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Central (Red)
Mon-Thu. 11:30 a.m. - 10:00 p.m.
Fri-Sat. 11:30 a.m. - 11:00 p.m.
Sun. 11:30 a.m. - 10:00 p.m.
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I'm on a Chinese food kick this week and procrastinating at work today...
PuPu Hot Pot is my go to place for good bad Chinese food. They're cheap. Not the best but edible. I'm a fan of the beef teriyaki, I get this often and bring my own rice from home. Crab Rangoons are all cream cheese, no crab or rangoon, I think its a personal preference on how cheesy you like them. Most dishes are decent. The General Gao I do not recommend tho, its usually dry tuff and over cooked. They do veggies well sometimes sometimes not, the fried stuff is hard to mess up, i've never got the dirty grease taste from them , most of the appetizers have been tasty, the soup is too salty at times but okay. I don't eat in because its small and unaccomodating, Their service is quick efficient no friills no thrills. I see a lot of regulars in spite of the bad, granted they're all Caucasian but they have regulars.
And what's with that door! DUDE! talk about pressure differentials, to open the door you need the strength of the incredible Hulk! The vacuum created by the double doors is insane!
Scale of 1-10 (single visit):
6 Food
8 Service
4 Atmosphere
7 Value
This place wasn't half bad. Around 9pm last night my friend and I found ourselves in Central Square craving some noodle soup. The only Asian place we could find was Pu Pu Hot Pot, so we did it.
It's a very basics place. No frills, not fancy. They give you forks, and we had to ask for chop sticks, which I find a little insulting. I can't eat in a chinese restaurant using a fork. It just totally ruins the experience. Though, once we asked for chop sticks they were brought over quickly.
The soup thing didn't work out. I'm a veg, and they only had chicken broth, and my friend just wasn't feeling their selection. So, we opted for the dishes. It's a large menu and we had a hard time making a decision. We decided to share the steam vegetable buns and my friend got the veggie moo-shu and I had the sliced tofu with peanuts.
So the veggie buns were quite good, but they didn't serve them with a sauce. We covered them in soy sauce. They were yummy though.
My friend enjoyed her moo shu, though it was super greasy and after a few pancakes, it was just too sweet to have anymore.
My sliced tofu with peanuts was more deep fried tofu with a brown sauce and veggies, peanuts tossed on top. I'm not going to lie. It was pretty good. I usually hate fried tofu, but this tofu was fried perfectly, crunchy and crispy. I threw out the leftovers when I got home due to a serious guilt trip my thighs were giving me, because if I had saved it I probably would have eaten it for breakfast today. My only issue with the dish was I asked for it pretty spicy and it was fairly mild. This happens to me often in ethnic restaurants, as though I can't truly handle the heat. When I say very spicy, I want it spicy!
All in all I'd go here again if I was in Central craving chinese.
Regardless of the potential redundance of this statement and the horrible cliche I'm about to fall into: It's called 'pu pu' for a reason.
And for the sake of those who live with you, sleep with you, or are in the remote vicinity of you...don't order this after a night of drinking. You will only compound your problems.
Judge me all you want, but I'm giving this place 4 stars. The food was decent. We ordered the spicy tofu with broccoli, seafood chow fun, and spicy double cooked pork. The seafood chow fun was lacking in the seafood aspect. Portion sizes were a bit small, but other than that they tasted fine.
I would rate the food and service alone 3 1/2 stars. I bump it up to 4 due to the amusing fortune cookie fortunes. Mine said "Go above and beyond you duty. You will benefit from it." My friend's said "If you light your Soul-fire, you will stay safe and sound." Come here if you want greasy Chinese food and some sound advice.
Great fast delivery, and great prices.
The food, however, was not so great. Not terrible, mind you, but not very flavorful or carefully-prepared. I ordered the Peking Ravioli, General Gau's Chicken, and Vegetable Delight, and my girlfriend described it all perfectly as "how Chinese food would taste if we tried to make it ourselves without a good recipe." Much of it was bland and either over- or under-cooked, and nothing was particularly good.
Order from Pu Pu Hot Pot if you're on a seriously tight budget and just want something fast, but otherwise take a look at some other menu.
Look, I know making fun of the fact that the name of this restaurant contains the words "pu pu" isn't very clever and kind of played, but honestly, if you're going to put that much grease in your food, you deserve an infinite number of puns to be made at your expense.
Their lunch specials are quite cheap--only $5 for a main dish, rice, and a soup. But you know what isn't cheap? Health care. I ordered steamed tofu and broccoli in garlic sauce, and, as per the usual, asked for it to be made blisteringly spicy. It was sort of hot...but it was also a neon orange oil overload. I think I literally grimaced when it was placed in front of me. The taste was okay, I guess, but I was a little too horrified to think about anything but the quantity of straight up fat I was ingesting.
The only reason I went to Pu Pu Hot Pot was because the seriously superior Mary Chung's, which is pretty much right across the street, is closed on Tuesdays. I'm pretty much slipping into the worst sort of food coma as I write this.
The staff was really nice. Oh well. Never going back.
Gotten delivery a few times and it's not bad but not necessarily good either. Lomein uses these weird thick noodles, like udo, which I hate, so FAIL.
Chicken dishes are passable, beef egg rolls are like a grease hand grenade.
Decent scallion pancakes, fried dumplings, and crab rangoon, though.
Basically go here for the AmeriChinese cuisine and quick delivery and expect exactly what you think you will get.
I was drunk. I was tired. Then I felt like garbage. This is simply the worst Chinese food I have ever tasted. Awful. Threw it all out.
I debated on giving them two stars, because they were cheap, friendly and quick. But aside from the rather flavorless, really greasy food, the reason they don't get any more stars was the terrible, horrible no good very bad tummy ache and nausea I suffered through for hours after the fact. I don't mind americanized chinese food... but I don't like it being flavorless and especially hate being sick after I eat!
Wasn't much to write home about to begin with, and then sick afterwards? "Methinks not" sums it up.
My husband picked up some take-out from there. The crab rangoons were tasty. My shrimp dish was ok -- not as oily as I was afraid it would be, but nothing fantastic.
They did not give us any utensils, not even chopsticks.
Good Chinese food (outside of Chinatown) is hard to find in this city. This wasn't the worst Chinese food I've had, but it didn't really satisfy me.
There doesn't seem to be any good chinese near Cambrideport.
The food was mostly mediocre. Let me follow that by saying I like appetizers. It is pretty hard to ruin fried food, right? Not here.
The scallion pancake was inedible. Yep, I threw it out. It was cold, so greasy it was translucent, had absolutely no flavor, and was tiny (tiny didn't matter so much one I gave up on it). They also did not include the ginger soy dipping sauce.
The crab rangoons were okay. Not awful, but nothing of note.
i also ordered an egg roll, but they gave me an egg drop soup instead. I did not try it, since I do not like that kind of soup.
The fried rice was pretty good. It was dark/fried well? It reminded me of the hole in the wall in NH I went to growing up.
Delivery was fast. The guy was impatient, kept ringing the bell, even though it really only took me 30 seconds to get downstairs.
I love this place, it is fast, cheap and good. I have never had anything but there tofu options. My favorite would be there garlic and broccoli tofu, or the spicy ginger tofu.
I live right down the street, and I could call as I leave my front door walk my dog up there, and by the time I go inside my order is done.
I was wary at first because I heard horrible things, but this place honestly has the best tofu options (i have tried all of them) in central square.
Everyone said "ewww pu pu is gross" but my boyfriend ordered anyway and he loves it.
As I've said before he hates EVERYTHING but he likes what they do here.
It is simple not exactly the front runner of authenticity but the soups and rice dishes are actually really good.
I think people just don't want to eat at a place called "Pu Pu", the good thing is that you don't have to, b/c they deliver.
The food doesn't taste bad. It IS like drinking a cup of fryer oil, but the taste isn't terrible. Pleasant, greasy Chinese food. I wouldn't eat anything that could grow bacteria easily ... I don't know if Pu Pu is the place to go for anything fresh from the sea, that is ... but I mean, honestly, you're forking out $6 for dinner, do you expect culinary genius? Joke's on you, bub, if you thought you were getting the chef's tasting menu for that amount of lettuce ...
But really, their noodles are okay. You can't really screw up fried noodles. Well, you can, but PPHP manages not to.
I will put it this way, though. Roughly 12 hours after consuming some PPHP fried noodles, I weighed about 4 lbs less than before. This is a documented fact that has been discussed time and time again by my roommates and loved ones.
I would proceed with caution.
I've read several reviews questioning Pu Pu Hot Pot as fit for human consumption, but with my experience I'm attributing this to a poofs' exaggeration. Staff are courteous and delivery was expedient. The food, was VERY greasy. It was too greasy for my tastes, but it was delivered pipping hot, which is more than I can say for some of my other delivery experiences.
When I bit into my egg roll, a bit of grease dribbled down my face and I understood why everyone I knows said Pu Pu is the king of greasy Chinese. Being the unpretentious foody I am this didn't really phase me; however the blah taste of a too lightly salted orange dipping sauce was irksome. Same goes for the not so sweet and not so sour chicken. It all kind of reminded me of the Chinese food you would find in a Kansas City mall's food court.
PuPu rules. Stop Hatin'.
People! This is corner-variety, Chinese-American food. Get over it. It's good and it's cheap and they are friendly. This is not Shanghai, or Beijing........just the greasy, yummy food you know and love. As far as I'm concerned, it's the best of this variety around. If you want to get all high-brow yuppie and tell everyone about your time in Asia, this is not the place for you.
Best for carry out on Friday nights with movies!
Hey people what's with all the hate?
I think some of these are pretty obvious. If you like authentic chinese, then the fake stuff down the corner probably won't stimulate your inner gastronome.
The msg thing is a little silly to me. Yes, they put msg in your food. If you look on the label of any of your favorite commercial products and there is anything similar to glutamate, any soy or yeast extract, or any "natural flavoring", guess what? It's msg. Don't hate the player, hate the game.
The food is cheap. The man who works the counter who always seems to be there rain or shine, any day of the year, is a sweetheart. And while they're food is not a culinary masterpiece, their egg drop soup is pretty good, their vegetable spring rolls are to die for, and everything else on the menu is anywhere between pretty good and average.
I prefer pu pu hot pot to the mary chung's, or thailand cafe's in the area, primarily because of it's cosy atmosphere. There is nothing more delightful than having a steaming pile of meat and broccoli, sitting next to the window on a snowy afternoon, and sipping their house tea. This is a nice family owned restaurant.
i wanted to like them real bad...i mean i love saying i am going to the pu pu hot pot, but that's where this madness stops.
i got a lot of food here so i could try everything and it was all tasteless and greasy...what's worse is the after taste and the upset stomach afterward.
pu pu NOT pot.
Dry over-breaded chicken in the General's. Stale Beef in the Chow Mein. Fair Veggies. Just edible. Just Edible. It's not so cheap either, I just dropped 30$ and I'm not too happy, that 30$ could have been for a similar portion at Mu Lan, so I am not sure what is to be gained eating here over someplace like Mu Lan, which actually has really fresh and super yum yummy Chinese (OK, Taiwanese) food.
None the less. Every hood needs a Pu Pu Hot Pot. Enjoy it Pot Dwellers, it's all yours!
Their crab rangoons and dum dum noodles are good, which is why I keep going. But that's where it ends. If you order anything else on the menu, the food is greasy and they overload on celery. The pork fried rice that comes with the lunch specials is dry and tastes like it was cooked two days ago. This place is great for the MIT students looking for cheap Chinese food after the food trucks leave for the day, but I wouldn't be going out of my way to come here.
"Pu Pu is the sh!t." That's what my friend said before we entered the restaurant. I think it ought to be changed to "Pu Pu's food is ...." Well, Ino need to complete the phrase as I think the one star speaks for itself.
When we arrived at Pu Pu, we were greeted by the owner (perhaps?) YELLING on the phone at a customer. From what I could gather, it was about a take-out order gone wrong. He called the customer "stupid" probably without realizing that he hadn't hung up the phone. Soon after, I hear "Ok, that wasn't a nice thing to say." What the heck? O_o??? I think that may be the first cue to leave... But alas, I was hungry and wanted to try the food.
The cuisine at Pu Pu is most definitely Americanized (hence, my review may be very biased as I like the more authentic Chinese food). I ordered seafood pan fried noodles. They're nothing like the one's I've seen in other Chinese restaurants. Instead of using egg noodles, they used the same noodles for lo mein. Pan fry = charred to non-perfection. The topping was okay with not so much seafood. Eh, for $7.45, what can you expect?
If you are in the Cambridge area near Central, I'd recommend going to Mary Chung's. If you're closer to the Kendall area, I'd recommend Mulan Taiwanese.
First and foremost, it is *not* a hot-pot restaurant. I tried it, looking for Chinese hot pot, but such places are quite rare. Other than that, right on with some other reviews: not authentic, but cheap and tasty.
It's the best that I've come across in the Cambridge area, and they have really good veggie dishes and options. Good traditional stir fried veggies, like bok choi and spinach. They are quick and we've found freebies in the bag, like extra spring rolls. Very nice. They have good veggie dumplings and I am partial to their scallion pancakes. yum.
I also dig that they call you when they are downstairs, versus hitting every buzzer.
Stop hatin' on the Pu Pu, people.
Their lunch specials are practically free! A big mac or a big serving of spicy beef with rice? No brainer.
They also have these dumplings in peanut sauce that I looove and this is the only place in the area that makes 'em almost as well as my old love, Tai Ho, which went down in flames.
MSG TASTES GOOD!
Went there recently have a many year hiatus (Mary's hadn't reopened from vacation yet) and found it remarkable good. We didn't order standards but rather dishes that looked a little bit more native and they where all really good. Service was a little slow, but they are mom an pop shop. Anyway, recommended. Definitely better than Royal East. The dishes we had where comparable in goodness to Mary's Chungs (except for the scallion pie - which was good - but no one out does Mary on that one).
There is no shinier Chinese food in the entire universe. No joke. IT'S SHINY! So shiny your own reflection bounces off the surface. This is not okay people. So not okay. You can practically smell the MSG.
The 'atmosphere' has improved since the 'grand' remodel but the food IS SHINY. Have I made that clear?
What are people thinking? This place is DREADFUL. Every time I've had food from here I've been angry -- very angry. Someone said this place had "shiny" food -- shiny with grease and whatever low-grade emulsifiers they use.
There are some bad food restaurants that you go when you want good, tasty junk. There are bad food restaurants that you want to never enter again -- the mention of their name fills you with anger. Pu Pu Hot Pot is one of the latter.
TERRIBLE. I ordered some delivery and tossed most of it. Foodler led me to believe that I could find some marginal/garden variety amer-chinese food here; instead I opened up a grease soaked bag with mystery meats and utter disappointment.
Yeh, so the food is semi-questionable here. I've definitely had better Chinese elsewhere (see my Great Wall in Bedford review). However, if you are in Central Square and want Chinese takeout, this is a very real option.
Ordering by phone is best, they really do arrive lickety-split. I have gone into their odd shop to get take out and the guy (owner?) taking the orders is all business. No smiles. No hugs. Nothing. He just takes your order and your money and then pretends you don't exist until your food is ready. I guess I wasn't looking for a best buddy, but...still. The "restaurant" itself kind of reminds me of a kitchen area in someones apartment. Strange.
My man almost always gets the Pu Pu Platter and I always take his egg roll (good stuff). Chicken with broccoli is my constant pick. I'm not sure what sauce the chicken and broccoli actually come in... but the broccoli is always fresh, crispy and hot.
As long as you don't think too deeply about what you're actually eating, you'll be just fine... besides isn't that the urban myth about Chinese food? I mean, no one REALLY knows what's in the egg rolls.
More like Poo Poo Hot Pot if you ask me.
I hated the food there. I didn't try it once, it wouldn't have been fair. I tried it three times with three different entrees each time and I found the entire orders to just be really greasy, and of very poor quality. I'd rather starve then to eat their food again, honestly.
I know a lot of you may think that you get what you pay for, but you honestly don't. Their chicken never tasted like chicken and their sauces are really sugary and stale. I'm pretty sure they still use MSG as well.
Bad. avoid. never go.
Meh - the lo-mein was really odd - wimpy/smooshy noodles, and no actual flavor... more like udon without the soup. WEIRD.
However, the pan-friend peking ravs were pretty awesome.
I'll try their pan-fried noodles & scallion pancakes next time.
I have to agree with the previous reviewers that the silly name is at least part of the draw. I always giggle to myself when I order here, and I take pride in telling people that I had my lunch from "Pu Pu Hot Pot." I think rishi h said it perfectly - I consider myself intellectual, and I'm definitely mature for my age... but there's a little kid in me that giggles and delights in the name. Really. How often as an adult do you have a legitimate reason to say "pu pu?"
That being said, the food here is plentiful and cheap. It's pretty typical Chinese, but I haven't ran into anything I don't like, even when the description sounds scary. It's definitely greasy, but it's also tasty. If you've got a hankering for Chinese, this place will satisfy it. And do so quickly. The delivery has always been prompt and polite. I've ordered lunch and dinner from here, and the portion sizes seem to be about the same (although lunch comes with rice and soup), but lunch is amazingly cheap - often under $5. If you're lazy and hungry and want Chinese, this is the place to hit.
Pu Pu serves up pretty good American style Chinese food. I wouldn't pay more than the cost of the $5 lunch special for this food, which is heavy on the MSG and soy sauce (esp. the fried rice which was more like doused with soy sauce), but sometimes I get a craving for unsophisticated 1970's style Chinese food, and Pu Pu Hot Pot delivers in that regard.
Note that it would be nearly impossible for me to give this style of food a five star rating, so a three star rating here is an endorsement given the above caveats.
This is a Chinese take-out place.
This is the awesomest Chinese take-out place I've ever dealt with. My favorite line from their menu is "Free Delivery: $1 charge."
Get anything you want, because it's all good. I've had food from here a half-dozen times since moving to Cambridge, and never thought anything was gross. Yes, it's covered in MSG. MSG doesn't taste bad; it tastes like your tongue being happy. If you get the headaches though, stay away.
Recommend: General Tso's (of course) and spring rolls.
There is a $10 minimum for delivery. Who cares? Get more and eat it tomorrow. Better yet, order with friends and get elbow-deep in the stuff.
Great food, decent prices, fast delivery. Eat it.
If you offered me the choice of some chinese food from Pu Pu Hot Pot OR a steaming hot bowl of wet cat food garnished with spider legs, I'd have to think about it for a little while.
We ordered a bunch of apps and watched Dog the Bounty Hunter. Let's review:
Yay: Mmmm, Shanghai Kofu appetizer = what poplers would be if they existed and weren't living creatures - so yummy!; Suan La Chow Show is a huge, meal-sized app for under $6; quick delivery; filled 2 of us up for under $20 with tip.
Boo: Veggie Wonton soup was lame, the MSG from boyfriend's Hot & Sour soup stunk up the apt ("this came out of a box" - him on eating soup)
Meh?: sauce on Suan La Chow Show app was peanut butter and sesame seeds. boo for quality, yay for taste i guess.
So after a long, hunger-inducing morning of moving I decided to treat my brother to lunch as a thank you, and spotted Pu Pu just moments from my new house.
The atmosphere was a weird cross between your chinese grandmother's kitchen and a sterile strip mall restaurant, which sounds awful, but wasn't too bad really. We started with some egg rolls, which were quite crispy and tasty, a good sign for the rest of the meal and waited hungrily for the main course. And waited. And waited. And waited. We speculated that, in fact, they were killing the chicken as we waited a little longer until finally the strangest looking orange chicken I've ever seen arrived at our table. Little strips of chicken(?) fried beyond a crisp in a darkish red sauce. Edible, but not at all delicious even in our half-starved state. When we finally got our bill it seemed pretty high considering the quality, everything was about two bucks more than it should've been. I might still have given it three stars for rustic charm, but about two blocks away my brother was like, "do you feel weird?" And yes, I did.
So in conclusion, if you want to feel weird and pay too much for it pig out at Pu Pu, otherwise avoid it. Actually just avoid all restaurants in that strip except for Tosci's, I had an unpleasantly similar experience after eating at Cinderella's the night before...
oily food. Okay place overall.
Part surprise part disappointment for me... I walked into the restaurant with my roommate as we were on a 'Discover a New Place' night. The place is very clean for a chinese restaurant which always helps me enjoy my food a little more. I ordered Combination 20 which came with Sweet and Sour Chicken, Crab Rangoon, Lobster Sauce, and Pork Fried Rice ... a very non-asian meal. My roommate ordered the Pai Gu... Spare Ribs I believe? The food there is REALLY cheap and affordable, especially for college students and its location is pretty nice (right next to Cinderella's and Toscinini's, so we were able to go pick up some ice cream afterwards).
The food there was neither horrible nor outstanding, and I really needed to use the restroom but it was occupied for almost ten minutes! I don't think I'll be going back as there are a lot of cheap places in Boston...
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Category: Chinese
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