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Home-Cooked Meals Made With Love: Check Out X&O
The Boston Sunday Herald's Food Pages, May 14, 2000
By A.C. Stevens

X&O is a curious hybrid: the menu is both Italian (pizza, pasta, panini) and Greek (souvlaki, mousaka, dolmades), with items both inexpensive and pricey. The atmosphere is both very causal and somewhat upscale; our notes describe this large bistro as "swanky lite." But we're not complaining. Though its identity is a bit confused, X&O has captured that certain ineffable something that makes a restaurant a pleasant, fun place to eat.

Antipasto mistro ($8,95) was like a salad with lots of side elements; plenty of marinated peppers, thin slices of eggplant, fresh mozzarella, a couple of toasty dark triangles of tasty bruschetta. The dish was fresh and balanced, though, alone among the items we tried here, it seemed a bit overpriced for what you get.

Chicken lemon soup ($2.95/cup) had a real homemade taste to it, with big chunks of chicken and a broth thickened by rice, served piping hot. We might have wished for a more pronounced lemon flavor, but this was a welcome cup of comfort on a rainy night.

Also providing an ample helping of comfort was the herb-roasted chicken ($11.95), a generous half-bird served atop garlic mashed potatoes and spinach. The chicken was near perfect: crispy, greaseless skin and juicy, moist meat. The accompaniments were well above average, too, the lemony spinach retaining its emerald color and freshness, the potatoes nicely garlicky and striking a good balance between lumpy and smooth.

Souvlaki ($11.95) brought two good-sized skewers of lean marinated pork, tomatoes, onions and peppers. Some pieces of pork were a tad dry but others were just right, juicy inside and charred on the outside.

Dessert continues the Greek/Italian theme, with offerings ranging from baklava to cannoli. We went with the cannoli, which the waitress told us was made on the premises and tasted like it; a nice contrast of warm, crunchy shell and rich, cold, creamy filling, subtly tasting of orange. Though our large meals had left us less than hungry, we managed to force down every bite. return to top

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