With the economy a wilder ride than most roller coasters these days, it feels good to dine at a restaurant where you'll get the most for your buck. Which places offer the best quality-to-cost ratio? Zagat Survey has done the math for you. Here are the top five picks from our Best Buys list from the 2008/09 Boston Restaurants guide, and it looks like when times get tough, it's time to go Tex-Mex.
1369 Cambridge St., Cambridge; 617-576-1369
757 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge; 617-576-4600
“Popular with the laptop crowd” – from “tea-drinking intellectuals” to “hipsters” sporting “facial jewelry” – these “homegrown” “fueling stations” in Central and Inman squares rate as Boston’s No. 1 Bang for the Buck; the “serious coffee” and “tasty baked goods” (as well as “limited” savory items) they offer from daybreak to bedtime helps you “avoid the polished sameness of the big chains” while giving you the energy to face both the “counterculturish” (but mostly “unsurly”) “personalities” at the register and the endless “battle for a table.”
Join the “lines stretching out the doors” of these “no-frills” Tex-Mex quintuplets to watch “the fastest tortilla slappers in Boston” “violate the laws of physics” while manufacturing “monstrous”, “mouthwatering burritos”, “scrumptious quesadillas” and “tasty tacos” – “hot, fresh” “steals” all; though a few “hype”-haters claim they’re “overpraised”, “multitudes of students” (and the occasional “family of four”) just cry, “muchas gracias, Anna!”
3 Harvard Sq., Brookline; 617-277-8900
This “friendly” Brookline taqueria’s “independent attitude” bears a “relatively healthy” repertoire of “Californian-style Mexican”; though its digs may be “microscopic”, its portions of “cheap” eats (like “creative vegetarian burritos” with all kinds of “fresh fixings”) are “plentiful”, “requiring a big appetite and a bigger stack of napkins”; P.S. “seasonal soups” are “primo.”
“Face it”: “odd” name change notwithstanding, this “modern, funky” counter-service franchise, “bustling” with “busy workers” and “college kids”, is “still The Wrap” – just as its “ultracheap” “alternative burritos” are ultimately “still wraps”, supplemented by “thick smoothies” and other Eclectic, “relatively nutritious” (even “vegetarian-friendly”) munchies; therefore, Tex-Mex traditionalists “walk on by”, claiming “too many crazy combinations” mean “everything tastes like rice.”
“No glamour”, “no fuss”, just a “variety” of “moist, cheesy and flavorful” Tex-Mex “gut-busters” (including “a sleeper” of a tamale): that’s what’s “swiftly” “made to order” at these four taquerias; sure, “you won’t want to linger” in the “slightly grubby” “joints”, but since their ever-present “lines move fast” and their “costs are low”, they’re havens for “hungry students” who “won’t go anywhere else.”
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