[East] Hungry at the BCEC? Look no further.

RagingGailbear

One of the nice things about Prime is that there is lots of food, about 3 seconds away. Since this is definitively NOT TRUE around the BCEC, this thread attempts to inform you of the available choices, along with estimated travel times.

FOOD FOR DUMMIES
Foodler - Delivers food to everywhere. As many as 80 options. All price ranges and culinary styles.

Note about walking times: I'm measuring from the front entrance of the BCEC. If you've never been there, be prepared to take as many as 15 minutes to get from wherever you are to the doors. I'm using Google for the walking times - so adjust accordingly. Keep in mind it will probably be brisk out, especially in the evenings.

WALKING DISTANCE

0 Minutes - Food Court
In the BCEC
Hours: ?? - will be in program.
Yes, it's expensive, perhaps even overpriced. But it's close by.

1 Minute - MJ O'Connors Irish Pub
Located conveniently in the Westin - connected to the BCEC
Hours: 11:30am - 12pm
Possibly less expensive than the food court. Rather slow and the food quality is extremely variable.
"I found MJ O'Connors Irish Pub to be irish bar food, not great not bad, the drinks were as reasonably priced as hotel bars get." ~zepherin

1 Minute - Sauciety (Hotel Grill)
Located conveniently in the Westin - connected to the BCEC
Hours: 7am - 2:30pm
Very expensive - think hotel grill ($25 entrees)

5 Minutes - Morton's Steakhouse
Located in the Seaport World Trade Center complex (other side of the pedestrian bridge)
Hours: Friday 11:30am - 11pm, Saturday 5:30pm - 11pm, Sunday 5pm - 11pm
REALLY F***ING EXPENSIVE - think $60 entrees. But delicious. A little ritzy.

7 Minutes - The Whiskey Priest (Irish Pub)
Located at the intersection of B and Northern Streets
Hours: ??? - emailed them to find out
Standard Bar food prices. Standard Irish Pub menu.

7 Minutes - Atlantic Beer Garden (Pub)
Located next to the Whiskey Priest - B and Northern Streets
Hours: 11:30am - 2am, must be 21 after 9pm.
Bar food, bar prices.

8 Minutes - Del Frisco's Steakhouse
Located at the intersection of D and Northern Streets
Hours: 5:30pm - 11pm
REALLY F***ING EXPENSIVE, again. More ritzy than Morton's.

8 Minutes - Legal Test Kitchen (Seafood)
Located on D street, close to the harbor.
Hours: 11am - 2am
Expensive, but worth every penny. The famous Legal Sea Foods, but cheaper, and with interesting new dishes.
"The food was delightful, the atmosphere was trendy and classy, and the alcohol was wonderful." ~Onmitsu

9 Minutes - Dunkin' Donuts (Coffee and Donuts)
Located at the Seaport World Trade Center
Hours: 5am - 12 am
Ubiquitous coffee chain. "America Runs On Dunkin", etc. However, don't buy their baked goods after 12, as they get stale.

10 Minutes - Salvatore's (Italian)
Located on Northern Street, around the corner from Legal Test Kitchen
Hours: Friday 11am - 12am, Saturday 12pm - 12am, Sunday 4pm - 10pm
Standard restaurant prices, delicious Italian food. People go there both dressed up and not.

10 Minutes - Sal's Takeout (Pizza & Sandwiches)
Located next door to Salvatore's
Hours: ??? but presumably similar to Salvatore's
Cheap delicious pizza. A delicious slice the size of your face (1/4 19" pizza) for something like $4.


So, that's the "within 10 minutes" area. Boston, however, has a lot of delicious food options, that are only a T ride away! (See the next post for some recommendations.)

Other links:
Map of Local Environs - may not be current, and doesn't have everything listed here, but has other options, including touristy sites and bars.
Hitchhiker's Guide to Pax East Restaurants List - current as of last year, but will be updated as East draws near.

Also, crowdsourcing! Anyone who has any recommendations, for either nearby or less nearby places, post and tell me, and I'll add them to the OP. I'm magical, but only to a certain extent.

Thank you to everyone who has made suggestions!

Happy Eating!
-RGB

RagingGailbear

FAR(THER) AWAY

Note about distances - These are listed as N minutes from a T Station. I will also include the addresses. Yes, you can walk to some of these places, but you get to figure out how to do so yourself. :P If you're curious about subway travel time, The Official MBTA Website has a route planner that's pretty accurate.

7 Minutes from South Station - Windsor Dim Sum Cafe
Chinatown - 10 Tyler St, Boston, MA 02111 (between Beach St & Kneeland St)
Hours: 9am - 10pm
Inexpensive; "It's a sit-down and order style Dim Sum, but everything we were served was absolutely delicious." ~Angrypasta

tvethiopia

i've mentioned this before, but since this is a dedicated food thread i will say it again. foodler!!! foodler.com is an invaluable resource for pax. type in the address of your hotel and get tons of delivery options, then order online right through the site. for the westin, there are about 80 delivery options... yeah, i said 80. some are typical takeout joints, some are nicer restaurants that use delivery services. there's even a liquor store, a smoke shop, a grocery store, and a florist! you could legitimately have a 5lb bag of potatoes delivered to you, if you were so inclined. it's a great way to get good affordable food at pax while also trying out some local places instead of falling back on cheap chains like mcdonalds. many places even offer deals (20-30% off) on your first order.

in short, foodler is amazing, and is a paxer's bff.

SmallLady

80 options!!! Yeeeeeeees

Rachelkitten

Thank you this will come in handy!!!

antherem

While the main food court in the BCEC wasn't terrible quality wise, I can't say the same for the auxiliary food court by the queue room/tabletop. It was pretty bad.

There's a couple of restaurants in the Seaport Hotel, also. Tamo Bar was a little slow and more than a little expensive, but the food wasn't too bad.

Onmitsu

I'm going to second the foodler bit. It's a very convenient way to get noms, as long as you don't mind waiting for the delivery (I know I would get totally ancy knowing I could be PAXing while I wait for food, but I'm kind of a insane "can't lose any time" sort who runs on nuclear fusion).

Also, about the Legal Test Kitchen, my friends and I had our pre-pax dinner there, and were immensely pleased. I'm almost 100% going to reserve a table for us there this year again. The food was delightful, the atmosphere was trendy and classy, and the alcohol was wonderful. It's not a cheap meal by any means, but if you want a memorable meal to kick off your PAX East, it's a place I'd recommend.

dyaballikl

You missed about the only 2 places I ate last year: Whiskey Priest (7 minutes via Google) and Dunkin' Donuts (9 minutes via Google, but there are shortcuts)

Angrypasta

Seconding Salvatore's! Me and my friend ate there on Thursday night last year, we both got personal pizzas - I think they were about 10-15 bucks each, but the portions were pretty big and it was delicious. The menu looked reasonably priced and others have said good things as well.

Also, if you're skipping out on the inevitable PAX East Dim Sum event (or even if you're not), check out Windsor Dim Sum Cafe in Chinatown. It's probably like a 15-20 minute walk from the BCEC, but it was worth it. It's a sit-down and order style Dim Sum, but everything we were served was absolutely delicious. Small place, though they asked us if we wanted to sit at our own table or share one with others. I'm looking forward to going back here.

Places to avoid(?): The No-Name Restaurant. Maybe we just ordered the wrong thing, but me and my friend ordered the "Lobster Special" and it was both the most expensive and awful thing I've ever eaten in a restaurant. My friend shared this opinion. Service was lousy, but the place looked like it could accommodate a lot of people. YMMV.

feitocomfruta

There was this sports bar just down the street from the Renaissance Waterfront, which was like a 5-10 minute walk from the BCEC. My roommates and I discovered it after PAX ended on Sunday, and it was a really good place. It had JUST opened though, so there may have been changes made, but someone should check them out.

Led Zepherin

I like the cut of this threads jib.

I found MJ O'Connors Irish Pub to be irish bar food, not great not bad, the drinks were as reasonably priced as hotel bars get.

Frugus

Last year's (this year's?) PAX Map, has a lot of restaurant locations. I don't think it's the official map BTW.

I was tempted to point people towards last year's thread but I would put more faith in this one since it seems to have more PAX XP (BCEC expansion).

Led Zepherin

They are expanding BCEC like crazy. Go us, and the other groups that book there too.

HuskyDork

feitocomfruta wrote:

There was this sports bar just down the street from the Renaissance Waterfront, which was like a 5-10 minute walk from the BCEC.

Are you referring to the Atlantic Beer Garden? It's wasn't bad, I went there with some PAX train folk for pre-PAX dinner. They go a little beyond standard bar food with a lot of beer options, a solid choice.

acumen101

If any of you are willing to try something different, I'd go to Kaze in Chinatown. It's a Shabu-Shabu (hot pot) restaurant and it's really really REALLY good; my friends and I usually go there every so often when we want to get together for something a bit special, but it doesn't cost a ton. There's Shabu Zen a block over from it, but it's really cramped. I ran into a group of PAX'ers back in 2011 and they were looking for it, led them to it, and joined them. I also suggest Legal Sea Foods (Their grilled tuna steaks are DELICIOUS!). Also, Fire and Ice (where we held the unofficial Pre-PAX dinner back in 2010) is alright.

Generally, if you want a good variety, you'll have to get into downtown Boston.

griff6659

Might I recommend the Fire and Ice restaurant? This is more of a dinner, but the food is amazing and if you like beer try the Fire and Ice brew they have there! It's amazing. Note you will need to take a taxi or something to Fire and Ice. Last year for lunch my group went to MJ O'Connors Irish Pub for lunch and the food was great! Burger and a beer at PAX, what more can you ask for?

Rdr

The Hitchhiker's Guide to PAX East has a good page about this: http://www.hgpaxeast.com/index.php?title=Restaurants_Near_BCEC

trinistand

The Hitchhiker's guide is based off of what was available in March. I'll try to update it as PAX gets closer. Lots of new options opening on the waterfront, mostly a lot of fancier (but still good) stuff over there.

RagingGailbear

OP updated to reflect suggestions. Thanks guys!

(Yes, haven't quite got all the far away suggestions incorporated, but math class calls.)

KingJaay

thanks guys

SmallLady

I have an off topic question, who is the admin for the HGPE?

Edit: Neeeever mind, I answered my own question :P

heels

I am looking into the possibility of creating a page in the PAX directory for all restaurants that have discounts during PAX.

I SHALL KEEP YOU INFORMED.

Kyuss

Awesome info. Thanks!

Trandescent

How exactly does foodler work? Ive heard so much about it but I'm still confused on how it works

SmallLady

heels wrote:

I am looking into the possibility of creating a page in the PAX directory for all restaurants that have discounts during PAX.

I SHALL KEEP YOU INFORMED.

^ things I like

Nullzone

heels wrote:

I am looking into the possibility of creating a page in the PAX directory for all restaurants that have discounts during PAX.

I SHALL KEEP YOU INFORMED.

Bunneh approves.

feitocomfruta

HuskyDork wrote:

feitocomfruta wrote:

There was this sports bar just down the street from the Renaissance Waterfront, which was like a 5-10 minute walk from the BCEC.

Are you referring to the Atlantic Beer Garden? It's wasn't bad, I went there with some PAX train folk for pre-PAX dinner. They go a little beyond standard bar food with a lot of beer options, a solid choice.

No, I went there, and it was amazing, but this place was literally down the street. Where you took the left to go to Whiskey Priest and ABG, you crossed the street forward and it was right there.

tvethiopia

Trandescent wrote:

How exactly does foodler work? Ive heard so much about it but I'm still confused on how it works

you just type in your address (or, more likely, the address of the hotel at which you are staying) and you will be presented with a list of places that deliver to that location. you can then click on any place in the list to view the menu and order online directly through the site. just make sure when you are ordering food from a hotel that you include your room number with the address so the front desk can call you when your food has arrived.

finkledinkle

Last year the only one on that list I tried was,

7 Minutes - Atlantic Beer Garden (Pub)
Located next to the Whiskey Priest - B and Northern Streets
Hours: 11:30am - 2am, must be 21 after 9pm.
Bar food, bar prices.

My note for this restaurant is after a certain time (think it was 11pm but don't quote me) it turns into a nightclub, which is the case on the two restaurants next to it (can't remember the others names after discovering Sam Adams Brick Red at the Atlantic Beer Garden). Which made it 21+ age requirement, so for anyone under 21 you may want to keep that in mind.

This place wasn't bad to eat, the macaroni and cheese burger was decent, I will say I covered the tab for me and 3 other people and it was close to 300 bucks when we finished eating/indulging, but I guess thats all relative to the person.

klz

feitocomfruta wrote:

HuskyDork wrote:

feitocomfruta wrote:

There was this sports bar just down the street from the Renaissance Waterfront, which was like a 5-10 minute walk from the BCEC.

Are you referring to the Atlantic Beer Garden? It's wasn't bad, I went there with some PAX train folk for pre-PAX dinner. They go a little beyond standard bar food with a lot of beer options, a solid choice.

No, I went there, and it was amazing, but this place was literally down the street. Where you took the left to go to Whiskey Priest and ABG, you crossed the street forward and it was right there.

I remember the bar. It had just opened up and wasn't open long enough for anyone to have put it on the original map. For reference, from the Westin/BCEC, walking across the bridge towards Legal Test Kitchen, just keep going straight and it was by the water. Pretty good burgers. We stumbled upon it Thursday night for dinner and while looking for J. Pace to scout out breakfast foods for the rest of the weekend (which kept us very happy except Sunday morning when it was open later than we expected).

feitocomfruta

klz wrote:

I remember the bar. It had just opened up and wasn't open long enough for anyone to have put it on the original map. For reference, from the Westin/BCEC, walking across the bridge towards Legal Test Kitchen, just keep going straight and it was by the water. Pretty good burgers. We stumbled upon it Thursday night for dinner and while looking for J. Pace to scout out breakfast foods for the rest of the weekend (which kept us very happy except Sunday morning when it was open later than we expected).

YES. That's the place... I'll google the area and see what I get...

8 minutes - Jerry Remy's Seaport (Sports Bar and Grill)
Located at 250 Northern Avenue (Across from LTK)
11am to 2am all week, 21+ after 9pm
A little more upscale than the average sports bar (Cheeseburger with sweet potato fries and a 16 oz Sam Adams runs you $16)
Amazing Burgers, Tons of beer on tap (including many Massachusetts locals), Monster Video wall (an 8x4 grid of 46" plasmas)

gigabrain

feitocomfruta wrote:

klz wrote:

I remember the bar. It had just opened up and wasn't open long enough for anyone to have put it on the original map. For reference, from the Westin/BCEC, walking across the bridge towards Legal Test Kitchen, just keep going straight and it was by the water. Pretty good burgers. We stumbled upon it Thursday night for dinner and while looking for J. Pace to scout out breakfast foods for the rest of the weekend (which kept us very happy except Sunday morning when it was open later than we expected).

YES. That's the place... I'll google the area and see what I get...

8 minutes - Jerry Remy's Seaport (Sports Bar and Grill)
Located at 250 Northern Avenue (Across from LTK)
11am to 2am all week, 21+ after 9pm
A little more upscale than the average sports bar (Cheeseburger with sweet potato fries and a 16 oz Sam Adams runs you $16)
Amazing Burgers, Tons of beer on tap (including many Massachusetts locals), Monster Video wall (an 8x4 grid of 46" plasmas)

I've been to the one over near Fenway Park. It's a great place! Definitely on my recommend list. Especially seeing as on Saturday afternoon of East is the last Bruins home game of the season.

TheAggroCraig

The Sam Adams pub thing last year had okay prices (expensive, but at least you got a good quantity for it), but the food stations right next to them were outrageously priced. Will not be eating at the PAX food places again.

arsonisfun

I'll make a point of updating Hitchhikers

Anybody with specific dining requests can feel free to ask me, I have 10 years of serious eating in Boston under my belt (oh look, a bad joke). I will admit - I haven't been to Menton or Ten Tables yet, but short of that ... I'm sure Juju and a few others will chime in as well.

Closing note - I would strongly suggest going to Chinatown for at least one meal, even if it's a bit of a walk vs what's right on the waterfront. It's cheap and delicious, plus you'll be able to find a place where you can sit down without a wait.

gigabrain

arsonisfun wrote:

I'll make a point of updating Hitchhikers

Anybody with specific dining requests can feel free to ask me, I have 10 years of serious eating in Boston under my belt (oh look, a bad joke). I will admit - I haven't been to Menton or Ten Tables yet, but short of that ... I'm sure Juju and a few others will chime in as well.

Closing note - I would strongly suggest going to Chinatown for at least one meal, even if it's a bit of a walk vs what's right on the waterfront. It's cheap and delicious, plus you'll be able to find a place where you can sit down without a wait.

Under your belt or hanging over said belt?

arsonisfun

heels wrote:

I am looking into the possibility of creating a page in the PAX directory for all restaurants that have discounts during PAX.

I SHALL KEEP YOU INFORMED.

Did we ever talk about the possibility of food trucks @ BCEC? I know I wanted to float the idea by you to see if could put it in the right hands. There's a solid number of them in town and I'm sure the prospect of a convention center full of hungry folks would cause at least a few to set up shop.

arsonisfun

gigabrain wrote:

arsonisfun wrote:

I'll make a point of updating Hitchhikers

Anybody with specific dining requests can feel free to ask me, I have 10 years of serious eating in Boston under my belt (oh look, a bad joke). I will admit - I haven't been to Menton or Ten Tables yet, but short of that ... I'm sure Juju and a few others will chime in as well.

Closing note - I would strongly suggest going to Chinatown for at least one meal, even if it's a bit of a walk vs what's right on the waterfront. It's cheap and delicious, plus you'll be able to find a place where you can sit down without a wait.

Under your belt or hanging over said belt?

a little closer to the latter than I'd care for

Durinthal

arsonisfun wrote:

Closing note - I would strongly suggest going to Chinatown for at least one meal, even if it's a bit of a walk vs what's right on the waterfront. It's cheap and delicious, plus you'll be able to find a place where you can sit down without a wait.

Last year there was an organized group that went there for a dim sum brunch on Sunday morning and it was fantastic. I forgot who was in charge of it, but I'm keeping an eye out for it again.

Lokiale

Durinthal wrote:

arsonisfun wrote:

Closing note - I would strongly suggest going to Chinatown for at least one meal, even if it's a bit of a walk vs what's right on the waterfront. It's cheap and delicious, plus you'll be able to find a place where you can sit down without a wait.

Last year there was an organized group that went there for a dim sum brunch on Sunday morning and it was fantastic. I forgot who was in charge of it, but I'm keeping an eye out for it again.

*ears perk up* PAX dim sum? That should definitely be a thing.

Possibly a dumb question but were there any good soup dumplings in Boston's Chinatown?

arsonisfun

Lokiale wrote:

Durinthal wrote:

arsonisfun wrote:

Closing note - I would strongly suggest going to Chinatown for at least one meal, even if it's a bit of a walk vs what's right on the waterfront. It's cheap and delicious, plus you'll be able to find a place where you can sit down without a wait.

Last year there was an organized group that went there for a dim sum brunch on Sunday morning and it was fantastic. I forgot who was in charge of it, but I'm keeping an eye out for it again.

*ears perk up* PAX dim sum? That should definitely be a thing.

Possibly a dumb question but were there any good soup dumplings in Boston's Chinatown?

Gourmet Dumpling House, Dumpling Cafe, and Taiwain Cafe all have decent soup dumplings.

waterbottles

arsonisfun wrote:

Anybody with specific dining requests can feel free to ask me, I have 10 years of serious eating in Boston under my belt (oh look, a bad joke).

Hello! Are there any Indian restaurants you'd recommend? (Delivery or dine in.)

Thanks!