Sumiao Hunan Kitchen - Cambridge

First the positives, the restaurant has one of the best thoughtful decors in the category of Chinese restaurants. Unlike those situated in Chinatown, nor like the westernized PF Chang, the design has an aurora of high end setting. You know it when the serving staff wear suits and dresses. Dish presentation is also quite nice, and an added bonus for giving out red pockets during Chinese New Year?s. Now the negatives: authenticity price. We ordered Kung Pao Chicken Deep fried horn pepper. KP chicken is a ubiquitous dish in Chinese restaurants and fairly straight forward to prepare. Unfortunately, it was overly salty and filled with pre-made sauces, like those from Panda Express (they aren?t bad if you are into fast Chinese cuisine). And the horn pepper tasted like it was draped in salt. The sample size was small but I was a little disappointed with the dishes. The price, being in Kendall Square and all, is definitely one of the highest priced Chinese restaurants in town. If you are on a budget, this is not recommended. I hope their dishes can get better. Decor and vibe attracts the outside, but it?s the taste of food that captures patron?s heart, or mouth to be exact.

Sumiao is a really good restaurant in general and excellent if you like spicy food. I went with my roommates and they absolutely loved it. I enjoyed my dish, but I think you?d get the most bang for your buck if your spice tolerance isn?t as low as mine. Would recommend people to come here and try different noodle dishes.

Good restaurant with very good cocktails. If you? re in town for restaurant week, definitely try this place. Wings were interesting, crispy, but too much peppercorn taste and not enough of the humming effect. The beef was good and also the pig bell. The desserts were not so great. Good service.

Your owner is a smart guy who grabs money, but not smart. We asked for a private space to minimize Covid infection, we actually have an open curtain space. But they charged me $75 room fee for this room. Even worse, they added 5% admin fee, 3% kitchen fee. I bet you've never heard of fees like this from a service business. I hope the owner gives me all the money to the server that were really nice to us. I paid an additional 20% tip on the food costs for the service of the owner's employees. With such a way to collect money from customers, I hope that this owner also treats his employees well. I ate there many times before, and I will never eat there. Look at the pictures of the bill I put on here.

This Hunan kitchen is different than your standard Chinese restaurant. This place has deep flavors and unique menu items that are worth a trip into Cambridge. The cauliflower is not deep fried, it 's cooked in a delicious sauce to perfection and tastes amazing. The Sumiao Hot Dry Noodle is bursting with flavor in a bursting with spice and texture. This restaurant has a section on the menu dedicated to Beyond beef and the fire version is great! It 's, again, loaded with flavors and spices that are a triumph. This place rocks and I 'm looking forward to going back.