A former pizzeria on Western Avenue in Cambridgeport has been reborn as 212 Kitchen, a Chinese restaurant serving generous portions of familiar dishes alongside regional specialties associated with Shenzhen. The bamboo-lit dining room now occupies a storefront that spent years as Anytime Pizza, and before that, Pizza Ring.
The Boston Globe has reported on the restaurant and also profiles Du.
Behind the scenes, the path to opening involved several years of development. City of Cambridge Board of Zoning Appeal filings from April 2021 show that the restaurant sought a variance to convert 1,395 square feet of basement space, previously used only for mechanical equipment, into a commercial kitchen and food prep area beneath a 1,163-square-foot ground-floor dining room. Boston Restaurant Talk reported the project had been in development for four to five years before its official opening this year.
A Family Project Years in the Making
While Du provides the public face and culinary direction, the project had been in development for four to five years before its official opening. The buildout involved planning and development at the 212 Western Avenue location.
The ground floor was designed with a bar area and seating for 47 dining guests. The April 2021 petition also addressed the proposed restaurant use, according to the zoning appeal filings.
A Menu Shaped by Shenzhen's Melting Pot
Du's menu reflects the layered culinary identity of Shenzhen, a city that grew from a fishing village into a megacity of nearly 18 million people after its 1980 designation as a Special Economic Zone. Travel and culinary platform Nomado Travel notes that Shenzhen never developed a single unified regional cuisine, instead blending Cantonese, Hakka, Teochew, Hunan, and Sichuan influences carried in by generations of migrants.
That blend shows up across 212 Kitchen's menu, which runs from familiar dishes to specialized regional dishes. Diners can order crab rangoon, spring rolls, and kung pao chicken with meat and peanuts, alongside steamed pork and leek dumplings, steamed pork buns, and flaky ground beef pies. Mapo tofu is available with or without ground pork, and the kitchen also turns out torn cabbage with vinegar and dried red chilis and steamed fish with tofu.
The menu includes winter melon soup with shrimp, ginger, and scallions. It also features additional regional specialties, including crispy spicy lamb shank.
Cambridgeport's Growing Appetite for Regional Chinese Fare
212 Kitchen arrives on a stretch of Western Avenue in Cambridgeport.
The restaurant shares the area with spots like Providence Uyghur noodle house Jahunger. The restaurant's menu includes familiar and regional Chinese dishes.
212 Kitchen is located at 212 Western Ave. in Cambridge and can be reached at 617-945-1288 or through its website, www.the212kitchen.com.
