by Boston has traditionally been regarded as a safe food city. In many respects, it remains a steakhouse and seafood town. The city’s thriving Asian culinary scene was frequently hidden in immigrant-run neighborhoods like Chinatown, Little Saigon in Dorchester, and Koreatown in Allston, where the cuisine was frequently modified to suit American tastes.
-
Where to find the best sushi in Greater Boston, according to readers
However, a new generation of restaurateurs and chefs is now establishing themselves by offering inventive, unapologetic, and original cuisine that pay homage to their heritage.
In the uncertain post-pandemic dining scene, the emergence of reinterpreted Asian cuisine—from Thai and Cantonese to Filipino, Japanese, and beyond—may be the city’s most intriguing independent restaurant boom.
One such is chef Laurence Louie, who founded Rubatoin 2023.
At one point, he refused to take over Contempo, his mother’s cherished Cantonese bakery in Quincy. Louie, who worked in kitchens like Cambridge’s Oleana and London’s Oklava, imagined his restaurant would provide a $250 tasting menu that would introduce Chinese cuisine in a classy dining setting.
Louie stated, “I quickly realized this is not what Quincy needs.”
Louie transformed the brick-and-mortar establishment—which is difficult to find in Boston—into a Hong Kong-style cafe, drawing on his personal experiences as a skilled chef who grew up eating comfort cuisine from America and China. Building on his mother’s bakery heritage, Rubato serves the working-class immigrant population in the neighborhood traditional Cantonese dishes like congee while reimagining traditional dishes like a bolo bao turned into a sweet, crunchy-topped fried chicken sandwich.
Rubato’s position in the Greater Boston dining scene has been cemented by the attention that the fun menu has received from Eater Boston and Bon App Tit.
For Thai cuisine, the dynamic pair of eateriesThe best eateries in the city are always Mahaniyomand Merai. With new artists like Wa Shin, Sushi @ Temple Records, and 311, the omakase and sushi industry is flourishing. Korean street food, Laotian pop-ups, and hip sake bars are all available for you to try.
The kitchen of Quincy’s redesigned Pho Linh, now L Madeline, which changed its menu in 2024, is run by Peter Nguyen. He recalls the 1990s, when Asian food was limited to Dorchester’s Little Saigon and Chinatown, while he was growing up in Greater Boston. Although eateries tended to play it safe, Nguyen mentioned that the food was excellent and that you could get banh mi for $3.
Tam Le, the owner of L Madeline, his business partner, also inherited Pho Linh from his family. To commemorate the location’s history, they continued to serve lunchtime favorites like pho and vermicelli bowls, but at night, Nguyen shows off the techniques he has developed in kitchens in Boston and Houston’s famed Riel.
-
Think you know sushi? Play our crossword to find out.
This includes his Cua Rang Me-inspired lobster roll, which consists of fried lobster seasoned with tamarind and served on a brioche bun with tobiko and scallion aioli. Nguyen’s redesigned lobster roll has garnered comparisons to the city’s most iconic versions in just one year, demonstrating that the new generation of chefs in the area is capable of competing with and reinventing regional favorites.
At their three establishments, Cicada Coffee, Saigon Babylon, and The Eaves, husband and wife team Vincenzo Le and Duong Huynh are questioning the idea of what Vietnamese cuisine can be. Le claimed that the authenticity of Vietnamese culture is not diminished by their dishes’ integration of traditional flavors with contemporary methods.
According to Le, many visitors from [Vietnam] claim that the cuisine is different. But that’s the point, in his opinion. He said, “The soul is so authentic and Vietnamese because that’s who I am.” He studied architecture in New York, worked as a tour guide in Cambodia, and grew up in Vietnam, all of which are reflected in his menus.
Jamie Bissonnette, a seasoned chef, has personally witnessed the evolution of Boston consumers’ tastes.
According to Bissonnette, Boston didn’t have many options for ramen shops even twenty years ago. There were very few Japanese restaurants.
After working with Ken Oringer to run successful restaurants like Toro and Coppa, Bissonnette saw that patrons needed something new. This intuition gave rise to three ideas in Downtown Boston: Somaek, which was influenced by his Korean mother-in-law’s cuisine; Temple Records’ Tokyo-style listening lounge; and Chef Kenta Katagai’s minimalist sushi counter, Sushi @ Temple Records.
According to Bissonnette, the rise in Asian-inspired dining is a reflection of Bostonians’ increased openness to trying new foods, which is enabling chefs to play around and broaden the concept of Asian cuisine.
The movement is also about recovering creative autonomy, according to Ashley Lujares, who owns her own Filipino-American cuisine pop-up called Mango Tao and occasionally conducts culinary lessons at Tracy Chang’s Pagu.
According to Lujares, we’re simply sick of preparing other people’s meals.
She has teamed up with like-minded Asian American chefs, such as Louie from Rubato, Nguyen from L Madeline, and Veo Robert from Phaeng & Phiu, a pop-up restaurant focused on Laotian cuisine, to organize one-night events at each other’s eateries or venues. Menus may incorporate Laotian ingredients into L Madeline’s cooking or combine Louie’s Hong Kong-style cafe fare with Lujares’ Filipino-American meals.
It’s a sense of camaraderie that extends beyond the four chefs on staff. Chang, for instance, regularly hosts chefs at events or in her kitchen. The Eaves crew has hosted the Thai supper club Gaaeng for a noodle pop-up, while others have collaborated on dumplings with Irene Li of Mei Mei Dumplings.
Louie remarked, “We’re all kind of in the same boat, and it’s this amazing community of people.” In the end, everyone is just trying to put their name on their version of food and get it out into the world, while each of us has unique, complex aims within what we’re attempting to do.
For Boston.com, Katelyn Umholtz writes about cuisine and dining establishments. In addition, Katelyn writes a weekly food newsletter called The Dish.
Sign up for The Dish
Get the most recent news on food and beverages from Boston.com.
