So it’s a thing. We’ve been through the fine Italian rage (Giulia, Gufo, Bar Enza among the good and the many), but now with Darling newly open in Central Square and Too Hot in Harvard Square alongside Wusong Road, it seems fine Chinese has made its case. And a tasty one to dig into, too. In a subterranean nook in the same building as the Ihop on Eliot Street, Too Hot has an elegant village vibe to it with thickly hewn tabletops, shoji walls (paper partitions) and split wood benches. Simple yet transportive.
The menu at Too Hot lives up to its name – three chilis come stamped on most of the house specials – and there’s exotic victuals you won’t find every day, if ever, elsewhere in the Boston area, including bullfrog, beltfish and snakehead fish. The listing of Sichuan-inspired dishes are vast, but not as spread out as you’d think. There are chicken, pork, beef, vegetarian and seafood sublistings, but for each there’s the same with kung pao (peanuts and chili) or lemongrass stir-fried preparations.
Dish size varies. My crispy duck appetizer was as big as my entree of teppan jumbo shrimp with black pepper. It surprised me some, but both were fantastic. The duck, with the fat reduced perfectly by the smoking process, was rich and lean; the shrimp, plump and succulent with a nice cracked-pepper accent.
The menu has both appetizer and tapas listings, which also is a tad confusing. The playfully titled “appetite awakener” slate includes that duck and some spicy cold tofu bites – delectable marinated pasties of soy, pressed and dressed with a pucker punch of chilis. Oddly, dumplings are on the tapas listing. Wherever they land, they come light and crispy fried like a wonton (pork, chicken, veggie or kung pao chicken variations) versus the classic pan-fried approach that made Mary Chung’s so popular back in the day.
Things untried that titillate the palate for the future: shrimp with salted egg yolk; organic mushroom egg shrimp balls with black truffle; and duck with ginger au jus. For the adventurous, there’s spicy chicken giblets with fermented relish, pan-fried pork kidneys and braised beltfish (which would give a monkfish a run in a beauty contest) with garlic chili sauce. I was told a Sichuan omakase tasting was on the horizon, so ask about that.
Too Hot, the second Sichuan outpost from the team behind Noah’s Kitchen in Brookline Village, serves beer, wine and sake. The sake comes cold, and the ones I sampled were some of the smoothest I’ve had, leaving no aftertaste and serving as a good digestive to the dining experience.
My only problem was trying to shoehorn leftovers from Too Hot’s generous portions into my courier bag. Ask about portion size when ordering: That duck was a meal in its own right. At another pop-in, when I went to order the wonton chicken broth soup, I was told it was enough for two … or a starter soup for four. Then there was the shrimp balls and crispy rice I saw a neighboring table order. As served, a large, wide bowl full of crispy rice cakes, shrimp balls, shrimp and veggies got a pour-over of a hot broth that two hungry diners plowed into.
Too Hot is a fairly small place – 30ish seats – so if you’re going at peak times, reservations could be wise, especially considering the nature of the food: It’s a place to come with a crowd and queue up shareables from all ends of the menu.
Too Hot, 18 Eliot St., Harvard Square, Cambridge
Cambridge writer Tom Meek’s reviews, essays, short stories and articles have appeared in WBUR’s The ARTery, The Boston Phoenix, The Boston Globe, The Rumpus, The Charleston City Paper and SLAB literary journal. Tom is also a member of the Boston Society of Film Critics and rides his bike everywhere.
A stronger
Please consider making a financial contribution to maintain, expand and improve Cambridge Day.
We are now a 501(c)3 nonprofit and all donations are tax deductible.
Please consider a recurring contribution.
