Sumiao Hunan Kitchen

Lunch specials are great.Portions are not to big but this way you can try several dishes and share them as well. Good selection of drinks. Service with a smile.

Delicious vegan Hunan cuisine dishes, honestly really impressed by the uniqueness of the dishes that you can't get anywhere else in the area. The Wood-Ear Mushrooms had an extremely unique texture of chewiness, and the Impossible Beef & Pickled Bean over noodles hit the spot absolutely perfect but wasn't too heavy, with very bright savory flavors. Definitely pretty pricey but good every now and then

I've never actually eaten at the restaurant, but we get takeout from this place regularly, and the food is amazing. Flavorful and spicy, we have yet to find a bad dish. Price reflects the higher quality, and it's well worth it for Chinese food that has depth and breadth you won't find elsewhere in Cambridge.

This is the first time that we had a meal in this restaurant. However, we Do NOT feel welcome when we got there. We do not have reservation at lunchtime. Then the hostess asked us for providing personal contact so that she can assign the table for us in the system. It is a kind of weird. Because some restaurants ask for it for their marketing purpose. After inputting the contact information, she said there was no table available for 2. And she suggested us to seat in the Bar. Definitely, it won't work for us eating at the Bar with others. Actually, we found that there were 3 long tables near the window available. I told her we prefer to seat there. She refused, saying the long table is for 7 people, though there were no reservation for the long table at lunchtime. She then recommended us to seat at a high chair table next to the Bar. It won't fit us either. Finally, she was reluctant to assign one of the long table to us. Except that, I would say it is a very clean, high-end authentic Chinese restaurant. The food is excellent, staff is very attentive and professional.

This place has the slow lunch service for the Kendall/MIT area. Would only recommend for a sit down meal or take out.

[Update] I haven't been back for lunch, but have ordered take out a couple of times. The expanded menu options are great, and they have completely contactless pickup.