Kosher Blog

Will they be delivering to Sharon?

Do you have the phone number?

I ate at Taam China II last night with my family. Exact same menu as the Brookline location. Food was very very good. Building has been renovated nicely and they have plenty of parking. We got our food very quickly, but it seems like they are working out the kinks in the kitchen, some people we saw said they had been waiting for food for 45 - 60 minutes.

My husband and I ate lunch at Taam II yesterday. (The Lunch Specials — an incredibly good deal — are on the menu here in Newton as well.) The food was excellent — on the “better” side of Taam China’s chefs. As Sharonites, we’re delighted — the Newton location is still a drive for us, but a much easier drive than all the way into Brookline (and when we get there, we can park, too ). One of the more experienced waitresses from Brookline apparently is now the “hostess” at the Newton location (we’d wondered where she went). This is good news, since I know from experience that her language skills are excellent — more than sufficient to understand special dietary needs, and translate them accurately to the chef.

A kosher restaurant with good food and reasonable prices, that those of us who live south or west of 128 can get to without playing bumper-cars on Harvard Ave (not to mention the SE Expressway or the Turnpike), is *wonderful*. Hopefully this venture will work for the owners, too.

Oh yes — their phone number is 617-527-8580.

I stopped by the day they opened and got some takeout. The food was excellent…no complaints from us. Typically, we only got to eat at the Brookline branch a few times a year because we don’t get to Brookline that frequently. Now if we want take out I can swing by on the way home from Newton, very convenient indeed. I only hope the Jewish community supports Taam China II so they don’t go out of business like so many other ones I can rememeber…Now if only they delivered.

Oh, the building is very spacious. This should cut down on long wait time to get seated.

In light of the comments about the community supporting kosher dining west of Cleveland Circle, allow me to reminisce about the long, lost Deli-Tizer. Anyone else miss that place? In college, we used to eat there every Thursday night, and when one of us would endeavor to order the Tizer Burger, hilarity ensued. Olav Hashalom, DR.

err, DT. :-)

The biggest loss with the closing of Delitizer was the loss of a dining-out option during Pesach. Well, that and acceptable buffalo wings.

Many years ago I had aquired a recipe, but lost it, to make a bilintze mixture in a loaf pan without creps. Does any one have such a recipe. Would apprecitate it to make for Shevouet.

I finally made it to Taam II. It was great. We went on a Sunday afternoon and had the downstairs to ourselves. My kids had the run of the place and we were able to make all the noise we wanted. The food was awesome, just like the Taam food we know and love in Brookline. I dug the parking, new bathrooms, and nice atmosphere. The “happy family” was great and the red lines around the veal give it that real pork feel. We also had the chicken fingers, beef teriyaki, Peeking ravioli, and experimented with a new exotic chicken dish (not new for Taam China, just new for us). Taam China is great, everyone should go, I love the brown rice option - now if only they had egg fu young………

I’ve had egg fu yung at TC’s before. It’s not on the menu; just ask for it.

Wonderful tibit of insider info. I believe this is how I found out about their spare ribs too (though they are now on the new menu).

They have a website that lists both addresses:
http://www.taamchina.com/index.

I went to the Newton location twice in the last few weeks. The first time was a Sunday night at 7:15pm when they were packed with a line out the door. We were seated pretty quick (which I was surprised about) for a party of 4 adults. We sat upstairs in the corner (above the entrance) and we seemed to be the only table of people there. The waitress came over to us and was trying to juggle between us and the other tables she was working. She brought things over piece meal. We tried to order a sweet wine, but was told the selected one was not available. She brought us an alternate glass of wine to try and it was not too sweet. So we passed on the wine. It was appreciated that she did not charge for the inconvenience/sample given. We tried to order an appetizer and the pupu platter took a bit of time to arrive. After ordering the pu pu platter and waiting approx.10 minutes, we ordered our main. She was still getting us silverware and sugar, etc to complete the table settings. Pu pu platter came and food was pretty good. The major concerns were looking for the waitress (when we needed to order or had questions), getting the table complete, and hoping she got to us safely with the food intact as she had to walk an obstacle course of the tables upstairs. I give the waitress good marks for trying, but the delivery, readiness, and service really needs improvement! She was apologizing non stop.

The second time I went was this past week for lunch. I was amazed that at 1pm the person I met and myself were the only diners on the 1st floor. There were at least 5 people between the person at the desk and various wait staff that were on the floor. I sat down. The other person had already started her soup that she received before I came. I waited 5 minutes and no one asked me for an order. Then after the 10 minute mark, I asked to order. The soup came pretty quick. The food came in a reasonable time. It was a warm day and I drank several glasses of water. Each time I finished the glass, I waited. And waited. After a few minutes of it being empty, I asked for a refill. Reluctantly, they came. Food was ok. I got the bill and was surprised to find a charge of $1.50 for the ‘fried’ noodles that they had on the table on a small plate. My dining companion said that she asked for it. The waiter told me that the noodles are NOT free and for lunch there is a charge. I was amazed that I can go to the store, buy a good size bag of potato chips for less than $1.50 and here I was served an once or two of noodles. I understand that this is a restaurant and they need to make money, etc. What I don’t understand is why most other Chinese restaurants that I have gone to including the other one (Shalom Beijing) in Brookline freely give noodles and plentifully (i.e. you want as many bowls as you ask for and no problem -they bring it!). I have gone to many treif restaurants on business meals and both the water experience and noodle charge probably would rarely happen. So I have seen this place both at its peak and slow times. I hope Andy (the owner) and his team take heart to other peoples’ and my notes. It is a nice location and they spent a lot (or so it seems) to get the place ready for the public. My hope is that they can take some lessons from the non-Kosher food establishments and learn to earn customer business rather than expect it (with the assumption that the Kosher choices are limited and people keeping Kosher must frequent the limited selection). A perfect possible mentor is Milk St. Cafe, where the target audience is the general business community. Unless you look for the Kosher certification (by the washing sink) or know it was Kosher, you definitely would have a pleasant surprise.

Great review, David. Hopefully they’ll improve their service.

Not sure if this is the right place to post this, but I just heard that Shalom Beijing is closing. Can’t say I’m surprised, because no one was ever in there, but it’s a shame because it’s not like there were too many kosher dining options in Boston to begin with, and now we lose another one. Can anyone confirm?

I just found out last week that Shalom Bejing had closed. I had been thinking myself how few kosher dining places there are in the Boston area. Anyone else upset about this? What does it take to get more kosher restaurants in the area (especially a deli!)? We have only one kosher deli (Rubin’s) in all of New England! Does everyone else eat at home all the time?

Try Bagel Central in Bangor, Maine, northern New England. Check out http://www.downtownme.com/bagelcentral/

I want to plan a family get together of about 15 people for a weekday lunch . Hprias anyone used them for a group event? How was the service and the pricing?