Qingdao Garden Cambridge

Qingdao Garden in Cambridge is really in North Cambridge and serves some of the best Northern Chinese cuisines in the area. Parking is metered on Mass Ave so it's not cheap but for lunch you can usually find a spot. I wanted to check out Curry N Wok, but they were closed for renovations and I thought they just opened. Turns out they are virtually next door to Qingdao Garden.

They do offer lunch specials, but it's mostly Chinese-American dishes so I ordered from the Northern Style part of the menu. Twice Cooked Pork Peking style. Googling led me to believe that Peking style just means spicy. Despite an abundant amount of green peppers, it wasn't very spicy at all but at least it was made with pork belly. It had onions included and that was kind of a surprise for me but I don't mind. Was it better than the lunch version at Szechuan's Dumpling in Arlington despite almost twice the price? Not really.

It was being renovated back in 2011, but they forgot the ambience! The other dining room looks a bit better but this one is a bit bare and despite the flowers it's not very inviting. Service with a smile was also missing, I was never offered a water refill and my leftover rice and pork was packed up in one to go container and I think that show a lack of respect both for the food and the customer.