Bostonians: I need your recommendations

I'm going to be in town with my family this weekend and I'm looking for good places to eat/drink and some stuff to do, so if any of you would care to offer suggestions it would be greatly appreciated.

So what are some of your favorite bars and restaurants? I'm open to anything, from swanky to dive-y and all sorts of cuisines, though I'd say my family's taste leans more towards international/ethnic than continental food. But if there's anywhere that's particularly representative of Boston that'd be great too.

And any cool non touristy places/activities we shouldn't miss? I saw The Brattle Theater mentioned in another thread, so I'm looking into that, but some other art, music, or film venues would be great.

Thanks everyone!

So it's like Boston's Little Italy? That's cool, I love areas like that. And I do indeed like Italian food. Noted, thanks.

Nice

Thanks for the info, gents! Gonna be here several days so we'll try to get to a bunch of these places.

agracru, we were already considering Elephant Walk so I think your recommendation seals the deal.

Ryan, we're definitely going to want to fit in some art and live music, so that's great. I'm going to check listings for Coolidge Corner, though it looks like there's a Bong Joon Ho double feature at the Harvard Film Archive so that might be our movie fix.

No consensus on pizza though, huh? It's like steak places in Philly, everyone you ask says a different one is the best. We'd heard about some other place entirely, I want to say... Regina's? How do they stack up? Maybe we'll have do a mini pizzeria tour, compare and contrast.

Thanks again everyone. I'll report back later on where we end up going

We had a very nice weekend, and made it to some of the spots you guys recommended. The Beehive was awesome; tasty drinks, good food, and very nice live soul music. Unfortunately we didn't have time/room in our stomachs to compare and contrast pizza slices but we did get Ernesto's. It didn't compare to my favorites back home but it was quite good. Their slices are gigantic. We walked over to Mike's afterward, which was ridiculous. I live right by Philly's Italian market, which has some amazing pastry places, and I might have to give Mike's a slight edge.

Tried to hit up Elephant Walk on saturday afternoon but unfortunately our timing was bad, they were closed until dinner. Instead we went to a good Thai place called Brown Sugar, which was recommended by a friend. I really wanted to get Elephant Walk later but we didn't get a chance. Next time I guess.

We also never went to the movies, instead saw Jeff Garlin at the Wilbur Theater. His standup act is cool, he comes out with a few bits he wants to cover and the rest is riffing. If you're a fan of Curb he's definitely worth seeing.

On sunday we went to the ICA. Their current exhibits didn't grab me as much as some that I've seen elsewhere - I love contemporary art but I'm drawn to stuff that aesthetically speaking has an evocative or, I don't know, viscerally engaging quality I guess, but a lot of the works there were more purely conceptual/intellectual. It was still good though. Love the building and location too.

The other highlights for me were two restaurants: Shabu Zen and Tarenga, which are pan-asian hot pot and Senegalese cuisine respectively. I'd never had either and both were delicious. Check them out if you're into that sort of thing.

So yeah, good trip. Wish we could have seen/done/eaten more, but we were only there for a few days and the impetus for the whole thing was my sister visiting prospective grad schools (BU and BC) so some time had to be devoted to that. It's a great city and it'd been far too long since I was there last, hope to go back again soon.

Thanks again for all the input everyone. If you're ever in Philadelphia don't hesitate to drop me a line for similar advice, or to hang out.