review: moving day dinner (central kitchen)

central kitchen / 567 massachusetts avenue / cambridge ma / 617-491-5599 / sun-wed 5:30-1am, thu-sat 5:30-2am / reservations accepted for parties of 6+ (recommended) / entrees moderately expensive ($18-25)

celina and i have been trying to make indian food together for approximately four months now. as we'll be in different cities for the summer, we'll have to postpone that dinner for a few more months. on the bright side, we did manage to make it out to dinner on moving day. having spent the entire day moving stuff from lmf and my sister's apartment, i was absolutely gross and sweaty. despite this fact, we wandered into central kitchen, which i've always wanted to try, and which i never had until now.

the interior of the restaurant is much nicer than the outside, which is a bit drab and looks very much like a slightly rundown, community-type neighborhood place. or rather, not rundown, but well worn from a lot of use. the interior is mod in a welcoming kind of way, with a bar surrounded by tables. the tables are chrome with dents in them - you have to see them to like them as much as i do, probably. the lighting is fairly dim, but since the walls are in warm dark colors, it's somehow just right to be completely flattering. we were sitting between the bar and the street entrance, but there's also a back area next to the back of the bar that has these fantastic lighting fixtures that are part lightbulbs, part lit-up old wine bottles.

the tables were set with regular silverware, then tiny, tiny water glasses - basically juice glasses. i got the chopped salad - arugula, a lemon dressing, bits of lemon, some sort of pancetta-like bacon-y thing, pea tendrils, and asparagus. every single restaurant i've been to recently has asparagus on its menu. as i love asparagus, this is a good thing (also, i very much appreciate that morels have been in season while i'm here). it was pretty good, though the greens were a bit tough. the lemon was quite nice, and the entire thing was on the large side.

our entrees were absolutely enormous. the prices are in the high teens and low twenties, but the portions are enormous (ie, large enough to feed one rower who's just had practice, or one short asian girl twice). i had roast chicken (seeing a trend here? it's the at-an-expensive-restaurant-but-not-wealthy-enough-to-afford-the-steak syndrome), which came with mashed potatoes, green beans, and caramelized vidalia onions. mmm....i do love caramelized onions. oh! and it had morels...not as good as the ones at craigie street, but they were morels, and that's all that mattered. not the most earth-shattering entree ever, but it was good stuff. oh, about enormous - so i got not one chicken quarter, but two. it wasn't even just the quarter - it was a leg attached to a breast, actually. consequently i had snack food for the next three days as i finished moving.

i was so full by the time i finished half of my entree that celina and i split dessert - blueberry bread pudding with a white chocolate sauce. it was an outstanding combination, and probably the most sophisticated part if you care about that kind of thing. overall, central kitchen is a great neighborhood place - the type of place where you could go frequently, which isn't too expensive (for the amount of food and the quality). it would be a normal neighborhood place without the decor, which definitely makes it a better place to hang out in.