I continue to think this is a very good option, especially for those lamenting the decline of the Hu Empire. Fish fillet in red oil (with glass noodles and sprouts), brisket in dry pot, and ma po tofu are some of my favorite ma la experiences in the city. Braised pork in Chinese bread is awesome, though I have had two distinctly different breads and liked the more recent less (more like pita off the shelf). Mongolian Beef is its own animal here - almost like a sweet Frank's Red Hot application over sliced onions and broccoli, no broken fried noodles. Interesting and tasty, as is the otherwise tame house fried rice with a good wok hei profile (Szechuan pickle adds some funk and can be combined with a protein on request). This place packs well to go and the Szechuan dishes really deepen and improve as leftovers.

Was here for lunch on Saturday and had a good, if sloppy, meal. Tendon and maw in chili sauce (husband and wife) was rather carelessly put together, with the odd substitution of celery leaves for cilantro; they were out of several things, including crawfish specials they've listed for months but have not had product for all year. Our dry pot main was indicative of this: unlike at Chengdu Impression, where you can pick your proteins and veggies, this one look liked a hodgepodge of whatever the kitchen had--cauliflower, Chinese ham, potatoes, head-on shrimp, et al. Tasty, of course, but also bludgeoning in that way schezuan cooking can be if a shit ton of dried chiles, peppercorns, ginger, and so on are all up in there. It was exhausting to eat.

Picked up a good find, though: dried wood ear mushroom salad.

We come here a lot as it is still the best Sichuan food in town in our opinion. MCCB, which just opened, is very respectable, but not quite as good in our two visits.

The woodear salad here is consistently amazing. I don't know how they get the perfect texture on what I assume were once dried woodears and the chili oil vinaigrette is very nicely balanced. I also think they do the third best mapo tofu I have ever eaten (behind Chen's in Chengdu and my own) and that their chili oil dumplings are top notch. I agree with Santander that the braised pork in bread has a variable quality to the bread component, but the pork is always great.

However, pretty much any classic Sichuan dish is impeccable here and I highly recommend it. I always worry its location way down south on Wentworth will hurt its business.

I agree that it's the best Sichuan game in town--we probably order delivery from there every other week or so, sometimes more often. The standards are, generally as good or better than any other rendition, and their green beans manage to be stellar despite transportation, whereas most every other spot in town they show up merely okay (I know freshness is important there, but they are too addictive to not order). They also have some dishes that are hard to find elsewhere, including a numbingly hot mountain taro/mo yu/konjak jelly that I quite like, and the absolute best Kung Pao (authentic version) around. They've done some larger catered orders for me, too. Always quality.

Got take-out yesterday while in China Town.
Count me a fan of Sze Chuan Cusine!
Finally, some good Kung Pao Chicken, just a little too sweet but I am being picky.
Lamb w/Cumin, excellent.
Crispy Salt Chicken, very good but the reheating did not allow for fresh fried crispness, probably not a good take out item.
Nice selection of various offal dishes to try in the future,
Shame I got to travel all that way for good take out Sze Chaun cusine!-Richard

mtgl wrote:I agree that it's the best Sichuan game in town--we probably order delivery from there every other week or so, sometimes more often. The standards are, generally as good or better than any other rendition, and their green beans manage to be stellar despite transportation, whereas most every other spot in town they show up merely okay (I know freshness is important there, but they are too addictive to not order). They also have some dishes that are hard to find elsewhere, including a numbingly hot mountain taro/mo yu/konjak jelly that I quite like, and the absolute best Kung Pao (authentic version) around. They've done some larger catered orders for me, too. Always quality.

That konnyaku dish is quite good (as I noted earlier in this thread). They do a version with duck that is not quite as good, but may be more palatable for some.

I also really enjoy the dry pot of mushrooms (mostly enoki). I also managed to grab some friends and try their big plate chicken. It was merely good.

Our maiden voyage was also not the best experience. Perhaps because we made the mistake of using Grubhub for pickup rather than eating in.

It started when we arrived to pick up the meal near the end of the given window of time and they had clearly not even started on our order. It did take them 20 minutes to make it, after much confusion and trying to give us other people's orders. I later realized that I'd never gotten the actual confirmation from the restaurant, and never received the "your food is ready" message, just the Grubhub generic "we're working on it" responses, I suspect they never saw it in the system.

In any case, we made the short ride home and had very mixed results. I must admit that we orders fairly unadventuresome stuff.

The Dumplings were stone cold - not a bit of heat in them.

The Kung Pao Chicken totally missed the mark for us. From previous comments I'd expected something spicy and flavorful but it was just bland.

The eggplant was good, but we prefer Ed's which just has more flavor than we found in the Sze Chuan version.

The winner was the Shredded pork in Garlic Sauce, which was very good.

We'll give it another chance, eat in, and order more of the items recommended here.

6-course lunch today. All 6 at least good, 3 excellent. The stand-out was the Mapo Tofu with Pork . . .


Mapo Tofu with Ground Pork @ Szechuan Cuisine, 18.0804

Other highlights were the Peapod Greens and the Sliced Ox and Maw. Dumplings in Chili Sauce were kind of cold. Kung Pao Chicken was both too sweet and salty for me. Fried Pork ribs tasted a bit tired. All in all, though, really enjoyable stuff.

=R=