Five Spices House - Boston

Omg the crispy chicken appetizer - amazing!! Sooo good! Basically it's popcorn chicken but the pieces are small pieces and strips. So good especially when they were hot and fresh crispy on the outside and tender on the inside- perfect flavor too - savory not too spicy just delicious!

We were looking to order Chinese street food and our usual go to restaurant was no longer on GH so decided to look for alternative restaurants and came upon 5 Spices house and gave it a try. We were not disappointed at all! We ordered our usual go-tos - scallion pancakes, hot n sour soup, steamed pork dumplings. And for entrees - dry spicy chicken, kung pao chicken (a bit too sweet), beef n broccoli (good) and mapo tofu (tasty).

Needless to say we had plenty of good food and also plenty of leftovers!

Food came pretty quickly and all the food was hot and fresh. Portions were quite good.

One thing I should point out though that none of the entrees come with rice! We usually expect that but only realized it when the food arrived. So we ended up having to cook some rice lol! Oh well lesson learned for next time, but I do think they should clearly mention it on the online ordering that you would have to order it separately.

Anyway overall good food and looking at the menu will surely try them again for some of the other dishes.

I came here on a pretty busy Friday night with two friends and despite the crowd, we were able to get seated on a calmer 2nd floor, which made the experience a bit more comfortable.

Starting with a disappointment, the tea left a lot to be desired. We were served a teapot with a single tea bag, which hardly sufficed in both quantity and quality. Not only was it not loose leaf tea that you'd probably expect from a Chinese restaurant, but the flavor was non-existent because again, it's a single tea bag. If I remember correctly, they charged $1 per cup for this fascinating set up.

However, the food thankfully took a turn for the better. The Szechuan beef was the star of our meal - truly remarkable and left us wishing we had ordered more. Truly redeemed a lot of the dining experience. The eggplant, szechuan fish, and orange chicken were all very solid picks, but did not shine nearly as hard as the beef.

The restaurant was honestly a bit of a rollercoaster of experiences. Given that you're in Chinatown, I think you could find more consistent and reliable options in the area.

Five spice house is one of the worst restaurants in Chinatown. Their food is proportioned correctly, however it is cold and not seasoned properly.

Furthermore, their restaurant is dirty. The waiters cough and don't cover their mouths as they serve food.

The food is very overpriced and they will hover over you as you write the tip and will extort you into writing a tip they approve of. They will not let you leave until you give them the tip they desire.

Do yourself a favor and don't eat here. You will be saving yourself from a horrible shit the next morning.

Food is good but the server looked at our tip (written in the custom section) and told me the minimum tip is 18% and wouldn't leave our table until we changed it to 18%. Would not dine in again

A real disappointment, especially considering its prime location in Chinatown.

The Sichuan won tons were watered down, literally. The flavor was barely detectable. We tried the crispy beef, this was pretty decent although very salty and obviously loaded with MSG.

The dining room has no ambiance, service was abrupt, and the menus were dirty.

Please consider going somewhere else

Overall rating: 3.75 stars ALMOST a 4

Food: Szechwan spiced foods including dumplings, veggies, tofu, and variosu fish and meats

As well as non spicy buns, dumplings, etc

Texture: the beef we got was crunchy with the tongue numbing spice of Sichuan pepper corn and spice!

Pricing: the beef was $20 and the golden buns were $8 a steal!

Ambiance: not much seating and not very romantic being able to see the live lobster and seafood, there is not much decor BUT that's how you know a place is authentic and good (when the decor is minimal but the food is bomb)

Seating & Parking: no parking due to it being in chinatown, seats about 5-6 small groups of 2-4 with one round table seating up to 8

Service: the service was nothing stellar but they were still polite and refilled our water

Music: Chinese music

Bathrooms: male and female

Final comments: a hidden gem for Szechwan food

Spicy and delicious. Got the steamed pork with garlic appetizer - thin strips of pork belly wrapped around sliced garlic chives and cucumber strips in a sweet and spicy sauce. Then the spicy dry pot chicken and the hot and spicy fish fillet. The dry pot chicken was a huge order (we got another whole meal out of it at home with rice) with lots of salty spiciness and tingling Sichuan pepper corns. The fish fillet had a great crunch and nice spicy chili oil. I would gladly order all three dishes again. We probably could have done just the dry pot chicken and rice and been totally full.

I requested some spicy mustard and was told over and over that they don't serve spicy mustard. Not sure why because I've ordered from here 10 plus times before and they've always had it.

Weird behavior I guess?

Five Spices House is my go-to on Uber Eats, and let me tell you, it's a flavor fiesta!

I'm hooked on their dry pot--it's next level delicious. The menu is a treasure trove of authentic options, and each dish is bursting with flavor. Seriously, so good!

Gotta be real, it's a tad on the oily side, but honestly, I can overlook that because the taste is worth it. Price is a bit up there, but hey, you get what you pay for in flavor town.

I find myself constantly craving their dry pot. It's that good. Five stars for sure!

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My Star Rating Scale:
5 Stars: Blew my mind, had a wow factor, will come back
4 Stars: I liked it but didn't love it, no wow factor, will still come back
3 Stars: It was okay, I didn't hate it but didn't like it either; would not voluntarily come back
2 Stars: I did not like it, I would not come back
1 Star: Absolutely hated it, I would not come back here

We popped in on a snowy day while our flight was delayed. Restaurant was extremely clean and staff greeted us immediately. The food was hot and fresh and absolutely jam packed with flavor. The Dan Dan noodles were second to none delicious! Highly recommend!