There is much to like about this very casual basement restaurant in the middle of Chinatown. Good range of Sichuan food, served by efficient staff, in very generous portions at very reasonable prices. That all goes to explain why the place was packed all the time we were there with a short queue of folk waiting a few minutes for a table to become free.
We’re used to Sichuan food being very spicy from the use of dried chillis and Sichuan pepper but their use here is quite restrained. More background heat than fully “in yer face”. The menu is divided into “small plates”, noodle and rice dishes, the size of the main course portions almost making a small plate starter unnecessary. And, worthy of note, these are “small plates” not starters, so everything comes when it’s ready, rather than in the order you might have expected when you ordered.
So, as the food came in no particular order, I’ll write in the same fashion. First to arrive was a smashed cucumber salad. A classic Sichuan dish, chilled cucumber chunks (so not exactly smashed) flavoured with garlic and a hint of chilli. My companion in life often becomes vegetarian when eating Asian food and this meal was no exception. From the “dry noodle” section of the menu (there’s a “soup noodle” section as well), a stir fry of fine noodles and mixed vegetables (bamboo shoots and green beans). It’s a bit underwhelming in itself but a decent foil for the other spicier dishes. Another small plate was vegetable spring rolls, nice and crisp and served with a lovely sweet chilli dipping sauce that did pack something of a punch. The sweetness continued with our third small plate – pork dumplings with a sweet soy sauce and house made chilli oil, both working well with each other and the dumplings. The final dish was described as “Sichuan double cooked pork belly in chilli paste”. Very thin slices of piggy with that background heat of chilli – I could certainly have welcomed a more assertive use but it was pleasant enough. Came with rice and shreds of cucumber.
This was a nice enough dinner and we could well come back. As I said earlier, the “small plates” are probably not needed (unless you want to come away absolutely stuffed) so the question to ourselves is “does just having a main course make the one hour schlep from home worthwhile”. Not really sure.
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