Little Donkey
Istanbul manti, farro fried rice seasoned with lime leaf and lemongrass, and a raw bar that will sell you a $98 seafood tower. Ken Oringer has run it in Central Square since July 2016.
Why go
The rule was that there would be no rules. We wanted a restaurant that didn't have to be specifically one kind of cuisine,
Jamie Bissonnette told the Globe when he and Oringer opened it.1 Oringer put it plainer: a place where they could cook whatever they wanted.1 Sacha Pfeiffer reviewed it three months in and found technique under the mischief.1 Ten years on the room lists Oringer alone as owner, and the menu has drifted toward the raw bar.2 The plates are still small and the servers still tell you to order two to four of them each.1
Order this / avoid
- Order: the scallop crudo, poblano aguachile and yuzu, off the current card.2
- Order: the manti. Pfeiffer described them in 2016 as star-shaped dumplings of beef and lamb that eat like a very good pierogi.1
- Order: oysters at $4 each before anything else arrives.2
- Avoid: the ikura, at least as Pfeiffer found it in 2016: a $20 cup of soy sauce with a few pearls of roe in it.1
What locals & experts say
- Sacha Pfeiffer, The Boston Globe (October 2016):
How special can hummus be? Here it's exceptional. The chickpeas are soaked, boiled, and sauteed before being blended with tahini, lemon, and olive oil, then served with beets and Persian flatbread zebra-striped from the grill.
1
Good to know
- Dinner only, from 5pm, with the bar open from 4pm on Friday and Saturday.2
- The dishes above date from the review's year. Pfeiffer ate in 2016 and the menu has changed since; check the card before you plan around a dish.2
Verdict
could-visit — A kitchen that set out to have no cuisine has lasted ten years in Central Square, which is the real signal, and Sacha Pfeiffer showed the technique underneath in 2016: chickpeas soaked, boiled and sauteed before they are blended, Istanbul manti made properly. The problem is that Pfeiffer wrote it ten years ago, and the menu she reviewed is not the menu on the site today, which now leads with a raw bar and a $98 tower. I have not found anybody who went back and said whether it still cooks like that.