Dining Out: Double Chin

About a year ago, I was minding my own business when a new notification flashed across my lock screen. It read, "@doublechinbos is now following you." Immediately intrigued by the user name, I opened up Instagram to see what I could find out about this mysterious new follower. 

As it turns out, that Instagram account belongs to Double Chin, a restaurant in Chinatown in Boston. I began to scroll through their recent photos, and before I knew it, I was about 30 photos deep, drooling over shot after shot of fantastic looking, gluttonous plates of food. I knew I had to go there. 

It took nearly a full year, but this week I finally made the trip. My friend and I braved the drive from our office in Kendall Square in Cambridge, over the Mass Ave bridge, down Charles Street, around the Boston Common, down Tremont Street and onto Stuart Street before reaching Double Chin. 

The restaurant's sign glows above the front door like a beacon calling you home. Speaking of home, I love the logo, with the two hearts swirling up out of the chimney. 

Double Chin is run by two sisters, Emily and Gloria Chin (hence the clever name). The menu is inspired by their favorite foods from childhood. 

We arrived on a Tuesday at about 6:45pm. I was worried there might be a long wait, but we were seated right away. 

Our first order of business was to get cocktails. We had seen a few fun ones on Instagram and couldn't wait to make our selections. We seriously debated getting one of these large format drinks, but decided to wait until we could come back with more friends. 

Ultimately, we landed on Capri Sun cocktails, a fantastic twist on a 1990s classic. I went with the SPF 60 which is mango and passion fruit infused soju, and my dinner date picked the Strawberry Fields, which is muddled pineapple and strawberry infused soju. Before I even tell you how they tasted, can we talk about the fact that they light up?! 

I loved the mango. The cocktail tasted like pure fruit juice. My friend commented, "With the strawberry one I was preparing that it might be too sweet, but it was just right. I really loved the fresh pineapple in there too." 

For dinner, we decided to share a bunch of dishes so that we could taste as many menu items as possible. The first plate to arrive was the crispy sesame noodles. 

These were incredibly addicting. I honestly could have eaten that whole plate myself. In fact, had I been home alone, I probably would have grabbed the crispy noodles by the fistful and sprinkled them straight into my mouth. My friend added, "These had such a great crunch. This dish can sometimes be too salty, but these were perfect." 

Next we tried the veggie spring rolls. Each roll was packed with goodies and the shell was wonderfully crispy and flaky. We made these disappear rather quickly. 

We were very intrigued by a dish called "Poutine Your Mouth" which was a mountain of waffle fries, topped with kimchee, cheese and furikake (a Japanese seasoning). 

We fell in love with this dish after our first bites. This is a very unusual combination, but somehow it really, really works. The waffle fries were expertly crisped, and never got soggy, even though they were fully loaded with toppings. This would be an awesome appetizer to share with a large group. 

After the poutine, we moved onto the tofu "Chinwich" which is served inside a scallion pancake. I mean, come on! 

The scallion pancake was delicious, the pickled vegetables were tasty and the sandwich was stuffed with a very generous amount of tofu. 

We certainly could have ordered more savory dishes (and we really, really wanted to) but we also knew we wanted to have dessert. So we tapped out and asked to see the dessert menu. 

Double Chin has become really well known for their outrageous cube toast, but after stuffing ourselves with noodles and fries galore, we opted for something a smidge less crazy and got the chocolate mudslide shaved ice. 

As I was trying to photograph our mountain of frozen goodness, I was starting to complain that the M&Ms were slipping off the top, and my friend smirked, "Well, it is a mudslide, you know." 

We absolutely loved our meal at Double Chin. The service was excellent and all of the food came out quickly. My favorite touch is that they have a key for their menu - the green leaf means something is vegetarian, the red chili pepper means something is spicy and then they have the cutest little purple camera symbol that indicates something is Instagram-worthy!

I am certain this was the first of many future visits to Double Chin.