Cuisine:

• Pacific Rim
• Others

Island Hopper Description:
Restaurants in the Back Bay are forced into a tough position by the high rents and hordes of tourists, and often times food can come off a bit cookie-cutter. Island Hopper, right near the top of Newbury Street, is an affordable Southeast Asian concept that manages to strike the right balance between crowd-pleasing and intriguing. It's a loft-like space decked out in eggplant and gold; an open kitchen and towering windows make for good people-watching in both directions. Its menu covers culinary ground from Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand to Indonesia and even Burma. True, most flavors are dumbed down from the fiery and often complex Southeast Asian originals; but papaya salad boasts sour-spicy crunch, beef rendang is coconut-lush, and chow fun proves addictive (if slightly greasy). And a sizeable array of smoothies---lychee and avocado, pineapple and green tea---ups the guilty-pleasure ante.


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