This Boston outpost from a NYC restaurant group has been around for a while https://boston.eater.com/2023/12/4/23982498/szechuan-mountain-house-opening-boston , but I haven’t seen any discussion on HO. Reservations are a bit confusing. The link on the Boston web page takes you to the Resy page for the Manhattan outpost. I was able to make a rez via phone several days in advance, but when I called the day of the reservation to more the time back 30 minutes, they said they don’t take reservations before 8pm. When I noted that I already had a text from them confirming a 5:30 reservation, they adjusted the time.
As soon as we sat a bowl of spicy pickled cabbage and a pot of tea were placed on the table. The pickled cabbage was addicting and we ordered more. Orders are placed via the Toast web site/app, and because the descriptions are minimal, you can end up with something you didn’t expect. There is no discussion of the size of the dishes. The popular Ma-Ma hot fish is a portion large enough to feed 4, but you wouldn’t appreciate that from the photo. The hot and sour soup is likewise enough to feed 4. The hot and sour soup was passable, but not very high on the hot or sour scale. I especially missed the vinegary bite of a good H/S soup. If you aren’t a party of 4, you probably aren’t going to need much more than two dishes unless you plan to take lots of leftovers home.
We tried both dumpling offerings, in chili oil and in mushroom/chicken soup. Both were passable but not memorable. As was the Ma Po tofu and the szechuan sliced beef. Stir-fried long beans and eggplant was a bit better. The snow ice dessert with mung beans and ice cream was very good, once you remove the embedded Oreo cookies.
Given the advance billing I was looking forward to this visit, but came away underwhelmed. The Ma-Ma hot fish and pickled cabbage were probably the best dishes, but not appealing enough to make me hurry back.
