Monica L.
Yelp
This is a Szechuan restaurant with beautiful decor, great service, and flavorful food. Walking into the restaurant, it was already quite busy for an early dinner and you can tell everything is well maintained (floors clean, tables, clean, etc.) The table covers were this weird sticky silicone thing, but I figure it's easier for them to clean and ultimately it didn't really bother us once all the dishes were down. We ordered:
Braised fish in chili oil: The fish was VERY tender, yet held it's shape just until you bit into it. It was a nice mild, meaning it would build up a little heat as you kept eating (unless you're a spicy eater like me, who didn't taste the spice, but it was the perfect amount for my mild-spicy husband!) The leeks/cabbage also added to the texture, and overall it wasn't as oily as I expected. Flavor was also very good, and I'd recommend eating this with rice.
Dry fried eggplant: At first, I thought they meant dry fried as in a dry hot pot, but it was literally fried. Flavor was good, but I did get a few pieces that were just soaked in oil. This is sadly expected though, as eggplant will do that.
Beef tendon and tripe: The beef tendon was more on the beef flank/meat side than tendon, which is totally fine--every restaurant is different. I prefer tendon, but my husband likes meat so this actually worked out for us. I wish there was more tripe though, as I only caught a few pieces. It was oily as expected, but at least not too salty like other places I've been to.
Shredded tofu with sesame sauce: I'm a huge fan of shredded tofu, and they make this really well. It's a whole flavor bomb of mild spice, sesame oil, and vinegar that will completely assault your taste buds. It's a tad salty for me, but perhaps with some rice to tone it down it would be perfect.
Overall, we were totally blown away by how flavorful everything was, and for the area, it was really quite authentic. Yes, it was still a little oily/salty, but I haven't found a Szechuan place that wasn't and this is probably the most balanced of the bunch. I'd say food was 4 - 4.5 stars, but the service was really good. We had several people stop by to see if we needed anything, how was the food, etc. and our waitress would come over and help us out (extra napkins, etc.) without us saying anything. That's really hard to find at an Asian establishment so I bump this to a 5 star joint. You'll have the whole experience coming here, so do give it a try!