A Taiwanese favorite has two new homes

The spicy squid triple delight with basil at Wisteria in Cambridge. (Globe Photo/Josh Reynolds)

For 13 improbable years, Wisteria House survived in a basement on Newbury Street. Despite its humble digs, this Taiwanese restaurant drew in numerous fans with its cheap, authentic fare. If you craved the island's spicy beef soup swirling with fat noodles, or sweet tofu-wrapped sausages, or tender sautéed luffa (yes, the sponge), you'd find it there. And seafood? They always had all kinds of mouthwatering seafood.

But late last year the rent shot up, and owner Tina Peng packed up the restaurant and moved. For the street, it was a bit like having a healthy tooth pulled. For Cambridge and Allston, it was cause to thank her landlord.

Now just called Wisteria, the restaurant has divided into two eateries: a cozy sit-down location in East Cambridge with a full menu of consistently good food, and a food court stall at Allston's Super 88 Market with an abbreviated menu that's a little hit-or-miss. Early next year, the more snack-focused Wisteria Tea House will also open in Chinatown. Either open location is a good launching pad for dining chair travels, with Cambridge best for full meals and Allston good for Taiwanese breakfast treats (try the shui chien bao, buns stuffed with a comforting mash of ginger and pork), fresh juices, noodle soups, and simple dinner specials. Though their menus offer plenty of standard American-Chinese fare, the real draw is the authentic regional cooking.

Be sure to start with a comforting shared soup. The outstanding clam with ginger and scallion soup ($8.50, family size) is a lace of delicate flavors - a hint of sesame oil, a light chicken-pork broth, the gentle brininess of tender littlenecks. Or go for the seafood lover soup ($12.95), which simply overflows with tasty, tender clams, shrimp, scallops, and squid.

Standouts among the starters in Cambridge are many. The crispy pan-fried dough of the homemade yellow chive "raviolis" ($5.95) and the juicy pork-ginger-chive meatballs hiding inside them are habit forming. Summery minced shrimp served on crisp lettuce come with a warming, nontraditional twist: toasted pine nuts ($8.50). Hearty "tofu spin" ($6.95), a house-made fish and pork sausage wrapped in chewy tofu skin, is sweet, juicy, and rich with the aroma of star anise. A giant seafood and oyster pancake ($12.95) is too gummy in the middle, but the abundance of fresh oysters sells us on it anyway.

There isn't a dud among the entrees. There, fried basil, a popular seasoning in Taiwan, is a treat on the spicy squid triple delight ($11.95), which features calamari bathed in a tangy garlic-and-dried-shrimp "sa cha sauce." The popular beef noodle soup lives up to its rep with a savory, anise-heavy broth, marbled beef, and perfectly toothsome wheat noodles (or, as they say "al dente" in Taiwan, they were "QQ"). ($8.95). Even a simple dish like Taipei-style lo mein ($7.50) turns up a memorable, light tangle of egg noodles topped with garlic-rich minced pork with shiitake mushrooms.

Vegetables, too, get interesting. Water spinach, called watercress on the menu, is crunchy and fresh-tasting sautéed in sesame oil ($10.50). Chinese celery adds a clean, herby taste to a fish cake tempura ($6.95). And Chinese okra with baby shrimp ($10.95) will forever make us hungry when we shower. Chinese okra is luffa. Picked young, this vegetable is a pleasing cross between crunchy cucumber and sweet summer squash. Picked old, well, you can scrub your back with it.

There's no dessert other than fabulous fresh fruit juices such as watermelon and papaya ($3.50). But the menu is long enough - so long that we'd like a lot more time to explore it. So here's hoping the new Wisterias have a run even longer than the one on Newbury. Landlords, are you listening?