Best of Boston

In the South End, there are tons of fantastic bistros offering crisp glasses of wine and a charcuterie board to match. But when we want fireworks, we head to this funky diner, where quasi-traditional Asian dishes like tea-smoked spareribs and fried rice coexist with why-hasn’t-anyone-thought-of-this-before eats like Korean barbecue sloppy joes and the (brunch only) fried-egg-and-soy-glazed-bacon banh mi. And unfortunately for our waistline, we frequently find ourselves face down in (usually two) orders of Joanne Chang’s crazy-juicy pork-and-chive dumplings.