Five Spices House — Restaurant in Boston

i ate lunch here. they gave me table on the first floor. after sitting down for what felt like only 5mins, the waitress asked if we were ready to order. i said not yet and asked for cold water. it was a hot day out. there was no ice in any of the cups which isn't a big deal but it'd be nice if there was. 5mins later, she came back to ask again and made a face when i said no again... like okay... but when we were finally ready to order, she seemed quite nice and spoke nicely to use. i guess she was bored and wanted some work to do. the food came all at once. nobody asked if the food was okay or to refill water but that's okay because i rather nobody bother us. when we were done eating, our waitress was missing. had to ask another waitress to get our check. she was friendly. we paid in mostly cash but the rest on one credit card. the charge on my card was less than $8 which, surprisingly, they didn't say no to it. thought maybe they would say no because of the credit card fee. that was nice of them to do so since we didn't have enough cash.

service wise is just okay, not bad/not good. food wise is also just okay. we ordered four dishes and non of it wow-ed us:

came here to try the roast beef scallion pancake. it was so bad. it just wasn't good at all. quite disappointing. the roast beef was so little and had no flavor. the scallion pancake was also flavorless. the sweet brown sauce that they drizzled on top was the only thing that had flavor.

the one thing that i did like was the beef/veggie sacha noodles. lamb cumin was also okay but a bit too oily for me. the string bean veggies dish that we ordered was kind of sweet. i guess the chef added a lot of sugar. it was a huge dish of string beans. talking about quantity, i hope the noodle dish had more noodles. it came with a good amount of veggie and beef but not a...

Having read other reviews for this restaurant, we were unsure whether or not to visit. The online reputation of the service seemed poor but we decided to go forward with our visit to try szechuan style food. The service was not nearly as bad as we expected, in fact the service was fairly good. The servers were not extremely attentive, but not because they were not trying. The restaurant was extremely busy and many people were trying to get their attention at any one time. We had hoped to try a few dishes, sampling their lunch specials, but they were not available. I'm unsure why, we were there well within the times they are listed as available but when we tried to order we were informed they were not serving them that day, a Monday at 2 pm. I assume it was due to the holiday, but there was no notice or statement anywhere confirming this suspicion. We decided to order 2 dinner dishes instead, as well as rice and tea. The tea was great for a cold day, served in a full teapot that stayed warm during our entire meal. The food was a mix of great and average, both being very oiled, although that was to be expected since we ordered a dish of pork belly and fried beef. The pork was incredibly salty, something I rarely experience as I enjoy heavily salted food. The beef was nice and spicy, something we sought out, and was balanced by the fat of the pork. Unfortunately we found the salt to overwhelm most everything else. Overall we enjoyed the experience fine. It was not a bad place to eat, the price for a dinner portion was average for what I would expect, and the service was fine. We would likely not come back here to eat again ourselves, but would not discourage others from visiting either. Personally, I do believe the area has enough restaurants that serve better food to make a second visit...

This is one of the first restaurants I went to when I first arrived in Boston, and I've been going with my girlfriend almost every week since then. The food is amazing, and probably the closest I've ever tasted to authentic Chinese food. I always get the signature fried rice, pork with bamboo tips, and thinly sliced beef with hot and sour soup. My girlfriend appreciates this place as they have many vegan options in stir-fried vegetable dishes. She always gets the tofu with garlic sauce as well as golden fried buns. They have a good selection of Chinese and Japanese beer as well.

The restaurant is decently sized with two floors, featuring a few big roundtables too for larger groups. We usually get in immediately with no reservations with no problem on the weekends unless there is an event going on. The waitresses are very nice and efficient, and the speed at which the food is served is astonishing. We always get all of our food no more than five minutes after we order, but they are all cooked fresh.

The price can be a bit on the pricier end even by Boston standards, with entrees being at about $19 each. I've also seen complaints about people saying they were forced to tip at this restaurant, which we have never experienced. We usually just tip the ladies what they deserve as we've only had good dining experiences here.

When we're lazy, we get food delivered from this place a lot, too. The quality does not drop and it is perfect for staying inside on a chilly night in Boston. Do note that the delivery can come from the Five Spices House in Cambridge depending on your location, and these two locations seem to cook some dishes...