Tiger Mama

Top Chef alum Tiffani Faison has proved lightening does strike twice in Boston’s Fenway neighborhood with the opening of her second restaurant, Tiger Mama (the other being her award-winning barbecue spot, Sweet Cheeks).

The 135-seat Southeast Asian restaurant focuses on the flavors of Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia. Faison and her team renovated the space to have the feel of a lush Asian garden with a living herb wall the kitchen uses in its dishes and large rattan-like chandeliers hung over simple wooden tables with Lazy Susan’s to make sharing dishes that much easier.

The second bar in the back of the restaurant serves primarily new takes on Tiki-style cocktails, and has a moody vibe with copper, laser cutouts of palm tree leaves on the wall.

Start dinner with the crispy potatoes with sensational aioli before moving on to the bunch cha Hanoi, where guests make their own lettuce cups with grilled pork patties and herbs; the chili crab with garlic milk toast; the chef favorite crispy garlic prawns; and the chili-spiced short rib crudo with charred leeks. Pair dinner with one of the restaurant’s cocktails like the Arnel Pineda, made with rose and mezcal or a nouveau take on the Singapore Sling. Finish the meal with the sweet and light mango coconut sticky rice.

Tiger Mama

1363 Boylston St.

Boston, MA

tel 617 425 6262