Sichuan Tasty Restaurant [SF, Richmond District]

Regional Dining Discussions SF Bay Area, NorCal, Tahoe
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With a name like Sichuan Tasty, how could one resist?

I had the opportunity to dine here with some friends recently, and we were able to check out a variety of dishes.


sichuan tasty
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The “Woorear” (Woodear) mushrooms were nice and crunchy, refreshing with cilantro and a touch of vinegar. A tad salty, but a cooling dish like this is always essential for a Sichuan meal (along with plenty of Tsing Tao, of course).

The “Sichuan-style chicken” was cold, bone-in slices of chicken, served in a soupy chili oil sauce. Delicious, and a great starter.

The ChongQing chicken was solid, served in the typical style, where one fishes out bits of fried chicken among chilies, like a needle in a haystack. Interestingly, I didn’t find any whole Sichuan peppercorns in the dish, like I would if this dish were served at Spices or Z&Y. As the dish still had mala, perhaps they use an oil or powder.

The bok choy was silky and delicious, with a starch-thickened saucy coating.

The ChongQing “Sping” Noodles were very solid as well, heavy on that citrus-y, floral Sichuan peppercorn flavor.

The Cumin Beef was the least impressive to be sure, with unbalanced flavor, but hey, that’s what we get for ordering cumin beef from a Sichuan restaurant.

The restaurant had an excellent atmosphere, with beautiful mirrors, and large tables with Lazy Susans (which I always adore). An incredible spot in the Richmond district for Sichuan food, especially considering the large Chili House-shaped hole in the Richmond’s Chinese food scene…

I’ll definitely return. I’m eager to try their large, impressive-looking fish dishes.

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Huh. Cumin beef or lamb is one of my go-to orders at our local Sichuan places. It tends to be heavy on the cumin, but… well, it’s in the name, so I would expect it to be.

Could you elaborate on the ‘sping’ noodles? Never heard of that dish before.

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I, too, love a good cumin lamb. It’s my understanding, though, that the dish originates from farther East in China (Xinjiang?), not from within the Sichuan province.

Just like with most Chinese restaurants in America, despite having a name that suggests a certain Chinese regional fidelity, they’ll usually have a wide variety of popular dishes from around China, as well as Chinese-American dishes. At Sichuan Tasty, there were definitely items like Orange Chicken, Xiao Long Bao, or Mu Shu pork, dishes that are decidedly not Sichuanese.

This is not to say that there’s anything wrong with ordering cumin beef/lamb from a Sichuanese restaurant, but if I were looking for a more authentic version, I would go to, say Old Mandarin Islamic down in the Sunset.

This was a first for me, as well. I imagine the intention was “spring” noodles. It had classic mala flavors, but with cilantro and peanut, and some quartered bok choy in there, too. It was reminiscent of Dan Dan noodles, but with no meat. When I’m at a Chinese restaurant, I almost always want to get at least a couple dishes I’ve never heard of before.

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Cumin lamb tends to be an Uyghur dish

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