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Boston area's best Moldovan restaurant closing

Boston Restaurant Talk reports Moldova Restaurant in Nonantum is closing for good on Dec. 29.

Review from shortly after it opened.

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... but never did.

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There is still time!

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Boston-area's best Moldovan restaurant closing

…would that also be Boston’s worst, and indeed only Moldovan restaurant ?

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... the food there was bad?

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No, that’s not what I meant.

Moldova is a former Soviet republic that lies between Ukraine & Romania, with a population a bit over 2.4 million.

As of the 2000 census, there were apparently about 7,900 Moldovan Americans, while a 2021 estimate puts the number around 55,000, mostly in Sacramento, Brooklyn, Chicago, Seattle, and Los Angeles.

All of which is to say that Moldova is a small country, with a fairly small emigre population in the US, most of whom don’t seem to be in the Boston area, and there might not be enough locals to sustain a Moldovan ethnic restaurant scene.

So I’m therefore wondering / joking that it’s possible that Moldova Restaurant in Nonantum was the only Moldovan restaurant in the Boston area, which would in turn mean that it’s both the best and the worst Moldovan restaurant in the Boston area.

That said, I’d never heard of the place before this post, and have never been there, and as a matter of fact, I first learned about what Moldovan cuisine is while I was in the middle of typing this sentence: meats, potatoes, cabbage, and a variety of cereal grains […] very similar to Romanian, and also draws inspiration and elements from other cuisines in the region, including Greek, Polish, Ukrainian, and Russian, with a great influence left by the Ottoman cuisine..

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It might be the only sit-down restaurant, but Bikeeny Cafe in Malden also sells Moldovan food.

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Good to know!

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down in Whitman, or is it Hanson? That's pretty close.

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enjoyed it. Eastern European cuisine is not a strength of Greater Boston, so it was a welcome novelty. Never did get by for their live music nights, which I'm guessing Nonantum doesn't have a lot of. Sic transit gloria and all that.

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Voting closed 27

I'd only ever gotten there once to take dinner home (I want to say it was during the pandemic...). It was pretty decent, but parts just weren't to my liking (although I am sure they were good for what they were).

It's a shame they have to close, but we're all better off for the time they were there.

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Voting closed 12