Waxy O'connor

This post is a milestone in that it may be the first we've ever written on the actual day that we went. Which may be why I'm still so excited about this place, but I'm pretty sure the excitement will last for a while.

So this place is a new restaurant in Lexington. It replaced some fancy Italian place with a fountain outside. The lack of a fountain was pretty sad, but the interior of the restaurant was super cool! It does a good job creating a nice newish looking kind of Irish Pub ambiance - A bunch of kegs are glassed in to your left as you walk in, and the actual seating area has a sort of shiny black & wooden feel. A large bar takes up the front and center as you walk in, with the main seating area behind it. Anyway, sorry about the boring description, we're here to talk about food, but the inside was pretty cool. Lots of natural light and coziness.

The lunch menu was incredibly difficult to order from since there were so many good options! First I'll tell you about this good deal called Waxy's Sandwich Express. You get soup or salad (reg or caesar), a soda and fries (I'm picturing waffle fries even though that's not very irish) plus a really delicious sounding sandwich for $9.95. Personally, I was drawn to the fish sandwich option, but the waiter listed the Chicken Cheddar Panini as one of his top favorite lunch items. (You'll find out later that we can really trust his taste.)

As excited about the sandwhich option as I was, the Bangers and Mash got me in the end after the waiter backed it (also in his top 3 favs). And MAN was I glad that I caved. It came out as a giant mountain of mashed potatoes rising out of a shallow pool of gravy with 4 sausages playing king of the hill. Normally I don't like gravy, but the texture and flavor of this gravy was delicious!! And the potatoes were perfect, mashed with little lumps here and there that you barely noticed, flavored perfectly.... But the stars of the meal were the bangers - better than any that I've had in Ireland. My only complaint was that there were only 4. I would've liked at least 400. This is how Ray felt about Carey's Catch.

Ray got the shepard's pie which was pretty tasty too. Ray testimonial: "Solid shepards pie, the beer selection looked good." Unfortunately there was no drinking on the job for Ray this Wednesday. The bites that I had of Ray's meal were very meat and potato focused as shepards pie should be, though the menu advertised that there were some carrots and peas.

Overall, THIS PLACE IS AWESOME. (but get the bangers and mash)

We have to go go back to this place.

-Mandy

Khushboo

It's good to be back after a 7 month hiatus -- back with... kind of a fizzle. Actually it's not so bad. Khushboo is an Indian restaurant in downtown Lexington, looks pretty nice on the inside, fancy looking menus and all that. Mandy ordered the Lamb Tikka Masala (mild spice, around $8); I got the Sada Dosa, which is a crispy crepe-type thing with coconut chutney and lentil soup. While waiting for our entrees they served these thin, crispy chips (kinda like tortilla chips but not really) with some dipping sauces. They were pretty good, especially with the sweet brown sauce.

I was a little taken aback when our orders arrived -- Mandy's looked like what I would expect from Indian food, but mine was delivered with a 2-foot-long rolled up something (turned out to be the crepe). Mandy's dish was quite good, especially for being only mildly spicy. Usually when they reduce the amount of spice in the dish, it loses a lot of its flavor, but not this time. It was flavorful, meat was tender, and the portion a hearty size. Two thumbs up for the Tikka Masala. Mine... well, I wasn't even sure how to eat it to be honest. I just started breaking off pieces of the (very crispy) crepe and spreading the coconut chutney on it. It was a little too crispy for me and I could taste the oil it was fried in a little too much, but the chutney was tasty and lentil soup good too. All in all it wasn't terrible, but I'll definitely order something different next time... if there is a next time.

We don't have to come back here, but if we're really in the mood for Indian food then we could.

Ray

Three Gorges

Well, we're still working our way through the restaurants close to the Arlington reservoir. This week we opted for Chinese food at Three Gorges (not to be confused with Three Gorges part 2 by the DQ in Natick). We knew this restaurant had to be good after one step inside - they had so many plaques and awards proudly displayed on the walls. Even "Voted Number One" printed on the menu! Number One what was a bit ambiguous.

They had some sort of lunch deal - your choice of soup, a spring roll or crab rangoon, and a main dish for about $7. I ordered hot & sour soup, crab rangoon and sweet and sour chicken. Ray got the same soup, two spring rolls and Kung Pao Beef.

Our food was ready amazingly fast (~3 minutes). Then we headed out to our classic lunch bench on the reservoir. I didn't think the soup was that great, Ray finished his, but said it was very different than hot & sour soups that he's tried elsewhere. I enjoyed my crab rangoon, it had a very crispy shell with a pleasantly creamy filling. I enjoyed the flavors of my entree, though the chicken was definitely covered in way too much sauce. The to-go containers fortunately separate the rice from the main course, so if you aren't as stupid as I am, the sauce wouldn't be overwhelming. Yup, I stupidly dumped my rice in with everything else and stirred.... Ray seemed like he enjoyed his meal a fair amount, but I can't remember what it was so I can't comment much on that.

I would definitely vote for them to win the Honrable Mention for best Chinese food in Lexington again....

We don't have to come back here, but we wouldn't mind.

Mandy

Carey's Catch

This place is a small little fish market right on the edge of Lexington and Arlington. It was a little hard to find but was SO worth it. Definitely one of my favorite meals so far -- maybe even my favorite. Walking in, you'll notice fish fillets from a bunch of different fish laid out in a refrigerated case, plus a big tank full of lobsters. And as Mandy said, "This place smells legit." I had a very good feeling about the place.

We both got the lunch special, which included a fried fish sandwich, french fries, cole slaw and tartar sauce. It took a little while to get the food (about 15 minutes maybe), but that was because it was all prepared fresh right in front of us. Looking around at all the things on the menu and in the case already got me wishing I could come back, and then the smell of our lunches being cooked just added to that. It was hard to wait, but we took the food to-go to the Arlington reservoir for a little picnic. When we opened our boxes, we were both surprised by how much fish there was. Looked like there was actually too much to fit in the sandwich, but after sufficient squishing and squeezing I was able to get all the fish between the two perfectly-toasted buns. I added some tartar sauce and was prepared to dive in. My first bite told me that we need to go back there -- and soon! It was delicious, so delicious. I was in heaven for about 15 minutes. The batter on the fish was unlike any I'd had before. Usually you'll get a heavy, greasy fried batter that'll get you feeling full and sick halfway through your plate of full-bellied clams from Woodman's clam shack. But this fried fish was perfect -- I wanted two or three sandwiches by the time I finished mine. Fries and cole slaw were good; it's hard to mess those up. The tartar sauce really added to sandwich, too. It had a little garlicky kick to it. I think it was the final touch that made the fish sandwich so fantastic. Great work, Carey, if that's your real name. You've got yourself two new loyal customers. I know I'll be back soon.

We definitely have to come back here. Definitely.

- Ray

Ixtapa

The plan today was to go to Nick's Place, a deli, and then picnic by the Arlington reservoir. When I got there Mandy said she wasn't in the mood for sandwiches, though. Fortunately there were like 5 restaurants in the plaza, and I was feeling Mexican food, so we decided on Ixtapa. One of the first things we noticed was the plaque on the wall, declaring Ixtapa Lexington's best Mexican restaurant. Possibly their ONLY Mexican restaurant too ;).

They had a bunch of specials there, but one caught our eye. Being the little piggies we are, it was the "Choose Tres" special, which allowed you to choose three items (burrito, taco, enchilada, chimichanga, tamale, or chile relleno) and also included rice and beans. Mandy went with a burrito, taco, and enchilada, while I went with a chimichanga, tamale and chile relleno. We knew were getting a lot of food when we saw the size of the take-out trays they brought us. In addition to our meals, they gave us a brown bag full of tortilla chips and little containers of salsa (both seemed homemade). It was definitely a great little feast we had put together for ourselves. Mexican is Mandy's favorite "genre" of food, and one of my favorites too, so we were pretty excited. We were let down a little.

The food wasn't bad, but you could tell it had been sitting for some time and was reheated for us. I still enjoyed it -- it was tasty, though the quality declined as the food cooled off. We think the reason we enjoyed it probably had more to do with the type of food than the actual quality of the food. I don't want to put Ixtapa down too much, because it really wasn't that bad. I think the meal just didn't meet our high hopes. The tortilla chips were good, and the salsa was too -- though it was a little more watery than we would've liked. Overall, I'd give em a B.

We don't have to come back here... unless we're craving Mexican and then it's our only option.

- Ray

Via Lago

Mandy - Steak Tacos

Ray - Lunch Special

More to come

Marios Italian

Ray - Chicken Parm

Mandy - Spagetti - missed the lunch special

More to come