Myers + Chang

A dinner party is always a little disappointing. Especially if you’re no longer at a point in your life where dancing until 3am and then jumping in the neighbor’s pool is feasible (or even possible, since your foot’s been killing you lately). Sitting on someone’s sectional while they list the TV shows they’re currently streaming just doesn’t give you the same rush.

Adult dinner parties need to be just a little more exciting. They need better food, more creative drinks, and enough people crammed into a small enough space to make it feel like something interesting could happen. They need to be like Myers & Chang.

Myers & Chang, an Asian fusion restaurant in the South End, is the dinner party you wish you could throw. In a space that’s roughly the size of your two-bedroom apartment, with a kitchen that doesn’t look that much bigger, this place combines great drinks, better food, and a bunch of people who are having way more fun than they would be if they were sipping wine and making small talk about British period pieces.

Menu-wise, this place covers a lot of ground, tweaking Asian comfort foods in unexpected ways. You get real heat with the biang biang noodles, a sweet-savory combo with the lobster pan-roasted in ginger scallion sauce, and a little sweetness to wash it down in the form of a cocktail made with housemade pineapple vodka. It’s a lot of flavors bumping up against each other in a tiny dining room - the result of which is Boston’s best-smelling restaurant. This is an assertion we’re confident making because, until we walked in here, we’d never once considered who deserved that title.

So the next time someone suggests your group gets together at an apartment where someone’s new fiance is going to keep putting a coaster under your drink, take your friends to Myers & Chang instead. You’re not going to end up in the neighbor’s pool, but eating dumplings isn’t likely to get you arrested. Even when they’re as good as Myers & Chang’s.

Food Rundown

Untraditional Scallion Pancake

It’s untraditional because it uses focaccia - making this puffy and airy instead of dense and flat - not because it refuses to eat turkey on Thanksgiving or something like that.

Crispy Salmon Rolls

It’s got nori and it’s got salmon, but it’s not sushi. For once, though, we’re not complaining about something not being sushi.

Mama Chang’s Chive & Pork Dumplings

Dumplings are like little tiny pillows, except they get covered in soy sauce instead of night sweats. That’s an obvious improvement in and of itself, but, thankfully, Myers & Chang took it one step further by also making them taste really good.

Wild Boar Dan Dan Noodles

One of these days, wild boar is going to give up all the partying, settle down, and really grow into his own in the Bloomingdale’s Executive Training Program. At that point, Tame Boar Dan Dan Noodles probably won’t be nearly as good, so you better eat this now.

Beef & Broccoli

Beef is used to being the star of the show, so we wonder if there are any jealousy issues about the fact that it takes a backseat to the broccoli here. We hope they work things out, because this dish is too good to break up, feud for twenty years, and then only reunite when they both find themselves underwater with houses in Malibu that their crappy solo albums can’t pay for.

Sake Braised Octopus

It was a little chewy, so it probably should’ve spent more time in its sake bath. Maybe it should light a couple candles next time, put on some Brian McKnight, and really make an evening out of it.

Spicy Lamb Biang Biang Noodles

When you’re the best thing on the menu you don’t need any jokes.