Reviewing Sugar & Spice: Authentic regional Thai cuisine in Cambridge.

Sugar & Spice is a small, family-run Thai restaurant in the heart of Porter Square. It’s been in business for over seventeen years and is a local favorite in the Boston community. Interestingly, it’s the only Boston-area Thai restaurant to have received the Thai Select Reward. The Thai government awards this certification to overseas Thai restaurants with premier service and authentic, high-quality food. 

My friend and I visited Sugar & Spice at 7 pm on a Sunday. It is easily accessible by both train and car. There was plenty of street parking outside, and it was only a five-minute walk from the Porter Square Red Line station.  

Upon entering, I was caught off-guard by how busy the restaurant was. Sugar & Spice was full and had a constant flow of people coming in to pick up orders. The tables, seating up to four people, were very close to each other. The restaurant’s atmosphere was vibrant, with the chatter of patrons filling the room.  

We had to wait around thirty minutes to get seated. To save yourself time, I recommend joining Sugar & Spice’s live waitlist on their website beforehand. Once seated, our server instructed us to scan the QR code at our table for the menu. The menu included over one hundred Thai dishes from the Isan, Central, South, and North regions. There was even a dedicated menu section of over sixty vegan and gluten-free dishes. Conveniently, there was a page of the most popular dishes to help us narrow down our choices. I also noticed that the prices were a few dollars cheaper for lunch, so keep that in mind if you want to save money.  

We ordered the Pad Mee Korat, Crispy Chicken Basil, and a side of sticky rice. Both dishes came out within twenty minutes. The first dish we tried was the Crispy Chicken Basil. It included boneless fried chicken bites, diced pineapple, onions, basil leaves, and sliced bell pepper. The chicken was coated in a delicious and aromatic sweet and sour sauce. The sauce had the effect of making the chicken soggy rather than crispy, but I didn’t mind since it was so flavorful. I was also happy with how generous the portion was — there were around twenty chicken bites. One caveat here: the dish got very salty the more we ate it, so I suggest ordering a plate of sticky rice to balance it out. 

The Pad Mee Korat was a colorful, beautifully presented noodle dish. It included Isan rice noodles cooked with chicken and egg in a mild curry sauce. The sauce was sweet, tangy, and had a subtle spice. Surrounding the noodles were red onions, peanuts, greens, and thinly-sliced mango. These accompaniments added a satisfying crunch to the otherwise chewy noodles. Altogether, the flavors and textures were perfectly balanced.  

I’d recommend Sugar & Spice to anyone looking for a casual Thai meal. Not considering our initial wait to be seated, the service was friendly and fast. Both dishes we ordered were flavorful and had a thought-out presentation that replicated the menu pictures. Next time  I visit Sugar & Spice I’ll try out the Instagram-famous Chicken on Fire. It’s char-grilled, marinated chicken that’s literally lit on fire!