About Chef Zhang Cuisine&Bar
Chef Zhang Cuisine & Bar specializes in authentic Hunan cuisine made with fresh, high-quality ingredients. Our signature Stir-Fried Beef with Chili is freshly prepared to order, capturing the bold aroma, tender texture, and vibrant flavors of traditional Hunan cooking. While staying true to authentic recipes, we also focus on balanced nutrition and healthier cooking with less oil—bringing every guest delicious, wholesome dishes filled with the warmth of home-style Chinese cuisine.
Course 1
Stir-Fried Beef Topped Noodles
Chunks of beef are braised until they give way, then ladled over fresh noodles with the sauce still bubbling. Dried chilies bring a slow, warming heat, and a handful of cilantro cuts straight through the richness. One bowl eats like a full meal.
Course 2
Pounded Chili with Eggplant & Century Egg
Roasted eggplant, blistered green chili and century egg are pounded together in a stone mortar and served in it. Nothing is cooked twice — the smoke comes from open fire, the sharpness from raw garlic. Scoop it straight onto a bowl of hot rice.
Course 3
Chairman Mao's Braised Pork Belly
Pork belly is browned in caramelized sugar, then slow-braised in a clay pot with rice wine, star anise and potato until the fat turns silky. It arrives glossy and deeply savory, just sweet enough to keep you reaching for another spoonful of rice.
Fresh Chilies,
Honest Hunan Cooking
Flavor at Chef Zhang starts long before the wok is lit. Chilies are cut the morning they are used, fish arrives whole, and our bacon and cured pork are smoked in our own kitchen rather than bought in. Nothing leans on shortcuts or heavy thickeners — the sharpness comes from pickled vegetables, the depth from patient braising, and the aroma from hot oil meeting fresh aromatics. That is why a plate here tastes of the season it was cooked in.
String beans are fried hard until the skins wrinkle and blister, then tossed with dried chili, garlic and preserved vegetable. Dry rather than saucy, they stay snappy down to the last one and only taste better the longer the plate sits.
Dry-Fried String Beans
Griddle Cauliflower with Cured Pork
Loose-headed cauliflower soaks up the fat rendered from our house-smoked pork, then finishes over the griddle with green chili and scallion. Slightly charred at the edges, smoky all the way through, and almost impossible to stop picking at.
Real Hunan Heat, Straight to Your Table
Changsha Roots
Recipes carried straight from Hunan, cooked with fresh chili and house-cured pork the way home kitchens in Changsha have always done it.
Wok-Fired Heat
Every stir-fry leaves the wok within minutes over full flame, so the meat stays tender, the vegetables stay crisp and the aroma is unmistakable.
Cured In House
Bacon, sausage and pickled vegetables are all prepared in our own kitchen, giving each dish a depth of flavor no supplier can deliver.
Worth the Trip
A Harvard Square favorite for anyone hunting genuine Hunan spice, from a weeknight noodle bowl to a full table of chef's specials.