Century House/ 235 Andover St. (Rt. 114)/Peabody, MA 01960

Unexcelled Food

Cajun Style Chicken Caesar 

Century House is one of those places that you went to with your grandparents as a child and wondered why in the world you grandparents liked such grandparent-like places.  If you walk into Century House on any given afternoon, many of the people sitting at the bar are the age your grandparents were when you used to go to these type of places with them.  And if you can find a seat at the bar on a Tuesday at 1:30 (you heard that right) your love for them will only grow whether or not they are still with you.  This place is...unique.  If you like a good stiff drink or four with your lunch, there are few places on the North Shore that are better than here.  The three martini lunch is alive and well here.  They also happen to have one helluva good lunch menu.  Unexcelled is not a word the last time I checked, but a place like this has the right to create its own words when they pertain to food.  Everyday is a difficult day to find a seat at the bar here, but Tuesday is arguably the most popular because of the $13 cut of prime rib.  The pictures here don't really do justice as to how much food you are provided with.  The "Regular Cut" of prime rib on this day was upwards of 20 ozs.  That's not a fluke here.  And if it were big and bad then it would not at all be worth mentioning.  This is old school write-home-about-it type prime rib.  The potatoes are big and perfectly cooked.  The coleslaw is good enough to order instead of whatever veg may me on tap, and the Caesar is formidable, especially with the "Cajun Style" chicken on top (although that is definitely a meal in itself).  This is a place that is hard to leave because the drinks are so generous.  Just be prepared to wait for a seat for 10 or so minutes if you want the full afternoon bar/lunch experience.

"Regular Cut" Prime Rib

Baked Potato and Coleslaw

Garden Halal Restaurant/96 Blackstone Street/Haymarket/Boston, MA 02109

Garden Halal Restaurant

     There is a good chance that for most people in Boston, Blackstone Street, on the edge of Fanueil Hall/Quincy Market, consists of three things: Durty Nelly's, Haymarket Pizza, and the joys of Haymarket on Fridays and Saturdays.  For those of us who like to venture into the literal basements of other worlds, there are some great Halal shops and food offerings that don't include getting yelled at by Vinny if you happen to touch the merchandise.  That being said, it isn't all that often that I go gaga over a place after trying it only once, but there are certain meals that are just THAT good and if need be, you never go back again just so you don't catch the place on a bad day.  Don't get me wrong, Garden Halal didn't change my life, and I was admittedly overly hungry when I popped in for lunch a few days ago, but I'm overly hungry a lot so I don't let that skew my opinions of what is clearly good and that which is somewhat shabby.  The Chicken with Olives and the Boiled Potatoes ($8) are superb here.  One of the best meals I have had in weeks.  I will most certainly try this place again just so that I can see what else they have on the menu.

Chicken with Olives and Boiled Potatoes

     Garden Halal is basically an Algerian restaurant.  They have yet to take down the old menu, so you can't actually get the advertised Somali food, and the prices and meals that you see above the cash register, pizza shop style, are not at all what the place actually has, but most of what is offered here is right in front of you to see.  This is my favorite kind of Halal Restaurant, because they also have pizza that some of the patrons were ordering with pepperoni.  Granted, I know that there is good beef sausage out there and you could certainly call something pepperoni that isn't quite such and not be sued, but I love when people take food more seriously than religion.  Other than tasteless My-Food-Is-Better-Than-Yours Amateur Chef shows, it causes far fewer problems in the world.  I don't know what kind of spices were on this chicken, and the owner didn't have a name for the recipe (he just called it Chicken with Olives) but it was quite impressive.