Red House Restaurant

Our food took more than an hour to arrive. Given that we had an easy order and it was off peak time, this was completely unacceptable. We do not recommend this establishment.

food was good and fast delivery, BUT… they didn’t include hot mustard with the order!!! how can you have chinese without hot mustard!!! very disappointed!

I really enjoyed their crab ragoons. They were very helpful. I went on a roadtrip with my wushu team and we loved their food. We were very satisfied.

Similar to other reviews on here, I’m not going to say this is the best Chinese restaurant in MA, but when my buddies and I are looking for some quick take-​out, Red House is hands down our go-​to option. They recently revamped their menu options and portions are huge. Moving to Boston from San Francisco’s Chinatown, I can say Red House’s style is comparable in terms of authentic, no-​ruffles Chinese cooking.

I ordered crab Rangoon, chicken wing and lo mein. The food taste is beyond my expectation. The delivery guy was very friendly. I will definitely try the other foods next time.

Delivery was fast they called when they were outside, it only took about 25 min to arrive from when I called which was great … BUT the food. I ordered 5 sticks of Beef teriyaki I’m telling you the meat is so hard to pull apart .I can barely even eat it yet alone eat bites of it because it’s so hard to pull apart and the crab Rangoon taste like it’s burnt. The only positive thing I can say is the fact that I called at 12:25 am and they got here at 12:52 which is great… Besides that the food was terrible complete waste of money but the delivery guy was nice so I tipped

I have been going to red house Chinese for the past 2 years or so after stumbling across it in Union Square. It is a great place to get in, get your food and get out and the service here is quick and friendly. I wouldn’t say it’s the absolute best Chinese food I have had in my life but the portions are excellent and they have above average Crab Rangoon in my opinion.
The Orange Chicken is different from what you usually see in restaurants. It consists of very big pieces of mostly dark meat in a tangy orange sauce. While I have read mixed reviews of this dish it is one that I like. I get it as part of the #25 combo and recommend getting it with a small side.
They are open until 3AM and are a very convenient and cheap option for dinner in Union Square late nights. The #25 Combo is about $ 8 and could probably feed a fat horse.
Keep in mind this is a take out/​hole in wall Chinese place and not a sit down establishment.
Claim to fame:
In Best of Boston 1998 When asked what his favorite place for Chinese food in Boston was Ben Affleck named Red House as his favorite. The article is hanging up on the outside window.

Terrible food! Worst «fried rice» I have ever had, it was literally just white burned rice with a few pieces of chicken and steak with no flavor at all. Avoid this place even if it’s the only place that is open because is late!

This is beyond mediocre Chinese food but what really sets this place apart is the quality of service. If you ever had the urge to wait 3 hours for lo main to be delivered only to have them call you three times to confirm your address, still show up at the wrong place still, and be unbelievably rude the entire time then this is your place. Watch the hours roll by as you get listlessly less hungry and more sleepy. Red house, ¹⁰⁄₁₀.

I feel the need to defend this place… Which is strange because it is not my favorite place to go for Chinese… I AM more of a House of Chang or Changsho… Or a late drunk night at Hong Kong or P.F. Changs at it’s best…
But let me tell you about Red House…
My family and I have been coming here, literally since they opened… We have seen all of their transitions from good to bad…
It was an every Friday night affair as we watched Dallas (the Original).
Awesome points:
Open kitchen: As a young girl I was mesmerized at how fast they would chop the pork strips and spareribs and bag everything up… If you have time go and watch, it’s so fun! Even now as an adult, I get nostalgic!
The food is ALWAYS fresh!!!
If you are looking for gourmet dishes with layers of bursting flavor, don’t come here…
If you are looking for something decent to quench your Chinese food craving… You are safe here!
I AM a crab Rangoon fanatic and have a love hate relationship with theirs… The inside is fresh and creamy though it’s lacking real crab meat or stellar additions like little scallions for texture and flavor… But it is passable and even addictive especially when drunk or really, really hungry…
But here is where I lose respect for the crab rangoon: The crust! The texture surrounding the filling is fine… But it’s the part where it is nothing but dough… It’s way to crispy and not the kind of crispy that melts in your mouth and makes you say «ahhh», it’s the kind of crispy that has you chewing for awhile, leaving you curious why they chose to use that particular wonton… And if they would change it if you mentioned it to them… Hmm… So eat it while it’s hot and fresh!!! The filling is good cold the next day…
Ok… I think that is my biggest pet peeve about this place…
Boneless spareribs are on point… Just enough bbq char and fatty grissel to be good with just enough of the pink stuff to add a slight aso flavor and color.
Fried rice is decent… I like the shrimp fried rice because it has bean sprouts, onions and a slightly darker sauce — shrimps are cooked fresh and not dried out.
Chicken wings are not the best, but if you get them cooked extra crispy they taste better.
Egg roll is plump, with lots of delicious egg roll filling… It’s perfect for dipping in duck sauce!
Egg foo young is really fresh and when hot it’s great even without the gravy!
Fried shrimp is fresh and butterflied I think… It’s good even if you don’t like a lot of dough, you can take that part off but it is tasty…
Lo mein, beef and broccoli, chow mein, chop suey, scallion pancakes are all yes’s… Anything else, I cannot approve… Only because I haven’t tried it and not sure I would.
Stuff like general gao’s or orange chicken? Well, I would save that for a gourmet place!
Now what gives them the 4 stars???
Customer Service!!!
They know my mother’s order and her name! They always provide fast delivery, never more than an hour on a busy night…
And they always give us something for free, a crab Rangoon, a fried shrimp, a fried rice, etc.
Talk bad all you want, but if you are loyal to them… They honor you and it is for THAT reason alone that I bothered to write this review.
It is not too often that companies go out of their way for you anymore and when they do, they should be recognized and defended against the crowd of negativity.
Red House is definitely NOT the BEST chinese food out there.
It’s not my first Choice or even my second… (sorry guys, I still love you!!!)
But they do have good, ALWAYS FRESH food and GOOD people! If they seem blah, it’s probably because they don’t know if you are another d*ckwad that will give them the 2 star attitude… So they may have thick skin…
But if on the rare occasion something misfires… They will make it right!!!
But be nice!!! Just because I said so! The karma will do you good here.

They could not even find my house, close by, to deliver. When I called they were not nice. I will not use them again. Their attitude with me as a woman was not proper. We only received our food after over one hour, with Red House blaming me. I will work with Union Sq officials to get them to code.

I don’t feel great about leaving such a negative review but this was hands down the worst takeout I have ever had. I ordered crispy orange chicken, extra spicy. What I got $ 15 and one hour later was strangely bitter, and not crispy OR spicy. The breading on the chicken wasn’t fully cooked… parts of it were doughy and other parts were hard. I had to throw the whole order away after a few bites. Never ordering from here again.

There may be a Red House over yonder, but unless you «HAVE» to have Chinese take-​out it would be best to not go there. If you do «HAVE» to have Chinese take-​out, splurge on a cab into Boston’s Chinatown. Or, if it’s early enough at night or it’s a weekend take the T to Chinatown. In short — just don’t go there. Boil a package of ramen noodles, and pretend you’re adding sesame chicken or moo shu pork or whatever, if it comes down to that.
In a star-​shell, or nutshell, here’s how my experience (and food) went down — or didn’t — today:
Crab Rangoon = 3 stars on the cusp of 4; obviously not house-​made but fresh and perfectly prepared
Pork Fried Rice = Here again, well prepared but nothing to exactly jump n’ shout about. 3 stars.
Orange Chicken = EPIC FAIL. ZEE-​ROW. A February ’15 review pretty much nailed how nasty the sh-​t tasted. I choked down one «cube,» then stopped myself after the first bite of the second. Were ptomaine and/​or The Runs successfully averted? Time will tell (update will be spared.)
Restaurant itself: Faded but clean enough. Paper menu amusingly stated that the business is now in its «38^nd» year.
Service: EPIC FAIL. Complete incomprehension of English beyond the menu number of the food order. Blank look when I brought back the disgusting Orange Chicken and didn’t demand a refund (awesome weather outside had made me too mellow to get douchey.)
Ramen doesn’t sound so bad now, does it?

I don’t get the hate. As someone said, this is pretty standard chinese takeout, but it avoids a lot of the negatives that tend to plague mediocre chinese food (TOO MUCH SALT, for example). You can get a straightforward, no-​surprises combination plate, but there separate dishes such as Roast Pork with Vegetables or Cashew Chicken are a step above. I give them extra points for being helpful when I place a Foodler order and forget to add rice.

I’ve been pretty disappointed the past few times I’ve ordered from here, and tonight was the worst. My rice tasted like cigarette smoke, the lo mein was flavorless, the crab Rangoon was missing crab, and the Orange chicken has a strange, almost household-​cleaner like taste to it. My search for a decent Chinese restaurant in Somerville continues…

I’m also puzzled by all these vicious 1-​star reviews… this being Unilocal,can’t help wondering if there’s some sort of deliberate smear campaign going on, whether paid shills or just some vindictive clique?
This place is by no means super-​duper gourmet Chinese food and for that reason I have never strayed from the simple basic entrees, like their pork ribs (both the boneless and the normal kind) and their combo plates (I recommend #21, the beef broccoli and barbecued pork with fried rice). It should be noted that while their prices aren’t great on paper, their portions are huge so most entrees can easily feed 2 – 3 people (assuming you aren’t in the habit of eating like an effin’ PIG).
Also, I have never used their delivery service but always walked in and ordered for takeaway. Partially because I’m too cheap to tip a delivery person, plus I generally feel better seeing them make the food and having them see me rather than just being a disembodied voice on the phone, esp. given their limited English. I also think that if you are friendly and polite in person, and go out of your way to smile or wave at the cooking staff in the back (open-​view kitchen), they are more likely to take at least a little bit more care making your food than not.
Sure, the guy at the counter is a little brusque but I suspect his lack of English fluency has a lot to do with it, plus I have seen lots of shady-​looking characters come in being rude, drunk, and stupid (or some combination thereof) so it wouldn’t surprise me if he just has had to develop a hard front to deal with them.
Bottom line is that it’s frickin’ hard to find any hot food available in the neighborhood this late at night, other than this place and the lousy Dunkin Donuts down the street, unless you want to just grab something at a convenience store. All in all, the food isn’t OUT OF THIS WORLD, but neither are they anywhere as horrible as some of these reviews claim.

I had the absolute worst General Gau’s chicken I’ve had in my life last night. Yeah it was 1am and I was drunk and desperate but the sorry-​looking soggy pile of ‘chicken’ was sobering.
I don’t care how desperate you are, don’t order from this place — you’ll hate yourself more for stooping to red house level.

I am not judgmental when it comes to takeout Chinese. We ordered from Red House tonight and the only thing I can say is that it is the absolute worst food I’ve ever had. I wouldn’t feed it to animals. I wouldn’t feed it to my worst enemy. Im surprised I didn’t get sick. This place is terrible and I wound up throwing the food in the trash. They should be shut down, in my opinion.

This was easily the worst, most tasteless Chinese food I have ever, EVER had.
The chicken wings were clearly reheated, the crab wontons tasted old, the fried rice had no flavor whatsoever and the pepper chicken was mostly huge chunks of green pepper with some goop on top.

In general, I try to consult Unilocal before making most decisions in life. Quite unfortunately, I failed to do so the night I ordered food from this dump, and I shall be singing cautionary folk songs about the impressive ensuing assplosions forevermore. It was basically a giant grease-​bomb, and not in a good way (and, yeah, there CAN be «a good way»… like John Travolta in… well, most of his roles).
This ain’t reserved for one or two items; we ordered a vast, eclectic spread, and every single fearful bite was followed by, «Oh my dear god! Is this the worst food ever MADE, like EVER?!» My ass answered that question about 20 minutes later, and continued answering for a good 24 hours after that.
So! If, unlike me, you’re smart enough to consult Unilocal BEFORE ordering, SAVE YOURSELF!!! YOU (and your bung) CAN STILL SAY «NO!!!»