Sign up for The Dish
Stay up to date on the latest food and drink news from Boston.com.
Where Chef Tiffani Faison eats in Boston when she’s not working
She skips a sit-down breakfast, lives for soup, and swears by one Chinatown comfort dish.
Boston foodies love chatting about their favorite restaurants, dishes, food neighborhoods, and chefs. But what about the people behind the scenes — the people in the kitchen preparing your food?
Yes, Chef is a series from Boston.com that asks local chefs where they eat when they actually have time off to eat a meal that’s not at their place of work.
Our series often includes a list of breakfast, lunch, dinner, and nightcap options. Not every chef has a recommendation for each meal. As many will tell us at Boston.com, breakfast is limited in Boston, and chefs don’t eat lunch. Also, not everyone fancies an after-work drink.
But here’s what we can guarantee: these recommendations are coming from the best of the best.
Advertisement:
Next up we’re featuring Boston’s own celebrity chef and restaurateur, Tiffani Faison.
In Boston, she’s known for running Big Heart Hospitality restaurant and bars Sweet Cheeks Q, Fool’s Errand, Tenderoni’s, and Bubble Bath — the latter just got a second stunning location atop the citizenM hotel in Back Bay. Nationally, food TV fans know her from her runs on Top Chef, a judge on Chopped, and as a Tournament of Champions winner. She’s also been named a James Beard Award finalist multiple times.
When this busy chef/owner has time to eat, here’s where she’s headed:
Breakfast: A good bagel is a good bagel
Breakfast is tough. I rarely sit down to have breakfast. None of us [chefs] eat breakfast. It feels like a luxury. We’re not a breakfast town.
Advertisement:
Brick Street Bagels just opened down the street from my house, and I love their sesame bagel toasted dark, cream cheese, tomato, a little red onion, and extra salt and pepper. I know that’s super boring, but a good bagel is a good bagel.
For a sit-down breakfast, I go to Pho Hoa. I’ll typically get chicken pho, and I also get the rib clay pot rice bowl, because that makes a lot of sense for breakfast.
Brick Street Bagels: 371 W. Broadway, South Boston; 312 Shawmut Ave., South End
Pho Hoa: 1370 Dorchester Ave., Dorchester
Lunch: A big soup fan
Lunch is difficult for chefs because we don’t eat lunch. We’re usually working during lunch, and we’re serving other people lunch.
If I’m in this neighborhood [Back Bay], I don’t know if it’s possible to pop in for a quick lobster roll at Saltie Girl, but I do.
We spend a lot of time at High Street Place for lunch. The build-your-own salads at Charming Gardener tend to be my go-to. I go in and make my own because I’m behind the line. (Editor’s note: Faison owns Charming Gardener)
Advertisement:
I’m also a big soup fan. Any time I can get a great soup on the go makes me pretty happy. That tends to be pho again or ramen. There’s the ramen place in the arcade in Brookline, Ganko Ittetsu. It’s always going to be spicy pork miso. In the summer, I’ll veer from it if they have cold ramen specials. They have some of the best ramen in the city. I think they don’t get enough play for the great ramen they do. I know it sounds boring, but if I’m sitting down for a lunch that isn’t a business lunch, it’s some kind of soup.
Also across the street at the Japanese market, Maruichi Select, they have incredible grilled fish bento boxes that are ready to go. I’ll go over there and grab three bento boxes and pick through what I like. They have grab-and-go curry croquettes, beautiful grilled fish, and rice. It’s great.
Saltie Girl: 279 Dartmouth St., Back Bay
Charming Gardener at High Street Place: 100 High Street, Downtown Boston
Ganko Ittetsu: 318 Harvard St., Brookline; 224 Quincy Ave., Braintree
Advertisement:
Maruichi Select: 299 Harvard St., Brookline
Dinner: A comfort dish that’s centering
If I’m going somewhere frequently, I’m going to Taiwan Cafe, and I’m getting the Szechuan fish. It’s probably one of my favorite dishes in the city, and they do it better than almost anyone. It’s a combination of adobo chili on the top and ground chili flakes. It’s got enoki, bean sprouts, and cabbage on the bottom, and [white fish] on the top along with rice. That’s it for me. It’s centering for me. I get it when I come home from travel. It’s usually one of the first things I grab whether I go there or get it to take home. It’s my comfort home-from-travel dish. Also their seared pork buns are super delicious. They have a roasted quality to it and a sweetness on the inside. The pork juice is super juicy and delicious. I love it there.
If we’re having more of a celebratory dinner, I’m a sucker for sitting at the bar at Grill 23 & Bar upstairs — a New York steak, always the hashbrowns, always the mashed potatoes, sauteed spinach, soup, which in that case is not actual soup, it’s a martini, cold soup. I’m a sucker for Grill.
Taiwan Cafe: 34 Oxford St., Chinatown
Grill 23 & Bar: 161 Berkeley St., Back Bay
Nightcap: We age out of it
The nightcap is here. I’m old now, I don’t go out for nightcaps. I have it here at Bubble Bath. We age out of it, and sometimes, chefs stop drinking. At the end of the night, it’s always a glass of wine. Depending on the season in the summer, if the roof is still open, I’m drinking something that’s a crisp white and has minerality to it. [In the fall] it’s a chilled red.
Advertisement:
Bubble Bath: 408 Newbury St., Back Bay; 100 High St., Downtown Boston
To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address
Conversation
This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com