Hand-pulled Noodles at Chili Square

Located in Quincy, a southern surburb of Boston, this bustling area offers a variety of Asian cuisines.  You can find this place across the street from Yummy cafe and Hakata ramen. Its location is more ideal than the Boston chinatown area where there is less traffic congestion and street parking is easily available.

Chili Square is one of the few restaurants in the Boston Area that offers hand-pulled noodles, others including Gene’s Chinese Flatbread Cafe in Chinatown and MDM noodles in Brighton area. Most of their menu is spicy stir-fried noodles or soup noodles, with some dishes having hand-pulled Biang Biang noodles.

“Biang Biang” noodles refers to thick, chewy, and most importantly hand-made noodles. Its name “Biang” mimics the sound of dough being made as it is being pulled and slapped against the working tabletop.

Chili square is an fast and causal Chinese noodle shop with tables that can sit between 12-15 people max. As you walk in, the left wall displays photos of many of the food items so you can have a visual depiction when trying to choose from the menu. It is an CASH only place, so be sure to have cash handy.

Spicy oil Biang Biang Noodle

Plain and simple dish, but nonetheless very yummy and filling.  Huge in portion, this dish was nicely spiced, tender, and chewy at the same time. You can definitely tell it was freshly made. My only complaint is the noodles easily clump together at the bottom of the dish making it difficulty to separate.

Cumin Lamb Biang Biang Noodle

With the same Biang Biang Noodles that are somehow both tender and chewy. This dish could use more protein-there was very little lamb in the biang biang noodles and it did not have a strong cumin taste. Was also not as spicy as expected.

Sichuan Fish Fillet with Hot Chili Sauce

It differs from the popular fish fillet and napa cabbage with spicy chili sauce dish offered at the Schezuan Gourmet Chains. Nothing remarkably special, moderately spicy tasting but no numbing taste due to lack of peppercorn that is usually present in this dish. The fish fillet itself was soft and tender, be sure not to forget the abundance of vegetables floating at the bottom of the bowl.

Overall food was average, nothing to rave about. Noodles fresh, but could be more flavorful. Noodle portion sizes are actually bigger than it appears, two people can easily share one bowl. This is a good place if you are looking for a quick eat and affordable pricing. Service is decent enough, like other Chinese restaurants you just have to wave the staff down when you need something.

Customers were all Mandarin or Cantonese speaking, and seems like the waitress can speak both languages and English well. This place stems away from the traditional Schezuan style cuisine, without the peppercorn or cumin effect. I suspect it may have an cantonese twist to their dishes due to the cantonese speaking language and them offering H.K. wonton noodle soup as an choice. Willing to come back to try their noodle soup options.

Check out Chili Square’s full menu here https://thechilisquare.com/