Best of Boston

Chinatown’s upscale hot-pot joint Q Restaurant hits all the right notes for a first date. It boasts mood lighting as well as a crowd-pleasing (but not pandering) beverage selection. The cook-it-yourself cuisine provides an instant conversation starter, while the menu accommodates herbivores, low-carbers, anti-glutenites, and pretty much every other dietary restriction imaginable. Things going poorly? You’re within sprinting distance of various MBTA lines. Hitting it off? Keep the party going at Shōjō, right around the corner.