THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED Todd English's Rustic Kitchen

THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED Todd English's Rustic Kitchen Restaurant Review:

It says something when a chef like Todd English can open a restaurant without telling anyone. But such was the case with Rustic Kitchen, smack in the middle of swarming Faneuil Hall, capturing the give-me-simple-or-I’ll-eat-at-home direction of dining in a menu that others would do well to study. As the name suggests, this is one restaurant that doesn’t want to mislead the diner. With sections for roasts, polenta, pasta, flatbreads and appetizers, Rustic Kitchen’s food is best treated as a buffet of sorts: Pick your favorites, don’t let your eyes be bigger than your stomach, and come back for more. Hominy polenta does the light-luscious fence sit and is topped with a salad-like mountain of heirloom tomatoes and goat cheese. Cheddar gravy cloaks a fist-sized pork chop with the comfort of a blanket in winter. The white-clam pizza is salty goodness, but needs some more cheese and crunch à la English’s Figs version. Grilled shrimp are so big that, when delivered on a skewer, they resemble a battleship. This one fires on target with fiery tomato sauce and cooling raita, real South Asian spark and balance. Todd English long ago found a secret to opening multiple restaurants, and his Olives in Charlestown and NYC continue to turn out some jaw-dropping dishes. But Rustic Kitchen is the one we’d most want in our neighborhood.