Zoe's Chinese Restaurant Review - Somerville, MA

Zoe's Chinese Restaurant is an authentic Sichuan restaurant in Somerville. In case you're wondering about the name, (gee, Zoe's doesn't sound Chinese?) it is actually named for the owner's daughter, Zoe. The restaurant is a little run down on the outside but the food is excellent.

The waiting area:


A local haunt for Chinese students in Cambridge (we were brought here by a friend from Sichuan), Zoe's is on par with the other Sichuan restaurants in the area like Sichuan Garden and Sichuan Gourmet.

My favorite dish at Zoe's is the tea smoked mushrooms with pork (cha shu gu?). I haven't seen the latter dish at any other Sichuan restaurant in town. The tea mushrooms are really long, a little crunchy, and stir fried with shredded pork. I love the texture hehe though I don't know if it's for everyone. I can't seem to find the name of the dish online but I think it's near the bottom of the page on the menu in the pork section.

Some other dishes we usually get are the double cooked pork, hot and sour sliced potatoes with chili peppers, fish fillet in chili sauce (water cooked?), and the tea smoked duck.

Here's what we had when we were there recently. There's the tea smoked mushrooms on the right, the beefy looking dish is tripes, and the last dish is the braised fish Sichuan Style.


Chomp Meter:
Oh Yum! Bring on the spicy stuff. Where Zoe shines is of course the more authentic dishes. Try what I've recommended above, or ask the servers for recommendations. Be adventurous!

Zoe's Gourmet Chinese Restaurant
289 Beacon St
Somerville, MA 02143
(617) 864-6265