Eat

Over the river and through the woods (of Somerville) lurks some dressed-up home cookin'

253 Washington Street (Union Square), Somerville; 776-2889
Open for dinner Sun - Wed, 6 to 10 p.m.; Thurs - Sat, 6 to 10:30 p.m.
Lunch: Mon - Fri, 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.; Brunch: Sun, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m.
All major credit cards
Full bar
Sidewalk-level access

by Stephen Heuser

It's hard not to be taken with a restaurant that is so forthright the name is a command -- Eat. The first time I acquiesced and ate there, I mentioned to the waiter that I'd half-expected the menu to be labeled READ. He was ready for that one, and responded that they'd thought about marking the restroom doors GO.

I could get to like this place, I thought.

Eat is in Somerville's Union Square, the neighborhood identified a couple weeks ago by the Globe as "Boston's newest hangout." I don't know how new a hangout Union Square is, but with two of the city's better restaurants -- the Elephant Walk and Union Square Bistro -- and a gaggle of smaller eateries, it certainly belongs on the map of every foodie north of the Charles.

Capitalizing on its location, Eat is already pulling in a healthy crowd in its ninth week of business. The homey, almost communitarian feel of the place harks back 20 years or so; the old armchair in the foyer, the mismatched cutlery, and the curtains in the windows recall a time when Dad paid for all the meals and when restaurants, for whatever reason, aimed to feel something like Grandma's house. Well, Grandma's house with a bar.

Not likely, though, that Eat will remind you of Grandma's cooking, unless your grandmother is particularly polyethnic, or a schizophrenic. The menu ranges pretty widely, from China (hot-and-sour soup) to the Mississippi Delta (Cajun-style catfish), pausing between in India (jasmine rice), Italy (antipasto, pasta), and Indiana (meatloaf on white bread). It's pretty easy to guess that not every stop is a success, but the trip overall is an interesting one.

We started with a white-bean soup with a grilled slice of bread ($4), which sounds more Italian than it tasted. The soup, grainy and wholesome with chopped carrots and parsley, had a homegrown feel that set the tone for the rest of our meals. The closest thing to fancy cooking was an appetizer of roasted quail on a watercress salad ($8.50); the quail had a nice flavor, a bit of chew in the texture, and a slighly acid taste that may have come from the vinaigrette dressing on the greens.

The second-fanciest dish was another appetizer, a mushroom tart with leeks ($7), which had thick chunks of portobello mushrooms tossed onto a crisped round of dough about the size of a 45-rpm record. That was a pleasure, ample and rich, as was the antipasto ($6), a packed plate that included roasted red peppers, olives, half-rounds of fresh mozzarella, and an assortment of cured meats.

As far as drinking goes, Eat lists a modestly priced selection of wine; the most expensive red, for example, is a very respectable Rosenblum Old Vines zinfandel for a very reasonable $23. The beer list includes some ales from the Modern Brewer, the Davis Square brew-your-own center that distributes a handful of beers to restaurants and bars in the area. Its Fat Cat ESB, with plenty of body and a nicely balanced hop flavor, was a good argument for shopping locally.

So far, so good. But then we started to detect a bit of a wobble in the cooking around entree time, though not with every dish: the pork chop, for example, was pricey at $15.50 but a winner. Double-thick, with a seared exterior, it was served with a subtly tart sauce of dried cherries that complemented both the chop and the accompanying pile of mashed sweet potatoes. The meat was moist and also, we noticed, fairly pink. The owner assured us that medium-rare pork is perfectly okay in this age of cleaned-up pig feed. All very well, but the minute I have to sample chicken tartare I'm quitting this business.

There was a bit of a tartare element to the pan-seared salmon ($14.50), which we were told would be rare on the inside. That warning should've set off my inner alarm bells: the last time I heard it at a restaurant, I ended up with a steak that a humane society ought to have returned to pasture. In this case, the crumb coating of the thick salmon fillet was crispy and flavorsome, in contrast to the inner inch or so of the meat, which was essentially sushi. Also on the plate: a spray of broccoli rabe, a pair of striking golden beets, and a glutinous potato-scallion pancake.

There was something off-target about the fettuccine dish we had the same Sunday night. The "hand-cut fettuccini with braised chicken and wild mushrooms" ($12) sounded delicious but arrived in far too much liquid. The pool may have been the result of a watery sauce, or may just have collected from incompletely drained noodles; either way, it effectively swamped the usual tactile pleasures of fresh pasta.

We hopped back across the Atlantic for a more satisfying plate of pan-fried catfish ($13.50), coated with a classic Cajun spice mix and topped with a warm chili-spiked rémoulade. As with the salmon, the fish came as a thick fillet, but this one didn't flirt as closely with sushihood. The accompanying red beans and rice were a bit watery, their flavor coming mostly from a hint of vinegar that I enjoyed but not everyone at our table liked. A thin-crusted clam-and-garlic pizza ($8.50) sized for one did a good job retaining its clam taste.

Desserts were what you'd expect at a restaurant called Eat: cake, pie, and so forth, served for the most part in portions that demand to be shared. Two stood out: first, a pear crisp ($4.25), warm and cinnamony slices of unpeeled pear with crumble served in a bowl with vanilla ice cream. The other was a wedge of peanut-butter pie ($4.25), with a yellow and surprisingly light peanut-butter filling topped with a slab of chocolate icing.

During daylight hours, Eat leavens its dinnertime entrees and appetizers with even-more-home-style stuff like peanut-butter-and-banana sandwiches and biscuits with sausage gravy. Also notable are the family dinner specials, such as chicken pie for four for $38. Even though the prices aren't quite as modest as you might expect, Eat certainly seems sincere about trying to be Union Square's home-away-from-home.