Anchovies, in the South End on Columbus Ave., is a bar with good,
inexpensive pizza and comfortable booths. Radius, downtown on High Street,
serves superb food at very high prices in a circular room that, with all the
servers and busers and food runners and sommeliers running around
ostentaciously, made me dizzy (still, worth the experience, I think).
Hammersley's, on Tremont in the South End, has food that is about as good in
a much more low-key and probably civilized atmosphere. Going back to Bars,
Audubon, on Beacon near B.U., has good burgers in a kind of sleek, hip room.
Brown Sugar, in the Fenway (they have another location in Allston, I think),
has very good Thai food and one of the few pleasant outdoor dining areas
that I know of in the city. I don't like many North End restaurants, but
Sage, on Salem street, is a great little place, not as expensive as Radius
or Hammersley's. Clio, at the corner of Mass Ave. and Commonwealth has a
stellar reputation that is probably deserved. Jumbo Seafood in Chinatown, on

Hudson Street, is a great place where East Asian families like to go and pick their

still swimming dinners out of  tanks. Panang, nearby on Washington Street, has good

Malaysian food. Casa Romero, on the alley between Newbury and Commonwealth, just west of
Gloucester, is a Mexican restaurant in a warm-looking basement -- a place I
plan to go to again this winter when I want to eat cactus salad and pretend
I'm not in Boston. Diva, in Davis Square, has good Indian. FuGaKyu, at Coolidge Corner 

deserves its reputation as the best Japanese restaurant in the area. Finally, for weekend
brunch, The Claremont Cafe and Metropolis, both in the South End, are very
good, as is Paneficio, on Charles Street, at the foot of Beacon Hill.    J.P.