The Dish

Your expert guide to the Dorchester food scene

The latest in our Yes, Chef series features James Beard Award-winning chef Jody Adams who shares her favorite places to get food in Dorchester.

The #1 Special Combination bánh mì from Ba Le Bakery. It contains pork belly, pork ham, pork bologna, pork pate, mayo, and a mix of fresh and lightly pickled vegetables.

By Katelyn Umholtz

March 28, 2025

3 minutes to read

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Jody Adams has been feeding Boston for decades. She’s worked for and with big Boston restaurant names like Lydia Shire and Gordon Hamersley before she went on to run the award-winning Rialto in 1994.

Now she’s busy running the kitchens at Trade, Porto, the fast-casual Saloniki, and La Padrona. The latter received a four-star review from The Boston Globe’s Devra First last month.

“From the time we opened the doors [at La Padrona], the feedback has been, ‘Oh my God, where has this restaurant been?’” Adams told Boston.com.

When this James Beard Award-winning chef isn’t baking cacio e pepe focaccia or cooking lobster and uni risotto, she eats close to home in Dorchester.

Boston’s biggest neighborhood is so large that it has culinary pockets within its borders (Little Saigon, the Irish presence of Adams Village, the Polish Triangle, and the southern soul food and Cape Verdean cuisine in Uphams Corner).

Then there’s neighboring Quincy, where some of Greater Boston’s most exciting restaurant openings have been popping up.

I chatted with Adams about her go-to places right now in Boston, so here’s your chance to explore Dorchester and Quincy more and eat like an award-winning chef while you’re there.

Breakfast

What Jody Adams loves about living in Dorchester is that she feels a sense of community, especially at coffee shops like Home.stead Bakery & Cafe. “It’s this wonderful gathering place where everybody meets.” She loves their cappuccino with a breakfast sandwich or a pastry. She also recommends grabbing an Italian pastry to go or sitting down for brunch at Via Cannuccia.

Lunch

“For lunch, it’s pho.” Lucky for Adams, she lives close to Boston’s Vietnamese culinary center. Her favorites for the broth dish are at Pho Le and Pho Hoa, which have been in Boston for decades. If she’s craving a banh mi sandwich, she loves Banh Mi Chi Toi and Ba Le.

Dinner

In the growing dining scenes of Dorchester and Quincy, there’s a mix of higher-end dining spots and neighborhood establishments that Adams likes to go to for dinner. Le Madeline is a favorite, for its old and new menu of mussels in coconut broth, Viet Cajun crawfish noodles, grilled oysters, and the duck salad. She loves the acclaimed Comfort Kitchen, Chili Square for hand-pulled noodles, Molinari’s for pizza, and Saigon Seafood.

Nightcap

Adams said she much prefers to have a glass of wine or a cocktail at home, so she doesn’t go out much for a round of drinks. But here’s where you might occasionally find her sipping on delightful beverages: Dorchester Brewing Company for beer, Dbar for a burger and a glass of wine, and Comfort Kitchen for an “intriguing” cocktail list.

Because it’s Boston’s biggest neighborhood, there are so many more options to choose from. Read our perfect day in Dorchester guide featuring picks from community garden coordinator Jerel Ferguson.

For your reading list

🤑 Restaurant staff side hustles (Boston Globe)
🍜 A Boston guide to noodles (Boston Magazine)
🍽️ Elon Musk is opening a restaurant (New York Times)
🥡 What happened to appetizers? (Eater)

For your calendar

🍁 Do a maple latte crawl
🌞 Monteverdi’s outdoor patio is open
🍸 Watch a speed-bartending competition
☘️ Sloane’s Irish pub pop-up

What Boston.com co-op Maya Shavit has been eating:

I’m currently researching pastries (more on that later), so while I don’t have a meal to share right now, our community co-op Maya Shavit had some delicious post-workout pancakes to brag about.

“Brownstone is one of my all-time favorite brunch spots, and I recently hit up the restaurant in the late morning with friends after a sweaty workout class across the street at Rev’d in Copley. Its location was perfectly situated for my whole group since it is steps away from commuter rail and Green Line stops. I ordered the chocolate chip short stack of pancakes and was obsessing about the fluffy little tower for days after. The affordability and deliciousness instantly made the restaurant an instant go-to.”

— Katelyn Umholtz

Katelyn Umholtz

Food and Restaurant Reporter

Katelyn Umholtz covers food and restaurants for Boston.com. Katelyn is also the author of The Dish, a weekly food newsletter.

Your expert guide to the Dorchester food scene