Restaurant: Iron Chef, Danvers, MA

For my first post: a restaurant review. Don't be surprised. There'll be a lot of these here, geared mostly towards the North Shore/Greater Boston area eateries. We like to eat out, and DH has a number of years in the restaurant/nightclub business under his belt. And when you date someone from that industry for a number of years before you marry him, you tend to pick up on things.

Okay, so for the review. You should know: I'm really picky lately about my Chinese food. I don't like greasy food, and I've never been someone who enjoyed spicy food. I like really fresh Chinese food, and will drive for it; I'd rather travel to Chinatown in Boston than settle for "Chinese" food at the local Polynesian-style eatery in town.

The Iron Chef is a new Chinese & Japanese restaurant located at 435 Newbury Street on the Danvers/Topsfield line of Route 1; they've been open about a month now. They not only serve Chinese and Japanese food, but also have a large sushi and sashimi menu, with a sushi chef on site. We've had their food twice, once take-out and one weekday evening eating in with my parents in tow (DH's birthday, DM & DF's anniversary). Both times the food proved to be outstanding. Beer and wine license only (so far), plasma TV (but no NESN for the Red Sox fans), reasonable prices. Their menu (and more info about the place) can be viewed at http://www.ironcuisine.com.

For the Saturday night take-out: boneless spareribs, spring rolls, beef with mushrooms with a side of brown rice, and veggie lo mein. The food traveled well, and tasted great. Spareribs had very little fat, the spring rolls were crispy, lo mein was great. Very impressed by the beef with mushrooms; I usually don't touch it, but couldn't get enough of this dish, especially its sauce. Kudos for having the option of brown rice! Note: the next day, the sauce on the beef wasn't congealed.

For the Wednesday weekday dinner: egg rolls, chicken fingers, beef teriyaki, gyoza (a.k.a potstickers or Peking ravioli), sizzling beef and scallops, chicken lo mein, General Gau's chicken, and General Gau's prawns (so my parents really like General Gau-style food!). Once again, everything was fantastic! Service was very attentive, but that may be that we were only one of two parties in the place the whole time.