Good choices: Warm tomato salad with goat cheese; rigatoni, chicken and broccoli; steak tips; any pizza; blueberry pie.
Credit cards: Visa and MasterCard.
Access: Ramp at entry; bathrooms not handicapped-accessible.
DOGWOOD CAFE
3712 Washington St., Jamaica Plain
(617) 522-7997
Restaurant reviewed 01/02/98 by Adam Pertman
From the outside, it doesn't look like what it is.
Sandwiched in a row of shops that includes a pizza joint and a liquor store, facing a bustling thoroughfare filled with buses stopping at the Forest Hills T station across the street, the Dogwood Cafe could easily be dismissed as just another neighborhood bar that only locals would visit. But that would be wrong, very wrong.
Just walk through the restaurant's welcoming doors and you'll be charmed. An eclectic array of boisterously colored paintings hang from the warm, dark-wood walls. Industrial-sized, 107-ounce cans of crushed tomatoes double as centerpieces on the tables and as pedestals for the crisp, palate-pleasing pizzas. And, if you're lucky or smart enough to schedule your visit for a Friday or Saturday evening, your meal will be accompanied by some very good soft-rock singing and piano music.
One more thing to recommend the Dogwood: The food is uniformly delicious, and it's a cut - make that two cuts - above the fare of most establishments of its type. Even the standard deep-fried appetizers, like the onion rings ($4.95) and buffalo wings ($5.25), aren't too greasy and are particularly satisfying versions of routine bar-restaurant offerings.
The really good stuff, however, is farther down the menu.
We particularly liked two of the entrees, the rigatoni with chicken and broccoli ($9.95), which was cooked simply but perfectly with garlic and fresh basil; and the tender steak tips ($7.95), which were char-broiled and presented in a mild barbecue sauce on a bed of yellow rice. The sirloin tips are also available for the same price, served plain or teriyaki style, and a larger portion in cajun spices is offered for $9.95.
Almost all the meals - which are notable more for their execution than their creativity - come in at under $10. But one exception was the Dogwood classic, which at $10.95 stretched the cheap-eats definition by almost a buck; it was composed of sauteed chicken, garlic, artichoke hearts, black olives, fresh tomatoes, and parmesan in a light white wine sauce over linguine, and it was a standout.
About the only semi-inventive items offered here are the pizzas. Baked in a wood-burning oven, they are excellent renditions of a thin-crusted variety pioneered by Figs owner Todd English. We tried and liked three of the dozen choices: the Birch, with broccoli, mushrooms, onion, green peppers, sun-dried tomatoes, and mozzarella; the Naughty Pine, with portobello mushrooms, roasted tomatoes, red onion, and mozzarella; and the Redwood, with spicy shrimp, garlic, basil, tomato sauce, and provolone.
The small pies easily feed two to three people and sell for $7.95 to $8.95, and the large (make that huge) range from $11.95 to $12.95.
Two final recommendations, one for the start of your meal and one for the end. The warm tomato salad with goat cheese ($6.95) is a clever and mouth-watering variation on the Italian bruschetta, and the homemade blueberry pie ($3.25) ranks right up there with the best we've tasted.
About the only down side of the Dogwood is that cigarettes are permitted throughout the adjoining bar and restaurant sections. The place wasn't at all smoky the two nights we visited, but this is something to consider.
So is the timing of food service, which is a bit complicated. The restaurant opens at 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and noon on weekends. The full menu is offered until 9 p.m. Sunday through Wednesday, with pizzas and appetizers served until 11:30 p.m. On Thursday through Saturday, you can order from the full menu until 10 p.m., while pizzas and appetizers are available until 11:30 p.m.
Tips & hits
