Good pub grub near the movies, but this Cherry Tree isn't kid stuff
Type: Pub
Hours: 11:30 a.m.-12:30 a.m. Daily.
Good choices: Steak tips, grilled chicken breast, western burger, chicken fingers.
Credit cards: All major cards accepted.
Access: No ramp.
CHERRY TREE RESTAURANT
1365 Washington St., West Newton
(617) 965-9796
Restaurant reviewed 1/31/98 by Adam Pertman
For two bits, you can buy a tasty handful of colorful candy from one of the old-fashioned gumball machines at the front of the Cherry Tree Restaurant. But that's about all the diversion available to children who dine here, as two parents in our party discovered one night recently.
But, hey, it sounded like a family-friendly place, what with its all-American name and its fried-food-filled menu. We also had the assurance of a bartender we had checked with on the telephone beforehand.
Still, the good news is that this is quite a nice bar, with a warm and neighborhoody feel and perhaps a dozen tables along one wall. Dining here is a decidedly comfortable experience.
Most of the food here is a cut above typical pub fare, and a few items are worthy of high praise. Best of all, nothing in the joint costs more than $5.95.
That's the price of each of the Cherry Tree's five "entree's" (that's the spelling on the menu), including the best of the lot: sirloin tips marinated in, of course, a secret sauce. This is the house specialty, and well it should be; the beef is good-quality stuff, it's nicely seared to keep it juicy, and it's char-grilled to medium-rare tenderness.
We also tried a few other entrees - which come with steak fries, onion rings, salad or rice - and found all of them satisfying, if not up to the high standards of the steak. The grilled chicken breast gets a special mention, though, both because it's nicely spiced and because the chef (well, maybe the cook) doesn't make the most common mistake with poultry: overcooking.
Unfortunately, the culinary consistency on the grill doesn't extend to the deep fryer.
While the chicken fingers ($3.25) and mozzarella sticks ($3.25) arrive at the table fairly ungreasy and share a good crunch quotient, the same can't be said for the chicken wings. They come in two varieties, in a secret Cherry Tree sauce or Buffalo-style, and both needed to be submerged in hot fat a while longer so their skins could make the essential transformation from soggy to crisp.
A similar complaint about the hamburger buns: They should spend at least a few seconds on some heat to get them warm, if not a bit brown. They deserve better treatment, after all, since they surround pretty good ground beef patties - a half-pound each, covered in bacon and other predictable but suprisingly fine pub-type accessories - that come in at just $3.95 to $4.75 each.
Perhaps the best thing about the Cherry Tree, in addition to its un-yuppieish atmosphere, is that it's located just across the street and down the block from one of the area's best movie theaters, the West Newton Cinemas. It's a short stroll, before or after a show, and more than worth the effort.
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