A roundup of recent restaurant reviews

PAZZO 269 Newbury St., Boston. 617-267-2996. Pazzo is led by an adept chef, Bill Bradley, but it feels as though it’s still trying to get its footing. The reasonably priced menu ranges from the usual (veal parm, pizza) to the less-usual (sublime chicken livers with polenta). “Pazzo’’ means “crazy’’ in Italian, and the name leads you to expect a less serious restaurant than the one you find. Pazzo isn’t perfect. It is, however, one of the best places to eat on Newbury Street.

THE BLUE OX 191 Oxford St., Lynn. 781-780-5722. The Blue Ox offers all the right enticements to turn locals into regulars: friendly staff, good drinks, reasonable prices. Chef Matt O’Neil, formerly of Copia, Prezza, and No. 9 Park, is in the kitchen. His is fare you can ease into: calamari and clam chowder, salads, pan-roasted salmon, burgers. The most conservative diner would order these stolid-sounding dishes; the more adventurous diner would be happily surprised at how not-stolid they actually are. The Blue Ox practically demands to be called “neighborhood gem’’ - the Franklin Cafe, Highland Kitchen, or Ashmont Grill of its neck of the woods.

TERANGA 1746 Washington St., Boston, 617-266-0003. The tiny and charming Teranga, a new Senegalese restaurant in the South End, offers a familial kind of hospitality, not formal but warm. It’s not uncommon to find Senegalese families spanning three generations, gay couples, French speakers, and stylish 20-something Africans eating side by side. Teranga exhibits a particular brand of cosmopolitan vibrancy one doesn’t see that often in Boston. Does it feel like New York? Not quite. Paris? Closer. I’m guessing what it most feels like is Dakar.

BELLA LUNA The Brewery, 284 Amory St., Jamaica Plain. 617-524-3740. The JP stalwart has moved, and Hyde Square’s loss is the Brookside neighborhood’s gain. Bella Luna still serves up great pizzas and salads, plus the rare veggie burger that’s a viable stand-in for the beef version. Sadly, the new location lacks the bowling lanes of the old, but that may be about to change: Bella Luna just got a Wii.

STEPHI’S ON TREMONT 571 Tremont St., Boston. 617-236-2063. When this little sister to Stephanie’s on Newbury opened, there were doubters. The South End doesn’t have the kind of tourists and shoppers who come to see and be seen on the patio at Stephanie’s, they said. To their surprise, Stephi’s on Tremont looks like a pretty big hit. It’s more of a neighborhood hangout than Stephanie’s, with a patio of its own. The food is a mixed bag - a tad more dressed up than your average comfort fare - and the bar scene is lively. You still come here to see and be seen.