Myers and Chang!

If you do the math, one trip to Rialto is worth more than a week with a car, so to even things out I took SM out to Myers and Chang in the South End. Unfortunately (or fortunately), I didn't know that my dining partner was skeptical of "nice Chinese food" until after the meal and she confessed how wrong she was.

This restaurant is the product of Joanne Chang of Flour Bakery and Cafe and her husband, Chris Myers. The atmosphere is very funky, fresh, kitschy and contemporary. With pink bar stools overlooking the open kitchen, Chinese newspaper place mats and folded paper menus tucked in the tops of the disposable and reusable chopsticks stuffed in a canister on the table this restaurant welcomes the diner in to its fold. They take reservations but leave half of the dining room open for walk ins.

We started with fizzy cocktails. For some reason we didn't take the plunge right away into the scorpion bowl about which we were so curious. I've never had one, but this seemed like the best place to try my first version of this tacky, exorbitant and delicious cocktail for two!

Everything is family style, so we tried several things. The pork pot stickers were so scrumptious and probably my favorite thing. I adore fresh spring rolls and the ones here were very satisfyingly crisp and refreshing. We also had Lion's Head Meat balls that were tasty. We order a few things that said spicy, and if we liked spice they would have been so delicious, the darn thing of it is, we were just too sensitive. The Dan Dan noodles is one of these dishes. On a previous trip, I remember loving the basic tofu steak with soba noodles. In fact, after that trip, SS and I found it the perfect thing to have in a leftover bag being toted at our sides as we made the long, joyous walk home after a long night.

Desserts were recently added to the menu and we had simple, sweet banana creme caramel that we found room for in our very full bellies and did our best with a delicate and tall spice cake with ginger buttercream.

Myers and Chang just changed chefs actually. The night SM and I were there was the original chef's second to last night. Alison Hearn just moved to the brand new Ten Tables in Cambridge that I can't wait to try out! However, the word is that the Myers part of the equation is a bit heavy handed. So, even with a new chef, the food will probably be the same.

While, I haven't had one yet, I hear wonderful things about their homemade sodas. This is another reason it might be high on the list for pop's birthday this year! (He knows how good the food is, but he doesn't even know yet about the sodas. It might put him over the edge. We haven't yet talked over all the options though).

The thing about this food is that it satisfies the part of you that craves Chinese/Asian food without compromise but also without that gross, tired feeling. The customer gets to be in complete control of how expensive or not the dinner is. Myers and Chang is fresh, delicious, satisfying, comforting and stylish.