Regional Chinese cooking in Greater Boston

Hello all,

About a decade ago, I was a regular contributor to Chowhound’s Boston message board, with a particular interest in authentic, regional Chinese cooking.

I’ve disappeared, as my other commitments have made it difficult for me to put in the time to contribute meaningfully, but I recently saw this discussion on the SF board which includes a Google Drive map of regional restaurants in San Francisco: Regional Chinese roundup 3.0 (SF Bay Area)- April 2016 - December 2017 archive

This has moved me to start creating a similar database of regional Chinese restaurants for the Greater Boston area. A (very preliminary) first draft can be seen at https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=17VRcCggPUhGBTl1qgfDqf_UaYGyEAKjO

If any of you have more of a sense of how to lay these locations out more elegantly in a customized Google map, I’m all ears. And if you have thoughts about other places with real-deal regional cooking, please let me know about that, too.

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You should definitely add Chilli Garden in Medford to your list of Sichuan restaurants. And if you check out this board, you’ll find a number of places in Malden that belong on the list.

Great contribution!

You may want to add:
Shangri-La (149 Belmont St, Belmont, MA 02478) for Taiwanese.
Sumiao Hunan Kitchen (270 Third St, Cambridge, MA 02142) for Hunan

Awesome resource, thank you!

Wow, thank you for this super contribution. I’ll chime in with another Sichuan offering in case it’s of interest:

Sichuan Palace: 7 Summer Street, Chelmsford MA 01824

How about a section on Dim Sum?
China Star Daily 1733 Middlesex St Lowell, MA 01851
Sun Kong Daily 275 Eastern Ave, Malden, MA 02148
Ming’s Seafood Daily 19 Pleasant St, Malden, MA 02148
Yong Yong Daily Lower price during the week. My favorite since you can order off a menu. 108 Ferry St, Malden, MA 02148
Jumbo Seafood Weekend only. 10 Langley Rd, Newton Centre, MA 02459
Changsho Decent size buffet ($12.95) with some dim sum items included. 1712 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, MA 02138
Taipei Gourmet Weekend Taiwanese version of Dim Sum, Dian Xin. 211 Massachusetts Ave, Lexington, MA 02420.

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Sei Bar Hunan. Menu HERE 109 Water St Wakefield, MA 01880

Taiwanese:
Jean & Lee Kitchen, Newton: https://goo.gl/E8jW5Z

Northern:
Shaanxi Gourmet, Natick: https://goo.gl/mJ4rhj

Fu Loon in Malden is closed and I can’t recommend the one in Beverly the way I could the Malden one. The versions of old favorites on offer there were not what we remembered. I spoke with the owner and she said her customer base there was not ready for more traditional food; “not like in Malden, maybe some day.”

Great map.

Xinjiang: Home Taste in Watertown, http://www.hometastema.com/

this is great, thanks! If you ever have the time, please do chime in with any thoughts you have on the regional places you go to–we could use any input you might have, however cursory.

For your map, I can think of a few places that you might want to add:

Dongbei Style

Go Chi, 390 Main St
Malden, MA 02148

Golden Garden
9 Highland Ave, Malden, MA

Sichuan

Sichuan Taste
290 Main St, Malden, MA

Hong Kong Style

Cafe de Lulu
64 Summer St, Malden, MA

(side note: Asian Garden at 28 Harrison Ave in Chinatown also has an afternoon tea menu with a lot of Hong Kong style offerings)

Guizhou

IQ Kitchen
1158 Beacon St, Newton Highlands, MA

(the soups at least are in the style of Guizhou)

and def. add Sei Bar in Wakefield for Hunan–probably the most interesting regional Chinese restaurant that I went to in 2017.

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I would also add a few:

Henan:
MDM Noodle, 351 Washington St, Brighton, MA

Hunan:
China Gourmet, 1583 Worcester Rd, Framingham, MA 01701

Cantonese: (most of the old-school Chinatown places, but here’s a start)
Claypot Cafe, 74 Kneeland St, Boston, MA 02111 (specialized in Cantonese claypots)
Hong Kong Eatery, 79 Harrison Ave, Boston, MA 02111 (specialized in BBQ rice/soup)
Peach Farm, 4 Tyler St, Boston, MA 02111
South Garden, 217 Quincy Ave, Quincy, MA 02169

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Gene’s Chinese Flatbread Cafe in Boston, Woburn , and Westford for hand-pulled bang-bang wheat noodles and other Xian dishes.

The Gene’s Flatbreads are already on the map under Northern Chinese.

Took these from my map of restaurants in general…

Chung Shin Yuan, Newton - Taiwanese
Asian Gourmet, Concord - Taiwanese
Blue Asia Cafe, Allston - Taiwanese
Dolphin Bay, Allston - Taiwanese

Beijing Chinese Dining, Lexington - Northern
Ultra Spicy House, Malden - Northern
Hot Eastern, Chinatown - Northern

Uncle Cheung’s, Framingham - Shanghai
Szechuan’s Dumpling, Arlington - Sichuan/Shanghai(ish)

The Hot Spot, Allston - modern Cantonese
Fuzhou Gourmet, Chinatown - Fuzhou
Su Su Gourmet, Chinatown - Cantonese

South of the Clouds, Brighton - Yunnan
Bess’s Cafe, Brookline - ?
Fiskie’s Cafe - Wuhan, more or less (they may have changed ownership, but the beef noodle soup used to be a good rendition of a variety not found elsewhere in Boston)

Gourmet Garden, Allston/Brighton - ? (they ran some ads in the local Chinese social media accounts touting their authentic fare, but only part of the menu is of interest)
Silk Road, Cambridge - Uyghur/Xinjiang (controversial)

Gourmet China House, Chinatown - multi regional
Wu Er, Brookline/Malden - skewers/multi regional
Purple Bamboo, Billerica - hotpot chain from China, with multi regional dishes

Lots of Sichuan:
Taipei Cuisine, Quincy
Five Spices House, Chinatown
Mala, Allston
New Shanghai, Chinatown
L&C, Quincy
Sichuan Gourmet House, Newton
Red Pepper, Worcester
Flame, Cambridge
Jin’s Sichuan House, Waltham

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huh, I thought I had a decent handle on Malden, but I didn’t know that this food court place in the 99 supermarket had a regional angle. Will take a look next time I’m there.

Fiskie’s sounds fascinating too. It’s really inside a gated community? weird.

As always, you have a few here that were totally off my radar. Thanks!

They got their start just like Go Chi, as a Wechat based delivery-only service. I think they’re inside a supermarket, so not as visible as Go Chi is.

My favorite item at Fiskies was definitely the beef noodle soup, but I have no idea how they are these days as it’s been so long since I went.

heh, I just edited my original post when I realized it was one of the places inside the 99. I’ve eyeballed it, but never tried it out. Will report when I do!

How is this place? I tried to go for lunch a few years ago (right after they opened I think it was - could be wrong) and had such a horrible interaction (or lack there of) with the hostess and staff that I turned around and haven’t been back. Was always curious though.

I’m also hoping to hear recent info on Jin’s!