This Is Framingham

On our way back from Target tonight we noticed that JOA Take-out (326 Concord St. where the dearly departed Hurwitz Kosher meat market was) had a “Now Open” sign so we decided to check it out.
As it has been suspected, it is a Brazilian-American place. (I was wishing for Thai, as were some other people, but oh well)
Inside it still looks like they have a little finishing touches to do, like filling up the display cooler.

The menu has a mostly Brazilian food but they did have some American-type items like hot dogs, mozzarella sticks, subs, onion rings, chicken fingers, rotisserie chicken and fish & chips.  We decided to share an order of fish & chips.  We spent most our waiting time having a pleasant conversation with the owner who seems like a really nice guy.
I wasn’t sure what to expect when we got home and opened the take-out box but it looked pretty good. 

I like that they threw in a little greener to make it look nice and it was interesting that they put in limes instead of lemons.  I’m guessing they used Tilapia.  I thought it was good, it tasted like they used fresh instead of frozen and the breading was just enough to make the outside crispy.

For $4.99 this was a good deal especially since it was enough for both of us. Although, I think it was just a special since on the menu it’s $6.99.  I’ll post again when I try the rotisserie chicken.

While I’m waiting for Bronzetti’s to open for business, I had pizza craving and although I knew nothing would be quite the same as one of their pizzas, my uncle and I went out to Bertucci’s (150 Worcester Rd.).
I rarely go to Bertucci’s, I don’t avoid it, but for some reason I just don’t find myself there a lot.  My sister and her husband love it and  I know I can always get them a gift card for a birthday or a stocking stuffer and they’ll be happy.
Inside is decently decorated and I like the open kitchen.

They used to make some chicken and tortellini dish with a lemon-caper sauce that was really good but it has been taken off the menu since I last had it (probably at least 6 years ago)
One of the reliably good things about Bertucci’s are the rolls.  Nice and crunchy on the outside, warm and soft on the inside, served with a flavored olive oil, you can’t go wrong!

We decided to get a pizza and salad.  (I forgot to take a picture of the salad)
My uncle doesn’t like “fancy” items on his pizza so we got onion and sausage.

It’d say Bertucci’s is better than some pizza places, but it’s not amazing.  I do like that, much like Papa Gino’s, it is reliably consistent and you get what you expect (or at least I have)

Last night we tried take out at Green Tea II (formerly Michi Kusa).
They brightened up the inside and as far as I could see, they have taken away the sushi bar, although sushi is offered on the menu.

We got crab rangoon, shrimp fried rice, scallops with coriander and something called four treasures in a basket.
Everything we got was very good, the person at the front desk was very nice and the order was correct when I got it home.
The four treasures in a basket actually came with an edible basket that they would present it in for dine-in customers.

Four treasures: The “treasures” are Beef, Chicken, Shrimp and Scallops with vegetables and a light brown sauce which was really good.  We enjoyed this dish very much.

Stir-fry Scallops with Coriander: This was listed under their “herbal menu” and I thought it was excellent.  The sauce is very light and doesn’t hide the taste of the coriander (cilantro) and scallops.

Crab Rangoon:   Pretty good, no dissapointments                                                  
  
Fried rice: Also very good, the picture doesn’t do it justice.  The rice isn’t nearly as bland as this picture makes it look.

Green Tea II is the sister restaurant to Green Tea in Newton.  I know people will say they’re sick of Chinese places popping up everywhere but I really like the food here so I’m glad  it’s here.
They have a website with their full menu posted: http://www.greenteaframingham.com/

We finally got around to going to Asia Buffet (motivated by Beth’s Bradlees comment) at 700 Worcester Rd.
I think they did a great job renovating the inside, as well as the outside.

We got the buffet but they do have a full menu you can order from too. 
I liked the variety and presentation of the food.  The food wasn’t like blow-me-away amazing but not disappointing and I’d say the quality of the food was above avarage compared to most places.   They also have a Japanese side with salads and sushi.  There are 3 or 4 soups to choose from and a dessert area too.
Here’s some pics:

If you’re looking for a cheap lunch though, this isn’t the place.  The lunch buffet is $16 (found out from a comment below that without sushi is $10.50-thanks Laraine!) and I don’t know how much dinner would be but I get the sense they jazz up the selections for dinner. 
Oh also nice were the higher quality “wet naps” with the check.

The staff was very polite, and there are 3 people who would keep an eye on the food and replace dishes as needed. I would recommend Asia Buffet, I hope they do okay.

 ** I recently found out that the server now explains the prices at the table and you tell them if you’re getting sushi or not.

Prices vary from weekday to weekend are on their website http://asiabuffetframingham.com/

A while ago my friend and I decided to try Michi Kusa (2 Beacon St.) where the dearly departed Capt’n Bob’s use to be.
Inside is clean and modern with big booths and a sushi bar.
 
For starters, we got miso soup and seaweed salad.  Both were pretty standard and tasted as expected.

For sushi, we split a “boat” which was a variety of sashimi, maki and nigiri.  The sushi wasn’t bad, although I don’t remember thinking it was amazing, which I think sushi should be.

We went a few months ago and I forget the prices but I remember thinking they were reasonable. ???????    The owner was very nice and there seemed to be a bunch of regulars who came in for take out and to sit at the bar, soI think this place has a loyal following. ????? ?????????   They could have had an off night, who knows. 

Last night Ethan and I went with our friends to The Melting Pot on route 9 (92 Worcester Rd.).   I love making fondue at home and I’ve made it for these friends at our house before so we were interested to see what this restaurant’s fondue would be like.
We were sat at our booth for 4 , all of the tables are pretty private with high backs and dividers between them, which is nice. does ivermectin kill lyme disease   Also all of the tables come with a heating surface that the server operates and adjusts to the type of fondue you are eating. ivermectin what does it do   We decided to go with “the big night out”, a kind of fixed menu but you choose the options.  We didn’t want to over do it and not make it to dessert so our server suggested ordering for three people instead of 4, so we did that and it was plenty, I’d say 4 people could even share it for two people.
We started off with traditional cheese fondue.  Our server, who was very competent and social (but not in a shmoozy way) explained the ingredients he brought to the tables and then started mixing them into the pot. 
 
With the cheese, we were served plates of cubed bread and apples and cut vegetables, all refillable if we ran out.
The cheese was really good, it was a little too thick since we would lose a cube of bread once in a while but it tasted great.

Next came the salads.  We got Asian, California and Mushroom salads.  These were nice to get a little green into the meal.  I ate the mushroom salad which looks a little weird but the dressing was very good and under that pile of thinly sliced mushrooms was nice bed of lettuce so after it’s mixed up a little it looks good.
  

For the meat-cooking fondue, we had some choices between oil that came with a batter or a broth and wine (and something else I forget)  we went with the broth and wine.  Again, our server came to the table with a plate of ingredients (like chives, mushrooms and wine) and explained them as he added them to the pot.  Served with this is a plate of vegetables and meats.  The meats were two types of steak, chicken, shrimp and ahi tuna.  Also serves with this is an assortments of dipping sauces like boursin cheese, teriyaki, curry, cocktail sauce and a few others. ivermectin canada covid 19

This was pretty good, although I think if you were to skip any part of the meal it might be this just because the cheese is so good and then later you can’t go wrong with dipping things in chocolate so if you had to pick, those two would be the way to go.
For dessert we got the “Ying-Yang”, which is half white and half dark chocolate, this is prepared in the kitchen and then brought out to the table.  With this we were served a plate of cheesecake, strawberries, pineapple, graham cracker and oreo crusted marshmallows, bananas and brownies.  These were all “refillable” too.  This fondue was really good, like I said you can’t go wrong with dipping things in chocolate so I wasn’t surprised that we all enjoyed it.
 
The only downside is that it’s very expensive, so I’ll stick to making fondue at home but I’m glad we tried it and we had a great time, we sat down at 6:45 and left a little after 10:00.  Our server, Patrick was excellent, he would come by and ask us if we needed any more vegetables or anything and his timing was great all night.   That, in addition to him being a nice person, really made our experience there very pleasant. 
I would recommend the Melting Pot, if you have some money to burn and want to try something different.

The Sub Way (510 Union Ave.) is right down the street from us.  I didn’t know what to think about this place since at first since I never really heard any word on the street about it but since it’s so close we decided to try it out.  We’ve gone there a few times now and I think it’s pretty good.  The guys behind the counter are always nice too.  We haven’t got pizza there yet (we will someday) but  we’ve been happy with their subs.

On our last visit Ethan got a ham and cheese and I got a chicken kabob sub which was very good.
 

The chicken kabob came with greek dressing and feta cheese, it was the best sub I’ve had there so far so I’d say I would recommend this place for subs- pizza is yet to be determined…