Critics’ choice: Three takes on the 21st-century tavern

The Good King TavernPhiladelphia

A good tavern should have one dish that makes you melt in your chair, said Adam Erace in the Philadelphia City Paper. At the Good King Tavern, it’s the ratatouille. Chef Paul Lyons, a former North Jersey skateboarder, learned the finer points from a villager in the South of France, and his version testifies to her expertise. “Bound in a vivid tomato sauce fortified with garlic and herbs, the tender zucchini, eggplant, red peppers, and onions taste like a long-forgotten summer.” Spooning the ratatouille onto slices of socca, a buttery chickpea crepe, I sighed happily and “rolled my eyes up toward Good King’s pressed-tin ceiling.” Lyons doesn’t nail every item on the menu, in part because he exhibits “a wicked affection for salt.” But his “eggplant three ways” offers strong proof that he can range far beyond the bistro classics that are likely to draw you in. Only the gossip at the bar is juicier than his marinated skirt steak, served under lacy caramelized onions alongside twice-fried frites that “rank among the city’s best.” 614 S. 7th St., (215) 625-3700

Sarma Somerville, Mass.

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“An outpost of warm spices” in Somerville’s Winter Hill, this Turkish-inspired hangout is emerging as “a truly special neighborhood restaurant,” said Devra First in The Boston Globe. A Boston-area version of an Istanbul meyhane, where friends meet to chat, drink raki, and share small plates known as mezes, Sarma has subbed in craft cocktails and loaded the menu with pleasant surprises. The bay scallops come paired with cauliflower and currants; kibbeh becomes “cross-cultural crab cakes”—each patty “wonderfully light” and topped with a papaya salad and a green hot sauce. Chefs Ana Sortun and Cassie Piuma also circulate off-menu dishes that your table can accept on a whim, lending each visit “the festive air of a cocktail party.” Here and there, a dish falls short of mind-blowing, but the kitchen keeps getting better, and the bar is manned by a seasoned mixologist who works wonders with cardamom and ginger. When a waiter approached carrying a large platter of sesame fried chicken in wooden bowls, we couldn’t resist the offer. A tahini remoulade offered a cooling counterpoint to the “crisp, deliriously spiced” chicken. 249 Pearl St., (617) 764-4464

Trifecta Portland, Ore.

It takes time to turn a “tennis-court-long” commercial building into a home away from home, said Martin Cizmar in the Portland Willamette Week. Baker Ken Forkish, a James Beard Award winner, is serving “extraordinary” breads at his new upscale tavern-bakery-bar, but the rest of the program has some catching up to do. Fortunately, Forkish and chef Rich Meyers have been learning quickly since their November opening. Gone from the menu is a bland half-chicken, replaced by a delicious cider-braised game hen cooked on a wood-fired grill. And the starters have always impressed—particularly the smoky Brussels sprouts topped with crumbled chorizo and sweet apple butter: They offer “fire, heat, sugar, and bitterness in perfect proportions.” To reach the next level, Trifecta is going to have to upgrade the grilled marrowbones, which arrived “far too rare” and overpowered by their “sharply bitter” piccalilli dressing. Better yet, the waiters ought to start selling loaves to go. 726 SE 6th Ave., (503) 841-6675