This storefront restaurant is about the size of a large kitchen (it seats just 20), but it packs a wallop -- of garlic. It's a North End classic, with excellent food, chummy service, and very little elbow room. The surprisingly varied menu includes Sicilian-style calamari (squid stuffed with bread crumbs, raisins, pine nuts, parsley, and garlic), fresh clams, squid-ink pasta puttanesca, and a variety of broiled, fried, and sautéed fish and shellfish. Calamari comes any number of ways -- even the garlic-and-oil pasta sauce has ground squid in it. Fried calamari makes an excellent appetizer. All food is prepared to order, and some dishes arrive at the table still in the frying pan.

This is the original Daily Catch. The Brookline location, at 441 Harvard St. (tel. 617/734-5696), opens at 5pm nightly and accepts credit cards (AE, MC, V).