Excellent Ethiopian and Eritrean food at reasonable prices. Most meals are served on injera (a spongy bread) with no utensils; you tear off pieces of injera and use them to scoop up food and sauces (very fannish). Seasonings range from mild to very spicy--you can ask for your level. ARL particularly likes the alicha beghi-yebeg alicha (lamb in a mild sauce) and keih tesbhi-kay watt (beef in pepper sauce). For unknown reasons the desserts are mostly French. They have vegetarian meals.
Bertucci's is a very high-end pizza and general Italian restaurant. (It's not gourmet Italian; it's gourmet pizza.) Excellent food, reasonable prices, great bread, usually crowded. It's a Boston-area chain with probably a dozen restaurants total. This location is larger than the Bertucci's in Harvard Square.
A good, solid Indian restaurant. It's not gourmet, but I've never been disappointed. Entrees in the $6 -- $10 region. Not terribly large. [be sure to note Alice's favorite-coconut soup]
A fairly high-class Italian place with excellent antipasto.
Mary Chung is an old-line Chinese place which has been around nearly as long as Joyce Chen's and these days is considerably better. It's not large or expensive, and the food is quite good. Generally the spicy food is more than averagely spicy for the Boston area.
they don't take credit cards
Mimi's is excellent and features a wider range of oriental food than the usual Chinese place. The food is uniformly excellent and reasonably (but not cheaply) priced.
A decent Japanese place about mid-way between Harvard and Central Squares. It's downstairs (below street level).
Allston/Brighton * Harvard Square * Central Square * Near MIT * Elsewhere in Boston
