Mary Chung Restaurant / Cambridge

[Jason Perlow]

The storefont on Mass. Ave in Cambridge. This particular location has been around for about 15 years now, but Mary Chung's has been serving Sichuan cuisine to hungry MIT students and faculty for about 25 years.

Deceptively straightworward dining area conceals the hardcore Chinese served here.

Suan La Chow Show — one of the signature dishes of the restaurant. These are meaty wonton skin dumplings served atop a bed of fresh bean sprouts, with a spicy and vinegary soy ginger sauce. Truly outstanding, its a must order if you go.

Fried Tofu with Dun Dun Sauce. This is an alternative to Dun Dun noodles, which has the same tangy, spicy sauce with pork meat. The skin of the tofu is nice and crispy, with a custardy smooth tofu inside. I highly reccomend it.

Kung Po Chi Ding — Kung Pao Chicken. White and Dark meat chicken, sauteed with sichuan peppercorn, hot chili peppers and peanuts in a brown sauce. One of the best renditions I have ever had.

Not shown which I took home was shrimp fried rice (the nice brown colored kind, with lots of peices of egg omelette in it, very good) and a very good scallion pancake (scallion pie).

This is a restaurant I will be sure to come back to in a couple of weeks.

[Nishla]

I've been going to Mary's since I was a kid...

Other than the Suan la Chow Show, I love the Szechuan beef noodle soup and the hot stuffed eggplant.

[9lives]

Anything "yu shiang" is great too.. shrimp, pork, eggplant. I may to run over there this later this week. Neptune tomorrow

[Timh]

I'm really excited by this review, I'll be there this weekend. Thanks

[Jason Perlow]

The Suan La Chow Show rules. I'd also stick with pretty much anything that is a Sichuan/Szechuan dish.

[9lives]

Made it over today..suan la show, chicken with dun dun noodles and yo siang pork. All great. A dish I didn't order but I remember as liking was "bon bon chicken"..a cold spicy dish.

Dessert was at Toscanini's Ice Cream..across the street and a few doors south..perfect way to end a Mary Chungs lunch. Their burnt caramel is a real highlight.

[SheenaGreena]

all of that food looks awesome...especially those dumplings. Its also conveniently located near the middle east

do you live in boston by any chance?

[bobmac]

Thanks. It took somebody from Jersey to point out a place I should have known about. If you like Alsatian food, next time you're in Cambridge check out Sandrine's Bistro.