In and Around the Boston Area

Dick's is a great place to go for a humorous dinner. The whole concept of the restaurant/bar is that the wait staff is impolite and rude. It's a great place to take someone who is not expecting this behavior and watch them get aggravated. If you torment the wait staff, in return you get to wear a funny hat and/or balloons. That should be the goal of your evening - to get a hat – it makes the whole night worthwhile. The food is kind of pricey (to a young person like me), running about $13 to $17 per plate, but they give you very large portions and the food tastes great. Beware of some of the sauces; they are spicy even though you may think they won't be. If you are female, make sure you order a blowjob shot - that is very entertaining.

My friend got me $100 in gift certificates to this restaurant for my birthday. Before departing, I figured there was no way that my boyfriend and I could possibly spend that much on dinner. Well, excluding tax and tip, we spent $115 just for salads, one drink, dinner, and dessert. It was worth it, though, just for the experience itself. The view is more than spectacular, especially looking down on the city of Boston at night. It is a great place to take a significant other on a date or otherwise.

The wait staff seemed a little fluttered and forgetful. I'm 24 and ordered and alcoholic beverage. He asked me for my ID, which was fine, as I was more than willing to oblige, and then after checking my boyfriend's ID, forgot that he had asked for mine and just brought me the drink anyways. If I was under 21, that would have been bad!

The salads were small but very tasty, and the portion sizes for dinner were small enough that you could finish the plate, feel satisfied, and still have room for dessert, which is amazing. MMMM…. dessert!

Although you may find one or two people in jeans, I highly recommend that you dress the part of a fancy restaurant attendee, or you will look out of place.

I had driven by the restaurant at Christmastime and decided that I wanted to try it just because it was called Za and looked appealing. Unfortunately, I didn't have the chance to check it out until this past Sunday. My boyfriend and I weren't really hungry but wanted good food. "Pizza and salad?" I asked, and we headed off to try out this restaurant.

We were seated right away on a Sunday evening. The manager greeted us and sat us, and the wait staff was courteous and polite. The menu was made of paper (it probably changes often). On one side there were the pizzas and salads, and on the other side were alcohol selections. There was a huge chalkboard on the wall written on with colorful chalk that displayed the multiple daily specials.

I felt that the restaurant had a lot of pizza selections, but that they could have had more salad selections. There were a couple specialty pizzas and a whole list of toppings that you could pick from, and in addition to that, there were four daily specials to pick from off the daily special menu. The small pizzas (10-inch) were priced around $11 each. My boyfriend and I decided to split a pizza and salad. For salads, the selection was a lot less. There were only three selections on the menu and only two more on the daily special menus. Neither the pizza nor the salad was anything typical of what you would find at your average pizza shop. The salads ran about $7 each.

For dinner, we ordered the Za pizza – chicken, asparagus, garlic, caramelized onions, tomatoes, and four cheeses (no red sauce). People should consider putting asparagus on pizza more often – it was really tasty. The crust was a little crunchy for me, but other than that, I was completely satisfied with it. I might attempt to make it myself.

We also ordered a salad that contained baby arugula, strawberries, pine nuts, and other greens with a balsamic vinaigrette. I was a little leery about having strawberries in my salad, but again, I was completely impressed with the salad. Sometimes restaurants put too much salad dressing on, but this salad had the perfect amount of dressing – they really know what they are doing!

The pizza was fine for two people to share. I could not have finished it on my own, but the salad was definitely more of a single-person thing, although $7 for a single serving of salad seemed a little pricey to me.

When it came time, we ordered dessert and opted to try the rhubarb terracotta. I had never had rhubarb, nor did I know what terracotta was. But it was delicious. I would definitely order it again. This, we did not split, but we each had our own, and it was the perfect finish to a great dinner.

You don't have to sing at karaoke to have a good time, especially at this bar. This place is hopping with people who love to sing, whether they have the talent for it or they don't. Although, be forewarned that a lot of the people that sing here, really sing well. It's really fun to watch both types of groups sing.

The bar is also a restaurant with really great food, so if you go early, you can grab a bite to eat or some appetizers. Karaoke is usually from 9:45pm or so till the bar closes around 1:15 to 1:30pm. There is no cover, and the DJ's really know what they are doing and how to make sure people are having a good time. Their music selection is great, and you can find anything from the old oldies to the more current top-40 songs (just ask them if you don't see it).

For an all-around good time, please visit this bar. It is T accessible (Orange Line, Malden Station), and there are plenty of Malden cabs hanging around to take you home if you drink too much.

http://www.pearlstreetrestaurant.com/

Good Times has a little bit of everything. There is an abundance of pool tables for the pool enthusiast, as well as multiple bars, darts, a multitude of extremely large TVs for sports-viewing pleasure, a variety of arcade games, laser tag, and a dance club. After 8pm, you have to be over 18 to get in, or you have to have a parent with you. The drinks are cheaper than at most places, running about $4 per drink, and beers are even cheaper. There's a little bit of everything here for you to enjoy and no cover charge.

This is by far the best place in the state to see a live show. The amphitheater is outdoors, which makes the experience so pleasing in the summer, although sometimes it can get hot. I wouldn't recommend going unless you can get covered seats to a show - you don't want to be sitting out in the rain. The sound is great, and you get a great view from any seat. It's kind of out of the way of Boston but is well worth the trip

The zoo is lacking in animals. It would be much more worth the money to make the trip to the Franklin Park Zoo. I feel that the zoo is overpriced for what it offers. I took my cousin there about a year ago, and it hardly took us 45 minutes to get through the whole zoo. After leaving, we could barely remember five animals we had seen. I remember going to the zoo when I was little with my father and siblings, when it had so much more to offer.

The area the zoo is located is beautiful. It's right by Spot Pond, and if your trip to the zoo ends early, as mine did, go for a walk along the pond - it's beautiful.

For more information about the zoo, see http://www.zoonewengland.com (which has info for Stone Zoo and the Franklin Park Zoo).

Cold Stone Creamery features fresh ice cream in normal and different flavors (such as banana, sweet cream, cake batter, etc). You pick which ice cream you want and the size (Like It, Love It, Gotta Have It). Then you pick the toppings you want added. Cold Stone offers creations that they've concocted, such as Banana Split Decision, Berry Berry Good, and Chocolate Devotion, or you can pick your own, such as hot fudge, peanut butter, fresh brownies, cookies, chocolate chips, Nestle bars, Gummy Bears, etc. There were more toppings than I could count. After you pick what you want, they put the ice cream on a cold stone and mash it all together, and you can watch. It's really interesting to see, and kids will absolutely love it! Following that, you pay. They put in a lot of work to this, so I suggest leaving a tip - they will do a little song and dance if you do. Overall, I would highly recommend paying the extra money to get this ice cream. It is delicious snacks and fun all in one.

In addition to offering ice cream, they sell specialty ice-cream cakes (smalls start at $25 or so). Check out their website: http://www.coldstonecreamery.com.