Chops City Grill Awards

Chops City Grill Restaurant Review:

Let’s start with the name---it’s a chophouse, right? But wait, the logo features a pair of chopsticks set at a jaunty angle. Hmm, it’s fusion, but one of the rare cases in which a schizophrenic-sounding menu works seamlessly, enabling you to enjoy tuna three ways (citrus seared tuna tataki, shrimp and tuna sushi roll, and tuna summer roll), an order of Mongolian beef satay with an addictive peanut sauce and five-spice apple slices, and a stacked tomato napoleon salad with a precarious avalanche of Roquefort crumbles, all in the space of an hour. Chops is one of several restaurants on the block owned by Skip Quillen, all of them teeming with regulars and tourists in the busy season. The open, airy dining room is given over to a pale grapey purple (prettier than it sounds), with a handful of little umbrella tables outside and one of the area’s most single-diner-friendly dining bars fronting a long open kitchen. And the kitchen gets jumping, with architecturally vertical plate presentations, whether it’s a dry-aged New York strip steak or Big Eye tuna tartare with a fried ginger-glazed rock shrimp salad, wrapped in cucumber and served with a carrot-ginger miso, scallion oil and sweet chili sauce.