces. The teriyaki sauce is particularly good though I am tempted to try the various chili sauces as well. The problem is always that I am afraid I might not like a new sauce in place of the tried and true teriyaki. You will understand why the selection of the sauce is so important in the next paragraph. I should note that more conservative diners will have their choice of the regular barbecue sauces as well.
So, you have your raw food and your sauce. Now what? You then take all this up to the central cooking area, which is basically a gigantic cooking circle. Here, three cooks greet you, take your raw ingredients, dump them onto the cooker and, when it's time, dump your sauce on top of that. They add buns and cheese for burgers and also provide some interesting dialogue as you wait for your food to cook. Now, this part can take a while because it is basically a bottleneck in the dining process. The lines are sometimes long (unless you get in at the right time) and you end up just standing there, waiting for the cooks to get to you or to come back to grab your sauces. Though watching the pretty food is entertaining, one becomes rather bored with the process after a while.
Two elements prevent you from eating more than two or three dishes at this buffet. First is the line at the cooking area. You're a bit full. Do you really have the energy or the need to go stand up there and wait in line for another fifteen minutes? Second, the portions are pretty bit and, combined with the rice they leave at your table (and the guilt you feel for not eating it), you're not really in the mood to gorge yourself some more. Now, this can actually be a positive as I have left Fire & Ice feeling absolutely stuffed every time though I've always wanted to have more. It's all in the garlic . . .
But why do they leave you the rice at the table? That's really unnecessary and I can't imagine that people consume a whole lot of it. Sorry, but that seems like a waste. The noise level can get out of hand and the cooks sometime force you into song. That's not always what I'm in the mood for while I'm dining out. All in the all though, this is a fine dining establishment that's almost always a treat.
(Image by AG)
In the North End and in the mood for some excellent seafood pasta? Why not try this little place, which boasts a fine menu and delicious food? Here’s a picture of the Brodetto di Pesce, which is basically a mix of seafood (mussels, scallops, clams, shrimp, calamari, schrod) over linguini, all mixed in a very light tomato sauce. It’s a real job to work through the mound of seafood and the taste makes every bite worthwhile. The dish comes in at almost $24 but is worth it if you’re willing to splurge a little. Add a bit of wine and you’ll probably pat yourself on the back for having ordered some good food and drink.
