Recent Top Restaurant Dishes

I want to highlight a few worthy restaurant dishes I recently enjoyed, which are from some of my favorite restaurants. These dishes are some of the best dishes I've eaten so far this year, and which may also be some of my top dishes at the end of this year.

This past week, I was thoroughly impressed by a Rabbit Pappardelle special at Il Ponte in Woburn. It's one of my favorite Italian restaurants, and the cuisine is always delicious. This dish consisted of house-made pappardelle, with an excellent texture, covered with a rabbit ragu and topped by a scoop of ricotta. With a great depth of flavor and a nice balance of spices, each bite brought such pleasure to my palate. Rabbit is such a great protein, and with its mild flavors, most people would enjoy it if they can get past the idea that it once was a fluffy bunny. My dining companion was also quite taken with this dish.

The short movie shows a bubbling dish of Chicken Claypot, my favorite dish at Soall Viet Kitchen in Beverly, an excellent Vietnamese restaurant. This dish is made with small pieces of tender chicken in a caramelized sweet and savory sauce, with a couple chili peppers. It's accompanied by jasmine rice, or noodles, with some pickled and fresh veggies. It's also served bubbling hot and the aromas are so enticing. The chicken is moist and tender, and the sauce possesses a great depth of flavor, nicely balanced between sweet and savory, and with a mild bit of spicy heat. The veggies act as a nice palate cleanser to the richer sauce. They also make a Salmon Claypot as well. 

The Clam Box of Ipswich is my favorite clam shack, for the quality of its fried seafood, the quantity you receive, and its excellent service. Others may prefer other places, but the Clam Box has never disappointed me. This dish was a combination of Fried Clams and Fried Scallops, with an ample pile of onion rings and French fries. The Fried Scallops are superb, tender and sweet, and the fried clams are delicious as well, both with a clean, light fried batter. The dish is large enough to share, or to have leftovers for another meal. 

What have been some of your favorite restaurant dishes lately?